Travelling

Life is a journey. Over the last month this has been quite evident for us as we have had a burst of travels - including a trip down to Vellore and Chennai for me - followed by a weekend camp at Igatpuri as a family - and then the next week travelling to Ranchi and our old hospital in Palamu District.

The highway down the hill from Igatpuri - looking out the window of John and Nalini's car

We have travelled in so many modes - by car, train, bus, auto-rickshaw, jeep, airplane... We have travelled alone and together - and the journeys have been all the sweeter by the shared conversations with old friends.

And what sights we have seen. The photo below is not taken at 9000 m altitude - but at about 200 m altitude - while driving down the ghats to Thane from Igatpuri - shot out of the window of a moving car!

Our most recent travel was the epic trip to Jharkhand. A flight from Mumbai to Ranchi (via Patna). 4 days in Ranchi at the EMFI conference. Then a 120 km drive to the Nav Jeevan Hospital in Palamu Dist. 2 nights and a day there. Then the same drive back to Ranchi and a shot through the sky back to Mumbai.
We hit Ranchi at the peak of the Dasserah festival - and drove by a large open space where the images were being readied for the night bonfire.

The road side bazaars looked just the same from 10 years ago. Perhaps without the bicycles and motorbikes it would be the same for 100 years ago too.

Green fields also look age-old. Except that they are not. So much of the rice planting is from the last few decades. Previously people used to plant more hardy dry-land crops like millets. The shift over to a rice-based cultivation - and diet - is still relatively new - and we really do not know what the effects of this nutritional shift really are - especially on the poor.

Lives flashed by. Three children walking home from school. An old man sitting by the wayside. The overloaded jeeps with people and produce heading for a market.

As we came to the forested belt we saw fewer people. The tropical decidous forest of Sal and Teak took over the landscape.

A sobering sight was a small cross in the jungle between Chandwa and Latehar. About 3 years ago a group of Maoists killed a Roman Catholic priest on this spot - waylaying the vehicle that he was travelling in. The fact that there is a low-grade war going on was clear with armed policemen manning fortified pickets in all of the main bazaar towns.

As we passed through one forested stretch we saw a man on the road and an over turned motorbike. Another man was with him. Was it a set-up? The thought went through my mind.

We decided to stop. A more qualified set of helpers you could not ask for: out stepped a general surgeon (Arpit Mathew), a medicine specialist (Philip Finney) and an orthopaedic surgeon (Kenny David) - who specialises in spinal injuries. In the van were an aneasthetist (Leejia Philip), an Family Medicine dr. (Sheba), a public health specialist (moi), a dentist (Aji) and an MBBS doctor to round it off.

The man was checked for broken bones - none. He was semi conscious with blood coming from his nose. Another motorbike stopped and the man was recognised. Both bikes were actually policemen. They called their pickets to report the accident. We offered to put the man in our vehicle - but they wanted to take their man in their own. After stabilising the injured man and being assured that it was ok to move on we did.

Kenny David making one of his hilarious points... just about to let out a guffaw

The trip from Ranchi to Nav Jivan hospital was replete with raucous laughter as we held forth on 'the olden days' when we all had worked at Nav Jivan Hospital. It was also seen through a number of new eyes - Philip and Leejia Finney's two sons Vinay and Rohan were making the trip for the first time.

Philip and Rohan take charge in the front of the vehicle

Sadly Leejia and Vinay were car-sick the whole way up to Nav Jivan Hospital - and back. The 120 kms over bumpy bumpy roads is not easy for anyone. It took us over 4 hours each way.

But for those of us blessed to not be car-sick... what better than the wind through our hair as the vehicle dodges on-coming traffic big and small!

How strange to have this earth-bound crawl bracketed by a shot through the skies.

To be in an airplane remains such a thrill for me. My family is slowly taking to the skies - Asha took to this trip because of the joys of a mini-TV in front of her.

Enoch still holds my hand tightly at take-off and doesn't want to look out the window - but is earning his wings too.
Sheba is no friend of invisible air-pockets.

To be 10 kms above the ground - flying at a ground-speed of almost 1000 kms/hr in sub-zero temperature - to see the glorious clouds from above - what a miracle!


Our flight back took us less than 2 hours, flying from the Eastern part of our country to the West coast.

Landing in Mumbai at 6.30 PM.

We had the memories of sun-lit clouds in our mind - as we ground through bumper-to-bumper traffic in muggy Mumbai. The taxi took over 2 hours to get back to Thane - longer than the flight from Ranchi!

Life is a journey.