A marginalised fruit!

Papaya used to be a popular fruit as a valuable nutrient addition because of its rich content in vitamin A and minerals. It was the commonest fruit in fruit shops when I was young. Now other fruits have almost replaced papaya. One has to go searching for this fruit in the place where Anna and I now live.

It is is easy to cultivate; yields fruits in a year or two if a good variety is planted and fruit can be used in variety of ways in fresh and cooked form. It is still the cheapest among other fruits.

I remember late Professor Malathi Jadhav, while working at CMC Vellore bringing papaya fruit cut in slices to share with the post graduate students during morning coffee time to impress on the nutrient value of this fruit. She wanted them to be advocates for planting papaya saplings in the kitchen garden, while talking to parents of the children coming to the hospital.

I find something strange and disturbing. As this fruit is still the cheapest, some people associate it to be 'not so good fruit’. We assess the value of a cloth, car, house, kitchenware, etc in terms of its cost. The good ones are costlier. The cheaper ones are of poor quality. They apply the  same logic to papaya fruit, which is one of the reasons for its declining popularity, according one of the fruit vendors that I talked to recently.

What a paradox! Good quality food can be cheap and affordable.  Another reason against being driven by the market driven ethos of value linked to cost!

Anna has planted at least five varieties of papaya saplings in our garden.

M.C.Mathew(text an photo)

A visit with a difference!

Thank you Thambu, Abey and Jeyaseelan for your visit to MOSC to conduct the research methodology course. You taught, inspired and encouraged and made research, a prospects for some faculty. You communicated your enthusiasm and experience effectively to help the faculty to overcome the initial resistance to take initiatives for research.

I like the way, these three Master trainers upheld the values of camaraderie, collaboration, and consultation required in research through their complementary presentations and joint appraisals to quires raised by the participants. They communicated seamlessly in a coherent voice complementing each other’s skills and experience.  

Anna and I felt most encouraged to have had these friends inaugurate the research initiatives at MOSC medical college. They gave confidence even to the faint hearted to trust the prospects in research.

They were not just work shop leaders, but built capacity, confidence and skills. They made the participants feel enabled. 

We felt that they were ambassadors of CMC Vellore in spirit and action and left an example of high values in personal conduct and leadership.

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)  

Humour is therapeutic!

I used some of Dr. Jeyabalan’s jokes, which he faithfully compiles from different sources and circulates to some on the mail regularly, for the post lunch session on the first day of a workshop. For lack of time, I refrained from doing the same on the second day. At the end of the day, some remarked, ‘we missed the jokes’. 

During the in between times at lunch and tea breaks, I noticed how the participants laughed and made others laugh. 

One of the participants mentioned to me that, ‘laughter builds easy relationship’. One of the comments I have often heard from those who have a flair of being humorous even in the thick of serious discussions is: ‘If one can laugh at oneself, then he or she is sure to have more friends’.

For me, it is a learning lesson. I am not naturally  humorous. I still have to learn to laugh at myself! 

The interior stiffness we carry within ourselves would dissolve, when we can let lightheartedness set in gradually. A joke is all about looking at a situation from a leisurely perspective! 

Many of us can begin on this journey easily! Soon humour in conversation would become a habit! At least, it brings down the blood pressure by a few millimetres!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

Making medical research easy for the commoner!

Drs. Thambu David, Jeyaseelan and Abraham Peedikayil from the Christian Medial college, Vellore wee the resource persons for the Research Methodology workshop for eh faculty at MOSC medical College during this week.

Most doctors think that research is in the domain of an elite group of doctors and not for the commoners. This is an hindrance for many to consider converting observations into investigations. 

These three professors broke that code through their simple and effective communication of the essentials that can  equip one for research.  There was ease and confidence in their presentation. The monotony usually attached to such scholarly discussions was no where noticeable during the three day deliberations. 

The ‘mind set' we refer to can be reset. I remember late professor A.M. Sur introducing the post graduates in Paediatrics to the concepts in research forty years back, by saying: 'research is recording and interpreting your day to day observations for the benefit of others’. So there is an altruism in research as well. We think of others in the medical fraternity who do not have opportunities for observation or facility for methodical recording and interpretation and make our experiences available to them for their capacity building.

Well done, Thambu, Jeyaseelan and Abey ! You came and captured our minds to change our mind set. 

M.C.Mathew(text an photo)

Living the MIssion!

I find Dr. C.K. Eapen, consultant Physician at MOSC Medical College, a charismatic person who inspires younger people by his insight, wit and wisdom. 

At the inauguration of the research Methodology conference yesterday, he talked about his journey into research about 25 years back. When patients with acute febrile illness came during a post monsoon season in large numbers, he became suspicious of Leptospiral infection as the causative factor. He with the help of the Microbiologist, late Dr. Grace Koshy went to demonstrate Leprosipral pathogen in culture for the first time in India. Some of the original work on Leptospiral epidemiology and clinical presentation came frOm him and his colleagues. 

But his challenge to the faculty was beyond sharing his own personal experience. While visiting some medical schools in the USA he seems to have noticed plaques of eminent scientists in different places- laboratories, library, office, etc., mentioning, that ‘it was here so and so sat and worked’. He found it inspirational and revelational. He wondered whether, there will few eminent scientists, whose plaques would be placed in different places in the MOSC Medical College in the next thirty years!

As I heard him speak, I felt that I was listening to a statesman in research! He is the advocate for funding students for research projects at the MOSC Medical College. He knows that the way to foster research is to start working with students and equipping them!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

Another beginning!

It is now six months since Anna was asked to co-ordinate the research activities at MOSC Medical College. The three day workshop to equip the faculty in research methodology was inaugurated yesterday with Dr. Jayaseelan, Thambu David and Abraham Peedikayil from CMC Vellore leading the workshop. 

The fifty or so faculty attending the workshop while introducing themselves talked about their research interests and projects, which was an eye opener to the faculty of the diverse research activities already taking place in the hospital. 

I sensed that camaraderie between people is a pre-requisite for research as most creative and productive research takes place through collaboration and interdisciplinary participation. It is only as much as we listen and attend to other’s opinions and insights we can facilitate genuine pursuit of enquiry. 

I remember Dr. Kanakasabapathy, former professor of clinical Biochemistry at CMC Vellore mentioning to me that  five clinical biochemists used to meet once at Kodaikanal during summer holidays for fellowship and information sharing about  their work in the seventies, which subsequently after about five years led to the formation of the association of the clinical Biochemists. 

It was fascinating to  know that friendship is primary and foundational to even scientific pursuit!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

   

Only just a drive way!

Is the drive way only for an access or more than that!

Ever since we began lining the driveway in our cottage with plants, it has a new look. This is the first monsoon season since we planted them. They have grown and give a colourful look. A visitor who cam after six months mentioned that, 'there is a look of welcome. Plants and flowers make a difference’.

Since them we have been thinking about it. What is the difference between an overgrowth and a garden!

A garden communicates a message or a theme! It is planned and developed according to a design. 

We happened to visit a friend in a three storied building last week and noticed how some residents in the flats transformed the front of their homes with plants in the pots arranged neatly and aesthetically!   

Human eyes behold beauty and colour to take in a message or an inspiration! That is why we need to keep the environment communicative! 

We are in a hurry and stress prone by habit. So create spaces within our homes and outside which invite us to pause and reflect!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)