My life as a medical student--Anti Hindi agitation

I am always anti political. I have very slight interest in politics even now. My student life was quite  busy with studying continuously, attending ward postings, night clinics, grand rounds etc. I had no time or inclination for a “ boyfriend”. It was an interesting fact  that all the students in my batch were interested only in studying and so much so there were no Love marriages among our classmates unlike the other batches-both senior and junior;

Hence it was surprising that I took part in the anti Hindi agitation which was rocking Tamilnadu in 1965. I was in my prefinal year. Actually I had no intention of joining it though  some of my classmates and other girls in our ladies hostel were busily organizing it. I remember vaguely that it was a holiday and after breakfast I just went to the front portico as these girls were seriously discussing it. There is a saying  “ curiosity kills a cat”. I was dragged by my seniors and classmate Viji into the process. I refused first but they succeeded in coaxing me. They said that it was a hunger strike lasting for 8 hours only. We were allowed to have breakfast but no lunch or tea/snacks in the evening. We could have dinner in the night.

My friend Hamsa did not like my joining it. She said that this was nothing but waste of time. Also I was not personally against the language as I had already passed Madhyama in Hindi from the Hindi Prachar Sabha thanks to my mother who had passed Rashtrabasha from the same sabha.I used to like the Hindi movies like Jab pyar kisse se hotha hai and I always used to hum the songs.I cursed my fate but I could not go against my classmate, Viji and my seniors. Two of my seniors , Manimegalai and Sarojini were in charge of the unnaviratham ( Hunger strike). Some press people were sent by the boys and they took some pictures. I was in the picture, with my hands akimbo. Actually I was watching the others , not intending to take part in the strike.

It started at 11 a.m. and we sat as a group in the adjacent garden and started shouting, Hindi! Down down! And Don’t force us to learn Hindi! And some other related slogans! Because of the shouting our throats were dry but we were not allowed to go  inside and drink water. Our leaders said that we might be allowed to go to the restroom that too not more than twice! Well, I could not do anything  but to sit there. We were sitting in front of our hostel exit gate which used to be locked always but outsiders could see us. The news spread that the girl medical students were doing hunger strike and more media persons were sent to take our pictures. Our leaders gave fire sparkling statements against the imposition of Hindi on innocent Tamilians!

By lunch time I was completely out. I was underweight and because of eating small portions at every meal I used to get hypoglycemia if I did not eat at the regular hours. I had severe headache due to hypoglycemia and I did not have the courage to leave the strike in the middle  and eat the lunch. In fact, one junior girl , went away breaking her promise to continue. She was excused because she was from Srilanka and our leaders didn’t mind her going away. Poor me, from Madras was suffering. The sun was beating mercilessly and I was cursing myself many times. Viji was a juvenile diabetic but she was very adamant not to have some food, and was feeling drowsy due to hypoglycemia.

This further deterred me from breaking. Then I saw my roommate Thulasi, calling me from a window nearby. I took the permission of the leader and went near her. She whispered that she would bring tea in a glass to our room during tea time and told me to come there in the guise of going to the bathroom. I was happy and nodded my approval. I went back and joined the slogan shouting a little bit more vigorously as now I was sure of at least some tea. I took my leaders’ permission around the tea time for going to the rest room and went to my room upstairs. There Tulasi had the tea in a tumbler and I drank it quickly and thanked her. I kept a tired face and went again to continue our agitation. Nobody suspected me. Atlast the strike ended and all of us sang  the Tamil anthem, Vazhiya senthamizh , vazhiya thamizhar, and went to the mess.

Viji met there and told me to stay put in the hostel from the next day onwards. The hostel warden had asked all the students to vacate the hostel for a week as the college was also closed for a week. The anti Hindi agitation took a serious turn with a lot of people dying and all. I said yes and concentrated on eating my dinner. I didn’t pay any attention to the serious consequences of staying in the hostel, defying the order of the warden.

Next morning I was surprised to see my brother in the waiting room. He hardly used to come there as my home was in the same city and I used to there on many weekends to meet him and my father. My mother had passed away a few years earlier.
Even before I could greet him, he almost commanded me to get ready and go with him to our house. He never minces the words and always comes to the point directly, so that no time is wasted. I was very reluctant to go, as I wanted to stay in the hostel and watch what happened. But he said that our father was unhappy about my taking part in the agitation and they have seen the photo and the warden’s decision to close the hostel in the news papers.

Well, when I returned after all the agitations were over, I heard about the ugly incidents that happened. Almost all the girls left the hostel going to their friends or relatives’ houses but Viji and Manimegalai defied the orders and stayed there. The police got their names and were searching for them to arrest them. I think that Sarojini left for her native place. These  two girls were informed by some source about the police coming to the hostel and the housekeeper hid them in her bathroom till the police came and searched all the rooms and went away. Must have been a smelly affair!

I thanked my stars, my father and brother and of course God for saving me from this disgrace. But the unexpected result was that the boys started paying more attention to me and even asked me totake part in some more student unrest. I had a tough time explaining about the real reason for my getting involved in the agitation. My father was quite unhappy and he said that one has to be made of different material to take part in politically oriemnted things and I had a tough educational course to tackle with.So no wasting of my time like this. I realized that I had to control my sense of curiosity and keep it to myself.

constructed wetland--My Tanzanian experience

I was in Tanzania for 1 and half yrs from March 2007 --September 2008.I came across some interesting things there and one of them is the constructed wetlands. As a Professor of Community Medicine,  one of my subjects is Environment.The main aspect of this is to prevent environmental pollution and its bad effects on health.Sewage management is one of them and it is the most badly managed subject especially in the developing countries. African countries  are still developing and some of them are under developed. We in India, always grumble about the sewage overflowing on to the roads and we have no qualm in discharging our sewage into rivers and the seas. When I visit the Europian countries what strikes me most is how nicely they maintain their rivers. Once I traveled all the way from Stutgart to Kolhn in Germany along the river Rhine. I was surprised at the way they have preserved the river and I could not help comparing India with them. At one hand we shout at the rooftop saying that each river is equal to a Goddess and worship them but what have we  done to preserve these rivers? Where is Cooum river? Where is Moosi river? Both of them have been turned into stinking cesspools by the corresponding city corporations. And we the citizens don't bother to spare even one second to think about this sad thing.The great river Nile in Cairo looks muddy brown in color with all the drainage fluid in it.
If you happen to visit Hyderabad , you see the Nalahs or canals of sewage water flowing adjacent to many streets. These are open and always to the brim because the population density is very high in these areas. The so called underground drainage is very inadequate to deal with this amount of sewage and so it is let as raw sewage into these nalahs , stinking and leading to contamination of the drinking water pipes which are laid alongside of these Nalahs.
The obvious solution to this lies in diverting the sewage water to a sewage treatment plant which is very highly expensive and many are needed to treat such huge amount of sewage. Well, you can ask why not septic tanks and again the problem of overflowing soakpits. The University of Tanzania at Dares Salaam, has found a very cheap solution to this problem of soakpits. Their Engineering Department has devised a new and cheap method of dealing with this problem called Constructed Wetlands.It is essentially a 7 meter  trench 1m deep with sloping sides and covered by cement slabs. The plant called Matete in Swahili with botanical name Phregmatis Mauritanius is planted in the bed where there are small gaps in the floor . The plants use the water and the waste products in the sewage to grow upto almost 5-7 feet. They are used as fodder and roof in Tanzania. Since there is no surface water there is no mosquito problem. There is an inlet and outlet. The sewage water which flows in is cleaned by the plants and clean water flows out which can be used for irrigation purposes. This has got a pet name, namely Flower Pot. So it achieves the sewage treatment along with production of irrigation water as well as the plants. These plants are cut at the stem when they are fully mature and grow again. No need to plant them again. The size of the pot can be adjusted according to the amount of sewage water . At present it is used for individual houses . One such pot can be sufficient for three houses. with septic tanks. The water from the septic tank is flown into these pots. So basically it replaces the traditional soak pits which always overflows especially in the rainy season. There is no offensive smell as the plants completely remove all the offensive substances from the sewage water. Also it is being used in some schools, prisons and small communities.
 The person who owns this pot also earns money by selling these plants and also can have his own garden which can be watered by these plants. When we visited the University, we found that they are using this water for fish ponds.Many uses can be thought of also. Unfortunately I could not get the name of an equivalent plant available in India. It looks like bamboo but not bamboo. They say that the stem is very spongy . I thought that it could be Netti as we call in Tamil. I asked one of my former colleagues in NIN ( he is a PH.D. in Botany ) but he was not able to give the name of the Indian plant. Even industrial affluents can be similarly dealt with . I found in the literature that they can use cuscus plant( called Vettyver in Tamil ) which is used as thattis to cool the windows. It has got a beautiful smell.
I think that if only our officials take up such projects , we can solve the problem of Nalahs and also save our rivers, lakes and seas.

My Reiki experiences

Here I would like to share my experiences of  sending Reiki to others by scanning and healing.

My first one was with my grand daughter who is 2 yrs old with poor sleeping, crying and having nightmares. When my daughter first told me about it, I promised to send Reiki but I cautioned her that it may take around 2 months to have an effect. But within 2 days she mailed me that the baby is sleeping well without any crying and also quite cheerful in the mornings. She thanked me and Reiki for this. It is now 5 months but she continues to be alright. They are in Switzerland.

The second one is my friend”s wife in Vizag. She is a chronic patient of  an autoimmune disorder resulting in body and joint pains. It was almost the same time and my friend said that of late she had become bedridden and very depressed. I told him that I will try with the same caution. Within a week I got the report that she is very much free of the pain  and became very cheerful. She started walking, doing   her household work and sounded very happy when I talked to her.

The third one is my son’s friend , middle aged and in coma due to kidney failure. My son requested me to send Reiki to him , I did and he was O.K. the next day. He is now having dialysis.

Recently when my son was operated, I did Reiki surgery  and  was sending continuous Reiki. Because of that and also due to all the channels sending him Reiki he has been operated without any problem and now he is completely healed. He  did not have any problem during the whole procedure. There was complete cooperation at every point.

The other ones are minor like making the machinery working etc.One day when we were in the car, the horn suddenly stopped in the middle of heavy traffic. My son told me  to send Reiki and the horn started working by the time I finished putting the symbols! It did not fail afterwards!

Also while driving in the heavy rain I was continuously putting all the symbols and my son could drive safely without any problem.