Ladakh - The Desert Beauty and Acclimatisation Woes

I have always wanted to visit Ladakh, but I was scared to do so. I have an altitude sickness problem. Besides, many years ago, the sister of a colleague passed away in Ladakh after arriving there with a severe cold. That incident kept Ladakh at a distance for me.

Ladakh is a high-altitude desert region in India, with most places well above 3,000 metres and many areas at elevations of 3,800 metres (about 12,500 feet) or more.

My friend from Germany told me that she was coming to Ladakh for a meditation camp. She asked if I would visit her there, as she had five days after the camp to travel around. I decided that perhaps it was finally time to visit Ladakh.

I had heard from close ones and friends that it takes at least two days to acclimatise to the low-oxygen environment at such high altitudes. During this period, one can experience headaches, nausea, vomiting and nose bleeding. The advice I received was that even if you feel perfectly fine, you should rest and avoid venturing out in the first couple of days.

So, I decided to arrive three days before my friend would be free from her camp. That would give me enough time to acclimatise.

In retrospect, I think the first mistake I made was landing in Ladakh on an empty stomach. I had not eaten since 5:30 in the morning and had only had a cup of tea. I landed at 10:30 am and had asked the place where I was staying to keep breakfast for me. I finally had breakfast close to noon. Looking back, that was probably not the best way to begin the trip.

By evening, I was throwing up. My altitude sickness initially manifested itself as the acidity that I generally suffer from at high altitudes, compounded by motion sickness.

I could not keep even a morsel of food or a sip of water down the entire evening. In any other place, I would perhaps not have been too worried, because I knew that I would probably feel better the next day. But not being able to drink water at high altitude, where hydration is particularly important, seemed risky.

The lady at the place where I was staying suggested that I visit Sonam Norboo Memorial Hospital, the major government hospital in Leh.

I went there. The doctors asked me to take medication for nausea and Diamox (acetazolamide) for altitude sickness. However, these medicines were to be taken after food, and I was unable to eat anything. They also suggested three injections, which I refused.

I returned to the hotel.

The next morning, my condition was worse. The lady at the homestay insisted that I go to the emergency department and take oxygen.

I went back to the hospital. Since I was alone, it was exhausting to stand in queues, fill out forms and deal with all the formalities. As luck would have it, I realised that someone we knew was acquainted with a doctor associated with the hospital.

The doctor told me to get admitted and take the injections I had refused the previous day. She arrived at the hospital in the evening, and I must say she was God-sent. I followed her advice over the next two days.

I was finally back on my feet.

I was first admitted to the general ward and was later shifted to the tourist ward, where you hear all kinds of stories from fellow travellers.

There was one lady who had travelled from Srinagar the previous evening because her son's wedding was to take place the following day. She said that she had a cold when she left Srinagar and knew that she might face problems. By the time she reached Leh, she was having difficulty breathing. The hospital advised her to take as much oxygen as she needed and then leave for the wedding, making arrangements to have oxygen available there as well. Another boy they discovered had dengue when he arrived. Another foreigner had water in his lungs and was waiting to travel back home. These do subside but unfortunately the low oxygen makes it longer and difficult to heal. 

Those first three days were filled with oxygen masks, saline, nausea medication and injections.

Fortunately, the next five days were filled with the breathtaking beauty of Ladakh.

My friend and me had the most beautiful drive to Nubra Valley, passing through the stark, dramatic landscape of the Khardung La region. This is where the beauty of Ladakh's brown and purple mountains becomes truly mesmerising.

Then there was Sangam - the spectacular meeting point of the Indus and Zanskar rivers (photo above).

And then came Pangong Lake, at an altitude of around 14,000 feet. The lake was breathtaking, with its waters changing between shades of blue and green and glittering in the sunlight.

We visited many Buddhist monasteries such as Diskit and Thiksay, saw stupas and stopped at a gurdwara on the way back. The day before our trip to Nubra, we had a hot one-and-a-half-hour drive to Alchi Monastery. The lunch there is said to be very good, but unfortunately we missed it as the restaurant was closed for some work.

Our trip ended with a visit to the school associated with the movie 3 Idiots, where we got to take a photograph wearing the traditional Ladakhi dress.

And for a pure vegetarian like me, Ladakh offered a surprisingly wide variety of food. There was authentic Ladakhi cuisine such as thukpa, noodles, tasty momos.There were also good Punjabi and other Indian options. And yes, we even found a place serving dosas! Besides, my doctor friend got us tasty Ladakhi bread for breakfast eaten with dollops of butter and honey. She also made apricot dessert that was so yummy. Apricots are in plenty in Ladakh.

It was a beautiful trip - one that began with pain and ended with joy.

So, how will I prepare myself next time the Ladakhi mountains call me?

1. Discuss Diamox with my doctor before the trip.
   I was advised that Diamox (acetazolamide) can be started before arriving at high altitude and continued for a few days after arrival. I had gone on a high-altitude trek in Uttarakhand in 2024, but I had not been advised to take Diamox then, so I had skipped it this time as well. Next time, I will discuss it with my doctor and take Diamox well before the journey.
2. Carry a pulse oximeter.
   It is a tiny instrument that allows you to check your blood oxygen saturation and pulse rate.
3. Take symptoms seriously.
   If oxygen saturation is very low or I develop significant headache, nausea, vomiting or breathing difficulty, I will not wait it out. I will seek medical help immediately.
4. Check the availability of oxygen where I am staying.
   It is worth asking the hotel or homestay beforehand whether oxygen is available in an emergency. Some hotels may have oxygen cylinders or concentrators. However, if someone is severely breathless or deteriorating, medical care is far more important than relying on equipment at a hotel.
5. Eat and rest properly before the trip.
   If I have a bad cold, fever or significant fatigue before travelling, I would seriously consider postponing the trip. High altitude can magnify problems that might otherwise seem manageable.
6. Take the first couple of days slowly.
   Follow the rules - No excursions immediately after landing. I would give my body time to understand where it is!
7. Carry my regular medication and speak to my doctor beforehand.
   Any existing health issue should be discussed with a doctor before travelling to high altitude. 

I am also sharing the image of the health advisory that was given to us with the permit that we had to get for travelling to Nubra and Pangong. For Indians, the permit can be obtained online. Foreigners need to visit the relevant office in Leh, and it can take quite a while if there is a queue.

Despite the difficult beginning, Ladakh has left me wanting more.

I hope to make one more trip to those mountains - this time better prepared, better rested and with all the necessary precautions.

And hopefully, the next time, the acclimatisation will be much kinder to me!

 

 

Twisty Tale of Real Estate

Shyam: Listen, I need you to find me a good property. I want a holiday home where my family can relax, unwind, and enjoy some peace and quiet.

Real Estate Agent: Sir, say no more! I will find you exactly what you need. Quiet, nature, mountains and, most importantly, a place where your investment will double.

Shyam: Sounds perfect. Do your research and let me know. I’ll come and visit the place.

Real Estate Agent: Sir, why wait? Let’s go tomorrow and inspect the site.

The next day, they arrive.

Shyam: Wow! This place is absolutely perfect. So peaceful. So quiet. Just what I wanted.

He takes a deep breath and looks at the mountains.

Shyam: I hope you’ve done thorough research on the area - any problems, issues, hidden surprises?

Real Estate Agent: Of course, sir! I have done extensive research. You can close your eyes and invest in this property.

Shyam: Excellent. Let’s close the deal. I’ll buy the house and the land.

One Month Later…

Shyam and his family arrive at their beautiful new holiday home for a relaxing weekend.

They are immediately welcomed by a battalion of mosquitoes.

As night falls, the family goes to bed.

Awoooooooo!

One dog starts howling.

Then another joins.

Then another.

Shyam closes the windows.

He closes the curtains.

He puts a pillow over his head.

Awoooooooo!

Nobody sleeps a wink.

He calls the real estate agent the next morning.

Shyam: You never told me there were so many dogs here! And that they howl the entire night!

Real Estate Agent: Sir, please calm down. Look at these technical charts, market reports, investment projections, appreciation curves and extensive research I have done on this location.

Shyam: What is the use of all your charts and research if you don't know the most important thing?

Real Estate Agent: What is that, sir?

Shyam: How the hell do you sleep here?

You can calculate appreciation, study market trends, analyse infrastructure and predict property values but you forgot to check whether the neighbourhood has a 24-hour Dog FM radio station!

My investment has gone to the dogs.

I think I’ll be better off staying in the city.

Find me a buyer for this house.

Real Estate Agent: Certainly, sir.

Shyam: And whatever you do, don't tell them about the dogs.

Real Estate Agent: The agent looks at the house, then quietly mutters to himself:

“Well… that’s exactly what the previous owner told me.”

My Trip to Meghalaya

 

In February of this year, on an in-flight travel book, I read about Cherrapunjee.  I now know that the original name is Sohra which the British changed to Cherra. The land of the heaviest rains, the land of dense forests. It was on my mind since February to explore this North Eastern part of India.

I had this great urge to walk/trek/hike amongst dense forests in heavy rainfall. From what I read, that was ideal at Sohra in Meghalaya, 2 hrs drive from Shillong and 6 hours’ drive from Guwahati in Assam, where my plane landed.

But this article is not a tourist update. I do have lots to describe about this place and my amazing trip. Sohra is so beautiful with the most amazing and lush waterfalls. But I leave it to you to explore her someday.

I write to try and understand the ongoing religious conversion in the region, from what I gathered during my visit there, especially from my driver of 4 days (who spoke good English).

He asked me one day “ Madam, you Hindu no?” I said “yes, Hindu but you too are Hindu right.” He said “ No Madam I am catholic.” He said his grandfather was a Hindu priest but he converted to Catholic some years back.

One understands from ground realities that there are so many angles to conversion.

I was shocked more so because he comes from a family of Hindu priests. Why would he convert? I asked him if he gets some regular income which helps in his children’s education that lured him to convert. That is what my maid working at my place in Mumbai told me many years back. Obviously, there must be some motivation. He said no, I did not convert for money. He does not get any perks for conversion, so he says. But then why I asked. He had to think. The answer did not come immediately. That meant either he had to dive deep within himself to answer his own reason for conversion or was he trying to play safe with me? Majority of the Sohra population have converted to Christianity. Religion conversion in the North East has been a hot news topic.

But the question has always been “Is this conversion through inducement or allurement of some sort?”

My driver denied it. Again, the next day I probed - but why did you want to convert? He then said “I like the way Catholics live, how they behave with other humans, the culture and values they teach. Besides, a lot of Hindus in Sohra were doing black magic with the locals to take away our land.”

It may be his version, true or false, I do not know. 

I read from news articles - The United Christian Forum (UCF), a civil society organisation focused on Christian issues, had released a statement last year highlighting the rise in attacks against the community. It pointed out that there had been 525 attacks against Christians in India just in the first eight months of 2023. The group had cautioned that if the trend were to continue then 2023 would prove to be one of the most violent and difficult years the Christian community in India has ever seen, breaking the recent record set by 2022, and 2021 before that.

Christian leaders say threats to Christianity and missionary activities have increased in recent years in the entire northeast India region after Hindu groups began to push cultural nationalism. The Hindu groups have succeeded in portraying Christianity as a diabolical force to destroy Hindu native culture and to convert Hindus to Christianity, the UCA report said.

In Assam, Christians make up 3.74 percent of the population, exceeding the national average of 2.3 percent.

Coming to the rest of India, if we were to talk of Christian influence, a lot of us in the cities are products of convent education. Neither our parents nor us saw it as anything religious. In school, they never preached Christianity. Yes, we did recite the Catholic prayer but that was it. I still follow all my Hindu rituals and beliefs and yet I am the product of a great convent education, great school, great teachers.

The few remaining Hindu homes at Sohra identify themselves by putting the rooster sign outside their home. Sohra has been a highly spiritual place where everything revolves around nature. For them nature is God and God is in nature. When I was a doing a hike amongst the forests, there is a place which is considered sacred and if anyone touches or destroys the trees around it, he will be punished by the villagers. There is a tourist walk called the Sacred Groves or Sacred Forest, where for years, Hindu religious practices used to be conducted deep inside the forest. Tourists are taken to the spot and it is believed that if one makes a wish here, it comes  true. Sacred Groves were found all over India in Vedic times. 

Such strong Hindu and Hinduism beliefs, yet the people choose to convert.

There could be many reasons. The Khasi region has been influenced by the British culture, as Sohra was the first capital of the British Raj in the Khasi and Jaintia Hills from 1835 to 1866. Their language Khasi is based on the Roman script (as the original script was lost). When I heard my driver speak the Khasi language, I found it sounding so European. It is only later I came to know of the Roman connection. While they do have a Chinese similarity in looks, many have a strong European look too. 

Add to that conversion in North-East and Sohra happens despite the strong existence of Hindu missionaries like the Ramakrishna Mission in the entire North-East. Ironically, this alongside the Thomas Jones missionary has uplifted the literacy in this region. To be noted Cherrapunjee is a zero-crime state.  It has an average literacy rate of 74%, equal to the national average of 74.5%. Male literacy rate is 72.4% and a female literacy rate is 73.9%. Aside this – They follow a matrilineal lineage and the youngest daughter looks after the family and is the inheritor of a larger share of the property. Women have an important place in the society.

My driver said “ Madam, last 2 years (post COVID) no foreigners coming. Before that we had a lot of foreigners.” I asked why is that. He did not know. I asked his boss; he dismissed it by saying foreigners do come but are lesser in numbers.

In my own speculation, foreign tourists could have decided to stay away from this place due to the threats of the Indian government to foreign missionaries.

I do not support conversion in any form. It is the need of the hour to research and understand why conversion happens in this strong Hindu region. Rather than break churches or stop convent schools, let us understand what drives these locals to conversion. Threats and violence can boomerang to many more becoming anti-Hindu. That in turn attracts politicians / opposition to take undue advantage to gain power as is happening now, where Hindutva is seen in a bad light and everything else bad is an outcome of too much Hindutva.

Point here is to understand what we are doing wrong and correct that.  

 

My First Himalayan Trek

 

I am no avid trekker. I have gone for cycling trips, yoga camps but never veered towards trekking.

Three to four years back I read about Har ki Doon. The beauty of its paths transported me to another world. I made up my mind to do the trek. Once a decision is taken, it stays somewhere in my mind to be executed whenever the right time comes. 

Perhaps it is my proximity to Dehradun too that must have led me to chance upon the Har ki Doon trek. Uttarakhand’s capital city, Dehradun, at the foothills of the Himalayas, has been inviting me time and again. Thanks to a lady friend who was the principal of a school there. Every  time, I had to travel to Delhi for work, which was often, I made it a point to visit her for the weekend and soak in the fresh mountain air. That made me visit Dehradun about 10-15 times over the last 10 years. She retired 2 years back and I thought now my visits would be less frequent. Not yet. Now, another friend invites me, they showed me their new guest room and says that it is mine to occupy whenever I feel like. More visits are surely happening.

The COVID pandemic hit and the thought of doing the Har Ki Doon trek was pushed back. Last year, I again pondered whether I should do it. But wisely putting it off as I realised my body was not up to it. The pandemic had set my body few years behind. My cycling, the stair climbs, yoga, even my walks had been very irregular. My Vitamin D had touched a new low. Consequently, a low blood pressure. My legs did not feel strong. I would feel wobbly after a 45 minute walk. I decided to give it a pass.

April 2023 – I suddenly decided yes now is the time. My body was questioning – How come now is the time?  You have not even been doing regular cycling, no climbs, no jogging, no cardio, just walks and you are ready? But the decision made few years back came right into the forefront of the mind pushing me to get set and become ready.

Few friends felt like coming with me but could not make up their mind. Each one of us is on a different trip and a different climb in life at different points of time and it is hard to match the right time and the right place.

Not having any company has never meant for me to cancel any trip. It merely meant go solo and it has never been a problem. At times it is better. Because you stay with new people and make new friends and some new friendships become strong and long lasting as my experience has shown.

I began my search for a trekking company. I came upon trekthehimalayas. I seriously knew nothing of trekking companies at that time and really had no one to ask. This company felt dependable and knowledgeable after browsing their website and talking to the co-ordinator. I immediately signed up for May 7^th date. I checked if another single lady is there for me to share the tent and the co-ordinator said yes. But some meetings came up and I changed my trek date to May 21^st.  On hindsight, what did I think of my body? Hardly a month of training and I would be fit to do the trek?

May 19^th – Flew to Dehradun. May 21^th the 10-hr drive from Dehradun to Sankri, few of us crossing our fingers that we would not throw up in the bus with motion sickness, what with all the twists and twirls. May 22^st we began the trek. Some friends I spoke to later said there should have been one day to acclimatise. Perhaps. The 10-hr drive was quite a stress.

But we began. The night before the trek, I kept looking at my backpack and asking myself how do I reduce its weight. They had asked us to carry 2 bottles – one was a heavy flask, one fleece jacket, one tiffin (stainless steel is what I carried) for lunch, a medicines pack, dryfruits (which I carried a lot in a plastic tin), purse, torch, tetrapack juices, goggles, poncho (don’t understand why I bought a chic heavy one!), tissues and the rest of the small things. I got stressed knowing that I am unable  to remove anything. I saw that my co-trekker ladies whom I was put up with at night, had packed small and light backpacks. I was wondering how, only to later realise that their husbands and partners were carrying the heavy stuff. One big advantage of travelling with a male partner:))

I trekked half the distance on the first day and I looked up towards the peak of every climb and said how am I going to do this. 

I told one of the trek leaders my backpack is very heavy, I cannot climb with this. My legs were feeling so heavy. So mid-way he kindly agreed to put few of the stuff in his bag. Out went my poncho, my flask, my medicines and it felt a bit lighter. I had not prepared for the steep climbs. That was my fault. What did I expect in a Himalayan trek? I was breathing very heavily. I finished the day unwell. I threw up as we reached our campsite. I felt exhausted. I threw up and went searching for my tent where my tent buddy, the youngest in our group, was waiting outside to tell me that we both are tent buddies. We both had met each other at the Dehradun bus stand itself.  I told her I won’t be doing the trek, I will be going back. She said she too felt some disappointment and could not figure out why. She said she too does not feel she can do the trek.

I went inside my tent and crashed to a 1-hour sleep after which I heard people shouting “Veena don’t sleep. Come out”. The trek leader told me to come out. We were prevented from sleeping in the day time as it is said our respiratory system slows and cannot produce the oxygen as quickly in those altitudes. But believe me that one hour sleep did me good. I always avoid taking allopathy medicines back home. But I took in a Calpol 500, not wanting to get more sick in those altitudes!

I went outside to throw up and had tears in my eyes. I was thinking of how will I return back to Dehradun, I will be telling everyone I am back early as I could not do the trek, all those trek purchases and preparations gone waste and so on. A co-trekker who came from Gujarat told me “Himmat nahi haarana, aap kar sakate hai (Don’t lose courage, you can do it). I wanted to tell him then that all these big words just don’t help. Very easy to talk when your body is fine. In retrospect, it does help. It does sink in somewhere in the recesses of the mind.

That night I convinced my young tent buddy that just let us sleep and we will decide in the morning if we can do another day. Fortunately, both of us had a good sleep in that very uncomfortable sleeping bag under the low ceiling tent and we fortunately woke with a smile on our faces. That seemed a good omen. We were ready to try out one more day.

Our trek leader checked both of our oxygen levels and we both were fine. My tent buddy managed to make her backpack light as she too had found it very uncomfortable on day one. I tried removing a few things but it still weighed a lot. I wondered whether my backpack itself was a heavy one. I was mulling all the time whether to buy another one but one of the shopkeepers said my backpack is fine, it is the weight inside.

Day 2 my tent buddy was walking well and all was fine. But me, after my first big climb and again finding the backpack  heavy, I looked at our head trek leader, a spirited woman, who had to stay behind the last trekker. I told her I am tired. She said would you not be after a climb?. Then she said if you walk at this rate, we will reach at night. I asked her what to do. She did not say anything. We continued walking.

Mid-way through the trek, I again told her my backpack is heavy. If this was not there, I would be better off. I wanted to throw the backpack and feel light. When we stopped at an inn for a break, she was really kind to remove most of the things – medicines, dry fruits, fleece jacket, poncho and many other small things. She packed items it in such as a way as to distribute the weight evenly, she said that heavy things and food items must be kept in the center area, water bottles should be, one at the right side and one at left, all these I was unaware of (Two water bottles, one for normal water and one for ORS water).  She put all the stuff in a bag and made arrangements to send it through a mule to our campsite. 

It was then that a co-trekker, watching, offered to carry some more weight off me in his backpack. The trek leader smiled and said fine. She welcomed the team spirit.   

My backpack now was so light and my mind too was light, feeling so good with so much support. I had the trek leader and my co-trekker friend behind me and they were happily chatting about different peaks to scale across India. I was listening to them talking but I did not partake in the interesting conversations as I wanted to save my energy. I completed day 2 with not much difficulty.

After that my body got accustomed and the third day was the climb to Har Ki Doon where we would return to the same campsite. With my co-trekker friend, I happily scaled all the climbs and come to think of it we were the first to reach the Har Ki Doon top. We, in later chats, could not understand how that happened but guess the others were enjoying the valley below.

It was worth it. We could not see the Swargarohini peak clearly, the main attraction of Har Ki Doon,  as it was raining and cloudy. Nevertheless, the view of the mountains is so beautiful. The Har ki doon summit and the valley is so beautifully amazing.

From then on it was a downhill and I had really no problem. I told my co-trekker friend I will now carry my stuff and I can manage by myself.

A lot of experiences and learnings after this first trek of mine, which I directly jumped to a Himalayan one!. Will I do a such a trek again? That’s a question always posed to first timers. It was a 50 plus km trek in 5 days with all those steep climbs. Well, I may become a trekker.

Definitely, there isn’t any short cut to hard work. I was walking 4-5 km regularly for a month and before that too (though not regularly). I am not a gym person so that was out. I was doing Kalari Payattu, a martial art of Kerala, which I had joined in August of last year and was quite regular with it. That indeed helped a lot to strengthen my body. I think walking long distance is not the problem for me. It is the climbs and if I work on it, Himalayan treks will be much easier. And yes, it is about being fit all through the year and not just some months before the trek. A big lesson is to keep doing a lot of climbs, not necessarily treks, but just climbing wherever there are climbs and keep doing more of it all through the year.  Combined with regular walking, jogging and stretching excercises/yoga or any other form, I guess this trek is indeed easy or moderate as they mention in the trek description.

I come back from the trek with this peaceful and happy sense of achievement and the feeling I can do it, my body can do it if the mind says yes. And somewhere, someone will give that support when it is needed.

Here, I share my experiences largely for my own memory’s sake. But, indeed to tell all those first timers that there is always a first time and unless you do it, you don’t know what it is and what you and your body is up against. How much you can push yourself. You need to try it if you feel strongly about it. And then remember whatever it is, failure or accomplishment, we must take both in our stride. We must accept. As certain destinies we cannot change. We need to only learn and learn and learn from every trip in life.

Mixing Politics with Education

It troubled me when 25-30-year-olds told me they don’t like Prime Minister Modi. No, do not get me wrong. I am not troubled by the dislike. But it raised the question that many of them did not have any strong political views or opinions, no in-depth knowledge of the history of India, but yet are so strong in this one statement, why is that? It did not jell together.  

I was further shocked when my friends’ children, neighbours children, all in their mid-twenties to thirties, who never ever spoke about politics, woke up in large numbers to anti-CAA protests in late 2019. Many of my friends’ children wished to join the protests that were being organised/led by some colleges, in the guise of being or supporting ‘secularism’. I shouted out to many of them in WhatsApp groups to not be stupid to let their children, who think that they are fighting for some real cause, get into all of this ‘created’ mess. Let them come out on the streets to fight serious causes of environment degradation or corruption or water scarcity or such issues, if they must.

Fortunately, COVID happened and things quietened down. One weekend in Nov 2021, I went to stay with my school friend in Pune. She has 2 daughters in their early twenties. One had just completed BMM (Bachelor of Mass Media) from a well-known institution in Pune.

My friend, her husband and me were discussing political issues one day and they are both Modi supporters or should I say Bhakts, but their daughter, the BMM graduate, is anti-Modi. I was not surprised at all. I had heard of a few similar cases of daughter and father and their bitter battles over PM Modi. Her father, in heated arguments, would try to explain to her many things, but she was confident or should I say over-confident that PM  Modi was wrong for India.

So I thought let me get into the bottom of this.

I asked her “Why”

She said He creates problems.

What Problems – Hindu, Muslim fights. I want secular India, she said.

Why, who told you that, there are problems being created?

She was hesitant but I kept prodding and then she replied we have guest lecturers that come to our college including those from TV channels and they ‘ALSO” told us. They “ALSO” explained how BJP is driving Hindutva. Well……

From within, she had no strong arguments to offer me. I would have been happy if her education in Mass Media and her reading of the news had led her to having her own opinion which I or her parents would have supported. But the sad part is that it is clear the young minds are being influenced at or by educational institutions and percolating to the entire of their generation.

No wonder the youth today are so perplexed about the country that is India.

BRINGING 'LIFE' INTO THE ICU

Dear Doctors, Medical Advisors, Govt Authorities,

It is hard to imagine why we humans follow rules which continue to exist for years and years without questions, without change, despite the serious damage it imposes on those who have to face those rules.

I am talking of The Intensive Care Unit or the ICU, where no family member of the patient is allowed to be with the patient during the day, but only come in as a visitor, once in the morning and then in the evening.

This rule, perhaps, was made to ward off infections that may arise from the entry and existence of family members during the day. But it makes no sense when we allow the whole clan of friends and relatives to visit during the evening visiting hours. And here again I am not talking of patients who have undergone some surgery.

Or then the rule was made to avoid hinderance or any disturbance to the treatment of the doctors and the nurses. But that is up for questioning as to whether the presence of a family member aids the treatment or causes disturbance. And steps to ensure that no disturbance happens is far easier than the complete ban of a family member.

I take my own family example. My mother was admitted to the ICU in 2018 for breathlessness.  She was a CO2 patient and on oxygen and her lungs had failed. The doctor told us to admit her to the ICU for 2 days. 2 days became two weeks with no sign of her being removed.

My mother pleaded to us, her children, to take her away from there. She felt all alone in the ICU. The ICU doctor too, after two weeks, advised us to take her home as she may get into what they call in medical term as ICU depression. But our consulting doctor advised that she continues to stay in the ICU. Can you believe that this kind of depression is documented and recorded and we do nothing about it?

So, we did DAMS – Discharge Against Medical Advice. And brought my mother home. We were given indirect indications that it could be her last days. And why should she spend her last days like this, in an ICU room, having terrible food and most importantly without seeing her children.

Later we admitted her to a special room in another hospital, where we were by her bedside all through her last month, chatting with her, laughing, feeding her and it was indeed a memorial goodbye to her.

Yes goodbye. As we have seen during the COVID times, the sad passing away of many without their family being able to see them. But it is no different at normal times too.

That is the request here. That it must be made possible. Many medical forums over the world are now debating over this inane ruling.

I had ventured out to write this plea many times before, then putting it away, with the feeling that nothing will happen out of this as the medical community may have their own valid reasons to continue with this rule. 

But yet again someone knocks at the door that it must be written. A friend came home two months back and recounted about her 65-year-old father passing away in the ICU from Covid. She said I think he died because the nurses had no time to look after him during these overcrowded times. From her phone conversations with her father, she was confident that he was sounding strong, full of life, getting better and the flu was far from serious.

She tells me that her father was told to take the prone positioning (lying on the stomach), common treatment for Covid patients. Through her many talks, she is of the opinion that the oxygen pipe could have lost its position and the staff is at times so busy that there is no one checking for hours. 

These are her assumptions. But then could it also be a possibility? That answer, the family and near and dear ones, will never get to know and live all their lives thinking, only, only if, they were there by his or her bedside. 

Which is a fact. Most hospitals and ICUs are short-staffed. Medical staff are sometimes so tired, they don’t have the energy to care beyond a point. Besides, there are young trainees doing their internship. Can you believe my mother’s two hands were black and blue because the nurses could not find a vein to remove blood!  Our own family doctor was shocked to see her hands. When we took her to the other  hospital, the nurses there too were shocked.

It is no rocket science to know that the young medical staff will not be able to have the patience, especially with elderly people with their increasing workload. Perhaps, it was possible in the earlier days. My friend's father, 90 plus years old, was admitted for malaria and put in the ICU.  His eyesight and hearing, both were very weak. The nurse would keep the tea or water and go away and he would never know and so never drink. Similar was the case many times for meals. And what is worse, my mother’s co-patients told us the hospital chapati was so hard, they could not eat it. Imagine that. Elderly sick patients not eating properly, no one to watch or coax them, and then taking heavy dose medicines. Is it difficult to fathom what all this can lead to?

I can’t for my life understand what is the risk of one family member being allowed to come in and see his or her patient during the day and sit at the side of the patient’s bed, if not the whole day, at least in intervals.

Yes, there are rooms outside the ICU where the patients' family are in COMPULSION to sit the whole day. That is more for the family member to be on call to buy the huge lists of medicines that crop up numerous times during the day. Well, that is another debate for another time. Sitting in that outside room no way helps the patient who would love to see their near and dear during the day, helping them with small things that are sure to be overlooked, yet so important for the patient. 

Hospitals should begin designing ICUs in such a way to allow this to happen. Besides, we can incorporate the use of masks at all times.

What a difference it makes for a patient to see his family member, knowing they are there if they want something desperately, to perhaps even help the medical staff in their duties, to give home food and most importantly say a better goodbye from this world, if that is to be.

Let’s begin to make ICUs the place to be cured and not to become more ill.

 

ECONOMICS OR NOT ECONOMICS

I often end up having heated debates with friends on the performance of India’s economic or GDP growth. These debates got more heated up when India recorded its worst decline in GDP of 23.9% in the first quarter of 2020 post COVID and the subsequent lockdown as compared to a growth of 5.2% in Q1 of 2019. The government has forgotten the economy, most say.

These debates began much before the lockdown. That was when our GDP fell to 6% rates as compared to the 8-9% we were so accustomed to before the current government came into power.

My question is do high GDP figures mean we are rocking? For me it is like this man who sells beautiful flowery plants on the streets in his cart. Red Roses, Marigold, Hibiscus and many more exotic plants with flowers in full bloom. I am always tempted to buy them and I am already dreaming of a home filled with plants blooming with flowers. I have bought them a couple of times and planted them at home. The flowers soon die, never to come again. The plant too withers away. I rarely face this situation when I tell my local gardener to get me plants. Moral: I see a blooming plant till he holds it, the weak roots are not apparent to me. 

The earlier government had shown 8-9% GDP growth and everyone believed that we were rocking. Not always were we booming. A lot of the growth come from black money and the real estate market which then had positive ripple effects on the economy. If you go back and look at GDP contributors, real estate forms a major chunk.

Many of these thoughts brewing in my head for a long time came back to me when I traveled by the newly introduced RoRo ferry from Mumbai to Alibaug. It is a private ferry. A ferry that has made its presence in the COMMERCIAL capital of India in the country’s 73th year of Independence when smaller countries like Sri Lanka had such a service years and years ago. Never mind that we are showing 9% GDP growth.

The government has to now look at making toilets for women in the rural areas. Women would not venture out in the night with no toilets inside their home. Reminding you we are in our 73th year of Independence! Never mind that, look at the GDP growth rate.

A dirty Ganga river, a dirty India, the land of Gods, which should have been the tourism superpower by now, has heritage structures neglected and falling apart. Never mind we have 9% GDP growth.

Villages don’t have power and water, they don’t have connectivity, they lack infrastructure, our inland waterways/ water transport is neglected, we have ignored solar power for the last many decades in a sun-filled country, our commercial capital lacked a metro over all these years. Never mind all that, we are showing 9% GDP growth.

I am not a fanatic supporter of any government but we need to open our eyes to understand what true development is and how it will impact us and the future generation.

It is important to focus on making our roots healthy and strong so that flowers will be in full bloom naturally and with ease.

 

Banning Chinese Products

Yesterday my young niece from Chennai called me up and said that she wanted to buy a smartphone and asked me for suggestions. I gave her options like Nokia, Samsung and she said but her budget is Rs 12 to 15,000. I laughed and said then you can only get a Chinese phone. So be it she said.

She already has the phone Honor which her brother bought for her in 2018. Honor I asked, never heard of it. I googled and checked it was a Huawei brand. She said it works very well till date. She only wants another phone as this one was not accepting the Jio sim for some reason.

That got me thinking. Here we Indians are chest-thumping, saying we will ban all Chinese products. There is obvious anger on China for giving the world a virus that has killed so many people. But can we link the two?

I am imagining a daughter or son with a Chinese phone in hand in the hospital looking after a parent with COVID. Is he really going to have anger that he has a Chinese phone in hand? I don’t think so.

Here is when I think that the Chinese have worked hard to give us reasonable quality technological products at cheaper rates. One saw a smartphone boom in India thanks to their phones. Even the middle-class and lower middle-class could opt for a smartphone. And what has India done during this time? We don’t even have one Indian mobile brand as an option if we ban Chinese phones.

This perhaps is true for many other sectors including the medical field where a lot of the diagnostic systems come from China.

We talk of level-playing field, we crib that the government should support entrepreneurship, we talk that duties must be reduced. Honestly, is that the problem or we have not got something right that the Chinese have. Reasonable quality at reasonable price?

I used to get angry when I would see Chinese lanterns and lights flooding the Indian market during the Indian festival Deepawali. I was why the hell should I buy a Chinese lantern? (even before COVID). But then where is the option? The Chinese ones had unique designs, fairly good quality and a very good price and I don’t see any Indian seller giving me those designs at a good price.

This monsoon, I was searching for a good windcheater for myself. I looked through many at amazon and they were all the common designs, not very good colour and then I spotted one which was really stylish and a good price. I clicked buy. When it was delivered, it was really good but unfortunately, I had chosen a smaller size and so had to exchange it. I looked at the tag, it was Made in China. For a moment, I thought whether I should return or exchange. I did return it but didn’t find a good one post that.

I also recall how about 7 years back my colleagues were all shopping at Alibaba. They were delighted to buy fancy kids toys and other stuff at such cheap rates. Everyone was glued to alibaba.com. No wonder then today Alibaba is the world's largest retailer and e-commerce company, and on the list of largest Internet companies. In 2020, it was also rated as the fifth-largest artificial intelligence company.

Leave out technology and retail products, come to think of it when a student in India goes to buy his first violin, it is Chinese! Because they are the cheapest and good for a beginner to start with.

Let’s get our act together before we make those tall claims of banning Chinese products.

Potato Wafers

 

This packet of potato wafers takes my mind from the body to nostalgic times. I have kept away from this sinful delight for over many years now. And soon I had lost the taste for it. And so I thought so.

Till two days back when a handicapped man came to the door selling these small wafer packets made at his home. Rs 15 per packet. Its hard to say no, especially in these times. We decided to buy 10 packets to help him do business. I would distribute it later to my neighbour, househelp, etc.

Immediately we consumed one packet to taste it before we buy. I asked him what oil he uses. He said a branded groundnut oil. The chips were very tasty.

I waited for the day to pass to know if I am feeling wrong in the stomach or the head. I felt good.

Next day I keep all those 9 wafer packets safely in a proper airtight box. Do I really need to distribute I thought? I did distribute a few, that is 2 packets. Who actually wants to eat unhealthy wafers these days?

And in the evening yesterday at 6 pm, I am having it with my tea. I said I will have half the packet but I didn’t realise when I had consumed the full packet. Really are potato wafers unhealthy I ask?

These chips are the ones we used to have in our childhood days. Unbranded, made locally. I have tried the Lay’s wafer and others only a couple of times in my life. Those are so salty and so dehydrating I thought so, never to have them again. Machine made ones. But these…..

It brings back memories of the childhood birthday parties. We dress up in our beautiful frocks. The cake is cut. We are waiting to hold those paper plates. When the birthday girl or boy's family starts distributing the wafers and the cake in the small paper plates, the patience we need to build into ourselves. Our hands already out to receive the plate even before it has come. That sets the mood of the birthday party. The fun and the joy of eating chips and cakes. It surely must be doing something to the spirits. It must be made to add joy to our bodies. Unhealthy? Not so in those times because we didn’t have the money to consume it frequently. We had it only in those rare parties. So scarcity played a role there to keep us healthy. Today constant supply plays a role to keep us unhealthy. Then the heavenly delight in a slightly upper class home where samosas were added to the chips and the cake. Sheer joy.

Food surely has a role to play in bonhomie and friendship. At that point the unhealthy graph may take a big dip. I think so.

 

 

COVID-19 LESSONS

Today it seems like the COVID lockdown has accentuated the divide between the rich and poor more than ever in India. The leadership has failed to address the large population of our mass, that today are not worried at all about the virus killing them but about their lives and livelihood.

We must be frank here that the poor living in slums in the cities and in the rural areas can hardly practice social distancing. So they will be more susceptible to the virus and many other viruses any which ways. So the lockdown is more to keep us, the more well-to-do safe rather than them.

When the PM announced the lockdown on March 25^th to begin from midnight for 21 days till April 14, no one was prepared. Perhaps the Prime Minister was worried that there will be a rush to hoard stocks and there will be panic and frenzy. So he locked down the whole country one fine day. Lets assume this reasoning to be fair. But he left the migrant and the poor to decide for themselves what they should do. Besides leaving many stranded Indians abroad, who may have gone on holiday or work, and could not come back.

When America announced a shutdown, Indian students had the time to rush back to their homes instead of being cooped up in hostels or university rooms or other places. Why did they take that risk to travel that 24 hours by flight? Why did we not stop them considering the risk? They wanted to come back to their homes and be with their family. Ditto for migrants. But nobody bothered to make any arrangements for the migrants.

Maharashtra government claims it had made the request right at the beginning of the lockdown but other states did not yield. Could then the Center not take the lead and make arrangements and insist that the states must welcome their rightful residents in a systematic and proper manner? On April 14, the government again extends the lockdown with absolutely no regard for the migrant workers across India. Imagine the migrants twiddling their thumbs, cooped up in those small homes for a month, with nothing to entertain themselves with. Finally they took the risk and started walking miles to go back home. Imagine their plight.

PM Cares fund, the name itself sucks. Is there any website or any other link I can go to, to understand how the funds were utilised? Doling out rupees (and if they were doled out) is not the answer.

Did we use the funds to maybe give the poor and the migrant workers vegetables, fruits, bread, dry fruits for free or at low rates? Did we or their employers make arrangements of food for them? Cannot the money have been used for such simple things to build their immunity? Maybe given them Vitamin C tablets or other multivitamin tablets? Migrant workers and even those staying in slums such as Dharavi are not beggars. They work and they cook their own food in normal times. They are not people wanting to stand in long lines for food. Honestly what did we really do for them other than some emotional speeches and some apps.

Apart from action, the need all round is also for communication – good communication, right communication, useful communication.

Did we really have serious communication going on in understanding what happens in the first few days when someone contracts COVID? What precautions should be taken? How to build immunity? Were all these communicated to the poor or did we tell them we have installed some app for you!!!  

When somebody sent me the video above, which is so useful and has such great information, I felt this is the kind of information we need to have relayed to the poor and help them too to build their immunity, indirectly curtailing the spread of COVID. 

Media plays an important role in such times to highlight useful information rather than senseless debates that really are of no use to anybody.

Action with good communication, right communication and useful communication in nationwide emergencies which reaches every citizen can reflect some sense of equality in a society.

Government is busy now with a revival package for Mutual Funds! Hope there are revival packages for those who need it the most.