I had to make a couple of changes of Metro and suburban trains to reach the home of Dr Keuky. As always a pleasure to see him and the time went quickly disucssing the drafted document by Daniel Liew and Yong Mun Ching for the Five Year Plan of Cambodian Diabetes Association. After the meeting I was glad I was going to Kuala Lumpur after giving the presentation in Cochin on December 19th. I had been invited to Calcutta and it would have been great especially in light of the literature I have been reading, but in Calcutta there is no chance I can do anything for Cambodia but in Kuala Lumpur in the company of MunChing something good will come out for cambodia and Diabetes there.
After leaving Dr keuky's house i went to the EDF DiversiTerre Foundation near the Metro Sevre Babylon where they were holding an exhibition on Rapa Nui, Ille de Paques.. Easter Island. it was in September 2003 that I visited Rapa Nui on an impulse and for the next eighteen months my life took a different direction, with various meetings in Buenos Aires, Bangalore, Pondicherry, Yangon and finally in Tokyo, Takaoka and Hokkaido. Felt a little nostalgic about the faces in the photographs and thought about the first rapa nui graduate of medicine, Carolina who should be finishing her studies now in Cuba. It would be nice to see her settle into the Hospital in Hanga Roa and administering care to her friends and relatives. Such is the gift of Cuba.. I am sure there are more students from Rapa Nui studying medicine in Cuba at the moment..
Feeling elated, Dr Keuky, the thought of returning to Cochin, a reunion with MunChing and Daniel.. i wanted to finish the last few chapters of Amitav Ghosh's book The Calcutta Chromosome.
I was so engrossed in the book that in one short trip i missed the stations TWICE! the book is exciting in content, intriguing in its direction, enchanting in its historical associations and a biting commentary on the current social situation. Amitav Ghosh has written a number of tomes:
my favourites have been The Glass Palace (history of Burma and the Indian national Army woven into it), The Hungry Tide about the Sunderbans and the excellent recent novel The Sea of Poppies.. nothing short of excellent. When a writer can transport your mind into another state of equilibrium and excitement, it is the best medicine, better than all the anti oxidants in the tea in China! I am taking this book to KL so that my friends there can read it..
I had asked Romesh Menon, owner of Dal Roti in Fort Cochin after Arvind Adiga had won the Booker Prie this year for his White Tiger, why such a resurgence of writing in India in recent years. My dear Chap, he swelled with pride, India always had great writers, it is only recently the publishers started taking a chance on them, and they are now laughing all the way to the bank..
here is an excerpt from the book The Calcutta Chromosome
for what we have here is a biological expression of human traits that is neither inheerited from the immediate gene pool, nor transmitted into it. It's exactly the kind of entitty tthat would be hardest for a conventional scientist to accept. Biologists are under so much pressure to bring their findings into line with poiltics: right wing politicians sit on them to find geners for everything, from poverty to terrorism, so then they'll have an alibi for castrating the poor or nuking the Middle East. The left goes ballistic if they say anyting at all about the biological expression of human traits: it is all consciousness and soul at that end of the spectrum
Good Read Highly Recommended
A visit to Rapa Nui Isla de Pasuca Ille de Pacques Easter Island is good for a traveller
Good to have a friend like Mun Ching
A Bientot...
