What is the chameleon watching today!

I found this chameleon perched on a tall tree on the side of a high way, looking over the fast moving traffic. 

Today if the chameleon were to watch the hospitals in the country today, what would it see! The striking doctors in all parts of India! 

The call to abstain from all work except for emergency services for 24 hours, was given by the Indian Medical Association which is the body to which majority of doctors are affiliated to. This is in protest to the bill passed in the parliament, National Medial Commission Bill, which seems to have many objectionable clauses which threaten evidence based practice of medicine and rational approach in health care.  

Let me suggest that hundreds of patients woeful suffer without health care and who knows a day in trading them on time would adversely affect their health. What if an upper respiratory infection became pneumonia because the treatment was delayed for 24 hours and her she needed intensive care!

Friend sin the profession, is it not true that all fo us took an oath to care even if we have to suffer! Should we violate that calling in our profession just because an irresponsible act of the lawmakers raises serious concerns even without consulting the professional bodies to find an alternative to what they proposed!

I know how furious most of us felt when a chief minister of state behaved most arrogantly when some residents were assaulted by relatives of patients in a rage act of retaliation over death of patient! We have by now known that the lawmakers of this land do not care enough to protect the genuine interests or needs of the health care professionals! We have an insensitive political mood as of now in the country!

In that setting, the age old trade union practice of striking work is not going to raise any eye brows. We are driven by information and evidence in our profession. Is there not many fora we can use through the print and visual media, to present facts and evidences for our argument against the National Medical Commission Bill and solicit of an amendment to the Bill by raising public opinion!

Why is that we differ dialogue and conscientisation of the civil society by our press briefs and public meetings!

Let me request the leaders of the IMA to call fo this strike and use better and novel ways of protest and uphold the noble traditions of our profession even when we feel provoked!

We are driven by heritage of resistance against traditions, malpractices, and superstitions! We have arrived where we are now because we have harnessed science and technology to make a difference in caring for patient and doffer them the best that they deserve. When that is threatened by easy options which the government imposes upon us, our resistance is a resolve the issue by being perseverant and steadfast till the change takes place! 

It is better for us to suffer ourselves to redeem the situation rather than cause our patients suffer! Making others suffer is againt the ethical grain of our vocation!

I on my part shall make my protest known against the Bill by contacting all those whom I know in the political dispensation! I shall do it steadfastly and fiercely!

Can we have a response proposal to the Bill and an alternative to offer affordable universal health care!

All of us have a sacramental connections and association with humanity especially all those who seek for their health needs. It is during our training we learned all the clinical medicine because the patients were willing to be our our subjects of learning. We owe our skills and abilities to them. This sacramental association calls for sacred reciprocity, even when we feel inconvenienced. Otherwise we are of all people utilitarian and not self giving!

Abstaining from attending on our patients is not a noble way of protest!At least have a referendum among all the members of IMA to see if there can be another way protest than abandoning work ! Such a drastic action to stay from our work is a serious enough matter which might inflict harm to others, that an opinion from many about its appropriateness is needed !

The nobility of our profession calls for responsible action and not impulsive responses!

M.C.Mathew( text and photo)

The challenge of the plenty!

Every time I look at the papaya plants in our garden flowering to produce the fruits, I feel a  sense off excitement. The fruit bearing is the beginning of another plant cycle in nature. 

What if there are too many fruits! Papaya fruits in the market do not fetch the farmer anything worth the effort. 

I had a disturbing experience yesterday. As our gardener did not visit the garden for a week due to incessant rain, he gathered 12 bunches of banana yesterday. Usually we get a bunch or two in week, which is enough for us and our domestic helpers. 

I set out packing the boot of the car with all the bunches of banana and went from shop to shop in the hope of selling them. I was offered 25 percent of the selling price. That was shocking. Finally one shop keeper offered fifty percent of the selling price for three bunches. Another shop keeper offered to take the remaining bunches with an offer of differed payment at about 30 percent of the selling price. This gave me  sense of an ordeal that farmers go thorough. A farmer is not a winner !

The prices drop significantly if the there is plenty of produce in the market. 

Out of curiosity, I went to a Farmer's market where farmers bring their produce and auction their products. Having paid the commission to the auctioneers, and the market managers, the farmer goes back home disappointed. 

The market economy is conditioned by the influence of the large dealers, who control the economy and selling and buying prices.

This is not the society I grew up. There was regard for farmers and farm produce. The farmers received support for their efforts, as they were seen as the 'providers' for rest of us.

Now the farmers are seen to be people to be exploited for profits, that too for a few who have the right connections to control. 

Ours since independence in 1947 was a democratic socialistic country, where equality of opportunities remained spread across all strata of society. Today, it is a society with a pyramid structure, where those on the top have the larger portion of the cake. The trickle down effect of a capitalist economy is hardly fed at the bottom. 

I agonise over how the Church watching all the inequalities is largely silent and ineffective. If there is a time to act it is now as the civil society is in distress because there is a lack of moral and righteous leadership at all levels!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)    

The grooming station at sunrise!

They are small birds but adorned with rich colours and dexterous movements.

This bird family chooses to come to the dry twigs on top of the nutmeg tree in our front garden. early morning for their body grooming and stay till sunrise. I have watched this for several weeks now. 

Some rituals are inherent to some birds. 

Most of us have our daily rituals as well. 

One ritual that I have been used for at least thirty years now is making coffee by grinding coffee seeds and brewing coffee. I looked forward to that cup of coffee and sharing it with Anna before our time of prayer together.  

Now that I have been told that I need to stop coffee drinking for the sake of regularising my heart, a ritual comes to an end, excepting that I can still make coffee for Anna.

Rituals have a deeper meaning. It was during the time of preparing coffee I am in the habit of remembering each member of the family and increase the consciousness of their goodness and kindness towards me. The rituals therefore have a meaning beyond the superficial and the external. 

I shall continue to brew coffee an be content with the aroma and sight of the coffee. We usually have a collection of ten or more brands of coffee seeds so that we can remember the place and people from where we gathered the coffee seeds!

Rituals make us deeper in our consciousness. 

M.C.Mathew (text and photo)

Night, Morning and Noon!

Every morning, I watch this fascinating sight. The leaves of the roses are covered in the dew and by noon time the leaves look dry. This the daily pattern unless it has rained. These sights are photogenic and leave some lasting memories.

As I keep watching this day after day, it takes me to a depth question!

How the dew makes the rose buds and leaves look ornamental with the morning dew. They are given the gift of a new look every morning. But it lasts only for part of the day. 

Some responsibilities of leadership are given to us for a while. Often those responsibilities are for a season. With the responsibilities come many additional privileges of visibility, acknowledgement, appreciation and acceptance. But with the responsibility coming to an end, all those benefits also fade away.

All things in life have a transitory place in our lives. Our lives without all the frills and visible marks of identity make us who we are. 

We receive praises and affirmations. They are only like the dew which have a transient ornamental effect. 

What matters is the core of our lives, where we keep our hearts steadfastly oriented towards living our calling mindful of others, doing good whenever possible and living in peace with others as much as possible. 

I have suffered immensely in the recent three years, as living in peace with others has not been effective. 

I come to a new consciousness that, just as the rose buds and leaves cannot cling on to the dew, so it is in life that I cannot hold on to good or difficult experiences, but allow them to fade away!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo) 

A companion !

I was engrossed in taking a picture of a Tree Pie perched on the tallest tree in our garden. It was a difficult photography as the light was fading and the visibility was dropping. 

After I took a few of the photos before it flew away, I turned back to see Daffney at a corner of her yard, intensely looking towards the direction that I was focussed on. 

I have noticed that Daffney is fond of birds. Every time the Magpie Robins or the Honey suckers come opposite her kennel she would come out an looks at them intently. The birds are the only ones at who she would not bark. The exception is when crows come to steal her food from her bowl in the kennel.  

We have a bird house which is fully visible to Daffney. I have noticed that when the birds chirp, she would get out of her kennel and come to ayr to watch them. 

It seems that even dogs seem to like what their masters are keen about!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

All on one cloudy Sunday afternoon!

I counted fifteen butterflies in the lantana bush behind our kitchen this afternoon. There were more. But it too difficult to spot all of them as some looked similar.

It was an amazing and exhilarating sight.

I expected to see butterflies as it was dry for most of the morning and the afternoon was cloudy.  Usually after a spell fo rains the butterflies gather around flowers in good number.

There were some romantic sights as well!

Anna an di feel reviled to have such a rich collection of butterflies in our backyard.

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

Farm produce for the city!

The fields in front of us used to be for rice cultivation during my childhood. Now the land is used for cultivating tapioca. It is easier to cultivate them and the farmer gets good return from this. The pine apple and tapioca cultivation are common in rural areas.

The truck owner told me that they are transporting this load to Ernakulum. 

That is when he told me that the city dwellers depend on farm produce from rural areas. The tapioca is sold at four times the price of purchase from the farmer. 

This is the basic struggle for the farmers all over the country. As farmers do not have a net work of marketing facility, they get less than half of what they rightly deserve fo rather produce. The farm distress can be partly overcome if there is a direct purchase policy where the farmer sells to the end user through co-operative marketing. This happens for milk, coconuts, etc.

I come across farmers giving up on farming and selling their land! This is another criss in evolution!

Does any one care!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

Something to look forward to!

The passion fruit plant is now in its fruit bearing season. 

Anna and I were fascinated to see all the stages of flowering process this afternoon. It might be another three weeks before the fruits appear.

The flowers itself is a piece of art because its exquisite blend of colour, texture and ornamental appearance. 

Foe everything good in life there is a process and a waiting spell. It is because of waiting, there is abundance of gladness at the end of waiting!

The seasons of life are therefore interconnected. 

Even to see the different stages of the passion fruit flower when one is not looking for them is a surprise discovery.

When we can welcome the unexpected sights and scene in our lives, we allow our insights to expand and become inclusive. There are many happenings in our lives, we gloss over. In fact to be present to them is a means to become contemplative!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

Young and ageing !

The first bunch of flowers are young and it is the fifth day since they are in full bloom.

The second photo is of a bunch of flowers in the same plant drooping and falling off one by one since it has been in full bloom for three weeks. 

For me this plant with the young and ageing flowers brought some consolation after a terrible slip I made in not turning up for a meeting today at Alwaye for which I gave my consent about three months back. 

I was asked to be on Holter monitor for 24 hours by the cardiologist yesterday, since the irregularity of my heart rate and rhythm did not settle down after the usual medical measures. So I was connected to the Holter in the afternoon and this experience unsettled me and made me emotionally anxious. 

I was aware of the meeting on Sunday and had prepared myself for the meeting. But amidst the inner turmoil and anxious thoughts in the seventh year after my by-pass surgery, I forgot to inform the organisers of the meeting about my inability to come. It was when they called an hour before my scheduled talk, I realised that I had forgotten apologise for my inability to go for the meeting. 

I cannot believe that I disappointed and embarrassed the organisers. It is the first time I could not turn up for a meeting without informing earlier. I spent most of the day in deep regret. I could not forgive myself or overcome a sense of guilt.

When the Holter monitoring discontinued, I got out into the garden and was struck by the sight of the flowers in the front garden. Although I watched these flowers every time we go out or come in, it did not speak to me in the way it did this afternoon. 

There is a difference in being young and ageing. 

When one is young, most of people are in the prime of their health, brimming with energy, enthusiastic and well structured. There is a spirit of being fully alive and being in charge of one's circumstances. One is organised and follows an order in life.

When you grow older, there are more unexpected things that one comes across in life. The energy level might drop. One can be forgetful and might not even recognise it. There can be a sense of complacency arising out of declining interest and inability to cope. 

But what inspired me is the sight of the plant holding together the young and ageing flowers in its stem. It gives the same attention to all the flowers in the plant. When the ageing flowers gradually fall off the plant becomes regretfully bereft of them till new buds and flowers bloom. 

Yes, I too belong whether I am young or ageing. To you, God of my life, I belong. Even when I fail to keep a commitment and forgets to apologise before hand, I still belong and am anchored. I cannot change the ageing process or blame it for my slips, but I can become more alert to be accountable and responsible.  

The flowers became a gift to me and uplifted my spirit from heaviness of guilt.  Although I let down the organisers, I hope I can compensate in a meaningful way!

Growing old also needs preparation and planning! I learn this one more time!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)  

Two messages !

I was fascinated by the sight of the tender leaves in the cashew plant. What featured in the picture was a brown Beatle. What invites our attention might be visible things. But there are the not so visible or tangible events or experiences which are equally significant or even a means for turning point. I missed seeing the Beatle as it had moved away when I reached the spot.

Another was the last Rambutan of the season hanging in the tree. A season is behind us. A season of plenty is over and the season of waiting begins till the tree flowers sometime in January next year.  The plants and trees have their rhythm and seasons. The plants and trees bear fruit after a season of 'quietness'! Fruits emerge after a quiet season. 

Oh, that I might have insight to look for the small things and seasons of quietness to become ready to be fruitful!

M.C.Mathew (text and photo)

Education in behaviour!

Perched on two adjacent coconut trees these two wood peckers were engaged in reciprocal bird calls and beholding look. It was evening and the garden was otherwise quiet. So it was easy to trace the two who kept hopping between trees. I had hoped that hey whirl be next to each other. That did not happen till they flew away.

The nature is a place to find behaviour that educate us. 

Being fond of each other, these two woodpeckers were lost in being for each other.

How much others come into our consciousness as our priority!

Yesterday, I had occasions to meet different people whom I have not met for a while. That is when I realised how conversations and listening bring freshness to relationships!

Who we are conditioned by how we are to others.

It is when we keep others as formators, we too shall grow.

M.C.Mathew( text and photo)

A blue dragon fly!

It is after several weeks, I spotted a dragon fly in our garden. They are not commonly seen during the rainy spell. 

The nature enthusiasts look for them  to protect them. The birds hunt for them when the rains prevent them to find their usual food from the ground. I watched birds capturing them in them air.

There is a sense of serenity the dragon flies bring to me. They are often seen only when looking for them. They rest on twigs or shoots most of the time. They feed on honey sometimes and can be found near the  flowering plants. 

The fire is what threatens them most. The terrible practice of burning the stubble or leaves or waste makes the place uninhabitable for them. 

I am learning more about creating a dragon fly friendly environment! They are beautiful creatures with an elegance of their own.

M.C.Mathew( text and photo)

Rituals and Patterns !

I have watched these three birds during most mornings in the last three weeks. 

They can be found on the same spot almost around the same time in the morning. They have their regular flight stations. It might be one way of claiming their territorial right, especially when there are other birds of the same species around. 

They convey a vigilant look!

I have wondered over this rituals of the birds. Why should some birds be possessive of their territorial right!

That is when, I was reminded of human behaviour. 

Most of us by practice come to believe that there are some privileges or entitlements we are eligible for. 

Yesterday, while talking to the administrator in the institution, I got a closer view of this phenomenon which is common with medical professionals. 

Some professionals seem to claim a right over patients. Some professionals even go to the extent of insisting that they return to meet them alone and not anyone else. It is the number of patients they see which seem to give them an identity of popularity or acceptance!

What is a right after all! It is an allurement of the ego giving us a false sense of security! 

What is security! It is a feeling of being comfortable within ourselves! It is not what others offer to us which truly matters. 

I saw a child offering his chocolate to another child waiting next to him! That revived my spirit. Because of his confidence that his parents would get him one more chocolate, he was ready to part with the one he had. This gives us an insight about security. The child's confidence or sense of security springs from his trust in his parents. 

It is good to stay aware of this reality: 'who we are and whose we are'! It calls for trust in the Giver of life and all good things, the God of our lives. That alone is the source of security. Our rituals and patters do not have to be way we hold on to our rights or entitlements. We can let them go because the inner sense of security is a greater resource of strength! 

M.C.Mathew (text and photo)

Broken image !

The moving water interrupted the reflection of this waterbird! The reflection would have been closer to the original, had the water was still!

 The real and the image look to be a contrast. 

The authentic and the distorted!

The authentic gets distorted by external situations.  

There is so much of enmity, anger, reactive behaviour governed by narrow considerations and altered all around us. This distorts the dignity and respect, human lives deserve.

About fifty intellectuals wrote to the prime minister of India yesterday agonising over the recent trend to lynch or troll people. This is the worst form of distortion of human dignity and value of life by harming and intending to kill.

It is time that the ciivl society come together to resist some political activists who are bent on harming human dignity!  

They distort the authentic humanhood ! Will our national government restore the authentic humanhood by its determined action!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

The rose buds are back!

In less than six weeks the rose plants are back with buds about to blossom!

Th rose plants had a bare look after a severe pruning !

The prying has brought new life to the plants. 

Pruning looks traumatic superficially, but the good it brings out is enormous good. 

It is now the seven year since I had my cardiac surgery for blocked arteries.  The ten days after surgery was difficult and painful. For another six weeks there were restrictions on the daily rhythm. I felt emotionally low during this season.

But looking back, I had a rich season of six years in health and wellness, after surgery. I felt a new energy and enthusiasm contrary to what I felt for about three years before surgery.

It is good to view disruptions or painful experiences valuable to revive our resilience to push our boundary to new prospects and possibilities in life.

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

During the in between time !

There was a short gap of of twenty minutes when the rain stopped and to my surprise, I found all the above visitors rushing for honey! Th abetter cups remain open for about two hours in the morning. During that time, normally honey bees are  the regular visitors for gathering honey. 

It was different today! 

After three days of incessant rain or drizzle, we had a respite which gave a window of opportunity for all those hungry beings. 

The opportunities last often for a short time for doing was what is necessary for that occasion. 

It was after three weeks, i was well enough to do some spring cleaning of my cupboard oaf books in the department. What seemed to be a safe cupboard from insects had three cockroaches hiding in behind the stack of books. 

It was there months since I dusted the books, although almost every day I would have taken a book to refer and place it back. 

I delayed to dust and clean and the consequence was risk at at my door step. 

What these morning visitors to the buttercups did was : Cease every opportunity!

For the insects it was the challenge of survival when honey gathering was denied to them by rain.

But for most of us the issue is different ! How can we use every opportunity to be altruistic! In a fast changing economic climate, when the have-nots are struggling to exist, there are plenty of opportunities to reach out to them with mindfulness to reduce the stress of living!

Use every opportunity to bring wellness to others!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)