I have had a mixed day yesterday. Practice was a bit dull, but I had a good time at the clinic since some of my favourite patients graced the place with their presence. One of them, a three-year old, I love because I helped him to survive a rather virulent attack of Pyogenic meningitis: that's pus around the brain for the non-medicos. He is all right, except that the infection caused his brain size to increase because of collection of fluid within it ... and he had to undergo surgery for the same. He has slight mental handicap, but he is otherwise very loquacious, charming and talkative.

The second star of my clinic was an asthmatic who is free of symptoms since the past one and a half years as a result of his complete compliance with inhalational line of therapy. Sunil, now seen, came to me at the age of five and a quarter years with a prolonged history of oral medication for his recurrent asthmatic attacks. In India, inhalational therapy is not much accepted, but his parents were receptive to it since they had seen the child being hospitalised many times for severe attacks of breathlessness. I started the various inhalers, and he became symptom-free within three months. Since then, he has put on 3 kilograms weight, and is doing well.

All in all, a very "happy" day.

That's all for now. More later.
 

Pune, once a quaint little city in the interior of Maharashtra state, and 180 km (110 miles) away from Mumbai, is now a huge, bustling city that is listed among the top ten most polluted cities of India. It has a deeply entrenched cultural milieu, with its denizens quite interested in folk music, folk dance and drama. I had to go there urgently on Wednesday as my mother's sister, now 93 years old, passed away in sleep.

Salma, as she was called, was Maasi to us. I remember many happy days spent in her large house during my childhood, when my mother fell ill with cancer and had to be admitted to the hospital for days on end. My father would leave my brother (five years younger than me) and me in her house to stay for a week, a fortnight or even longer. Her grown-up children had both shifted to USA and her daughter lived with her family some miles away. So, my Maasa and Maasi used to live alone. They welcomed us with open arms. Maasi was a very good cook. For her, money was not a problem, as it was with my parents (who would often cook either less food than what we needed, or diluted the gravy with water) - and we often ended up enjoying her well-cooked, undiluted, limitless food.

Later in life, she helped me with non-interest loans when I wanted to purchase my home. All through the years, she was always caring, loving and helpful. I am going to miss her. May her soul rest in peace.

I left for Pune at 11:00 a.m., reaching there at 3:30 in the afternoon. She was buried in the graveyard at 4:00 p.m. After this, I left to return to Mumbai, arriving at nearly 9:00 p.m. I went straight to my clinic, where patients were already waiting for more than 1 - 1 1/2 hours for me. A very tiring day, and I went to sleep almost instantly when I hit the bed at 10:45 p.m.
 

It has been an eventful weekend. First, I developed a severe back spasm on Friday morning and was in bed the whole day after taking a trip to the physiotherapist for the SWD and traction. Sunday was quiet. We slept early and woke up half an hour earlier so that the kids dressed up with time to spare before I took them to the bus stop from where they travel to school daily. More later.
 

I have two adorable children, aged 14 and 10. My younger one's picture is in My Portfolio inside the "Images Photos and Signatures" folder. But I am digressing. I want to air my grouse about their schooling and activities schedules: every single day of the week, we all awaken at 7:00 a.m. as their school begins at 8:45 a.m. Then, on Saturdays and Sundays too, they must wake up early to attend religious school, or sports or something or the other. Thus, barring annual summer vacations, we are always waking up early and suffering from a perennial deprivation of blessed sleep. I do not know how schedules are like in the U.S., but I am sure many parents have to face a similar or even more punishing schedule each day of their lives. No wonder parents age so fast!!
 

With the wife going about 275 km away on a pilgrimage/prayer visit, life was a bit peaceful! The kids were a bit more malleable, we got up a little late, we went for a movie (National Treasure) and enjoyed the antics of Nicolas Cage and his intrepid team of a joker assistant and an unwilling Archives Curator who also happens to be a ravishing blonde.

Slept in the afternoon for over a hour and a half and then played snooker on the computer (there is a wonderful site called www.carom3D.com where you can play amazing snooker and related games).

The wife (nishrin) returned at 7:30 p.m. After she had had her bath and dinner, she went to bed early (she had travelled the whole night and had slept poorly).

This posting has followed the above mentioned chain of events. All in all, a nice Sunday.


 

It was a bad day yesterday. I am a diabetic, and routinely take pills for it. However, I do not exercise and I do not curtail my intake of food: for the past few months, I had been losing weight, and seeing less (needing distance glasses) and I had a doubt that these changes might be related to uncontrolled diabetes. Therefore it was no surprise that my fasting sugar was at 225 mg% and post-food level was 507 mg% (yes, there is no typo!) I panicked and called a colleague of mine who is an endocrinologist and he has now put me on new medication and advised me to eat less of everything ...

I read an e-mail by Sherras, and have decided to replicate my July Novel-writing experience in March. I wrote an adventure novel then (Look it up in my port in the Books folder) and plan on either Sci-Fi or Romance this time.
 

On Thursday, third Feb, a Pharma director (son of the CEO) came and met me in the clinic on a professional level. When I showed him my Parenting book and conveyed to him that he could consider purchasing bulk quantities of the book and gift it to doctors etc, he seemed interested and finally carried one copy of the book with him. Let us hope that he reverts to me with good news!
 

Things are quiet in my practice as the cold weather brings health and good appetite with it. Mothers are happy that their children are eating well, looking healthy and enjoying their life. A healthy season does not augur well for a doctor as illness brings more patients to the clinic and that, in turn, brings in the money. However, this is one profession where the complainant cannot raise his arms or bow in supplication to God or Allah and ask Him for "prosperity".
 

I am so excited nowadays. Enquiries to buy my Parenting book are coming in from different quarters! I had an e-mail requesting me for a discounted price as the gentleman wants two copies. Woo! Isn't that great? At the same time, I am discovering ways and means to improve my offering almost everyday, so I guess readers will get something new the next time.
 

It's true. I do not feel like writing much nowadays ... perhaps it's the after-effect of having published my first book. It is only available in India as of now. See this:

ID: 756336   (Rated: ASR) Baby Care: Glimpses from my book  Please read the entries for advice on rearing children from birth until two years of age. by Dr Taher Wishes Happy 2012!

During my nearly two years and four months on Writing.com, I have done over 1200 ratings and reviewed nearly a 1000 of these items in detail, and I am sorry to say that a lot of the items, even by senior and preferred authors are so shabbily written, I wonder how they got to be preferred authors at all ... Mind you, I am not casting aspersions on anyone here, just pointing you all to the incongruencies on this site.