The time has come the Walrus said...

There are many things which life can be said to be, but surely predictable is not one of them. Perhaps too it should be noted that I am not the best at predicting things if my track record is anything to go by. Although in all fairness I think that nobody could have predicted the course of events leading to my premature return home from India.

It is however an inescapable fact that “whatever will be, will be” and at the moment England and to be more specific my family needs me far more than India does! How do I feel about this? Well to limit it solely to my opinions on India and my time here I must admit I am feeling very philosophical about the situation. I have had the most unbelievable time here and I have learnt so much about such a diverse number of topics from medicine, surgery and obstetrics to Indian culture, friendship, cooking and just being. I know for a fact that the door is always open for me to return here, that much has been made clear to me. This small patch of India will always be a home for me as long as it is home to my wonderful friends. I have plenty of work to be getting on with related to the hospital and the projects I have started here and I fully intend to continue my quest to speak Tamil in a comprehendible manner!

What this does mean though is that there are many things which I intended to write about but somehow didn’t find time yet which I will now be endeavouring to convey to you. As a sort of pre-warning you don’t have to try and keep up. You really don’t have to read it all if it becomes boring but I just want to get it down on metaphorical paper so that one day if I decided to read this back I could think to myself “oh yes that happened, I had totally forgotten”.

I will be leaving the country in less than three weeks and I find myself thinking back to all of my friends who have come and gone in the last 6 months. For those of them who had been here a while the last few weeks were always a mixed bag of emotions and I have had the discussion with more than one person about what they will miss the most. For me there are so many things I know I will miss.

Being a girl who is often led by her stomach the food is going to be one of the things I miss the most. Idli for example, small fermented rice dumplings shaped something like flying saucers. When I first arrived I was really not too keen on them especially at breakfast time but now I absolutely love them. Served with Sambar (lentil curry) and coconut chutney there is no finer way to start the day. Dhosa, the savoury pancakes that are also often served for breakfast sometimes thin and crisp sometimes soft and light will also be something I will be sad to live without. Egg curry, Pongal (a sort of rice based thick porridge) chapatti, Raita, paisum (a bit like spiced rice pudding) the list of food that I will miss eating on a regular basis is a long one.

It is also worth me pointing out that it will not only be the food itself that I miss but our wonderful housekeeper and chef at the doctor’s hostel. As well as being skilled in the kitchen she is also just a truly lovely person. Always smiling and with this wonderful musical sing song laugh. She really looks after me and makes sure I eat well, and plenty! I think to be honest she has to at least partly share the blame for the slight pot belly I have developed. Here is an example. When I go out on my field visits she always packs me a tiffin box with lunch in it, Chapatti and some veg curry or egg. Earlier in the year we had a slight disagreement about this packed lunch. Well maybe disagreement is too strong a word. It was a negotiation and not one which my waistline did particularly well out of. I said that three chapattis for lunch was too many, I am only little I reasoned, surely three of the circular breads and a portion of curry was too much. She looked unconvinced but the next time she made me packed lunch I was pleased to note only two chapattis. I was content and assumed this was the matter sorted. However when I went to the field later that week she gave me a cheeky grin and said “two chapattis and one very small chapatti” true to her word on that occasion the third chapatti was petite but I knew at that point that I had lost the negotiation process. In subsequent packed lunches I have enjoyed three full size chapattis. She is a wonderful woman and like so many Indian matriarchs she is a force to be reckoned with. If she tells me to eat, I eat and it is always extremely tasty!

So you may well ask why in a piece of writing considering what I will miss I have chosen to talk to you about food and not for example my friends here. I go on about them all the time surely they will be what I miss most of all? Well actually I beg to differ. The people who I have met here and who I have shared my time with are amazing people, wonderful, intelligent, funny, kind and caring people. But I have no intention of missing them. Far from it my current plan is to keep in touch so well that I have no cause to miss them. Not just the people who remain here in India but also the people who have now moved on, be it to other areas of the country or back to their native lands. So if you are reading this and you fall into that category be warned, I have no intention of losing your friendship.

Well I feel this is enough chat for now. I am already planning my next dispatch from India! I want to tell you a little bit about the traditional medicine that we use to complement our practice here. It’s a topic that I find really rather interesting and if you fancy reading about it then please do join me next time folks!

Lots of love,

A x

With all this talk of food I figured I would treat you all to a photo of us cooking poori, most things taste good when deep fried and these bad boys are no exception.