France in india?
Trip Start
Oct 28, 2006
1
9
16
Trip End
Jan 09, 2007
Vellore, India
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
medicine - babies and smudges on brain pictures -->
today - sitting here at 4:00 a very early mark.. spent this morning in o & g and managed to witness me first delivery, an emergency c-section. Quite remarkable, the speed at which the problem was identified (the foetal heart rate was doing strange things, slow deceleration, which means that there were some concerns about it not getting enough air (at least I think so), the abdomen breached and the baby born seemed very rapid - Jim and I barely donned our scrubs in the same time the head consultant dashed to the or to get ready and make the first incision. Was somewhat of an adrenalin charged moment, one of the doctors managing the case would turn around and politely explain to Jim and I, all smiles, what was occuring as controlled chaos took place before her. Even more amazing, the head of o & g, who barely looks into her twentys and is very slight, commanding the storm without a hint of hesitation, the epitomy of capable. Also managed to witness a natural birth and another c-section, where the mum had lupus and ensuing hypertension. All in all, priviledged from a personal perspective to witness one of the great wonders (and simultaneously a little irked by just how much blood is lost in child birth).
other stuff in neuro - saw a case that was apparently extremely rare but had a hard time understanding it, took a history from a girl with some neuro symptoms, managed to take a bit of a guess at where the problem might have been and got it right (there was a squidgy smudgy bit on the patients brain-stem MRI), also fluked it when the consultant asked me for the diagnosis of another patient (one of the first where I could actually hear what people were talking aboot (no spelling mistake) and had some idea (myasthenia gravis - a muscle disorder where receptors on your muscle cells, to signals from your nerves, are too few, owing to an autoimmune disease (your body attacks itself) and leading to muscle weakness etc (generally)). Somehow, I managed to coast through the neuro block without looking a dunce, which is quite a thing considering brains are fairly complicated - I owe a big proportion of this to luck.
the future - three more days left; cardio-thoracic surgery - coronary bypasses, valve replacements and atrial-septal defects.. All who have been have really enjoyed it..
The greatest weekend ever -->
pondicherry - french colonial gustatory heaven -->
OK, last weekend took the cake for downright decadence, good times and even a few quiet moments. A little background - pondicherry is an old french colony on the east indian coast, south of the place I mentioned the weekend before. The lonely planet boasted some latent french architecture and good food, but my hopes weren't exceedingly high. Gladly, pondi blitzed my expectations. Despite the fact that the bus ride took around 7 hours and 2 change overs (which involved Jim, Nick, Dave and I splitting to search intel on info such as bus times and numbers - golden rule of travel in india, don't trust the info unless you've heard it three or four times) our accomodation was fantastic - a few hundred year old guest house in the indian part of pondi (will explain the india-french divide in a moment) with a balcony that was later to facilitate some late-night revelry (will also explain later) run by an old anatomical scientist come french airforce pilot (and indian). The immediately striking thing about pondi was the order of things (wide streets with consistently surveyed side walks), the increasingly frequent amount of alcohol stores and the fact that police dressed like frenchmen (red kapis and belts, white gloves). Essentially, the place is divided into an Indian and French side. The two are divided by a small, fetid, canal.
Our first meander into the french part of town occured on the night of our arrival. The hotel manager recommended a good restaurant, satsanga, which we headed for, super-charged to a feast. We were initially gobsmacked to come across a liqour store selling all range of good things for frigheningly cirrhosis-inducing prices (e.g. a bottle of bacardi for around $10). Crossing the canal was like crossing into another world. French colonial architecture abounded, much of it well kept and stunning. This provided worthy introduction to the restaurant, a french-indian fare (yeah, can you believe it?) set in one such building, cobbled coartyard and open-air dining. The menu nearly brought tears to our eyes and we all ordered steak owing to our iron-deficient status. The food and surrounds were really quite amazing. Randomly, a bunch of people from CMC were at the same restaurant and we soon learnt of a party going down in town (more on that later). That evening saw us catch up with a bunch of canadian OT students (via the liqour store) back at the hotel. We managed to rubbish on for hours and all become comfortably inebriated. Hightlights included Nick and Dave's recount of my meeting with the regatta floor during one of the first med socials (Mum and Dad, don't ask and don't worry - Dave didn't spill his beer despite a stunning dismount from Nick's back (the stool) to the floor) and drinking games (responsible for lubricating international relations for thousands of years) - I managed to exercise my degrassi junior-high angst with the canadian accent, getting a little obnoxious and saying about ("aboot") maybe just a bit too much. I drifted off to sleep to the sound of Nick emploring us it really was a good thing to be drunk and dash outside in the pouring rain.
Blessing from an elephant and some random party -->
Woke the next afternoon to hit a local bakery (kind of like a starbucks bakery - glossy etc) for a weird fried eggs and good bread. We caught up with the canadians for a quick recount of the evening before and then went our separate ways. I was keen to check out a temple and ashram (place of meditation and quiet contemplation (about important stuff like why I always put my shirt on backwards and where the hell my left socks go). The temple was fairly typically tamil - very colourful, many touts and beggars and the ashram stunningly silent - I wandered in and saw my first samadhi - alter with flours, centrepoint for contemplation and enjoyed the tranquility of the place. Hit the bookshop and picked up a review on the guru's philosophy (am becoming very curious about the spiritual and cultural aspects of this place). I wandered to the promenade along the rues and took some snaps (very conducive to cliche window, door, bike shots) and gazed over the grey bengal. I bumped into some other cmc people who mentioned an elephant blessing was occuring at the temple later.
Before the elephant, I made my way to the local museum and caught up with some american cmc people. The museum revealed a remarkable fact about the area, that it was once a trading port with the mediterranean. Most notably was a collection of greek and roman pottery and other stuff that was thousands of years old.
I can now say I've been blessed by an elephant. A genuinely remarkable experience to have a massive beast before you, have it take your money, hand it to it's keeper and then gently bless you on the forehead with a touch of the trunk. I was immediately transfixed by this creature's curious gaze and almost playful manner. The animal immediately impressed upon all its power, intelligence and gentleness. It was important to consider that while for us it was a toursist's moment, the locals took it all very seriously.
As mentioned, there was a party to be had north of town. The evening began as before, with drinks (catered for by the canadians this time) on the balcony and then a foray. Before this, we headed for wood-fired pizza and beer on the rooftop of another fantastic restaurant (the name of which escapes me). At around midnight the randomness began, a few indian blokes arrived to pick us up (arranged by one of satsanga's staff) in two hatch-backs and a couple of motorcyces. Managed to cram 3 indians, 2 americans, 4 aussies and 5 canadians into said hatchbacks (I know Mum, I know Dad - it was a short trip). It was raining when we arrived at the out of town location. After some time spent paying cover we wandered into a random house-party in an old rsl-like building set on the beach. Was profound to blow into this place, laser-lights and pumping beats and a load of gora (white people). Turns out a lot of the gora were students visiting pondi, health-related and also some inhabitants of auroville (a multicultural, zen, peace town north of pondi - a seemingly strange place, and one I didn't get the opportunity to visit). Drank more cheap beers (a stubby for less than a dollar), danced very strangely and had a yarn to various people. We couldn't help but laugh at the spontaneity/ randomness of it all. That evening saw a candid rickshaw ride home, via the beach. Great fun.
bloody great french food and pictures of doors and bikes -->
the next day we headed to another french restaurant, a smaller place down a leafy laneway - more alfresco and exceedingly pleasant (location and service). Managed to score the lightest bacon omellette, the most bang-on lime juice and divine lemon pie I'll ever likely have. Did I mention that this was all too cheap - we're talking less than aus $10 for the full gamit.
I then parted ways with the guys and skulked around more of the french town (after Jim and I made a small attempt to book train tickets for future travel). I think I may have almost expressed and fully exercised my "pictures of doors with bikes" faze. I also managed to score some great pictures of a local family. At any rate, there were plenty of opportunities for such as well as for admiration of bloody fantastic french colonial architecture. I also ducked into a local book store to pick up a book on india that may go part way to explaining the culture, religion, politics etc, which I'm beginning to find all very interesting, at any rate it should provide some context. The afternoon saw nick score some cheese from a local supermarket, and we enjoyed the balcony some more. Later in the evening we got a hankering for some flicks, only to discover that James Bond was playing, but in tamil. Dinner on the rooftop of a fourth-flour place overlooking the ocean and a quiet evening reading and watching tv.
Leaving - some more great food, breaky at satsanga's (muesli, lassi, omellette) and then at another mediterranean place - my first pasta in india, pesto (not as good as I make) and mango icecream..
(the bus ride home was thankfully direct)..
All in all a brilliant weekend. Of note, it might be obvious to all how much of the joy of it came from it being decidedly un-indian. I will confess, india is a challenging place to travel, the beuracracy and general novelty of many aspects of life make the simplest things (like posting stuff home, buying toilet paper) exhausting. Whilst the surprising flavour of pondi was a welcome retreat, the weekend's "rest from india" only served to insight more fervour for hitting the road and plunging into the country.
There are merely three days to go before the elective ends. Friday sees Jim and I train it to ooty - an old english hill station that boasts some great trekking and what is considered one of the great rail rides of the world (an old steam training pushes its load up a route that boasts mountain and waterfall views). From there we will travel to kerala, south-west india - houseboats, backwaters and traditional dance.
Tonight - Lindsay (one of the girls from pbl at uni) is in town, we'll toast to her arrival and get her up to speed on vellore. Later this week - cardiothoracic surgery, sending my many brilliantly cheap textbooks home, deciding what stuff I do and don't need (and sending the don't need stuff home), saying goodbye to the other cmc students (but making plans to catch up more along the way) and finding someone to sign me off for this elective thing.
((I had planned to finally send some pictures with this one (I've downloaded them to CD and everything), but the cmc computers don't have CD drives... I'll send another blog when I can, with recent pics.))
