New arrivals!

Since the respite of the torrential season of the monsoon, I notice more birds coming to the marshy areas for their play in the MOSC medical college campus! I found them as pair not too far away from each other!

There is something about nature that is most refreshing! It is a home for all of us and provides its best provisions to each of the living beings!

As I spent a while following the birds along their movements, one child who was tricycling stopped to watch the birds. He went and called his friends to sight these birds. Soon some adults also joined the group!

The conversation was about the large number of birds we seem to miss from the campus in the recent years!

The birds leave when the environment turns unfriendly!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

Batches of 2013 and 2014!

Anna and I have had an opportunity to spend an evening with the two batches of medical students of the MOSC medical College for a fellowship time! There was fun, laughter and entertainment!

The pleasure of togetherness experienced during student days is a  treasure to cherish!

The talk after the occasion was about making the campus life more interactive and relational!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo) 

Another beginning!

The new batch of interns, 10th since the MOSC medical college began, you were too large to be captured in one frame for my 35mm camera. Some of you appear twice in the photographs. I did not want to edit it to make it a panorama because your smiling faces made it difficult for me to remove anyone for the sake of editing. 

To me it was a symbol of the fullness, that you carry with you as you are appear larger in potential and prospects than we can capture!

They are on a journey to be pioneers, innovators and pathfinders in health care! To spend day with them was both a stimulus and challenge! They now have to make a transition from class room learners to life centred learners! They are people with a mission from what I heard and saw! 

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

Their way!

This is the favourite resting position of Daffy and Dulcie after the morning run in the garden!

As I watch this almost daily, I wondered whether I have a regular rhythm of rest and recovery!

I pondered over it once again yesterday, after driving 600 kms each day on two successive days!

Even with all the awareness about a more orderly rhythm in daily living, I find that, drivenness is a natural instinct. At the end of the two days, as I reflected over it, I realised that what is central to a rhythm of restful living is the consciousness of who we are and whose we are!

We are people of calling and mission and we are the 'temple of the living God'!

This gives an inner wakefulness to live soberly even in demanding situations! 

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

A skilful Behaviour !

Most of us might get frightened by the risk of fall when we a child attempts such kind of balancing act!

But it is worthwhile t study the care with which their child attempts this gymnastic act. He supports himself with both hands, and his feet are firmly placed on the chair! His body posture although is precarious, he seems to be in control of his body! I feel that he is aware of the danger and takes abundant precaution to protect himself!

Such acts although can be indicative a particular pathological behaviour, what strikes me often when I see such acts by children is, to study the level of their ability cognitively!

One of the learning experiences of being with children for thirty-five years, who are developmentally challenged is to appreciate their residual skills, and not be carried away by the obvious!

There is more ability in every child than a hurried consultation or developmental assessment can reveal! These insights can come to us by meditating on children while observing them!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo) 

Road side Parking!

Yesterday, I was waiting in the car with the engine on, on the road side in a free parking zone, while Anna was buying from the shop. Few people asked me to move out of the spot in an angry and abusive tone, in a language that frightened me. The other day I watched some irate pedestrians lift a car from the road side and pushing it towards the edge of the road. In the process the car was dent on both sides!

I wondered whether one group of people have more rights on the road than others! Is there a a 'vigilante' that is frightening!

What worries me most is that there is a tinge of anger, aggression and even violence resident in human psyche!

Why have reached this state of anguish!

While talking about these matters with some student friends, one of them mentioned to me that, 'what people see, they imitate'!

This challenges me to ponder over the calling that Jesus of Nazareth lived in a hostile environment,'He went about doing good..'

M.C.Mathew(text and photo) 

A learning experience!

One of the challenges of helping children with weakness of one side is to help them to improve their functions of the  hand and leg. This child whom I have been meeting from her age of three months is now studying in the second standard, who has recovered the weakness to a large extent. Now what is left is to improve her functions of the wrist and fingers. 

This involves working with technicians who craft the splints. I was pleased with a new design the technician was able to create, which is user friendly and attains the fund icons better than the previous one which had become smaller over the last there months. 

Often children struggle with accepting these devices because it draws attention of others. One of the challenges left is to get skin coloured spent materials and straps so that it become less noticeable. I have been in touch th technicians to use lighter materials and more aesthetic materials. I think we are almost arriving there, although such materials are more costly!

Looking back over the last three years at work in a new place, I would think that this explorative journey has been rather fulfilling as it satisfies the spittoons of parents and their users!

A renovated Church building!

Everyone Ann and I are on an outing, one sight that stops us is a renovated church building!

Since we began living in Kerala for three years now, we have noticed many church structures getting renewed! They are architecturally imposing and aesthetically magnificent!

A bishop recently commenting about this new spell of building renewals taking place, called the community of believers, as to whether we are carried away by an affluent culture! He wondered whether churches needed such edifices for their meetings!

I have a suspicion that the structures get more attention than they deserve because it is linked to the identity of our existence!

Mother Teresa is going to be canonised on September 4th, 2016. Her identity was 'serving the poorest of the poor! Bishop Nair writing about her in the recent issue of The New Leader referred to her confining to the 'creature comfort' of living with three sets of clothes, which she washed herself! 

It is good to have good buildings, it is even more important to have a focus on our mission which Jesus of Nazareth came to announce, '.. not to be ministered not but to minister..'!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)!

Visitors bring cheer!

It is seldom we have visitors staying overnight in our cottage! When that happens, there is a new experience of conversation at the heart level! I am normally ready to sleep by 10 pm. But the other day when these friends were with us, none of us thought of bed time!

I reflected over our conversation why it was refreshing and energy giving! It was because we talked about our personal lives and experiences. Others or events in our institutions did not appear in our conversation!

Debriefing has a restorative and renewing impact when we recall personal events or learning journey with friends, who resonate with us!

In a world of social media, where there is a pressure to be social and be in touch, there can be a private dimension beyond social communication, which longs for our attention! It is only in the context of trustful relationship one can be personal with others!

It is good to check if we are used to cultivating friendships where we can be at home and be open!  

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)   

A look!

This is Dulcie's favourite look when she wants to be stroked and played with! It melts our hearts however preoccupied we might be with other chores!

A look communicates and invites!

Yesterday, a child who is nine years old who visits for consultation once in three months mentioned to me that I looked tired! And that was true. I was pondering over a major issue to be discussed in a meeting later that afternoon!

To be present to others fully, we need interior space and attention! The best gift we can offer to others is our full attention and nearness when they are in conversation with us! Words communicate only when our face reveals openness!

M.C.Mathew( text and photo)

Bird play during rain!

Although the watchmen at the hospital discouraged me from walking around in the hospital garden during heavy windy rain yesterday, I had an intuition that there might be sights which occur only during such heavy rains!

So watching these Minas play in the puddle of water and singing in a chorus was a fascinating sight!

I got wet, but it was a refreshing music to my soul and a sight that enthused my spirit at the end of a day! 

Life is always unfolding before us with surprises and messages!

There were at least twenty minas in the pool of water by the time I was leaving at the end of a ten minute walk! They often escape attention because they are ordinary birds. But they too have some special features!

On my way back, I found a family setting out in the rain to watch these birds in their play!

M.C.Mathew (text and photo) 

Magpie Robin!

Every time I sight a Magpie Robin in the MOSC hospital campus, I remember my first sighting of these birds in 1997 when we moved to live in the Christian Medical College campus.  This bird was hiding in a safe branch during a heavy windy downpour!

For a year then, I tracked these birds till I finally traced their practices of courtship, nesting and breeding! Although I lost some of those valuable pictures in a computer crash, those sights remain in my memory vividly. 

Now that I have sighted them once agin in MOSC campus, it is an occasion to keep track of them for a while to become familiar with them!

Nature is a story teller all the time! 

It is a gift to our soul!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

Student Research initiatives!

As Anna and I heard these students share their experiences, who went for a student research conference to Christian Medical college, vellore, we were delighted at the discoveries  they made from a wider exposure to student initiated research activities in other medical colleges. The largest participation and presentations at this conference were from MOSC Medical College. 

Three years back, Anna started engaging students for ICMR supported research projects. From a just a few then, it has now become a large activity involving about forty-five students! 

Students are the resources of any College. When we enable and empower them, they surprise us by their abilities and initiatives.  

Every student is a talent! It is for the faculty to promote its expression!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo) 

Three losses!

As Anna and I watched this flower bush in our garden die gradually in a week's time, we were  coping with grief over the losses of our aunts. Each of us lost an aunt during the same week, due to old age ailments! 

A loss is is more than just an event in the chronology of our personal history! It is a time of grateful reflection of memories and experiences and a time of farewell! Both of us had many memories to recall and share as both these aunts have had some influence in our lives!

 So what lasts beyond a loss is joyful memories and lasting blessings!

M.C.Mathew (text and photo)

Monsoon flowers!

It has been raining heavily for a week. Yet these flowers reveal their resilience!

Our circumstances do not determine our character and conduct, but our inner strength and attitude! Jesus of Nazareth once said, that it is what reside within us we bring out! 

There is within each of us a resource of goodness and wellness! Our circumstances help us to bring forth this abundantly in adverse circumstances!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

Students bring cheer to teachers!

I watched this group students share the excitement of winning a bottle of pepsi when one of them won  a prize!

I was fascinated by the group identity they conveyed during this event!

We belong to each other! Although each of them got only a sip of the pepsi, their sense of achievement was manifest to draw the attention of all of us present in the badminton court!

This is the special aspect of student life! There is a bonding that is natural and lasting!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

Students explore new avenues!

One of the valuable learning journey students made in the MOSC Medical college is to undertake student research projects. When we heard one batch of students present their research projects the faculty felt most enthused to find their depth of perception of clinical issues and their desire to critically study them. 

There are forty five students currently at CMC Vellore, attending the week end annual research conference of students, twenty of them presenting posters of their research! 

Anna's initiative and efforts have created a new occupation for students, which they seem to enjoy and learn form! 

One of them dropped in to say, that doing a research project has created a new understanding about learning by experiencing!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo) 

Flowers in a garden!

Just as the flowers in a garden are different in colour, shape, and in their phenotype, so are we as humans, different from each other- each person colourful and resourceful enough!

I wish we can be more gracious to each other because we are on a common journey of life and living!

M.C.Mathew (text and photo)

An adult in sandplay!

Recently when Anna and I were at a beach, I noticed a man fully engrossed in making a castle!

I drew his attention to have a conversation!

He recalled how going to the beach to play with his parents and brother was one of his favourite childhood outings!

Forty years later, he still treasures those memories!  

What we invest on children would last for a life time! Let me suggest that every family needs a plan on investing on children! It ought to be a conscious activity with weekends dedicated for this purpose!

Arpit and Anandit used to mark the wall calendar with coloured pencils days on the week ends we had planned for family activities. They could not be negotiated for anything else unless a suitable alternate time was found!

Children need parental presence and shared times for their formative development!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)   

Fragile flowers!

It has been raining heavily for the last three days!

I expected flowers to be damaged in the down pour!

But they are fresh as never before with a rain washed look!

Fragile they are, but strong enough to stand the inclement whether!

A bee finds nectar in it!

No matter how the whether is a flower still has nectar as its offering!

I confess that I wilt in adverse circumstances and loose my cheerful temperament! These flowers brought me a life lesson to ponder on!

M.C.Mathew (text and photo)

Children matter!

This children's park in a hospital attracts children and it is  place they love to come as it is both a play area and meeting point! One of them was playing a game on a mobile phone!!!

But it is dedicated to children. One of the children who regularly uses this place told me that it is an exception to have a dedicated corner!

He went on to say that it is a message that children matter! 

In a world of adults it is necessary to pay attention to children's needs and voice!

Yesterday one adolescent boy tole me with sadness that he is not permitted to play football till his academic grade improved! In fact he told me that he struggles to study on days when he did not have some outdoor activities!

How do we create a sense of responsibility in children is a larger question!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo) 

Story Time!

The two doctors on the left and and on the right are legends at the Christian Medical College, Vellore. De. Jeyabalan is a pioneer in caring for the patients of Leprosy and Dr. Solomon Chellaiah built up a mission hospital into a secondary care facility of significant repute in one of the southern states in India. Their lives and service profile enthuse and inspire the students and the faculty at CMC Vellore!

When I met them recently in  a meeting, their enthusiasm for pioneering inspired me even more! Both of them have created an excellent model of training younger professionals  for professional work and leadership!

Their stories are outstanding illustration of what one person can do in his or her life time, when given over to a mission of service and vocation of practice of medicine as a calling! They both are ardent followers of the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth!

Th history of medicine have many such unsung men and women of humble calling!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

The Art and the Artist!

This art work in a large canvas of the hospital scene of the early nineteen hundreds at the silver gate of the Christian Medical College Hospital, Vellore is most elegant and almost three dimensional!

When I talked to the artist about it she described to me on her inspiration and motivation for painting this.

She is a visual artist by profession and was touched by the photograph of this sight. Dr. Ida Scudder, the founder of the hospital who was spotted in the photograph is her favourite role model!

The picture came alive with a new meaning when the artist described her mission for painting this- to tell the visitors the story of aunt Ida! One lady doctor through her dedication created a legendary hospital! Almost eight thousand patients come to the hospital  hospital in a  single day now and about 2750 patients are looked after as in-patients each day!

M.C.Mathew (text and photo)

Memories of yesteryears!

I felt privileged to be invited in for a photograph as the former Men's Hostilities of the CMC Vellore were recollecting their times in the hostel. That is one preoccupation the alumni is used to! Somehow their bonding in the hostel life is so so real and special that they return to recall those happy days in no time when they meet every time!  I have not come across such memories of affinity for hostel life anywhere else! What makes the hotel life special for them is that they grow up together in a family spirit! 

M.C.Mathew

The Silver gate!

This gate which was recently renovated is the silver gate at the main entrance of the CMC hospital  Vellore!About eighty years this gate was in a silvery shade, which was th gamin gate to enter the hospital building. For over fifty years, this gate remained closed as other entry gates were more convenient for use.  

This renovated gate when it was dedicated last week, there was some excitement among those who chronicle the history of the hospital. 

Now the silver gate is embossed on the glass panels artistically!  

There is an attempt to restore some old sites and scenes in CMC as the year 2018 is the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the educational courses!

When we return to remember our history, we shall draw inspiration from the heritage we inherited!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)  

Stages of a butterfly!

One of my interests have been to capture the cycle of a butterfly if possible in the same plant in our garden! I have been able to sight only larva and cocoon stages. The cocoon is without the butterfly!

Any garden with flowers would have such sights, but we pass by them without noticing them!

When we are aware of the silent events taking place in nature, we would search for them!

It is yet another reason to live more mindfully!

M.C.Mathew ( text and photo) 

Finding space without adding space!

Every time I visit the Christian Medical College, Vellore, I come across a new facility created by rearranging the space! The Paediatric High Dependency Unit that was inaugurated this week was another demonstration of this creative style of engineering!

Adding 14 beds to this new facility by rearranging the existing space was most commendable. 

I heard at the inauguration how this involved negotiation with multiple clinicians and two departments to 'let go' to have this new facility.  It is in giving one receives. 

It was a happy occasion as this need was a long felt which was conceived eight years back, but got delayed by difficulties on redesigning this area for technical reasons! 

When people work together, there would be many pleasant surprises!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo) 

After Forty years!

The new OPD block at the RUHSA symbolises an outstanding presence in wholistic development of the local community.

The school drops outs and those who completed the schooling from the local villages receive training at the community college in the campus in different trades and skills that, the unemployment of adolescent boys and girls seems to have declined to about twenty percent, something unusual for any village. 

I met a few of those young people in training, who mentioned to me that they are able to earn a living even while studying, as their practical skills help them to be employed in the evening hours!

It was Dr. Daleep Mukherji, who conceived in 19975 the idea of a wholistic development model for a community, in which he included rural development, education and health as the essentials in any community development programme.  Dr. Rita, the current head of the department actively pursues that mission!  

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)  

A tradition of fifty years!

Most senior Men clinicians still wear white shirts while at work at the Christian Medical College, Vellore, a tradition of more than sixty years of standing! But the young clinicians do not seem to follow this tradition!

When wearing the white coat while at work was done away with years back, the clinicians started wearing white shirts. Even clinical students do not wear the white coats unlike in other medical colleges. 

As I spoke to the three senior clinicians in this photo about it, they wish, CMC had a work uniform for clinicians!

Not tha there is a thing special about a uniform, but it represents a tradition! Not all traditions are always meaningful after a while, but this seems to be for these clinicians, because, the white shirts remind of them of their teachers who were exemplary in mindfulness of others and service!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

Father and Son!

Between Dr. Abraham Joseph(Left) and Dr. Vinod Abraham(right), the Christian Medical College, Vellore had more than six decades of significant and innovative contributions to community health department and its outreach locally and nationally! When I saw them at the dedication of the new OPD block at RUHSA, along with Dr. Sulochana Abraham, I was inspired by their mission as a family. 

In a recorded interview that I had with Dr Abraham Joseph and Dr. Sulochana Abraham twenty years back, I had a sense of their mission in life-'make life different for those who are in the margins of the society'. They returned from Dimapur recently after spending seven years, once agin making a difference at the Christian Institute of Health and Research. They even added an advance facility for Radiotherapy before they finished their term of service at Dimapur. 

On the way back from RUHSA, I heard Vinod speak about the new thrust on geriatric care in the villages through the community based day care!

Innovation seems to be the mission for them as a family! 

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)  

One life!

Every time I sight a single flower, my thoughts go back to a theme that I often meditate on, One Life!

It brings an awesome experience within me as I consider the meaning of this one life!

A seven year old child in a casual conversation told me on my birthday, 'I have one sister and she is special'!

One life is special!

How are we to live this life! 

Jesus of Nazareth lived His life relationally! His immediate contacts was with 12 of His followers and apart them He also had seventy others whom He prepared for a mission. Beyond this, He reached out to many more through His discourses, miracles and healing!

His life was lived vicariously!

How much others matter to us as we live our single life! 

M.C. Mathew (text and photo)

   

Light is also a symbol!

Every time, I watch a lamp lighting I feel something special. 

'A light is a lamp unto our feet and a light to our path' in the words of one of the writers of the Psalms in the Bible!

When a candle was lit on the occasion of my birthday, I felt moved by its message to my heart! As one gets older at every birthday and watches the candle on a cake, it is a call to live as a light shining to give light and direction!

The light within us gives us interior light! 

It is to this interior light we need to pay attention to! If this light is one of love, tolerance, patience, kindness, forgiveness....how much more our lives would be bright and shining!

This was my theme of meditation during the last two weeks!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo) 

Post monsoon flowers!

The campus of the Christian Medical College, Vellore is blooming with flowers currently. It is a visual feast as it is special to this season, following the early monsoon rains.

Birds and flowers occupy the attention of most of the morning and evening walkers. 

As I joined with one of them, most of our half an hour conversation was about the different birds and flowers! It was refreshing to listen to this and join in which lifted my spirit!

I was preoccupied as I set out on this walk, which is a snare to which most of us fall especially after an eventful meeting or an engagement. 

Becoming present fully to what we are engaged in, rather than stay occupied with the past or the future can bring an inner well being and cheer! 

When we are preoccupied, what we bring into our lives is anxiety or worry about which Jesus of Nazareth mentioned in the Sermon on the Mount, 'which of you can add one cubit to your height by worrying..". Sometimes I am prisoner of this preoccupation. This time, I returned from this walk refreshed!

Become present to ourselves as God is present to us in our inmost being- intimacy of presence!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)     

After a morning run!

This is the typical posture of Daffney and Dulcy after their play time in the garden to recover from panting! In a few minutes they would  return to their chasing game!

They seem to chase each other so well that both seem to win equally in the race!

But they do not behave to convey that either is a winner or looser!

They seem to do it for pleasure and playing with each other!

I was recently in  meeting, where I listened how the competitive spirit has damaged relationships in a department!

There is space and opportunity for every one, so why compete with others! Instead compete with oneself to check whether we are optimal in our output corresponding to our ability! It is not aspiration or ambition that shall decide the quantum of our work output but our chosen level of optimum for ourselves which would vary with our other commitments at home, age, resources, the needs of others! 

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

Arrival and departure!

The month of June was a season of arrivals and departures in the department! Three of my colleagues left and one joined us! It was also a season when the four final year students awaiting their results before they join for internship offered to spend six weeks on a life centred learning programme!

Eery movement of arrival and departure is a season of change and learning!

As professionals leave, I  hope they carry with them something of the ethos of the department. When I listened to them, I sensed that one dimension of the ethos they carry back with them was, 'children are resources from whom we learn'!

I have grown in this conviction that children and their families are the instructors on child development if only professionals can be patient to receive from them! 

We receive a lot from all other sources of knowledge-books, journals, articles, lectures, experiences of others.. one source that receives least attention is children!

When we engage children, if we can resist the temptation to 'assess' them to find their needs or limitations, but observe their pursuit of style of  learning, skills, behaviour, communication pattern, we would soon be able to conclude that there is another way a child is trying to learn and express differently from the usual way!

It is when we try to conform every child to the usual way, that we find the child as' different'! Instead what the child conveys is a unique way of learning that is akin to his or her neuro-developmental substrate!   

Let us go and learn from children to be surprised by the different ways children are 'wired' to learn!

M.C. Mathew (text and photo)  

First visitor!

Three weeks back, the child development resource was complete and received the first visitor! The department where I work was active for the last three months to complete this project of visual display of childhood development from infancy to adolescence in a spacious room, which was my office space until recently! It was an activity in which my colleagues and the pre-internship trainees actively participated!

We had a few minutes back lit a candle symbolically to mark the occasion of a new beginning before the visitor walked in!

For the visitor it was an unusual sight of pictures and captions on neatly arranged series of framed posters! His first response was, 'Oh something to learn form'! His remark in the visitor's dairy conveyed this even more!

As we reflected on the preparation to convert this room into a place for visitors, our desire was that it would initiate a new line of thinking about child development! Children acquire their character and conduct from the environment they live and relate! The first visitor captured this intent well!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

Patience as a virtue!

Following the monsoon there was a sudden spurt of growth in this plant with flowers that held my attention when they were in full bloom! It was a long wait of two years to see this happen! Our gardener had given special attention to this plant before the monsoon by softening the soil around its roots and manuring it! He was patient and hopeful that the plant would grow well! He was proved right. 

Yesterday, I lost my cool during a telephonic conversation with a friend and I felt that I was unreasonable on my attitude to an issue at the end of the conversation! It was after a long time that I felt provoked to react like this! I was not patient enough and unwilling to see a point of view different from what I believed was the way forward!

At the end of the conversation, when I was through a personal debriefing, I remembered this sight in the garden! Patience is a virtue!

Every form of reaction to a situation arises from strong opinions. Make room for the points of view and behaviour of others. Let them have their way because their decision is based on their perspective of the situation! When one has to differ, do it gently and respectfully! That was a lesson, that has come alive to me one more time!  

I sent an apology for my unreasonableness shortly after this. I might not have diffused the damage, but it helped me to come to my senses and return to the language of love in my relationships!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

The younger the better!

How early we would want our children to start sports and athletic activities!

The first toy a child is introduced is a smartphone as early as three months in the state where I live. Every time a baby cries, the father or mother woeful show the phone and play the music to still crying child. I see this almost every day as I see parents wait to be called in for consultation. I almost wonder whether next generation of parents would have personal skills to comfort and communicate to a crying child except through the use of gadgets!

I wish a similar enthusiasm to using gadgets very early in life would apply to introducing children to swimming, ball games, athletic activities, gymnastics, etc! 

Anything to do with physical exercises get less attention and it is disturbing to see children already obese by five years of age! In fact all members of the family could be obese! My current estimate is thirty percent of those whom I meet in my clinical setting!

Overtime I come to CMC Vellore I visit the basket ball court... I am delighted to see children at three years dribbling a ball!

Sports, athletics, gymnastics are co-curricualr activities and not just extra curricular activities!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

Chittor campus !

During a recent visit to the campus of the Christina Medical College, Vellore at Chittor, I had some nostalgic memories. 

The new 120 bed hospital and an out-patient service which can cater to about there hundred a day is now functional and the inpatient service is fully occupied. Although the full fledged facilities would commence only in a few months, the place symbolises the small beginning of CMC at Vellore 116 yards ago. It took CMC at Vellore about five years in the early nineteen hundred to grow to a 120 bed hospital; but this initiative starts with a plan to make it into a 300 hundred bed hospital shortly. It is a promising vision considering that a full complement of professionals is yet to be recruited for full time service in this place. Those seconded from Vellore or who go on part time basis constitute currently the majority of the staff. 

What is so special about it! In the recent ten years or so CMC Vellore is developing a new model of its presence. It is partnering hospitals in Dimapur, Erode, apart from continuing to support the earlier initiative at Bangalore!  Chittor has the potential to become the twin campus to Vellore in the coming decades all being well. 

I felt pleased to see the in-patient block built in single story simple structures to give it a modest appearance that makes it easy for patients from rural background to find it homely and hospital!

I felt at the end of the visit that another story of equal significance to Vellore is about to unfold! Its beginning closer to when CMC is preparing to celebrate its hundred years in health care education in 2018, is more than just coincidental- it carries a prophetic message!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)    

Baby elephant in training!

This 18 month old elephant spends three hours to five hours each day or alternate days in training!

When we visited this elephant park last month, we were surprised to see ho domesticated this elephant was during a short time of six months in training!

Elephants are not easily trainable normally! But it is possible with some elephants!

What determines the outcome is who trains the elephant!

A temperamentally pleasant person archives to tame an elephant!

Kind and caring ways achieve more than force and pressure!

Infants and toddlers respond to kind and playful ways. That is the way to make them develop good and pleasing manners! Inflicting pain physically or emotionally is never an alternative!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

Visit to bring cheer!

Gordon, thank you for your visit which cheered all of us!

The is the least we can do to others, whom we know. Care to visit and it does something far better than what a telephone call or a text message can offer!

For a week or more, my colleagues kept talking about the pleasant visit of Dr. Gordon Thomas, the paediatric transplant surgeon from Sydney!

When you visit others, it does far more than just renewal of friendship! It builds and upbuilds each other!

M.C.Mathew (text and photo)