January 2007

The New Year opened with a bang in many ways - what with festivals and patients our cup was rather full.
January is also the month of festivals, with Pongal/ Sankranti being celeberated with great enthusiasm here in the south by one and all, irrespective of caste, creed or religion. This is the harvest festival and it is a very important one. Traditionally a pot of rice, milk and jaggery are cooked together and the pot has to boil over signifying a year full of cheer and bounty ahead. The cattle are all bedecked as they are the ones who actuually provide the work force around here. Tractors still being too expensive and the fact that tractors can not provide milk(!).
So also ID was also celeberated with great fervour. We had to refuse any number of invitations to partake in the feasts as both of us are vegetarian.
Just to see the spirit of the people celeberating these festivals is, as always, an eye opener to me about how people live together in peace and harmony.
January also ushered in the new year and the republic day. We decided to close for these days and fortunately/unfortunately these days happened to fall onour OPD days. Not that any one was cribbing.
Well, started on 03Januray our first working day with a 184 patients. Whew ! at the end of the day Vidya and I were staggering. The relentless pressure kept on and in spite of only 9 OPD days we ended up seeing 1571 patients. January ended with 188 patients and we are desperately hoping for a respite or someone to help us.
We finally also started work on an extension to the building, a waiting room for patients and a water point. I will be publishing these photos soon along with what we plan to do with the extra spaces we have created.
Watch out for Diagnostic Conundrums being published soon.