ramadocblog

Riding the Wave…Board!

 

Many years back…

It was simpler times when summer vacations meant that we spend most of the time outside and playing till it rains or we are too tired to play (that never happens!) or we get a call from the house! Or the most important reason is when we have to answer the nature’s call!

 

The first thing we usually used to do was finish most of the Holiday work like writing pages in Hindi or English or making some dumb project about the planet!

Apart from that no one was seen inside the house and that is how it was!

Since I was a big bookworm, when we were forced to spend time in the house then it was either devouring the comics or some novel!

If there was no one to play then I would simply take my roller skates and skate away!

 

Indoor meant that either it was raining or we were tired of skating or it was too late or too early time of the day! Or it was simply that the place you were posted (not me as such but my Dad!) was not a city!

 

This was when we were posted in a remote place called Missamari which even many Assamese also do not know and the only time we used to get comics or newspapers was once a month or week when the delivery guy in his unmistakable Bullet Enfield Bike used to get it and deliver much to our delight!

Since my uncle was in the media group we used to get a steady supply of comics especially the Disney ones and they were so great to read!

One such comic mentioned this new plaything called the Skateboard! The depiction and the illustration was so nice and that was the apparent new craze especially since Huey (the nephew’s of Donald were called Huey duey and Luey! I may have spelt them wrong here since it is from memory so bear with me since this has nothing to do with the story!), mentioned that it was more cool and better than roller skates!

 

Since I was already skating for one year now this new contraption which unfortunately had not made its way to India looked very interesting! When I showed the snap to my brother, he remarked that this is just a wood on wheels which we can easily make with our skates!

 

We had this piece of Plywood which was almost like a family heirloom and supposedly very lucky and every time an examination was looking nearby we took turns to use this wood for supporting our books when we read!

Also that was the only thick wood available! So my roller skates and the wood and all we needed was a rope or band! There was this white and blue elastic which was very common those days and I am sure many will know the actual function of that now! We of course were interested only in the mango and not the seed so to speak!

 

Anyhow, the skates were placed in either corner and tied by the elastic thread and it looked almost like the skateboard especially if you see it from the side and keep one eye closed! Of course the modification meant that we cannot stand on it but sit and maybe in the later version work on standing version!

 

In most new things which requires one person to sit and another to push, the fight is usually for sitting since no one likes to push or pull the other! But since this was a trial run in a fishy looking apparatus, my brother graciously volunteered to push and said that anyway I would not be able to push!

 

We had a long corridor and mom was busy in the kitchen so that was the testing location! The dangling wood was hard to balance but somehow I sat in the middle and my brother then gave me a push! It was awesome for one split second after which everything went awry! The “Special Skateboard” version 1 went sideways and turned with two skates going in opposite direction and the wood hitting the wall and getting cracked at the edges and me falling with a thud on my bottom!

Since the noise was not much, the damage control team (my brother and me!) did not have much trouble in cleaning the crime scene! Only indication of something amiss was my slight limp when I used to walk or sit especially in the right side for a week!

 

That was the end of the Skateboard chapter! We covered the board with brown paper to hide the evidence and moved on to other such amazing ‘experiments’!!

 

 

Cut to the present!…

 

So I again learnt how to ride the roller skates since I used to ride only the quad skates but later on to teach my daughter I learnt the inline skates! She also followed suit but then not long after we both saw the Waveboard! This was like the upgraded version of skateboard! This had only two wheels which moved in all direction and looked much more complex to drive! It had a self motion and in spite of all the fear looked so cool to ride!

 

We were both trying to hold our temptations but when her best friend not only got a wave board but also became good in riding it, we finally gave in and went to the sports store to get one!

 

The guy there showed us the good and sturdy one and one look at that and my hand by reflex went to my emotionally sore bottom!

In any case I decided that it was time to bury the past and try this one!

First attempts were in the house and later on we moved on to the corridor (another one of course!); all with guards and helmets and back straps and what not!

After many tries and you tube video tutorials we finally got to know the theory and after lots of practice we got the flow!

Of course there were obstacles like when I did not wear my back support (yes I wear a Back belt to be safe!) and the sudden twist gave me a back pain which lasted for one week and nearly dented my enthusiasm to learn! But when my daughter used to look at me and at the Board, I knew that this was not the time to give up!

Of course most of the time I will do it first and hold my daughter when she does the same! That is why it was important to be confident and not fall thinking of the past!

 

 

The trick is to have a firm first step and a slight push and then place the second leg firmly but be mobile and rock the back and front in a smooth movement and you will be mobile till you rock the BOARD!

 

The best thing of course is the amazing feeling of moving the board on land and it feels like moving on top of a wave like surfing and since I do not surf (not yet anyway!), I can always imagine that this is how it feels!

 

It may not be a great achievement but for a guy in his forties to first do Quad Skates then Inline Skates and now Wave Board which I realise now may be more difficult to ride but is much safer (since It is a rule that if you do not fall you can never learn to cycle or skate! But the Wave Board you can control yourself quite well and not fall!)

 

Just remember that you protect yourself well and do not think about your failed attempts or in my case, a sore bottom!

So if a non Athletic nerd like me can do it then I am sure you can also try to ride the Wave (Board!)!…

 

The image of the engineer responsible for the Mission Chandrayan crying on national Television and being consoled by the Prime Minister literally split the social media! Of course most had sympathy and concern for the Indian Space program (I did not say that the split was even!) but the view was directed to the fact that we saw a grown up man of a big institute crying on national TV!

While many were of the view that it is just natural and human to give in to your emotions, there were also those who opined that how can you manage such an important and complex job if you cannot control your emotions!

The other big such a cry was when Vinod Kambli let it out in during the world cup! There also there were divided people though the lack of social media made sure that it was not wide! But whenever we used to discuss this in our group there will be many who would support but say nothing while many self appointed macho men used to ridicule saying how he cried like a girl!

I also remember how the legend Kapil Dev broke down during the allegations of match fixing!

This was of course during the time when social media was limited only to your locality but now thanks to the social media, the whole world is our locality to discuss and dissect!

In fact many times the original article may not be very interesting but we have seen that the comments are many times very interesting and they make the news and also they are an indication of the pulse or the opinion of the general population!

All this used to make me wonder whether as a Guy or Man should I cry openly when I want or I must hide my emotions all the time and never ever cry in public or in the open!

The only time I have seen my father cry was when he lost his mother and the impact was so deep that even though I was not very old, I do remember that day as clear as yesterday! That one act made me realise that beneath his tough army exterior is a man who loved his mother so much!

Crying is one of the basic emotions which makes us human and gives us a position which is right there up in the ecological tree. It is also understood that we can laugh at anyone or anything and without any feeling but we do cry only for things or people we care about. So in that sense crying is an emotion which gives us a beautiful insight on our true emotions.

Of course the general Opinion is that true men do not cry which is very sad indeed because as far as masculinity is concerned it takes more courage and strength to cry than to laugh and that too in the open! It is said that you can hide your emotions when you laugh but it is very difficult to hide them when you cry. That reminds me of the famous song which mentioned that no one can see your tears when you are crying in the rain. It also reminded me of the movie Aquaman where the queen cries on land and says that underwater in Atlantis our tears are taken away by the Sea which was a deep dialogue for a super hero movie!

Whenever someone is faced with an toil of extreme emotion he or she should actually cry and let it out so that he or she can face the problem in a more calm and relieved way. There may be so many movies which makes us laugh which we do like but those movies which make us cry and brings our true emotions are the ones which we genuinely like though no man would be man enough to admit that!

In fact people would forget the times they have laughed or been happy but you would rarely forget the events which made you cry or emotional.

There is also a very famous saying by the great Poet Kabir who said that when we are born we cry and the world laughs so make sure that when you die then the world cries and you laugh (It of course means that you must do good deeds so that people will miss and cry for you when you die!).

Of course that means that when someone close to you passes away, it is natural that you cry and you must if you want to! The matter of gender should not be an issue!

In the program Satyamev Jayate, Amir Khan’s guest had opined that nowadays people are told not to cry, especially men and in a misguided form of feminism, even women are told not to cry even if someone close to you dies or suffers a misfortune! The digital age has made us more mechanical and robotic and that is just sad! For this Amir Khan replied that then he is not a man since he cries at the drop of a hat!

The myth that so called macho men do not cry is of course suspect! The most macho men of the bollywood family of the Deols, which includes the original he man and macho man Dharmendra and Sunny Deol who are known for their body and tough nature apparently cry or let out their emotions almost every other day!

So the next time you want to prove your machismo by not crying, you are going in the wrong direction!

Of course it does not mean that men who cry cannot handle stress! In fact, when it is a matter of stress they tackle them head first and after the situation is settled they let out their emotional waterfall!

It has also been found that crying is beneficial to the health and body as well! Lets look at some of the benefits of crying:

Regulation of emotion, soothing mind and reducing the distress and stress.

Interpersonal or social benefit

Relieves pain by releasing oxytocin and endorphins

Enhances mood

Releases toxins and Relieves Stress

Aids in sleep

The tears have an antibacterial called Lysozyme which gives local protection

Crying also relieves headache and stress and also makes us calm and relaxed.

So next time you want to let out your emotions just cry your heart out irrespective of your gender and do not worry about your masculinity which will be safe!

The story of my first Kizz…!

Everyone had already had it in my class and I was feeling so dated that I had not had the first one!

It was even more distressing and sad that even Santhosh, the kid whom no one cares or always ridicules had had it!

It was the KV and the peer pressure was really high to follow the tide and not try to swim against it!

And When I had mentioned it to my so called close friend who later turned out to be just the broadcaster of my problems, it snowballed into a storm of ridicule and free advice!

And of course the thing about advice is that it is the easiest thing in the world to give but the most difficult thing to follow!

Then my other friend who was into body building and already a big hunk mentioned to me about the health benefits of Kiss!

“You know, you can get a spend of energy from Kiss?”

“I remarked, is it spend or you get lot of energy!?”

He said, “does it matter! It is just so good!”

“So tell me, is there any good time for it!?”

“Are you crazy? Anytime is good bro! In fact I daily have it in the morning and many days before I go to sleep!”

Of course at that point I did not understand that most people who tell about health benefits of anything are only giving justification for their guilt! Its like when someone says that Beer is good for the kidney or the Brandy is good for the heart!

That is because the dose at which they are good is so less that you may not get the kick which is essentially the reason you drink! And the dose for kick is of course not good for health! Therein lies the catch 22 situation!

Another friend had also mentioned that, “You are late man! The moment you have teeth you must have Kizz! Everything is done early nowadays you see!”

So one fine day I decided enough was enough and this was the day I will get my first one and since it was a Saturday and my parents will be out for a party and since I did not want anyone to see me get it (now I think why that was so important! It is what everyone does and so what is there to hide!)

It also helped that it was a cold night and it was raining outside! My another friend had also said that is will give you warmth! (another reason for my anticipation!)

My brother was in the other room so Privacy was not a problem!

The moment I got my first one unfortunately my timing went awry! Maybe the anticipation was what got me, nevertheless my mother and father came and caught me at the exact time!

“Hey you had your first kizz!” mom exclaimed! “See I told you it will be good!! Your brother also had it at the same time!, How was it?”

“Little sweet, little salt and little sour! But nice nevertheless! I should have started before! Dunno why I took so long!”

My dad listening to this exclaimed a bit shockingly, “What are you talking about? Kiss? At this age? He is just in the first standard right?”

“Relax dear, Its Kizzz..mis or raisins!! he was talking about (my dads Hindi was a little poor!). What did you think we were talking about?!!”…

Now read the whole thing again with a clean mind!!😀😀

Next time I will tell the story of my first cashews!!😂😂

Teacher’s day

Everyone is your teacher if you let them!

Your kindergarten to high school teachers who taught you the basics which you will never forget in your life!

Your tenth class teachers who made you choose your stream!

Your 11 and 12th class teachers who made sure you got a good rank in the entrance exams!

Now it becomes MY!

My MBBS teachers who in Calicut medical College were one of the best ever!

My post graduation teachers in Bangalore medical College who taught me how to survive in a government hospital and thus anywhere in the world!

My DNB teachers from KKR ENT HOSPITAL one of the best ENT CENTRE in the country and world! who gave me the skills, exposure and mainly confidence to take up any case in ENT AND HEAD AND NECK!

My dad who taught me to be patriotic and brave and bold!

My mom who made sure her cooking skills has a future in me! She has taught me to cook and how!

My better half whose motto in all for well and good! She taught me to be happy no matter what!

My daughter for being so cute and teaching me her resolve by being stern in finishing her homework or being perfect in anything she does!

My son to just get on the stage and everywhere else and make everyone smile!

My awesome family of uncles aunts nephew nieces cousins and in laws for being there and being happy for us and teaching me that family is your backbone!

My amazing friends who taught me that friend in need is a friend indeed!

My seniors and juniors in medical field who teach me new things everyday!!

To everyone who taught me and everyone who will teach me! A big thanks from this eternal student for life!

Happy teachers day!

Book review

Non fiction

Rating-4/5

Spoilers- none since the stories are real and everyone knows them!!

The only reason why I took this book was to get more info on the Sunanda Pushkar murder mystery and sure enough it sheds some light! But then I was literally blown away by the other narration of murders/suicide which had made news and controversy when it happened!

It begins with the first case where two brothers can’t find common ground to divide property worth 6000 crore and end up killing each other! Don’t worry this is not the most shocking case in the book! Read on and you will be more shocked!

The most juiciest was of course the case of Indrani who employed her second and third husband to kill her half sister who was actually her own daughter because she was in a relationship with her last husband’s son from his first marriage! If you understood that then you are a genius! Facts are stranger than fiction everyday now!

Then you have the rich girl poor guy murder which as expected did not end well for the boy…

Then you have the most cold blooded murder ever! The starlet who watched as her ex boyfriend killed her current beau and then they had sex in the same bed with the body still on the bed! Apparently many times they had to push the body to one side during the act! Wait for me to come back after vomiting!

Then you have the current hot topic of Sunanda Pushkar death which has so many angles that it’s just a wild goose chase now! The fact of the matter though remains that the fairy tale wedding was in doldrums because of the multiple National and international affairs of the smooth talker! Their role in IPL controversy and scams also are discussed…

You also have the famous Jiah Khan death which was of course a bolt from the blue for many! Allegations and arrests have not given closure though…

Then you have some Ram Gopal Varma like stories and your feel you are losing faith in humanity with every page…

The story of the god man who conned a rich married woman with three daughters only to kill and bury her in her own house will again bring out the retch factor!

For completion you also have a journalist murder with link to a top cop and probably a minister! She was killed in her house in front of her infant! Gore excess!

The language is simple and to the point much like the newspaper article which the author writes. The setting is made dramatic most of the time and is reminiscent of the style of Hussain Zaidi and his underworld novels!

Of course in the end you would feel a sense of dispair and hopelessness! Motives though remains the same! It’s either money or passion! Adultery and illegal dealings are added bonus in most Stories!
Late judgement and incomplete and inappropriate judgement is the norm in most cases which gives not much hope on the judiciary…

If you want a dose of actual reality then you can grab this one and finish the nine cases in less than two hours!

Go for it

Although you have so many differences in movies of different languages and countries or even novels or stories in any language, the one of the few thing which is common is the complete sympathy for anyone who is blind and a complete lack of it for anyone who is deaf!

The scene is all to familiar and stereotypical where you have usually an old man who is confused and a comic relief who hears something funny and that becomes a big joke! Almost always it will be met with widespread laughter and ridicule with not an ounce of sympathy.

Even the most popular comic series of the yesteryears like the Tintin and Asterix did not spare the deaf! So while in Tintin you have the Professor Calculus who is introduced as being deaf and almost all his encounters are replete with humour concentrated only on the fact that he cannot hear properly even if that fact remains that he is super intelligent! In one of the adventures of Asterix called the 12 tasks of Asterix you have a scene when the two heroes go to a government office and though the whole premise of getting a permit is very relevant and pretty hilarious to say the least but the first encounter was with an old man who is deaf leads to the familiar downgrading comedy. Maybe the metaphor was that the government officials then and now are actually deaf to the troubles of the general public but still the fact of the matter remains that the handicap of an old man of being deaf was being ridiculed upon!

Even super heroes have not escaped this injustice! So while you have a whole super hero who is blind like the Daredevil; you can never have a hero (Forget super!) who is deaf!

Do not get me wrong since you do have many classic movie like the Koshish which one of the rare instance where the deaf and dumb have been given their due. But these examples are truly rare.

If he or she was blind then immediately you will have a change of emotions so to speak.

Of course we can always assume that the real life is often a far cry from the reel life but in the case of Hearing loss it may very well be true. The moment you have some vision problem then however old or busy you are, it is one of the first things you would consider. Whilst if you or anyone you know under your care which could be your child or parent and if he or she is having any kind of hearing loss then you would most of the times take it lightly and try to intervene only in the very severe or rare cases. That normally happens when the affected party is a child while the older ones get the cold shoulder most of the times till the severity is more!

In fact it is a known fact that the moment you have some trouble with the eye you seek immediate intervention while you tend to inculcate by pass methods if you are deaf! You avoid group interactions and mainly stick to one to one interaction and I know of many patients who always turn the face which has the better hearing ear to the side of conversation! One particular patient came to me with neck pain and not hearing loss and on probing further mentioned that he gets this pain when he had to turn the head towards one side during long conversations! It was only when I asked why he had to turn so much that we diagnosed a hearing loss!

Another patient announced to me that he can hear perfectly well in the light but loses his hearing in the dark! Though it may sound silly and strange at first, it was only when we found that he had hearing loss we understood that he was doing lip reading! This of course cannot be done in the dark! In fact the hearing loss was so slow that he did not even realise that he was doing lip reading! It was literally as if he was seeing the words!

Most of the others would just disappear into their own shell away from social life and socialisation. While others would start to neglect and ignore and finally completely exclude them from their discussion and social life! Or many who still are brave and deaf do join the conversations in the middle by giving opinion on a totally different matter while other squirm awkwardly and maybe give a social smile or may be just look shocked!

If you do not know he or she is deaf then you may very well think that he or she is not paying attention to you and if you do know he or she is deaf then you would always have a doubt whether he or she had heard and understood you properly or not!

Mostly people would try to correct the hearing only if it affects their profession while most would not even try.

The first step in all of this is to understand that the problem exists!

Then the next step is to try and find out the type of hearing loss. While most conductive hearing loss are treatable, while in the hearing loss where you have nerve weakness the only treatment for now is the hearing aid!

The moment you tell that you need to wear spectacles most of us would readily accept that! But the moment you tell that you need to wear the aid then in most cases the patient either refuses or delays for as long as possible!

This is particularly concerning since it has been proven that if you do not go on stimulating the weak nerves, they become more and more weak and you end up needing more stronger hearing aids when you did not accept the initial hearing aid in the first place! And the vicious cycle continues! I have often seen neglected old people in homes who do not speak to anyone and no one speaks to them. Then suddenly the son or the daughter gets an epiphany and decides to get a basic hearing aid to alleviate his or her guilt rather than the hearing loss!

Many a times they get a hearing aid which does not either work properly or is not given after proper trial and that is another one down the literal drain!

Understand that unlike Spectacles, you cannot just wear the aid and expect them to work! The body accepts the aid gradually and only after constant wear does the aid become a great companion!

So most of the times we encourage patients to meet the audiologists as much as possible in the initial days and fine tune the aid for their convenience.

In fact hearing aids like the cochlear implants if started at a proper early age makes sure that the child does not become deaf and dumb and ends up with a normal life in a normal school! That is nothing sort of a miracle!

And while spectacles have some improvements, the hearing aids of the recent times are technological marvels and you would actually feel proud (later of course!) to wear them!

The constant problem of battery also has been taken care by the rechargeable ones and many have Bluetooth, touch sensitivity and GPS chips!

My first advice is normally to urge people to get a good digital hearing aid with proper number of channels and wear them at home initially! Later on I have seen that they themselves will be so comfortable to take it outside so to speak! It helps that if you wear the aid for at least 10-12 hours in a day it makes a good probability that your loss will not progress further and it makes sense to make a good investment in the first place!

Also since you do not see anyone wearing single spectacle; it obviously makes sense that you wear hearing aids on both the affected ears for proper balance and comfort!

So next time you are in a fix whether to wear the hearing aid or not because it is embarrassing remember that it is more embarrassing when you do not hear things properly and no one gives you any sympathy. All you get is only ridicule and disdain and the only way to fix all that is to face the stigma of having AIDS (of hearing!!) since the stigma of hearing loss is more serious!!

Newcomer by Kiego Higashino

Book review

Genre- fiction thriller

Spoiler- it is a murder mystery so the most obvious spoiler of whodunit is not revealed!

Rating- 3/5 (only because I am comparing this to his earlier work like devotion of suspect X!)

Kiego Higashino is an unpredictable writer with his stories having more twists than a snake caught in a tsunami!

But unlike his counter part Murakami, in the end you will get the answers to all the puzzles and everything falls into place however jumbled they were in the beginning! While in Murakami you know to expect the opposite!

So while you know the killer quite early in devotion of suspect X or Malice or Salvation of a saint; in those the novel is then about how and why!

Then again you have journey under midnight sun or name of game is kidnapping or even a midsummers equation it is a typical murder mystery with the killer only revealed in the end with twists galore! This one is like that!

In any whodunit I have always noted that the person who is the least likely to kill is the killer! In many other novels I have been able to crack the code using this logic but Kiego gets me stumped all the time!

It of course does not help that the Japanese names are a mystery to me even now! They sound so similar and gender neutral that I had to go back and forth multiple number of times! So it’s a good thing that Kiego has given a list of characters in the beginning!

You must understand though that some magic will be lost in translation and this new novel took its own sweet time to come!
In fact there are so many novels written by Kiego waiting to be translated into English!

We have a newcomer detective here and the way this guy goes piece by piece enquiring about the murder is too good! Every chapter can be a complete independent story in itself with the final ones issuing the links between the characters and story flow and the murder!

Like I mentioned before you will not be able to guess the killer that easily!

The attention to details such as the jackets worn by people and the food taken and the articles purchased and their final importance has been dealt beautifully!

All in all a good read but it is a big problem when you have a murder mystery in your hands and you have to go through 300 odd pages to get to the point literally! Lately though this has been the trend with John Grisham and Theo, Jeffrey Deaver and his new series to name a few!

Since this was an eagerly anticipated book am sure the Kiego regulars will grab this with both hands! I am in that club so there!…

For others if you are reading Kiego for the first time then start with this and end with devotion which is literally the ranking!
Murakami fans may not like the answers since they are there!

Newcomer is brand new!

Book review

Fiction thriller/detective series genre

Rating 3/5

Spoilers-none

Let me begin by mentioning a very important fact that this is the first book of another series by James Patterson!
My first James Patterson book was the Alex Cross’s along came the spider which I was intrigued only because someone told me that this was as good as The bone collector! Of course that was a big fib and I will never forgive my friend (is he really!?) For that!

But the presence of Morgan FREEMAN was the silver lining (see the irony!?). So much that I picked up the Alex Cross series and that was not a good decision! So while you have a paraplegic who can do wonders in Lincoln Rhyme series; here it was Alex who was as confused as a young gal selecting a prom dress!

But after reading the private India and private Delhi and being a reader of Ashwin Sanghi’s work, I decided to get on the private wagon!

So there are more than ten books in this series and am not even going to details of the series till I reach maybe book number 5!

The first one is James with Maxine P (no idea who he is! In fact his name was so hidden!!) while the rest are also collaboration effort with different authors like I private India and Delhi with Ashwin Sanghi. This is a relief since James alone can be a drag just like this novel!

The lead here is the chief investigator Jack who is as confused as James so watch out! There are three different mysteries to be solved the old detective method so go figure! And yes they are not connected for a change! So you get three mystery for the price of one!!

Starts with a death and ends with one! You can say that it’s back to square one!

Page after page of questions and leads but doesn’t lead anywhere fast to drag to close to 400 pages when am sure the matter was only for 100!

Maybe it’s just me who is yet to be impressed since I am comparing him to the brilliant (according to me only!) Jeffrey Deaver!
But if you see the amount of books he has written then you would really get impressed so then that’s that!

Luckily all books in the series are self contained if you get my drift!
Give time to private at your own leisure while I slowly gear up for private two called PRIVATE LONDON (didn’t spend much time on naming me thinks!!)…

18 TILL I…DYE!!

To dye or not to dye! That was the question!

This was way back when the Blacks were the majority! I am of course talking about the status of my hair! But now slowly the previos Minority White have become more and prominent!

At that time I was managing a hospital of my own and my friend and well wisher Ashok used to tell me, “Sir do not dye your hair since you are the manager of this hospital and you must look senior! (read old!)”.

This was very important since if I had to suggest someone for surgery or operative procedure, it always made more weight when the Surgeon looked Senior (old!) or healthy (read Plump or fat!)!

In my initial days there were times when Patients used to consult me and then go to the other room to consult my Senior (Who actually had stopped operating and only used to advice!)! It used to be so frustrating since he could be telling the same thing but the patient would listen right away!

That is when I realised the importance of loking old in Private practice which by some weird logic apparently translated to expericence!

In fact even when I got married, I did not dye! (If you read that line louldy you will get the reason why I placed the exclamation!). So if you glance on my marriage photos then you can see how unwell I look (I was in fact not well!) while my better half looked better! At that time I attributed it to poor make up but now I have realized that it was because of those whites!

In spite of this even after marriage for some time I never used to Dye! (using that rhyme with so many reasons!)

In the initial days of marriage (when we are very sensitive to the thoughts and feelings of the spouse!) My wife gently asked before any function or event where there is a likelihood to be shot! (by a camera of course!!), “Do you want to dye your hair?”

To which I would always reply, “I will never dye! (again read it aloud!)…my hair!”

Of course I should not have forgotten the James Bond movie, Never Say Never Again! The movie was not so great but the statement is!

So what was the turning point you might ask? (If you care of course but even otherwise I will tell so dont worry!)

The first one was when one of my patients gave me a big shock! It is human tendency to look at any mirror on your reflection and over a period of time you get used to your face however Ugly or Good looking you are! Since you have been seeing your face by birth you never realise how young or old you look till someone points it out to you!

So this particular day I was helping out one of my junior colleague with her thesis in my clinic. I used to be the one stop point of thesis making since I used to love the study and being part of the whole deal! But more on that later! For now lets stick to the matter in hand! So this particular patient saw me with her who might not have been around 3-4 years younger to me ! Later on when I was seeing the patient who in fact knew me asked me, “Is she your daughter Doctor?!!”

When I shockingly narrated this to my wife all she said was, “Thank God that drunk patient (I am sure he was drunk now that you think about it!) did not mistake her to be your wife!”.

Then another incident happened very soon which was my daughter’s first birthday and the subsequent celebration done in a grand way!

I even met an old friend and told him that I do not dye my hair so that I look old! He placed his hand on his balding head and told me, “At least you have a choice!”. Silver lining is not that hard to find!

But very soon it was time for the album and that was a shoker! When it comes to any photograph of any function, it is again human nature to see his or her snaps only! And then to see people whom you like a lot and finally people whom you hate a lot! If there is any more patience you may glance at the remaining neutral people!

So I was sitting in the hall listening to the comments when I heard my little niece all of ten years old commenting to my wife, “Why is Sriram uncle looking so old?”

And that is when realization dawned on me and I decided to dye!

At first most of the time I would go to the parlour but then when I became experienced, I used to occasionally do it by myself!

In fact I have started advising people on which ones to use (read no ammonia!), also use disposable gloves while applying (buy it if you are not a medical professional with access!), apply petroleum jelly all over the skin area so that the stain will be less and so forth!

Now if you see my son’s first birthday celebration album you can make out the difference! It is also why I always show that album to everyone much to the chagrin of my daughter!

So the chief lesson is to apply before any big photo session since in the days of Social Media, Image is very important! It is a material world and lets not forget that! Maybe when I am more that fifty years old then I may stop dyeing since it may not make much of a difference!

In any case after so many years of marriage now my wife does not have to think too much before she gives her opinion about me! So after the dye she always says that, “Don’t worry you can Dye (!!), you do not look very young now!”

To which I cheekily reply, “Whatever you say Mi Amor (this is purely because of Narcos!), I will be 18 till I…Dye!!

A Will to kill by R V Raman

Book Review

Spoilers- None since it is a murder mystery; giving any spoiler is blasphemous! But there are spoilers from Agatha Christie and other authors who specialise in Murder mysteries!

Rating- 3/5

Murder mystery you say? Is it 1989?!!

Why I asked that question you will realise when you read the book!

In any murder mystery you must understand a few baseline rules! First and foremost is that the Killer must not be easy to guess and secondly you must not have too many characters!

One of the best murder mysteries is where the investigator or the police is the murderer! That is a sure winner! This happened with Poirot in his last case! Closer to home, two of Byomkesh stories had police personnels who were investigators turned out to be the culprit! Talk about twist! No wonder Raj in Big Bang Theory calls Byomkesh the Holmes of India! And many bongs will further state that, “Holmes is the Byomkesh of England!”

In Keigo Higashino novels the killer is revealed very early in the story and the bulk of the story then lies in the conception and planing!

The crime king is However Jeffery deaver who makes use of a quadriplegic and solves murders sitting on his bed using only a finger! But now even he has moved on to a moving investigator which is sad for a Rhyme fan like me!

Then you have the James Patterson series where it is just police work to get the killer! Though in Private Delhi and Private India, the Ashwin Collaboration ensured we get sufficient twists and surprise endings!

You can also have multiple murders like in this novel and then you would think in the lines of “And there were none!”! But fret not; here there are only two murders!

Coming closer you are being introduced to a new detective Athreya and this is the first book in the series! I have no idea why this is the in thing now since even Chetan Bhagat has done the same with his latest novel! Hardy men?!! Deaver also has gone this way and you have John Grisham with his Theodore Boone series! Of course most of Robin Cook novels are also infused with murder but he is in a different league nowadays since many times even the investigator gets killed!

If the killer has been introduced and even then the reader could not guess then it is a good murder mystery! In this regard Raman has scored well since there is no way that you could guess the killer even though he or she was introduced in the novel quite early!

But I had guessed the killer fairly early since I have a trick up my sleeve! The killer would be that person who is far far above any suspicion! The one who is so good that he or she is bad! Now take that advice and read and am sure that even you will guess the killer!

So you have an aged rich guy in wheel chair waiting to be killed! You have one and two wills which gets released depending on how the guy dies! Then you of course have a murder! Then you have another one and then you have our Investigator who makes intermittent revelations to see and assess the reaction on everyones faces! I gues that will work only in a soap opera where one dialogue elicits so many emotions! In the present time of being as non human as possible, it is mighty impossible to get somone white or black! Everyone at the end of the day is Grey!

I have read all previous works by Raman and his works like Fraudester, Saboteur, Conspirator and Insider etc and they were also broadly murder mysteries! But the investigaions and the importance given to the current trends was really refreshing! Be it media or social network or banking and finance! This departure is however a big departure to his style. I do hope he will write those other novels also since he was pretty good at it!

For now in the era of smartphone and internet, to read a murder mystery may be a change…or not! That is for you to decide!

So anyone up for an old school whodunit can grab this one! Since to read ‘A will to kill” you need “A big will to read!!”