The Haunted Lake

                           

The lake glared at the blue sky over the day.. over the seasons.. over the rain.. over the sun.. 

The butterflies flew across now and again, fascinated by their own reflected colors.. The lake remained humble.. 

The old crane dropped by every evening and watched the sunset that painted  the lake into million shades saying life is still beautiful.. The lake made a promise to remain the same..

A dried leaf fell off the tree on a breezy day.. thinking that was its last day and last form.. But the moment it landed on the lake it sailed around to see the world it would otherwise never see..

The lake spent ages housing butterflies, cranes, leaves and much more over the rains, over the lightning and over the winds.. 

A man, on not so fine day, lost his way and reached the lake side..

How "beautiful !!" he exclaimed. He spent a couple of minutes by the lake.. He left soon to find his way back.. A few days later, the man returned to the lake side but now he was not lost. He spent couple of minutes again by the lake side. 

The world from the lakes perspective was quite happening. So was it  for the butterflies, cranes and leaves..

But the man sitting by the side of the lake just saw a 'stagnant water source'. He saw some 'f'lies'.He saw some 'old cranes' wating to eat some fish just before life ended. He also saw some dry leaves spoiling the water.

"It's too quite". He thought to himself. "Hey, let us create ripples he shouted out to the lake" Of course he did not  get a response. He wasn’t expecting any either. He picked up a pebble and threw it into the lake. He continued to play with stones and rocks.  creating ripples on the surface of the lake."Why carry an empty water bottle home?" he thought to himself and kept throwing those as he returned home on all the visits.

Slowly, the lake started feeling the weight of the objects thrown by the man. Life underwater was suffocating. There was struggle for survival.. The lake did not need pebbles to create ripples now..

The man walked  by the lake again.. He stops by the side and exclaims "How dirty". He clicks a picture and tags it “ugly location".. He notices some movements around the lake.. with no clue of what is going on in the life underwater, he captures a video. He now tags it “giant waves" at the “polluted lake”. "Hashtag  haunted lake". 

Nobody ever visited the lake again. The lake always remained “dangerous", “ugly" and “haunted" in the eyes of mankind..

PS:  If you think its  just about  nature and manmade disasters.. Read it again!!

            

                                         -Sowmya

LIFE DEFINED

LIFE DEFINED

In this world where beauty is defined by the layers of HD make up and depth of lipstick pigments,
Find time to appreciate the real colours on a child’s face, the graceful wrinkles on a granny from your place
In this world where social life is defined by the number of parties you attend and the number of friends you make,
Find time to attend the needs of your home and to acknowledge what your family has to offer or request
In this world where luxury is defined by the cost of the food you eat, accent and clothes of the attenders that serve and the quality of the wastages put in the thrash can, 
Find time to appreciate the luxury in  comfort and simplicity of a meal at home with somebody that cares
In this word where royalty is defined by money, gadgets, cars and bungalows,
Find time to appreciate the richness of morals like loyalty, sincerity, humanity and humbleness
In the world where reliability and responsibility is defined by the instant and appropriate responses to queries on social media,
Find time to respond to the ones who are relying on you and counting on you in your physical surroundings
In this world where ideal personalities and relationships are defined by the movie characters and idealists,
Find time to appreciate hard work, dedication, hardships and sacrifices by people in your own life
Life cannot be defined. Everybody has their own version of life. Live yours to your content.
                                                         -Sowmya

DOCTOR WITH A BROOM TREATING A PATIENT WITH GOGGLES-RURAL SERVICE-IS IT TRUE?

What comes to your mind when you hear the word doctor?

Yes, he is a well dressed person with a sparkling white coat reaching down the  knee, a stethoscope around his neck, resting on a executive chair, rotating the chair to and fro in semi circles as he sips down the fancy cup of coffee and gently nods his head to acknowledge his patient’s complaints. He then scribbles on a crispy sheet of prescription pad. The golden pen with his name engraved in it complements further to his classy look. He slides the prescription towards the patient over the glass table top. He glances over the thankful expression on his patients face for fraction of seconds. The patient bows to him and walks out. The doctor now reaches over a mini switch on the table side to ring an alert bell. A nurse rushes over and denies any further patient entry. Doctor reaches to the wash basin,scrubs his hand with luxury hand foam while he checks his face on the mirror in front. He walks up to the mini coffee machine in the corner of his chamber, pics up a cup of coffee again and scrolls down the news feed on his smartphone. Few minutes later he gets back to his seat reaches out for the switch on the table side. Now the nurse reaches the door to his chamber and guides the next patient inside. The doctor carefully listens to the patient and slides down the prescription again. After an hour, he looks at the wall clock, its almost lunch time. He walks out of his chamber, has a look at the register and instructs the nurse about certain things, hands over his white coat to her and leaves. He picks the best dishes from the menu, has a relaxed meal and walks out. On the way he meets his old patients who wish him and express their gratitude. He acknowdges to them and walks towards his chamber. He feels thankful for the satisfying job of his. This is exactly what a doctor seems to be in movies and in our minds. Doctors profession is the noble profession. Doctors help the needy. They work based on humanity and not based on money. They dont need money because they are doctors. They are respected by every other being. They are very dignified, sophisticated and relaxed beings. This is what we beleived. But have you ever met a doctor who lives the above life?

Coming to serving the underprivileged in the rural society..

There are people who find this as the most noble thing to do. Be a doctor and serve the needy. There are few young doctors who go to serve rural areas out of their interest and there are few who are forced. Let us consider the first scenario. You finish your studies and with the intension of serving rural areas join a rural set up. First of all, most likely you will see that your hospital building is a one floor, low roof structure with roof usually made up of tiles and not concrete. U will further notice, on walking inside, that your chamber is not a glass cubicle with fancy curtains and self closing doors. Its usually a window with at least one of its pane glass broken and unfixed. The doors usually cannot be locked due to broken latches. The basins usually have broken taps either tied up and secured using a piece of cloth or you will have to balance the tap for few minutes before you stop the water from leaking. There are going to be tree branches reaching your broken washroom window. And its not unusual to witness snakes inside the washroom or in your chamber. Forget about the coffee machine. Its considered a matter of luck if you find suitable and enough water to drink and wash hands round the year.

 It may seem difficult. But if not for this you would have totally missed on this part of the world. You will learn to live with three days power cut at a stretch. You will learn the importance of “save water”. You will learn the importance of every small thing. You will learn to use the last two pumps of hand wash for the remaining 10days. You will learn to call your assistant by his or her name instead of a mere ringing of a bell. You will learn how to make your own prescription pads out of plain paper. 

You will learn how to make best use of a dried up pen refill. You will learn everything that can go wrong with a bp apparatus and every method to fix it. You will learn to stay awake and alert without frequent coffee. You will learn to live without a stable internet connection to scroll the news feed on your phone. You will learn to interact with your own staff in person rather than on the social media account. You will learn to connect and respond to your patients in their language and in their way rather than mere noding. You will learn about the practical problems that a patient and family under goes in following the small bit of advice and buying the most simple pescription you advised. 

You will realise that the theory books you studied for years sometimes are not useful practically. You will learn to limit the usage of higher drugs and learn to treat using minimal interventions. There are a lot illnesses which are originated due to the thoughts of it in one’s mind. And there are many instances where the correct advice and reassurance work wonders compared to treatments using medications. You may even come accross patients who visit you as they were told to do so by spirit worshipers and similar other practices in the village for the complete cure of their illness. You will be surprised to see that sometimes things like faith trust and belief win over. All that is needed sometimes is mental support and reassurance with some simple medications. You will learn to treat with minimal investigations and minimal intervention.  

You may usually face situations where in you run out of supporting staffs as there is shortage of manpower in rural set ups. You may have to be the receptionist, pharmacist, nurse and helper. You will know how important are each of these posts in supporting you. You will know the importance of things and people only in their absence. If you come accross a problem, the best way to fix it is by fixing it yourself as you may not find the resource person to get things fixed for you as and when you wish. This way you master many other professions useful for life. There will be instances where you need to stand up for yourself, your staff or your patient. In such situations you will learn about rules regulations and laws that can save you for life. 

You will be a pro at travelling in jam-packed public transports. Since the transportation is limited in villages you will learn to be punctual to the extent that you start viewing the clock in terms of minutes or seconds. You realise that it matters in treatment as well as day to day life. While travelling you get to hear about the lives of people who spend their lives in villages. Somtimes you may feel the problem they all have is really silly and life is too easy for them. And Somtimes you may feel life is unfair for them and feel thankful for your life.

By serving the underprivileged never assume the world will be thankful to you. There will be people who will thank you for your efforts. But there are going to be instances where complaints are going to be lodged against you for nothing. There will be people who demand things as it is free of cost. There will be people who threaten you to get their works done which may not be lawfully correct. But at the end of it unless you decide to run away you will learn a lot more than your friend in city even if its for a period of a year or so. 

There are negative aspects about a doctors life in rural set up but the positive aspects will draw your mind towards them at the end. I planned to work for a year in a remote village but ended up working in few villages for years and completed five years of rural service today. And everybody who works in a village are not lucky enough to get perks like reservations higher studies. There are people like me who work under random villages under random institutions just for the sake of working. To end it all doctor in rural set up may end up picking up a broom to clean his chamber, he may treat a rich person dropping by in a luxury car and dark goggles, when the doctor himself travels by public transport. But life is definitely not limited to a “doctor with a broom, treating a patient with goggles” kind of scenario..

Celebrating 5 completed years of rural work!!
                                                                                    Dr.Sowmya

HOW AVERAGE OR PRECIOUS IS YOUR LIFE?

HOW AVERAGE OR PRECIOUS IS YOUR LIFE?

Do you think your life is really precious? Do you think your life is worthless? Or do you think your life is an average one? Sit back and think. You have an answer. And its one of the three. For most of us it might be an average life. There might be few, for whom life feels worthless. And there might be a few for whom life might seem perfect and precious at the moment. What if I say all our lives are equally precious..

Before bringing up the topic of life, let us look around us. We all consider gold as a valuable belonging. But have you ever wondered why is it so? There might be science, history, chemistry to explain its worth. But in reality its not the science theory and history that made us believe gold is valuable. It is simply because we choose to believe. We were told that gold is valuable. We believed it is valuable. So, we humans made it “valuable”. 

Now let us consider the currency. When we were born, we never had any importance in regard to currency. We could just cry and get what we want in exchange. We never valued currency when we were born. But as we grew up, we were told that currency is our life line. We discovered that we could exchange currency to whatever we wanted. We realised that we need currency to buy what we wanted. We realised we could get food shelter and clothing in exchange for these. We were told that those pieces of paper were worthy. We believed so. We made them “valuable”.

 As we grew up we were told about the value of various things and various beings. We believed that certain things are valuable and others are not. We would consider a doctor more valuable than a farmer. An national idol on television more valuable than our teacher next door.

But the truth is every creation in this universe has its own worth and value. Nothing is valuable over the other naturally. Its our own thoughts, beliefs, and followings that has created the difference in the worth of creations. Its our own mistake that certain things have moved away from our reach. Its our own mistake that certain things are easily achievable and others are difficult. If only we valued every creation equally, we would today be enjoying everything equally.

Since we have reached far beyond reversibility when it comes to the creations in the universe in this matter, let us consider our lives at the least. Applying the above logic, why do you think your life is less precious than certain others? Why do you think your life is hopeless? It is just because you think and believe so. It is because you compared and put your life below that of others that you consider valuable. If only you could believe that u have a unique and worthy life, you would know its still valuable. Yes you are unique worthy and totally valuable. No matter what you do for living, how much you earn, how you live, the good things you did, the bad things you did. Your life is still worthy. No matter how many mistakes you made in your life, its still unique and valuable. Even a judge has his own hidden mistakes in life. Even a stone hearted a criminal has his own share of good things in life. On certain days, an ant that seems to be crawling at the corner of your compound might have worked harder than you in your office. Every life is big and special enough. Treat every creation with utmost value. More importantly, your life. Yes its totally valuable!!                 

                                            -Sowmya

WHAT IF I SAY THAT HE WAS NOT  WRONG

He stood in the center of the parking lot. His hands could hardly feel the glass bottle that they grasped firmly. It was broken. So were his thoughts. There was nothing much that he could see in the basement lot which was on a standstill with broken lights and surrounded with walls that echoed. He tried to put himself together by focusing on the possible trace of noise produced by the world outside. But for his desperation all that he could hear was the monotony of the heavy down pour and occasional roaring of the sky. He stood there still dazed. He was not worried of how he is going to be judged. He did not have any concerns of right and wrong. He did not find the need for reasoning. He stood there without any thought crossing his mind.

The roars from the sky seemed to be nearing the parking lot. Now he could feel the breeze over his face for a moment. The whole of the parking lot lit up for few seconds with a flash of lightning. And now he could see the ever so sharp edges of the broken glass bottle. And not for much of his surprise, it was smeared with blood. Now a thought crossed his mind and took a step back just so as to lean on the pillar which was not square, behind his back. It felt uncomfortable. So did his mind. He glared at the ceiling as to get an answer even though he did not have question in his mind. It seemed to him that he was answered for his attempt. Now he could hear a noise, which did not fit in the monotony. He could not interpret the new tone in the old song but it reminded him of one thing. His mind now sent him the first word since a while, and that was ‘police’. His feet signaled him to run. But his brain still failed to interpret it. Now, he could feel the breeze all over his body. And the light from the outside world lit the floor well enough for him to see the body of the owner. The owner, whose blood he managed to smear on the broken bottle. He saw a bunch of men in uniforms and caps with revolver held next to their shoulder pointing up towards the ceiling..

When the heaven close all of the doors look for a new one. He did not remember that. But he could find a door behind the pillar which as just a few steps away. He turned back and took one last look at the ‘owner of the blood’.  He disappeared from the door and the men in the uniform missed his back in a moment of lapse. Suddenly he stopped perceiving his way. The broken thought too, seemed to have vanished. But now he could feel his heart beat in long time and he could sense his breathing. He opened his eyes and looked at the ceiling again. It was still blank and had no answer. After a long pause, he could hear a lady’s voice asking him why he always stands in a corner and stares at the ceiling. You could try something new, say standing on top of the terrace and looking down.” You would at least fall down” she said as she moved the flowers from the table top and placed them on the vase. He just watched her leave the room just a always..

He started thinking now. Rather his mind started. He was at peace when he stood back at the parking lot. It all started with the incoming of light. He thought to himself. This is not the first time he was chased. But indeed this was the most worst for him. He did not find the need to explain his wife because all that she would say is ‘you are worthless’.  He decided to get rid of all the light in the room. He tried his best. H even broke the window pane and dressing mirror because they seemed to b friend with light. He found more light outside the room. He decided to end it all today. He picked up the broken window glass and decided to go for it. Get rid of the light from the whole world. He seemed to have disappeared again..

But now when he woke up, to his surprise he was still in his house. And he still had the broken glass piece in his hand. It was again smeared with blood. On the floor he recognized his wife. He was surrounded by bunch of men in uniform. But this time they walked him out of the front door rather forcefully. He turned back and looked at her for one last time. He let his voice say ‘I was just trying to get rid of the light. Because the feel of staring at empty ceiling let m in peace rather than the thought of jumping from the terrace’

As usual his voice went unheard. But this was different. He heard people say that he killed his wife. They told that he was mentally ill. There as not even one of them who came up to him to ask what made him reach that stage. There was not even an instance before, when his wife asked him why he stood in the corner and stared at the ceiling for so long.. Never.. So who was being really ill..he thought to himself as he rested his head on the worn out wall..
He was not right.. But he was not wrong either..

                                                             -Sowmya

ARE YOU SURE IT IS NOT HAUNTED?? -YOUR MIND

ARE YOU SURE IT IS NOT HAUNTED?? -YOUR MIND

Take a moment. Have a thought. Is your mind free of negativity? Is your mind haunted by negative vibes? If so how often? Are you aware of how negativity is manipulating your thoughts, actions and life style? Continue reading if you are not sure.

First of all, let us consider the effect of news on our mind set. Think of the time when you pick up the news paper. What is the first thing that catches your attention? What is the one thing you want to read to satisfy your curious mind? In other words, what is your mind most intrested and curious about, other than your favourite tabloids? Is it about how the little children are taking part in school dance programmes, elderly couple winning a couple  show, a surgeon completing 100 successfull surgeries, articles on global peace.. Or does your mind tend to pick up news about how little children were shot dead in a school, elderly couple being abandoned without support, a surgeon who could not save a patient, articles on possibility of nuclear war between nations in future..

Most likely to most of us, it is the negative news that catches our attention first. You might deny it. But if you sit back and think about it or open the news paper tomorrow you will notice that it is true in most cases and most situations. This causes negativity to build up. We start having negative thoughts about the topic and related to the topic. For instance, we read about children being shot and we think about it and soon enough we consider thinking of the safety of our children and our loved ones. We read about a death during surgery and we conclude surgeries are not safe. Further such thoughts will lead to fear or anxity atleast to some level if not significant always. And often we might gaurd our actions that are related to it. For instance we might postpone or even avoid getting a surgery after reading about an ontable death of a similar case.

One of the reason behind this might be the preferences given to various kind of news. A heart wrenching story or a nerve wrecking incident are always the priority of news. They always occupy the headlines. The little happy things occupy small columns in the corners. Hence our mind is trained to pick up and prioritize things in that manner. Secondly, we tend to ignore the positive news thinking that its a good thing if it happens to us. There is nothing to worry about it. But we worry about being in the negative situation. We think of how helpless we would be. As this goes on for days, weeks and years, we start forgetting the little happy things and remember the big negative things. We start feeling that the world has turned to a hopeless place. The world is filled with cruel people, unfortunate events, untreatable diseases etc.

So, lets view it on the basis of reality and get rid of the negativity out of our minds. Before holding on to a news about children being shot at a school, think about the children who are learning, playing and enjoying in all other schools over years. They are much more in number. Before being dejected about a traffic accident you witnessd, consider the other millions of vehicles that made it safe accross the roads. They are numerous. Before pointing at one death during surgery, look at the miraculous number of surgeries and treatment that brought back the crippled and near dead to life. They form the major part. Hence if you reconsider the facts, in reality, the major part of the world is filled with positive things like happiness, success and miracles. Its the world inside our minds that is inverted. So from now on, let us ignore the details of negatives and search for the details of positives..

To be continued..                                   -Sowmya

ANSWERS TO YOUR SECRET QUESTIONS- LETS TALK

ANSWERS TO YOUR SECRET QUESTIONS- LETS TALK

Here are few questions which most of us would not ask but would constantly seek an answer.

Question1: I see a lot of people around me being happy. Its a good thing. But when i see every other person leading a happy, content, luxurious fairy tale perfect life in social media I feel insecure. I have an inner feeling that I am the only one who has insignificant life. Everybody is enjoying life, placed well, eating royal food, talking sofisticated words, wearing branded clothes, living with angelic partner, travelling the globe and so on. So there is me who is living a monotonous life. Same work or studys everyday, repeating same set of clothes over months, eating the routine menu in neighbourhood cafe everyday, having simple conversations through out the day, surrounded by friends parents or partners who nag often. I spend hours and hours of the day thinking on why is my life not so perfect. I spend hours and days to plan, picture and project a perfect life for the world to see. And finally, i end up missing up on many other things in the process. But there you have a perfect projected life of mine for the world to see. But why is it so difficult for me. Why am I unhappy and unsatisfied at the end of the day?
Can you relate to this? Is it one of your secret questions?

My Answer: Beleive me or not, almost everybody would have had this question in the corner of their minds at one point or the other in their life time.

Among the perfect lives you see on social media, there would be many who are just like you. They would have spent hours or days in thinking and planning to project that perfect moment to signify their worthy life, for you and the world to see.

Among the "perfect" lunch or dinner, there might be a hungry spouse on the other side of the camera. There might be a distressed child on the floor holding back his bladder. There might be a waiter who was torn between his owner and customer while trying to get the perfect picture for the couple. There might be a homeless child glaring at the food that people use more to just create a memory and less so to calm down their hungry stomach. Only part that is missing in the projected life is that, the things in the background are not projected. And it makes all the difference to your mind.

Among the "perfect" outfit, there would be many who would have just got the perfect picture from a changing room in the store without ever owning it. When its about a elegant after party look, they might have spent hours together on those heels and would want to return home the very moment. But they  would endure it just to project and say " enjoying the party". Behind that porcelin skin, there might be a scared face covered with a concealer. Behind that perfectly colour smeared lips, there might be a watery mouth holding back from tasting the delicacy. Again, the background is not projected and it makes all the difference to your mind.

Among the "perfect" relation projected, there might be a partner who landed for the picture from a meeting break and fled back right at the end of the shutter click. There might be a child who was forced some sedatives just to get the angelic pic. There might be an elderly parent who was made to pose until the desired moment was captured. There might be mothers only remembered on mothers day and fathers remembered only on fathers day. That too only the projected world. There might be an ancestor who is remembered on social media accounts but was burnt or burried without any final respects by his relatives.

Instead of being disturbed by these "just projected" life, take a moment watch your own life. Instead of clicking pictures of food served take a moment and if you can feed a hungry child and capture the happiness live. Let your hungry spouse eat the food when its still fresh. Take a moment and consider your childs need. Be kind to people around by not asking them to be your photographers.

Wear what you like and what comforts you. Everybody has scars. Be it be on skin or on life. Some accept it cover it and move on. Others spend their life believing life is perfect for others and unfair to themselves.

Spend time in bonding with people around you in real life. Every moment is precious. Spend it with your people the way they want and the way they are comfortable and the way you are comfortable and treasure them. The moment you start living in reality and start noticing that every moment is so happening and valuable, you will stop looking for a perfect one.

... will be back with a new question and answer soon.
                                                                      -Sowmya
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