Wounded Healer

  Visiting the IIM- Ahmedabad was bound to be a memorable experience .. We arrived at night and saw the very minimalistic and placid , yet imposing design of the IIM gate .. and I was impressed right then. The structures were huge but simple .. built to serve the purpose .. to give huge spacious areas for ripe minds to grow … I could envision the yester-years when Dr. Vikram Sarabhai first must have initiated the institute with such hopes and dreams .. His dream has blossomed into this magnificent fortress of wisdom and excellence today ! The air was serene but was buzzing with a kind of infectious positive energy .. it infused those huge geometric spaces The rooms were frugal but very comfortable .. with neat little shelves.. ideal rooms for   student life ..an apple and banana neatly kept near our beds .. so simple and nice   Entering the lecture halls next day was like déjà vu when we went back to our medical college days ..( of course our halls weren’t so well d...

  I had to present at the monthly academic meeting at Max Hospital Dehradun Initially it was just another presentation .. and I decided to do one on Diet in Diabetes .. probably Intermittent fasting as it was the most contentious hot topic at the moment .. once I started reading about it it opened up new avenues for thought ..  and then I went from plain ol’ diabetic diet to Time Restricted Eating and then to the art and timing of eating .. and not just what and how much to eat ,,, to circadian rhythms ..   and I slowly realized how far wev moved from our roots and instincts .. and how that basically is screwing us up big time   both mentally and physically !! Sometimes when I view “academics” in its present form.. I find it a little too one dimensional ..too evidence driven..    we seem to be hanging onto the thread of data which is so brittle and so easily defied …most of it being data or guidelines from the West that wer so eager to adopt.. ra...

  It had been months of speculation after which we settled on adopting a cat .. and like a Godsend .. we met a wonderful lady called Sharfaa with all the motherly advice for us on raising a cat in our house .. Noodle being a home raised cat and being pretty well litter trained … we felt reassured in her guidance .. It had been 2 days with Noodle in the house and we finally felt she was getting comfortable and settling down in the new space when by some silly folly .. the main door remained open … and she pranced outside .. no one even noticing when she strayed out.. so light and noiseless is her movement ,.. well that’s a cat for u … Ajeet and I were both at our respective hospitals when this happened .. I got a frantic call from my mother that they had been searching for Noodle for a long time .. and couldn’t find her ,.. I knew how extensively they must have searched before calling knowing them and I could hear the sorrow and panic in her voice .. I tried to reassure her ...

  Met this wonderful woman in the flight from Dehradun to Pune yesterday. She needed help with her extra baggage .. and so we got talking .. and never stopped  till we eventually  landed at Pune She is a Sanskrit,   Meditation and Bharatnatyam teacher at Rishikesh. Has turned her house into Gurukulam .. for little girls-  a perpetuator of Sanatan Dharma Holds Garbh Sanskar sessions and prenatal classes and sessions on Arth Shastra ..  translates Sanskrit Yogic texts into English .. now was on her way to Pune to be with her family and hold similar sessions for kids in 2 schools she had adopted in pune she had worked with Maharashtra CM and with Sadhguru during Save soil days .. through her leadership in RSS .. Left her high paying job in airlines to find herself .. now lives a frugal minimalistic life in Rishikesh with her husband who is also a Sadhu ..eating one raw and one cooked meal a day .. waking up at 4.30 am .. meditation and japa a regul...

  The excitement from the trip is still fresh in my mind … and I want to bottle down that excitement in words before I get caught up it in the trivialities of everyday life.. The first thing anyone going from India would notice is how spic n span n organized everything is .. the apartments looked like a scene from “ Legoland” or a page out of “ Noddy”– they just fit so precisely and were so extremely color coordinated ,..no chipped paint anywhere, no rough edges , and heaven forbid – no stains .. it took some time for the eyes and senses to get adjusted to such exquisite surroundings .. teehee The pavements were smooth ..the footpaths broad .. cars stopped for you respectfully as u stood at the zebra crossing ..the air was fresh and crisp- no smoke emanating from any of the car engines – numerous as they were.. people zipped past on e-scooters that looked so effortless   and were incredibly used as regular means of transport owing to the uber smooth roads and pavements .. ...

  I was in the winter of my life And the men I met along the road were my only summer At night I fell asleep with visions of myself dancing and laughing and crying with them Three years down the line of being on an endless world tour and my memories of them were the only things that sustained me And my only real happy times I was a singer Not a very popular one I once had dreams of becoming a beautiful poet But upon an unfortunate series of events saw those dreams dashed and divided like a million stars in the night sky That I wished on over and over again, sparkling and broken But I didn’t really mind because I knew that it takes getting everything you ever wanted and then losing it to know what true freedom is When the people I used to know found out what I had been doing how I had been living, they asked me why, but there’s no use in talking to people who have a home They have no idea what its like to seek safety in other people For home to be wherever you ...

  Another fascinating experience I had recently was we went to Rishikesh and I took everyone to Maharishi Mahesh yogis ashram also known as the beatles ashram .. cz the beatles visited and did transcendental meditation there briefly in 1960s.. at first it was just a tourist spot for me .. but I was captivated by the natural beauty of the place with the sound of the Ganga beneath and those quaint little round stone structures … numerous meditation huts and chambers .. the enchanting grafitti on the walls including those of the beatles and ravi shankar .. and slowly the wonder of the place started to seep in… the imagination of when the “Fab 4” were here … creating music and meditating … esp fascinating among the 4 is George Harrison who went onto indulge in Indian culture so much he learned the sitar from Ravi shankar and incorporated into the Beatles successive songs including “ Norwegian Wood” “ strawberry Fields forever” etc …. He adopted Hinduism and produced the “ chants of Ind...

                                                                               Osho Ashram I reached the Osho ashram to witness a bevy of men moving around in maroon robes and I cant say I dint have doubts .. my driver looked bewildered to say the least as he dropped me off at the humble room that I was to share with Sophia .. who I got only a few hours to spend with ..but she was such a loving soul .. I knew that instinctively because Jimmy the German Shepherd adored her … and I know dogs have an instinctive connect with the soul .. so I blindly trust anyone who has earned their loyalty and love.. I was ...