The details

OK, so after the last bombshell, I guess I should flesh out the announcement a bit. I had been feeling mildly discontented in my current job, mostly because now that I had stopped having palpitations and sleepless nights before every OT, I had started feeling a little restless. Also it has been more than two years since I moved to Delhi, so a bit of dreariness there too. We have been seriously contemplating starting our own ophthalmic clinic but (a) that needs truckloads of money (b) that sounds serious ass grownup, right up there with preparing for your kids school interview ( yeah, thats going to happen soon enough )
So, I came up with a ridiculous plan to move to Africa, then I dressed it up in practical, sensible terms to convince Vishal ( Our salary will be tax free! We won't need to take a loan! We can start Vihaans college fund ! ) As luck would have it, we immediately got a good offer and after some intense negotiations and inept bargaining we have decided to move to Addis Ababa. I am not going to tire of saying that for a while. Sometimes I wake up grinning in the middle of the night.

Addis Ababa !!!

When you start writing a blog, this is the kind of thing you hope you will be able to post about one day. In short - I resigned my job today
- I am moving to Addis Ababa with my family

Details to follow. But till then, Addis Ababa !!!

Yes, thats me. Really.

I always thought that the first time I saw my name in print it would be on a magazine article, a newspaper piece, a slice of life column, something that would reflect my literary soul. The reality however is this.

I was careless enough to let them mis-spell my name!

A cop out? Hardly. It still represents days of research and nights tapping at my laptop while shooting envious glances at my sleeping family. I am most pleased with the illustrations which were adapted from my hand drawn diagrams and the photos of my own patients. Makes me feel like one big fat serious ass eye doctor. Whoo-hoo.

I am seriously grateful to Dr. Zia Choudhuri and Dr. Vanathi for giving me this oppurtunity and in awe of all the hard work they have put into making this book so great. Also, a big thanks to Dr.Sumita Agarkar for recommending my name in the first place. I would have loved to have had such a lucid, exam oriented text when I was a post grad. Order your copy at  www.jaypeebrothers.com  

Those roads not on the CWG radar

This is a post  I wrote last year but never published because I was too lazy to take photos of the road in question, but it reveals the depths of loathing and helplessness I feel each time I traverse across it.

A sea of potholes 

I don’t want to add to the million whining voices complaining about the state of Delhi roads or Delhi traffic. But guys,the situation is really bad. The road in front of my house is a chaotic mess of potholes and rubble. You have extended stretches of potholes and craters of variable width and depth interspersed with a few intact feet of tarmacadam. Each time you travel over it feels like an extended dune bashing session. The last time I remember being tossed around so violently in a car was when Appa took us on a Brahmaputra boat ride about five years back. We had to drive over the river bed in order to reach the make shift jetty and much violent shaking and tossing was enjoyed by all. That jeep ride is still a point of reference in my family. Yesterday, Appa came for a visit and compared the road to the approach road to the Masai Mara game park in Kenya. My parents went to Kenya last month and Appa is still wandering around with a back brace as a result.Thus, we have established that the deplorable state of our roads and the sheer horror of our potholes compare with the worst in India and abroad. Dilli tayyar hai! ( That was the motto of the CWG plastered all over Delhi last year)

Normally I would just use this as ammunition for my next “I hate Delhi” tirade but my current pregnant status has kind of coloured the situation. I was advised rest for a couple of weeks in July as my gyneacologist thought I was having premature contractions, along with a weekly  infusion of Progesterone into my gluteus maximi ( that sounds like the plural form). This has made me moderately paranoid about going into premature labour and delivering a rat-baby. So each time my car passes over our road, I get into a really foul temper and take each bump and shake as a personal assault.Vishal has devised a technique to minimize the trauma which consists ofalternately crawling over the potholes at 2 km/hr and speeding over the intact stretcehes – the Ninja ! ( No, it doesn’t work ) I have visions of my baby hanging on to his umblical cord for dear life like a miniature mountaineer buffetted by a snow storm screaming Wheeeeeeee !

So, now that the background is clear, the sheer ginormity of this news is apparent. A new concrete road is being made. Hallelujah! The work has been ongoing for more than a month now and is about 75% complete. The road was partitioned in half and one half was constructed at a time. So you can imagine the traffic chaos when the previous potholed ribbon excuse for a road was made half of itself. We’ve been taking an alternative diversion this past month which adds an extra 10 minutes of driving time but all for a good cause. However, please don’t think that a gleaming four lane superhighway is emerging from these efforts. The road is being created in so many sections that the joints are uneven , not to mention the contribution of our civic minded brethren who take delight in leaving tyre tracks in the wet concrete each night making sure that the memories of the erstwhile potholes shall persist. But it will be better, much better than it was.



Half done

The entrance to the road which is an elevated - depressed mess 

Thats the best we can hope for

Footprint in the concrete of time

Now, I can proceed to start praying for running water. Thats a whine for another day. 

Mausoleum musings

Now that the weather is officially fantastic I have started winter morning ruin walks again. One of my favourite jaunts is Hauz Khas, not the lake but the tombs and buildings overlooking it. As my sister, Roshni, lives in Green Park this gives me a chance to catch up with her as well. I would love to take Vihaan on these walks, now that he can walk but he has a totally whacked out circadian rhythm. I mean which other baby sleeps for 10 hours at night walking up at 10.30 a.m.?
The crowd at Hauz Khas is usually sparse comprising of a couple of expats and young couples darting furtively into the hidden nooks and crannies. I am always amazed by how few couples take advantage of the wonderful oppurtunities offered by the numerous tombs and palaces around the city. They are hidden , dark and shady and usually have a single narrow approach so you would have ample warning of people like me wandering around. Just saying guys. Beats rolling around behind the bushes in Indra Park any day.
The most annoying thing about Hauz Khas is the total lack of any effort to prevent construction in the near vicinity. The surrounding village unnervingly looms over the walls. Poetic musings are hard even in such a picturesque location when there are people hanging their washing on the walls.

I like sitting there and thinking about it must have been in its heyday with dozens of young students bustling about, living in the tiny windowless dorm rooms and eating peacocks ( Apparently ! )

Obligatory F1 post

I and Vishal went on Saturday and Sunday on the same ticket being unable to afford either the time or the money to go together twice. Them cars be loud.

Seasonal munchies

Old Delhi is justifiably famous for chats and kebabs, both of which I devour at regular intervals. However the impending winter has brought forth a slew of snacks which I was previously unacquainted with. The first is the sweet potato chat. Sweet potato makes its appearance around the Navratras being a favourite of the fasting masses. The vendor piles up wood chips and coal in the centre of a rubber tyre and then slow roasts the sweet potato till it is tender and infused with the lovely wood smoke. He then peels the skin off, cuts it into bite sized pieces, adds masala powder and nimbu and serves it with a flourish and a toothpick. The combination of the sweet tuber with tangy  dressing is surprisingly great.

My second discovery this month are singharas or water chestnuts. When I saw mounds of the green-black singharas piled up on wayside carts, they looked alien and not very appetising. But they are a favourite of my mother in laws and have been appearing regularly as a evening snack. Wiki just informed me that these seeds have been cultivated for food for over 3000 years in India and China. Of course, they are also another Navratra favourite. These sham fasters-feasters I tell you. In my house, they are simply peeled, cut and sauted lightly with a little oil, zeera and salt. It is slow cooked with a lid on for a while so that the salt nicely permeates inside. I can easily eat a kilo at a time, the only problem is that it is so light that you are hungry again an hour later.

The last item is the perennial winter favourite – Roasted groundnuts. The sight of those huge mounds  by the roadside with a burly man incessantly stirring the groundnuts in an iron kadhai is a sure shot sign that winter is nigh. I got the shock of my life when I recently hopped out of the car to buy 20 Rs worth and got this measly packetful.  I remember buying the same quantity for about 5 Rs as a kid walking home form school. A visual reminder of our soaring inflation rates.

Groundnuts are more often boiled than roasted in Chennai. Boiled  peanuts with a dash of grated coconut, chilly and coriander  is the quintessential Marina beach snack. Fresh peanuts are available in super markets in those orange fish net like plastic bags.In a fit of déjà vu, I bought some non roasted groundnuts and attempted to pressure cook it with salt. They turned out a tad under boiled. A testimony to my cooking skills or are Delhi peanuts tougher than Madrasi ones ?  

No food on Id

Id Mubarak to all. Kept planning to go to Jama Masjid all month to eat awesome Ramzan food but just didn't happen. I don't blame the baby for the lack of time, I blame the Delhi traffic. I can sneak out of the hospital at around 4.30 p.m. on a light day, it would take me half an hour to get to Chandni Chowk by rickshaw ( autos are few and far between in old Delhi ) Assuming an hour and a half to sample lots of street food and another richshaw ride back to the hospital, that would leave me stuck in peak traffic at 7.00 p.m. when it would take me a couple of hours to wind my way home. Of course if I were a truly dedicated foodie, I could take the Metro to work and catch the Metro back home from the Chawdi Bazar station. There's always next year. Enjoy the biryani. 

First cough

My baby has a cold. If I wore a saree, I would be wiping his snot with my pallu. There are very few things in this world more pathetic than a baby with a cough. I am now inducted into the league of parents who lie awake at night cringing whenever their baby coughs.He has a blocked nose and hence he can't breathe when he starts sucking his thumb. But hey, thumb sucking is way more important than oxygen, so he has cycles of stick thumb in mouth-laboured breathing-pull thumb out, gasp for breath and yell with annoyance. Entertainment comes in all shapes and forms.

First non Delhi post

I and Vishal arrived in London on Friday for a weeks holiday. Sans baby. Yes, I realize how frightfully callous that sounds but he seems to be doing great till now. Thats how expendable we are. Having a great time here. There is so much to post about that I am going to talk about one topic at a time. I searched on the web a lot to figure out what kind of clothes to pack which would be comfortable and stylish enough to blend in. Needless to say I got it all totally wrong. Partly because I couldn't imagine how cold it could get while sweltering in Delhi and my pregnancy induced woefully deprived winter wardrobe didn't help matters any. The first thing to remember is that London weather is actually as schizoid as they say. The weather fluctuates from pleasantly sunny to raining hailstones within a matter of minutes, so it is essential to be prepared for any eventuality. The Londoners are extremely resilient and manage to go about their daily routine without a quiver of the stiff upper lip. So, wardrobe essentials if you are visiting London in summer are:
1. A foldable umbrella - carry it about at all times
2. A pair of stretch jeans
3. A versatile all weather jacket which can be worn over jeans and dresses, preferably with a hood.
4. Multiple dresses
5. Black woolen tights to wear with the dresses
6. A couple of interesting sweaters or shrugs for layering
7. A comfortable pair of ankle length boots - they should be wearable with both jeans and dresses and you should be able to walk endlessly in them
8. A small cross shoulder messenger bag to carry essentials
9. Interesting accessories - make them as ethnic as possible. Now is the time you bring out those chunky turquoise beads

I wish someone had told me all this a week back, my photos would be a lot better. Toodles for now, as they are supposed to say in these parts although I haven't heard it till now. 

Back to the mother ship

I took Vihaan to get his Hepatitis B shot today. We still consult the Paediatrician  who attended his delivery at the same hospital he was born in. This is reasonably convenient except that we get caught in peak office hour traffic in the mornings. The alternative would be to consult him at his clinic in the evenings. I still brave the traffic and go to the hospital because Vihaan has always been scheduled for a vaccination at each of his visits. Now, here is a trade secret. Big hospitals with a busy paediatric department administer a lot of injections in a day, so think of it as a restaurant with a high turnover. Automatically their injections are not stored for too long as they are used up continuously. When getting your shots administered at a private clinic it is possible the vaccines may have been in storage for a while. Some injections are available in multiple user vials, that is once opened they can be used for multiple injections. These especially may be dangerous if they have been stored after they have been opened, for lack of sufficient number of patients on the same day.

I like going to the hospital with Vihaan because it provides me with a visual confirmation of how much he has grown since we first started going there.

So at our initial visit he was among the smallest babies in the waiting room except the premies. Then gradually month by month I started seeing more babies his size until today when he seemed to be among the bigger ones. The little sleeping wrinkled faces with the tiny clenched fists gave me a pang because Vihaans tiny baby phase already seems so distant. Meanwhile Vihaan was on his best social behaviour- jumping, squawking and wriggling at all the entertaining babies and bright lights. The hospital visits also let me know how well we are keeping up with current baby fashion. I get pretty jealous if I see a kid in a smarter outfit or a nicer stroller. Also it enables me check out the other mothers to see how well I am faring on the post partum weight loss game ( Not too well, my current regimen consists of eating cheesecake and muttering under my breath when I see Padma Lakshmi in yet another bikini ). I sure as hell am not going to look like that at one year post partum, above or below the neck.

 I am eternally grateful that babies have the attention span of a fish because that means Vihaan cries for about 3 seconds after an injection before getting distracted by something and going back to normal smiling mode.   

Champions !

All roads in Delhi led to India Gate

We watched THE match at home last night and actually changed channels in despair after Sehwag and Tendulkar got out in quick succession. But all is well that ends well and we went to catch the celebrations at India Gate which looked like a rave waiting to happen. I am sure the happiest people were the hawkers selling psychedelic coloured rods and the red horns.

 I never realized so many cars have sun roofs till I saw all the celebrating legless torsos.  No longer will the believers be taunted for the team failing to deliver, we can rest easy for the next twenty eight years now. 

This Floor has holes in it

I am redecorating a larger room in our house as the current room we are in has become just too cramped for the three of us. We seem to keep using either our or the babys bed or my feeding chair as storage space and keep throwing stuff onto the surface not in use at the moment. The idea was to move into the new room by the time I joined back at work but obviously that hasn’t happened. The larger room has the advantage of loads of sunlight besides space but as it is located in the front of the house, facing the road, you can hear a cacophonous medly of vehicle horns and screeching tires and hawkers selling sports shoes  at peak traffic hours.

The room now

I was planning to install sound proof window glass but I guess I’ll just have to live with it for now.We initially aimed at minimal changes in the room which would fit into our meagre budget while still rendering the room habitable.( Rahul, you hear that ? Your London jaunt is depriving your only nephew of a jungle theme  painted wall and me of any hope of sleep )We started with constructing a floor to ceiling fitted wardrobe as the room had no storage space whatsoever. This cost about 67% more than we had anticipated and hence further work came to a screeching halt.

The finished wardrobe

 I therefore  abandoned all plans of remodelling the bathroom and have settled for making it barely functional.  ( It is a space to cleanse ones innards and outards and does not encourage any lingering once that is accomplished ) However, as can be seen the current mosaic floor is grimy, grotty,stained and has holes of various sizes scattered about it.

 I picked out an off white patterned tile for the floor which unfortunately looks a vaguely dingy grey now that it is getting fixed on the floor. Fingers crossed, the final result is better. The new curtains have already arrived, so that leaves only some glass shelves to be fixed and we’ll be ready to move in. Behold, the before photos.( I think I should ask Colin and Justin to heist my home except that they seem to only fix homes in London suburbs )    

Game On !

The World Cup Semi Final match between India and Pakistan has begun  in Mohali. India has won the toss and elected to bat first. My father in law is stuck in a traffic jam somewhere between Chandigarh and Mohali. As I am sure are quite a few of our nations movers and shakers who have managed to snag a precious ticket after hectic last minute lobbying. All flights to Chandigarh are booked to capacity and most of them are delayed to make way for the chartered flights of the high and mighty. All roads lead to Mohali today and most of them whether in the air or on the ground, are jammed. Due to the intense media hype this match has become the place to be seen if you are anyone to be reckoned with. A lot of people are arriving in the afternoon and leaving after the first innings, giving them just enough time for a photo op. I can’t figure out how half of Delhi seems to be headed to watch the match if the stadium only has a total capacity of 45,000.I suspect most of the people supposedly in the stadium  are actually holed up in hotel rooms on the outskirts of Delhi watching the match on T.V. Or maybe they’ve obtained tickets on a timeshare basis, three people waiting outside the stadium for each seat and exchanging places in a rapid relay fashion. I know, I know, the grapes might as well be lemon drops.

Having poured scorn on all the pretentious glitterati, I can now get back to watching the match on our itsy bitsy T.V. May the best team win !    

Wrong Size, Wrong Time

Once upon a time, long long ago in a place far,far away I was a size zero. I had a 24 inch waist , could stuff my face from dawn to dusk and barely cast a shadow at noon. I also had skinny bitch attitude fortified by a sibling with weight issues since childhood. I had a pleasant time in school and college wandering around in skin tight Ts tucked into faded jeans which naturally frayed and tore over half a decade of regular use. This combined with a crew cut led people to mistake me for a 12 year old urchin at frequent intervals, once memorably by a policeman in the wee hours of the morning but thats another story.

I gradually gained about 4 kgs during my mid to late twenties and though not size zero any longer, I barely managed to move to size S from XS. You know where this is headed. I now have eight kgs of post pregnancy weight still clinging to me tenaciously in all the wrong places. None of my pre pregnancy clothes fit me any longer and I have no money for a new wardrobe having been unemployed for the past few months. So I have dug out old salwar kameez material which I had formerly turned my nose up at and despatched them off to the tailor, in order to have a reasonable work wardrobe. My play wardrobe consists of a pair of discount Benetton jeans ( size 28, the horror of it all ) a couple of track pants and loads of T shirts left behind by Rahul when he went to HK. I thought breastfeeding is supposed to help in losing weight gained during pregnancy, mine sure doesn’t seem to be budging. I still have the “currently lactating” excuse to avoid rigorous dieting for now but that will not last forever and then I’ll have to really face facts. Currently my regime consists of doing about ten crunches a day while enviously watching Heidi Klum, Malaika Arora Khan and Victoria Beckham prancing around on T.V. Really Vhictoria, pregnant with your fourth kid and still looking like Oliver Twist ? I think the easier route to take would be to join one of the organizations panning the media for promoting an unattainable body image thus causing mental agony and physical detriment to young mothers  around the world. As an aside, anyone know what happened to Bridget Jones once she got pregnant ?   

Walk in the Woods

Rahul, my brother in law, is home for a week from Hong Kong before leaving for London to complete the remaining part of his MBA. Yes, I envy his globetrotting days which seem a distant dream for me now. Don’t envy the enormous student loan however. Rahul and Vishal share a birthdate one year apart, in March. Both were born by elective Caesarean section so I am sure that as the younger one, Rahul was born either pre or post mature to ensure the coincidence.

The entire clan set off for a trip to Corbett national park to celebrate the joint birthday, baby and kitchen sink included. The onward drive from Delhi took us six hours while the return journey was around seven hours. Vihaan was extremely well behaved during the car journey, sleeping most of the time and jumping happily from lap to lap when awake. I fed him just before leaving and we had a pitstop at the McDonalds in Gajrola where he had a cerelac happy meal and diaper change. We stayed at the Infinity Corbett Resorts for two days. I know I keep ranting against luxury resort holidays but those are the only kind I seem to be taking these days. I guess advanced pregnancy, the presence of an infant and senior citizens are good enough excuses to park my lazy ass in air conditioned comfort for now. The resort had pleasant rooms with a psedo rustic decor, bamboo roofs and tiled floors. The highlight of the resort was definitely its location right on the banks of the Kosi river. This ensured phenomenal views of the river and the surrounding hills both from our balcony and the restaurants sun deck. The buffet meals were good and included some unusual items like Achari baingan besides the usual kadai paneer and butter naan. The staff was extremely attentive and went out of their way to ensure our comfort. They also had a lovely, well maintained pool which we unfortunately couldn’t use much as the water was freezing. The river was easily accessible by steps from the garden. Although we failed to sight any tigers, we still had a nice, relaxing break from the urban noise and pollution.

I had genuinely forgotten how wonderful it feels to sit under a canopy of stars listening to the murmur of a river flowing by. The ideal life would be if I could live where the morning star is brightly visible while continuing to work in Delhi. I was particularly attentive to Venus watching because I was reading The Glass Castle which is Jeanette Walshs account of her extremely unorthodox childhood. Her parents child rearing methods comprised of equal parts stubborn eccentricity and simple negligence but being highly intelligent and well read they do manage to instill a fierce survival instinct in Jeanette and her siblings. The book is very well written and on more than one instance it made me want to pause and just somehow shake some sense into her parents heads. I think on some level, every person capable of critical analysis thinks that their parents could have done a better job  in certain aspects of their upbringing. For example, I always wished I had studied in schools where I would have been more intellectually challenged. But reading autobiographies like these just made me realize how easy I had it and of course I resolved to do the best job I can with my son.  

I don’t need mummy no more

As I didn’t post at all for three months after Vihaan was born, I haven’t written about any of the basic  baby blog topics like breast feeding and diaper changing yet. I didn’t really put much thought into breastfeeding during my pregnancy because well, breastfeeding is good so just do it, right? Surprisingly, in the hospital I delivered in, I was given the baby only on the day after the delivery. Apparently babies need very little feeding in the first two-three days after birth which is when the milk starts to come in. Up until then, the breasts secrete only small quantities of colostrum  or pre milk which is sufficient to nourish the baby besides containing essential antibodies. Fortunately, I had absolutely no problems with the baby latching on or learning to feed. We were off and running from the first try itself. Initially, the baby used to feed every three hours regular as clockwork. However, he also used to feed for an hour at a time. Apparently a baby sucking efficiently can empty a breast in 6-10 minutes. However, they also have a “need to suck” which is variable in babies. I was feeding on demand and not by the clock, I decided to be guided by the baby on the duration of the feed as well. As I was spending upto seven hours a day feeding the baby, I shifted a straight backed chair with arm supports into the room and acquired a feeding pillow. This is a soft half doughnut shaped pillow which fits around the waist on which to lay the infant. As I am a creature of habit, I fed on the chair even in the middle of the night. It has become second nature to grab for the remote before settling down to feed. I have watched a lot of sitcoms over the past few months. I later realized that maybe feeding in the bed might have been less disruptive of my sleep cycle but I never got the hang of it. Usually the baby was as anxious to go back to sleep as I was although there were a few nights when we were up to hear the morning azaan. I had the usual anxiety for the first couple of weeks about whether the quantity of milk was sufficient and ate arhar dal and other weird herbs to increase milk production and felt appropriately like a cow. The anxiety was not helped by my mother in law commenting that the baby was hungry each time he howled. He is a baby. He howls. Thats just how it is.

It took me about two months  to get really comfortable with the whole feeding deal. At about ten weeks, my son the angel started sleeping for longer and longer stretches at night and gave up his three a.m. feed by twelve weeks. He was always regular as clockwork about his three hourly feeding schedule ( I could feed him, hand him over and dash out for dinner or shopping ) By his fourth month, he has started having longer gaps between his daytime feeds as well and the duration of each feed has reduced to twenty minutes. I could leave him at home long enough to watch a movie in a theatre when he was four and a half months old.

The current guidelines recommend that you start weaning from breastmilk only after six months. Many paediatricians however continue to recommend that the best time to start introducing semisolids is at four months. I don’t have much choice in the matter as I will be resuming work full time from April when the baby will be five months old. I initially considered expressing breast milk for his daytime feeds but after much research decided to opt for early partial weaning. I will of course continue to feed him when at home. Next came the question of what to wean him with. I have started him on Rice Cerelac for one feed and it seems to be working well till now. I started with a couple of spoonfuls and have gradually increased it to three scoops of Cerelac. He learnt to eat from a spoon easily and the photo is evidence that he seems to enjoy it.

I am planning to substitute one more feed with formula milk ( Nan 1 is the most recommended brand ) By the time I start working, I plan to feed him in the morning before leaving, at 6.30 a.m. He will be fed Cerelac at around 11.00 a.m. followed by a bottle of formula at 2.00 p.m. Traffic conditions permitting, I should be home for his evening feed by 5.30-6.00 p.m. I also tried to feed him a bit of mashed banana yesterday which he spat up promptly. I am planning to replace the formula milk with a puree of rice, dal and vegetables next month. Fingers crossed, it should all work out well.

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed feeding the baby and all the warm, fuzzy feelings it generated. Literally as well, it was all warm and cosy to cuddle in December. It was great fun watching him grow like a weed on nothing but milk. Magic Potion ! Also, power! I am the Master of your Universe kiddo! Definitely going to miss this phase when it is over.

Back to Work

I am planning to start working from April 1^st. Originally, I had planned to join back by March 1^st, but as the hospital has retained the doctor who completed her fellowship in October till April, I extended my maternity leave by another month. The official maternity leave given by the hospital I work for is 82 days. This is way more than the six weeks paid leave given in the U.S. and way less than the six months paid leave which government employees in India are entitled to. I went on leave two weeks before my delivery, so my leave expired in Jan and I have been on unpaid leave since then. I think the hospital was also happy to have me join back in April because then they wouldn’t have to pay two people in March. Yes, the legacy of monsieur Scrooge is alive and well in the medical profession in India.

I am an Ophthalmologist specializing in Paediatric eye disorders and squint. I mostly treat children with defective vision, the most common cause of which is refractive errors or glasses. I also commonly treat conditions like lazy eye, squint, infections of the eye, cataract ( Yes, it happens in children ), trauma to the eye and Nystagmus (shaking of eyes by birth ). I perform surgery on both children and adults with cataract and squint.

Eye Doctor Speaketh – Any eye disorder in a child needs immediate and appropriate treatment as it can lead to permanent, devastating  blindness. Most disorders can be rectified if treated as early as possible.

I enjoy my clinical work because I mostly treat young children with not much wrong with them ( He got paint in his eye when his brother tried to paint his face! ) which makes for a cheerful atmosphere. There are aspects of my job which I definitely don’t enjoy mostly involving numbers and graphs and revenue generation. In a charitable hospital ! A curse upon you, corporate culture ! May a swarm of locusts devour any MBA who crosses my path ! I won’t delve into the topic in any more detail because open forum and libel suites and the rest.

Anyway, just to emphasize the positive. I went on a screening eye camp to Mandla which is a backward, tribal district  near Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh last year.

Children diving for coins at Marble Rocks in Jabalpur

We stayed for five days and treated about six hundred children. We also identified children who needed surgery and brought them back to Delhi for the same. They stayed in the hospital for a week, most had surgery in both eyes,were given glasses and then transported back home.Below is pictured the happy result of that effort.

 The most gratifying case was of  a 4 month old baby with congenital glaucoma in both eyes. This is a condition where increase in pressure inside the eye causes the main nerve responsible for vision to atrophy and leads to permanent blindness. We counselled the parents and rushed this baby to Delhi immediately.One year hence, this baby is completely cured thanks to a delicate surgery performed in both eyes.

  Unknown to me I was four weeks pregnant during  this trip. If I had known I obviously would not have undertaken the strenuous journey and I can’t go this year because duh, the baby. Now that my baby is out and has ten fingers and ten toes, I am really glad I went. Would I like to be a corporate suit with a Blackberry and spa vacations in Bali? Probably yes, the grass is always greener on the other side  but maybe the highs we enjoy aren’t too bad.  

Holy Smoke

Woke up on Wednesday morning to find that the pavement in front of our house was converted into a tiny market. Closer inspection revealed that these enterprising urchins were making a tidy profit selling cannabis leaves on Shivratri ! These leaves are placed as offerings to Lord Shiva besides being used to manufacture bhang. It is also magical how the numbers of children multiply in a space of a few seconds when a camera appears.

Fly like an eagle

I am truly ashamed for the prolonged absence of posts . On the flip side I need not bother about making excuses because I have no readers. So onward. I decided to go home to my parents house in Chennai for two weeks to escape from the freezing weather in Delhi. Vishal had a conference to attend in Chennai in January , so we combined our plans.Both of us would be available to handle Vihaans first flight but I would have to tackle the return flight alone. In preparation, I bought a baby sling from Mothercare. I figured Vihaan was ready for a sling now as he has good neck control and it would help keep my hands free at the airport. We took him in it for a trial run to the mall and it went well. He seemed comfortable and looked at the world goggle eyed for about ten minutes before falling asleep. I was even able to eat pizza over his head although I wound up dropping some crumbs on him.

We took an evening flight on Indigo airlines. . Fun fact- infants on your lap travel for free but have to be mentioned when booking the ticket. They also get a separate boarding pass.  Vihaan was drowsy in the sling during airport formalities.I had a coffee and doughnut at the Cafe Coffee Day ( I know, I know. No hot fluids over the baby, but I was careful ) which delayed us for boarding. The new Terminal 3 is awesome but I hadn’t realized how far you had to walk to reach the boarding gates. I have new respect for the kangaroos jumping around nonchalantly with a joey in their pouch. Vishal had called the airline in advance to request for seats in the first row as we thought that would give us more leg room and be easier to manoeuvre around with the baby. I plugged Vihaans ears with cotton and decided to feed Vihaan during take off and landing to prevent his ears from getting painfully blocked. I carried formula in a bottle and pacifiers so I wouldn’t have to feed him in front of hypothetical lecherous old men. I took him out of his sling and settled him on my lap. Then I gave my baby 1 ml of Phenargan syrup to SEDATE him. I know this is a controversial move and will invite lots of ‘What kind of mother are you’ hisses. I think a sleeping , comfortable baby is better than an inconsolable wailing baby who gets cursed at by the entire passenger contingent. I have done more than my fair share of silent baby voodoo to not want to subject my son to the same.  I started feeding him the formula once the plane started moving on the runway. However,there were so many false starts and stops that the bottle was empty long before take off. Then, I tried to make him suck on the pacifier to induce him to swallow. He loathed the pacifier and spat it out. I kept trying to repeatedly force the pacifier in his mouth which finally made him throw up all the milk he had just ingested. We frantically cleaned him up and now I had a slightly damp, hungry and sleepy baby to deal with. Oh, I forgot to mention that Vishal and I didn’t get adjoining seats. There was an elderly TamBram sitting in the window seat adjoining mine who point blank refused to shift to Vishals aisle seat as he wanted a window seat ! People, not cool to refuse a lady with an infant anything. Because what happened next was that I practically ordered him out of his seat, shifted to his seat and fed the baby. I fed him during the descent as well, so the rest of the flight was pretty uneventful. We even got complimented by a couple of passengers on Vihaans model behaviour!

On the return flight, it was just me and Vihaan because Vishal had left after his conference. Vishal in his infinite wisdom booked us on Indian Airlines instead of Kingfisher Airlines because the former had a refundable ticket. Following the same system detailed above, I called Indian Airlines a day before the flight and they noted that I needed extra assistance. They also said that seats could only be allotted  on check in but I would automatically get a seat with a provision for a bassinet as I was travelling alone with an infant. I was pleasantly surprised by this thoughtful gesture and my misgivings regarding travelling by IA were quelled for the moment. I reached the airport early and reported to the IA office. They immediately sent someone to help with my luggage. The trouble began at the check in counter. I was informed that I could not get a window seat in the first row as they had already been allotted and that bassinetts were available only on international flights. When I protested that I had called in advance to request for a seat, the lady rudely told me that it had been noted that I needed assistance and had been provided the same. If I had any further issues I could talk to the manager. Stunned into silence, I looked around to realize that my baggage handler had meanwhile disappeared. So, lugging both the baby and my carry on luggage I made my way to the security check. I politely stood at the end of a long, winding queue and waited for someone to wave me ahead. Since nobody seemed inclined to do so, I just walked ahead. The security personnel were very helpful and I finished the formalities rapidly. As an aside, have the rules regarding carrying fluids on board changed because I passed through unremarked with a bottle of infant formula and a vial of Phenargan ) When waiting for boarding, it was announced that the flight was delayed by twenty minutes. The IA counter was unmanned till the last minute so I had to rely on the announcements for any updates. Upon entering the flight, the cabin crew seemed to consist of a portly middle aged gentleman who I requested for help in settling down in my seat. An air hostess was conjured up and soon we were settled in our seat. I requested for a pillow and a blanket. The pillow when it eventually made an appearance consisted of a rolled up sheet in a disposable cover. I was also told to request my co-passengers when they appeared for a change of seat. I finally lost my cool, bullied the nice man in a Rajnikant get up out of his window seat and indeed managed to keep the other two seats in my row empty as well. I administered the sedative dose to my baby and fed him during take off. The couple seated in my row appeared to be senior beaurecrats judging by the number of cronies flitting around them. Soon, the cabin host with much bowing and scraping ushered them off to be seated in business class. The upgrade was not offered to anybody else on the flight despite the number of empty seats.  Throughout the flight, no staff member ventured to enquire whether I required any help. Upon landing there was a fifteen minute delay for deplaning as no passage was available. I stood up to call for an air hostess to assist me in gathering the baby and my luggage but other than the anonymous  voice assuring us that we would be able to get off the plane soon, there was no one in sight. Due to the delay, many passengers missed a connecting IA flight to Chandigarh.The ground staff were busy attending to these passengers so it took another half hour before I got a baggage handler to help me collect my luggage and finally made my way out.

If our national airlines has a reputation as an overstaffed, inefficient, loss making behemoth then it is well deserved. Later, I conducted an unofficial poll among other young mothers and the staff of Kingfisher Airlines was voted as being the most helpful. My top tips for travelling by air with infants-

1.       Book in an airline where your seat can be confirmed in advance. A window seat in the first row offers the advantage of some privacy for feeding the baby, ample leg room and being able to get up without disturbing the other passengers to go to the bathroom or to walk the baby.

2.       Carry minimal cabin luggage preferably in a back pack so that you can carry it by yourself when required. Just carry your phone, wallet, diapers, wipes, plastic packets for disposal of waste, a change of clothes for the baby, changing mat, any essential medications, bottles, soothers and  a shawl or a warm blanket.

3.       Travel at a time when your baby is usually sleepy so that there is minimal disturbance of his routine.

4.       Avoid long flights and connecting flights when possible

At Chennai airport

5.    Be aggressive about enlisting help where and when you can from airline staff and helpful co-passengers. Now is not the time to be squeamish about jumping the line or rude comments from other passengers.