Right or wrong - All in the mind..

I wonder how people make us think..... 

.... think of the most apparant facts of life which we don't care to spare a thought about. 

Like this man who came to consult me yesterday in the hospital. 

He was embarrassed having to disclose to me that he had the rashes in the  "wrong place" (as he told me). 

Now he made me think... 

Is there any right place or wrong place in the body? In what context? 

Just because some parts of the body are supposed to be hidden under garments, does it give us right to label them as "wrong"? 
Is it merely their location or having some problem there, is what is wrong? 

And what about the Boss, the powerful mind? Your brain? 
Your face? 
Those eyes? 
Behind which lie the hypocrisy, deceit and greed? 
After all,  the instructions to the organs come from Boss. They are mere servants satisfying the master's wishes. 
So should we not be keeping an eye on the minds  instead of blaming and shaming the body parts? 
What we think,  matters... 
It is the  force behind our conduct.. 

The whole body is beautiful in its own way. 
And the most handsome face may be masking the ugliest thoughts and intentions. 

 Hierarchy of the body parts  is immaterial. 

Another amusing although irritating visit was from a 77 year old lawyer who just left my office few minutes ago. He had come from courts, in full dress of his profession and a dignified look. 

The dignity ended there only. 

Because he insisted on doubting my nationality, also reminding me that he had asked the same thing in his last visit too. 
He wanted me to make his skin like mine and was utterly disappointed when I told him I could not make him look like me !

What a funny specimen of a man ! 

Though I consoled him that he looked fine. 

Didn't I notice how he tried to flirt a bit and didn't I see some craziness behind his eyes and exaggerated politeness?  

I did. 

That's the mirror through which the
master (mind) plays the games, your eyes.
Read the eyes and you can see what awaits you... Some remark, action... 

Anything... Just anything. 

And isn't it nice to bathe off the negative thoughts and feel the freshness of pure positive ones?

Blissful indeed.. 

with dear Charlie. 

In deep contemplation... 

How to make this world a better place. 

Clinical Detachment

I don't remember when I mastered the art of clinical detachment. 
Means you examine and treat someone without getting involved yourself, mainly emotionally. 
I think it all began in the first year of medical college when you are in the Dissection hall in Anatomy Department. 
You are not expected to react or make faces or any expressions on your face when you see the bodies lying on the tables. 
Then when you actually start dissecting. I remember that we became so used to the smells of the D-Hall that it didn't feel like puking when we opened our mouths to speak. Some daredevils even ate groundnuts sitting around the table with the body lying on it which we were dissecting. When the professor came, the shells were hurriedly hidden beneath the dissected tissues ! 
I didn't like it then and I find it horrible now. But stress makes people do weird things. 
Again the experiments on frogs..... 
Every thing was a building block in the making of a clinically detached person. 

When we started seeing the real patients during clinical classes, we often got scolded for either laughing or hesitating to examine the patients especially with any problem that needs the body to be exposed. 
The training was tough. 
And tougher we turned out to be. 

I remember during my days in department of Medicine, I was once looking after the ward where patients with tuberculosis were admitted. 
Some were very sick. 
That particular day I did my usual rounds and noted that one male patient was very ill and could expire any moment. 
I was sitting in duty room. 
Suddenly there were shrieks and crying and wailing from the direction of that ward. I rushed along with the nurse on duty who was carrying the emergency tray. 
The moment I stepped in the ward, one sight disturbed me immensely. It was the patient's wife breaking her glass bangles beside his body and crying inconsolably. 
I don't know why I was angry at her. 
I remember telling her curtly to move away so we could try the resuscitation measures. 
But despite everything, the patient died.... 

It made me sad and for long time the image of the bereaved wife breaking her bangles, haunted me. 
That was in 1989. 
Even after so many years I see her in front of my eyes as if it was yesterday. 
I am just transported to that time, that place. 
Only thing that would be different would be my reaction at her loss.... 

I wouldn't be so clinically detached as to be annoyed with her because she had lost her husband and her whole world had turned upside down ! 

Life teaches all of us in its own way. 
If we are good students we learn to be better humans. 
The efforts of all our challenges in life don't go wasted. 
And we may learn to use this Clinical detachment towards our sorrows too. Life would be much better, with more reasons to be at peace with oneself.. 

Sunset.... To rise again

Sunset in my city