Kolli Hills with 70 Hairpin Bends

We went on a short 3 days vacation to the lessor known Kolli Hills in Namakkal district of TN on the last 2 days of May'24. Suggestion to visit this place came from my friends and Trichy NIT batchmates.

 

Relatively at a short elevation of 1,200 meters, it doesn't qualify as a hill station and the weather is not really cool up there during the summer months from March to August. This probably is a reason why the place hasn't become a tourist attraction. It's a blessing in disguise as the pristine forests with a major portion of it covered by Silver Oak remains intact to this day.

 

The drive up the hills is truly wonderful and is a source of adventure for the motorcycle enthusiasts. There are 70 hairpin bends and it gets pretty steep on the last 20 bends. The roads are fabulous, thanks to Namakkal district of TN for maintaining them so well.

 

Silverline Retreat, the hotel where we stayed is great! It had 60 rooms in various formats and built in a circular formation with a large and developed garden in the central courtyard with sit out cubicles. The watering system consists of sprinklers hanging at a height of 20 feet and when it is switched on at 4 PM, it gives the feeling of light rains in the entire courtyard.

 

There are no restaurants in Kolli Hills, only dhabba's and caters to non-veg food. The restaurant in Silverline is the best option and the master chef does a good job with vegetarian food.

 

There is an ancient Shivan temple that's a must visit besides a whole lot of viewpoints across the Kolli Hill range from where one can get a panoramic view of the plains and valley's.

 

We enjoyed our short vacation and look forward to discovering more such places in the Southern states that are relatively not commercialized.

 

On our return trip we visited Shree Anjaneyar temple in Namakkal district headquarters. The Legend of this temple as taken from Wikipedia states this: It is believed that when Lord Hanuman was having a bath in Kandaki River in Nepal, He stumbled across a stone which was in the shape of Lord Vishnu. When He was passing through the place, He saw Goddess Lakshmi medicating here. Upon asking, She said She had come to the place for penance after Lord Narasimha kills Hiranyakashyap, the king who troubled his son Prahalada. Lord Hanuman wanted to have a bath, but couldn't go ahead as He was carrying the Salagrama (stone), which shouldn't be placed on the Earth. 

 

He asked the goddess to hold it until He returned. Goddess Lakshmi warns that if He doesn't return within the stipulated time, She will put it down Upon returning, Hanuman finds that the stone was placed on the ground, and also, that it is now impossible to be moved. The stone grows into a mountain. It is here that Lord Narasimha Swamy appears before both of them and wishes to make the place His abode.

 

Hence, today we see Hanuman is seen in a posture which indicates that He is paying his obeisance to Lord Narasimha Swamy, whose temple is located just 150 km away. There is also the hillock that is believed to have been brought by Lord Hanuman from Nepal.

 

The idol is extremely well sculpted and we were fortunate to see the Panchambruta Abhishekam in its Nijaroopa, and on a Saturday...

 

The return home was a 5 hours drive with traffic snarls from Hosur to our home in Konankunte.

 

Coughing out money for cough!

 

Coughing Out Money for Cough!                       Sometime in mid-February 2024

Sometimes I wonder why the intensity of all health-related issues peak during night time! Is it because no ready help is available or, is it because all the clinics are closed and doctors have gone home. Or perhaps because there is silence at home and the mind begins to conjure all kinds unknown and unfathomable fears! Not having found an answer, I’ve settled for a mix of all three.

The issue gets more complex when the following day is a Sunday or a public holiday and no doctors are around. Like the old adage goes, “When something has to go wrong, it will”, I wish to add the word “certainly” before “will”. With the weather making a sudden change to hotter summer like days and cool winter-like nights, I developed some irritation in my throat on Saturday evening. Assuming that it could be an allergic soreness, I just took some basic precautions. However, by late night on Saturday, it became worse. I was in the midst of a full-blown throat infection, sore throat, soreness all around the body and severe dry cough that wasn’t allowing me to even catch my breath. I just couldn’t sleep a wink that night.

The following day being a Sunday, I was at my wits end…with no clinics open and no doctors willing to answer their phone, I did the next best thing. The great Indian Jugaad – self-medication; with an anti-allergic tablet, a mild pain killer and a basic level antibiotic. I hoped that the basic medication would arrest the runaway spread of infection in the lungs. By mid-afternoon the cough had gotten worse and my stomach muscles were groaning and writhing in pain, each time I coughed. I feared that the bouts of incessant coughing would tear the stomach muscles. After a 2^nd consecutive night of no sleep, I went on Monday morning to meet our family physician. I kept him informed about my adventure with medicines. He just smiled…I was reminded of my Father’s very close friend at Durgapur, Dr Pal – Head of the department of pathology in Durgapur Steel Plant Hospital. During one of his friendly visits to our house, I asked him questions about what tablets should be kept handy for any emergency. I had come home from REC Trichy during our annual vacation and it was a pleasant coincidence to bump into this super friendly doctor. With a twinkle in his eyes, he said Beta, along with your engineering studies, one must also learn some doctory – it will hold you in good stead! Words of wisdom, certainly!

Over the years I have learnt to read the drug composition in the pharmaceutical name given to tablets prescribed by doctors. There was far too much congestion in my lungs and while coughing was meant to cough out the phlegm, it just did not. Instead, the back-to-back coughing brought severe cramps in my stomach muscles. Each time I coughed I would writhe in pain. It was a horrible experience and a much more horrible experience to the family members watching me this. They felt stressed out too. I was going to the doctor’s clinic twice a day for the nebulizer. While it is advisable to keep a unit at home for emergency use, I didn’t want to spend too much money on a piece of equipment that would be used only occasionally. The important thing the doctor or nurse didn’t tell me was that I should have purchased a mask with tube plus the medicine dispenser for myself. I used the one at the clinic and that may have caused more infection.

When the cough did not clear up even after a week of medication, I started to get the feeling that this could turn out to be pneumonia. I took the help of my brother-in-law (sister’s husband), 10 years my senior, both age and college graduation year. He advised me to meet a pulmonologist, known to him. This doctor, a fairly experienced person also wanted to rule out pneumonia and suggested I go for an x-ray. My family physician had already asked for a CBC where certain parameters were out of whack. Thankfully the pulmonologist did not ask for another CBC and based his diagnosis on the x-ray and the old CBC report. He concluded that pneumonia was ruled out, but added more medicines and respules to the nebulizer. One of the respule was a steroid; I asked the doctor for more explanation since steroids are generally given in extreme cases. He assured me that this was a very specific steroid and aimed at the lungs only to help in clearing the congestion. This was not harmful and even if this drug is abruptly stopped or withdrawn, there are no adverse side effects.

The combination of new drugs helped me vastly, but it took time. The whole episode lasted almost 3 weeks. While I am completely out from the drug regime, some symptoms remain and I understand that normalcy @ 100% will take some more time.

Come to think of it at one stage, I was contemplating to get myself admitted in a hospital to get continuous nursing support. But somehow refrained from taking a step in that direction. In my life span, I have been admitted in a hospital on a few occasions. The first was when I fell from a height and my left elbow hit a stone while crashing down. It was broken, and since it happened on a Diwali night, no doctors were available in the emergency. I had to return to the hospital the next morning for an operation to set the elbow right and put it in a plaster cast. It took 3 weeks for it to set and even after the plaster cast was removed, I was petrified to straighten my arm, lest it break again. It took a physiotherapist to force me to straighten my arms and drive home the point that all was well with the joint.

The next time I was admitted for a more severe problem. Suspecting something was amiss, my mom took me to a physician to check out if all was well with my throat. Difficulty in swallowing and slight swelling were the symptoms. While it appeared like mumps, the doctor suspected diphtheria and promptly had me admitted. I was put on an extreme penicillin injection 4 times a day for the next 4 days. An extra two days stay in the hospital ward and I was declared fit to return home and to school.

The next was during my third-year engineering at REC Trichy. After an early meal of vegetable biryani in our Mess/Canteen, I started to vomit uncontrollably. At some point I was extremely weak even to go to the bathroom to relieve myself. I had kept a mug by my bedside, hoping that somehow this would become normal and the problem would magically go away. It didn’t and by next morning, the dehydration was taking its toll on me. My friends quickly spoke to the college physician and took me to BHEL’s hospital, close to our college campus. This is a wonderful hospital and the doctor was amazed that I was still able to stand and that I had not collapsed. He got me admitted immediately and put me on various medication through drip feed. I was kind off knocked out for the next 24 hours, before the recovery phase kicked in. All the while my friends were constantly in touch with the hospital to check on my progress and when I would be able to return to hostel. After returning, I was extremely scared to touch the mess/canteen food, but once the stomach is back to its normal self and hunger pangs return, all what is eaten gets digested! There were a few other occasions, but I think it makes more sense to ignore them and move on…

Good health is the only ask from the almighty when we cross the mid sixties!!       

In Appreciation!!

 

Date: 23^rd February 2024

We will remember this day in a long time to come…it was like opening a new chapter. Before I present the details of what made me say this, I need to go back to 1985. It was a chance meeting of my yet-to-be wife. Venue: my sister’s home! This happened during an official visit that took me to India Cements in Tirunelveli. A casual call from the site office to my sister and she convinced me to visit her at Bangalore before heading to my home base at Kolkata. She had asked this girl to visit her home with her grandmother without giving her an inkling that she in the midst of a match fixing.

That chance meeting changed my life as I instantaneously said yes, but my wife-to-be took three months’ time to give her consent. The only flaw that made bold headlines was I was settled in Kolkata and this girl had not travelled north of Hyderabad and Kolkata was notoriously known for strikes, hartal, bandh, Industrial unrest and what not…Kolkata was also known to be the most populated city in the country and downright filthy. For a person having lived her life in the cool garden city, moving to Kolkata was like a nightmare. However, she gathered enough courage to give her consent and before our marriage on 15^th November, we met for a half day engagement function on 28^th August 1985.

This was the first time I was getting to know her and getting introduced to her extended family. Between two brothers, one of them my late father-in-law, they had 8 children. My wife was the lone girl child amongst her three brothers and it was one son and three daughters in the case of her father’s younger brother.  Since my late father-in-law had met with an untimely death, his younger brother had assumed the responsibility of all the 8 children. What was amazing to me was how close nit the 8 siblings were. It was great to see them stand for each other from their young days while I couldn’t say the same about my three sisters and myself. We were a divided lot ready to lodge complaints against each other to our parents at the drop of a hat. And so, when I saw the unity amongst these eight siblings, I was pretty much impressed.

Fast forward to the current times, this bonhomie amongst the siblings continues, although each has traveled different paths – paths that they have carved for themselves. To this day, whatever be the function, the eight come together and celebrate with full gusto as if they were still together living as a joint family and sharing all the joy. But I must add that it has not been a cake walk for all…in each of their married lives they have faced issues that could have torn them apart but for the fact that they could lean on each other and draw their strength from each other and carry on with their lives, one day at a time. The joys of sharing experiences!

Tragedy of unfathomable proportions has been faced by my wife’s eldest brother, his wife and their daughter when they lost their son at his young budding age of twenty. He was a very smart boy, a great friend to all his batchmates in Goa, a great student to all his teachers where he had chosen to pursue a career on a subject of his choice. He was a poet, guitarist, singer, creative photographer et al. We might never be able to reconstruct where a course correction could have been made to wean him away from that moment when he decided to take his life. I am sure his parents would have made an all-out effort if only he had given them an inkling of what was going through his mind. But he chose to keep all his thoughts to himself. A tragedy I wish no parent has to face in their lifetime.

Everyone of the sibling was devastated on hearing the news and they silently stood by the eldest, hoping against hope that he, his wife and daughter somehow come out of their sorrow…time honestly doesn’t heal. It does make the pain of losing a near and dear one become a permanent life partner with a “What-if” and “Why”! Answers to these questions remain elusive and keep disappearing into the unknow and distant future…

More recently, the youngest brother was diagnosed with a major heart problem which required multiple visits to Specialists, before settling for an open-heart surgery. It was the group of eight that stood with each other to overcome the sudden crisis like situation. Knowing that the youngest was financially not strong to take care of sudden medical eventualities, the eldest had purchased a medical insurance for him and three members of his family through Royal Sundaram. This insurance company has a very innovative scheme where the no-claim bonus is ploughed back to the principal coverage amount. This came in extremely handy as he was admitted for short lengths twice and the third time was for actual surgery. While there was a 20 to 30% copayment, the major cost was covered reducing the financing costs. But as a run up to the surgery, the entire family had to move in at their eldest brother’s house in Bangalore and were taken care for a good two months’ time.

If this is not what standing for each other means, then I don’t know what is a better definition. Between him and his wife, they left nothing to chance and took care of everything that was necessary to nurse him back on his feet. This was when I was reminded of the days when both the parents suffered silently having lost their only son on 1^st November 2019. Looking at their extraordinary efforts to ensure that he gets the best of diagnosis and care during and after the surgery made me think how much these parents would have done for their son, if only he had chosen to give them a whiff of what were his thoughts at that particular instant. This brought back a flood of memories as tears welled into my eyes. If there is another lifetime we have to live, then I would wish for a caring sibling – none other than my wife’s eldest brother.

As I conclude my thoughts, I am sure each of the other seven siblings will have their own unique story to share and how I wish that each one shares their experiences to enrich the lives of our children and grandchildren. We must resolve to write and share our family history for its richness and sacrifices so that the coming generations beyond ours will get a glimpse of what and who we were!!