Weekend update

I have been quite irregular of late - in updating this blog. My apologies to the regular readers. If you are stumbling upon this blog for the first time, welcome. I am an Indian-origin Paediatrician who writes about his life in the U.K. here. My name is Taher. It has been over 18 months since I moved to Blackpool. This is a coastal vacation town on the Irish Sea coast and geographically belongs to North-West England, and to Cumbria, and even more specifically, to Lancashire. 

I am working as a junior doctor in the NHS-run Blackpool Victoria Hospital. I am gradually learning a lot of practical skills and am able to navigate the system almost 100% now. 

Last week, a few positive things happened. I inserted a peripheral long line into a newborn baby for the first time - and it was quite easy. I was supervised by the consultant who is in charge of neonatal services at our hospital, and who is also MY educational supervisor. The baby was the second of twins and was born, like his sibling, 9 weeks earlier than term. I had observed this procedure 2-3 times but had never done it myself. Hence, doing it accurately and correctly the first time was extremely satisfying. To understand what this procedure is all about, see THIS YT video. 

On Saturday and Sunday, I went to Whiston Hospital to do locum duties. They had arranged for my accommodation within the Neonatal unit by allocating to me one of the rooms reserved for relatives of babies who are admitted to the unit. Hence, it was a breeze to work. The Paediatric department of the hospital has two wards - one each on the third and the fourth floors. This can mean a bit of running around between two floors. Their A & E is located on the bottom floor, and one keeps getting called there to see new patients who have been referred to them through the G,P, or the community walk-in centre. While Saturday was a relatively quiet day, I had several calls from the A&E on Sunday. I did, however, find the time to go for lunch in the hospital's top floor restaurant on both the days. They had a lamb rogan josh with rice on Saturday. It was very good. On Sunday, I had their lamb hot pot with pastry. This was so-so, but wholesome, to say the least. 

On both the days, I had dinner from my own supplies that I had brought with me from Blackpool. This was mostly a collection of samosas and lamb pattice with chappatis. In addition to the meals, I had a lot of tea and some coffee - machines with free tea and coffee are installed in every clinical area. Overall, it was a good experience. 

That's it for now. See you around. Do follow me if you wish by adding your email ID to the Follower's list. And, if you feel like it - do comment in the space below this post to tell me what you thought about this post. 

And hey, do view that video ... Thanks. 

#ManchesterAttacks

On the night of the 22nd of this month, Ariana conducted a music concert at the Manchester Arena. Everything went well until the very end. She had done an encore and had exited the stage. People  - a lot of them youngsters and even children - were beginning to leave the venue when a large explosion occurred just outside the arena near the ticketing window. Set off by a man who died in the explosion himself, and subsequently identified as Salman Abedi - a native Mancunian who acted most likely on behalf of ISIS - this explosion killed 22 people, many of them children, and caused injuries in another 59, some of them critically injured - and changed the threat perception of the UK from level 4 to level 5 (critical).

This event is now officially the most sinister terrorist attack on Manchester, the third largest city in the U.K. Unlike other major cities, Manchester is one of the most diverse cities in the U.K. with people from different parts of the world and all the various religions of the world assimilating together for the common good. To have such a dastardly attack that shook the entire country was indeed very shocking and unbelievable. 

The country is on the cusp of a general election in less than 15 days, and yet, everyone is in no mood for electioneering or campaigning at this point of time.

The city has moved on, but the event shall linger on in the minds of every person in the city, in the country and, dare I say, in the world. 

May the souls of the dead rest in peace, and may quick recovery occur among those who are still under treatment. Amen.

Flashback to day 1 of my vacation: an interesting quartet

Blog entry: 27^th April 2017: Flight to India 

I must admit that I haven’t found the time to connect with you, dear readers, from the time I flew to my homeland from Manchester on the 27^th of April. The flight was interesting, as were my flight companions. On the first leg of my Air France flight, I flew in a smaller airplane run by AF’s partner Flybe. It would take us over England and then over the Channel to Paris’ Charles De Gaulle airport in just over an hour. I sat in a window seat. This flight had 2x2 seats, so I had just co-passenger. He was a giant of a man, around 40+ with a simple English name that I can’t remember now. He and I got to talking, mostly about a GPS app that he was constantly studying on his iPhone. It seemed to be like any Maps display, only, much more detailed and multi-coloured. It reminded me of my school day maps with physical contours of the land, etc.

He told me that this was an open app that one could get on both Apple and Android devices, but its accuracy was underpinned by the defense sector. It cost a huge amount of money as it was highly detailed. If I am not wrong, it costs nearly GBP 500-600 to buy the maps on this app! I was stunned. I wondered why he needed this app. He told me he was a trekker who climbed hills alone, and he needed to know exactly where he was if he ever got lost!

As we touched down at the Charles de Gaulle airport, we parted ways. My luggage would arrive in Mumbai directly. I was walking towards the right gate for my connecting flight. I met, quite by chance, a young woman who looked Asian/Indian. We began chatting. She was Jerlin. Born and brought up in Mumbai, Jerlin is a Keralan-descent trained nurse who had reached Paris from Ireland where she had begun work in the past year. We stuck together while awaiting our flight. She told me this was her first holiday to India after her joining the Nursing force in Ireland, and that she was going there to attend a family wedding. Jerlin was a bubbly young woman who kept laughing. She was a very good listener too. Her luggage was loaded with gifts and chocolates for her entire family.

Our flight to Mumbai departed on time, and it would take us over 7 hours to fly this distance. My seat companion was a Gujarati IT person called Mehul. We shook hands and spoke to each other. As the plane cut the distance, we chatted away. He has settled in Toronto, Canada. He told me he travels to India nearly once, sometimes, twice in a year. Happily married and with kids (I can’t remember how many), he was an extremely nice person.

Once the seat-belt sign went off, we both got up to stretch our legs. We met a young Bengali woman of Indian origin named Benazir who, like us, had got up to stretch.

The two of us and she struck a conversation near the steward’s service area (which is also where we had our seats – viz. Mehul and me). Our friendship, casual though it was, grew slowly, and we were chatting away for an hour or more while other passengers came and went past us. We then met Benazir, a Bengali woman who was based in Berlin, where she was pursuing a doctorate in English literature at the Free University of Berlin. She had a remarkable story to share, and both Mehul and I were engrossed in her telling it. Presently, who should come around to visit the loo (which was right ahead of our seats) but Jerlin. She and the three of us were now a quartet, and we continued to chat for another hour or so. It was a great thing. The stewards, one of them a smart Frenchman who was jovial and very helpful, gave us space to continue to stand in a tight group and continue to hold the conversation.

Eventually, we parted and returned to our seats when the stewards announced a snack service. Outside, the skies had turned dark as we were flying due east from Paris. We would arrive at half past eleven in the night at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport. From here, Jerlin and I would go to our respective homes, Mehul would fly onward to his home in Gujarat, and Benazir, to her home in Hyderabad. We promised to stay in touch.

Our baggage safely retrieved, I then hired a cool cab and reached home at a little after half-past one in the morning. It was now the 28^th of the month. I would sleep after a bath and tea. The next day, after my 3-4 hour nap, I would begin my Indian vacation.

Hectic vacation in Mumbai - read a bit about everything I experienced and did

So far, it's been a very hectic vacation indeed. To top it all, coming to India when it is at its near hottest has been energy sapping and tiring. On the flip side, of course, it was my first opportunity in over five years to be in Mumbai at the height of the "hapoos" (alphonso) mango season. The alphonso mango is the king of mangos, and among the top in the tastiest fruit of the world. I was very fortunate to get to eat this fruit repeatedly. One of my medico friends Dr. Patankar actually enhanced my happiness by gifting me 2 boxes of the original, untreated variety of the fruit that is known as the "Devgad" alphonso, after its place of origin. He gave these to me when his family and ours met each other at Goa, where I had gone for a two-and-a-half day vacation.

I visited my mom for the first time after she was struck down with a paralytic stroke in January this year. She is now confined to bed, but is mentally alert and plods on with the help of a 24x7 maid by the name of Tehmina. I found her to be going through a kind of depression as she struggles to understand why she, among all, was afflicted with this life-limiting illness.

Among the other highlights of my brief vacation was my completing the formalities for renewal of my registration with the Maharashtra Medical Council for the next five years; my meeting most of my mom's side relatives at a function organised by my younger brother Murtuza to celebrate his son's misaaq; my visit to Nishrin's sister-in-law Balwinder's home with Inas; our entire family visiting Nishrin's cousin sister Dalvir Kaur's home; our family's outings to see Bahubali 2 (Inas and I went separately, while Nishrin went with Hannah); my gathering of the various foodstuffs I am going to carry back with me to the U.K. (including farsans, chapatis, dry fruit, etc.); our family's visit to a stand-up comedy show (a delight); our eating out at various restaurants, esp the "Lemon Leaf" restaurant behind the Taj at Colaba, and "Oh! Calcutta", where we had dinner on the 14th to celebrate Mother's Day AND Hannah's birthday. 

In addition, our family also went for dinner to other friend's places. And, on one happy occasion, I had lunch with a school friend Farhad Khursetjee. This was at Sassanian's - a Parsi Irani cafe located near the Metro Cinema. I must not forget the excellent dinner and experience my wife and I had when we went to attend a wedding reception of the son of Dr Shailesh Joshi - a visit to a hall in Hiranandani Powai property. This was remarkable!

I must say that we spent the best days of my vacation in Goa, where we went on the 2nd of May. We stayed at the Hotel Ibis styles at Calangute. This was a well-appointed resort. You can read my review of this on Tripadvisor HERE. We went to the beach at Calangute to participate in water-sports. Also, on all the two or three days we stayed in Goa, we had traditional Goan seafood on most of the occasions. The hotel's own meals were quite delicious. We also ate at Britto's at Baga beach. 

During my stay, there were unhappy events as well. Mrs. Sakina Palitanawala - the lady who minded and loved my girls when they were very young - passed away, as did Mr. Shabbir Disawala, a school friend who died from cancer.

How can I forget my meal with the Kedy doctors - Muhbeen, Arif and Ashfaq. As usual, we met at the Persian Darbar and had a goat raan biryani - this is so huge in size that we are never able to finish it. I took a large portion of the remnant as a parcel for Hannah, who loves it a lot and had asked me to bring some if any was left over. 

I returned to Blackpool on the 16th of May in the early part of the afternoon.