Reflections

Here I was, reading a chapter on “Oral & Parenteral Opioid Analgesics” while all of a sudden I visualized the beautiful poppy flower, its petals as soft as silk and as delicate as a baby’s cheek and my heart soared with the memory of banks and banks of poppies I had seen, all along the roadside in Central Europe, particularly when travelling from Prague to Budapest during our last summer holidays. As my thoughts wandered in between pearls of medical wisdom and poetic imagery, I thought of the various ways the innocent and seemingly harmless poppy had made ingress into medicine, drug abuse, wars, and literature and as a symbol of remembrance.  Opium use predates recorded history (3000 BC) and use of opioids for pain management has oscillated between indiscriminate use even a short century ago even among the elite  to the severe restrictions of today which has left many a patient suffering from severe pain, unrelieved. Morphine, the opiate obtained from the poppy plan...

I start walking at about 12 Noon. The bus has taken a full two hours to come 80 odd kilometers. The only saving grace is that the roads this year are as smooth as silk, or as close to silk as Indian roads can be. However, with the sunshine on your back, the forests beckoning, all else can be ignored. As I stride down the road the Chapramari closes around me. The trees are green; I can easily deduce it has rained a lot this year. Ferns prolferate There are butterflies galore; one soon sits on my path allowing me to get a good shot. Birds are everywhere: sunbirds, barbets, an odd kingfisher, egrets and paddy herons crowd the clearings. I am not equipped for photography, I have only my trusty aim and shoot, and so I cannot record the birdlife. As I grow older, I am a lot less interested in doing so, I like to enjoy the day rather than spend my energies in getting the best shots. I soon reach the crossing where the road to Batabari goes off to the right; I will go left towards the Ja...

One of the chief pleasures of life in North Bengal is the proximity of the forests of the Dooars. From Siliguri you can , literally within minutes, reach several forests which are rich in birdlife, dissected by fast flowing rivers and can add a frisson of danger as they are home to elephant herds. When I was living in Siliguri, one of our favourite family days were when we drove out to Chalsa and then walked: sometimes down the Lataguri road, sometimes from the Batabari crossing to the Murti river and on one memorable occasion we drove north wards from Khunia Crossing to picnic in the deep forests of Chapramari. This time I had time for one walk. Now that we come to Siliguri for holidays, I do not need to be confined to Sundays and I can choose any day when it is crisp and cold, the sun is out and the Kanchenjunga can be seen from the plains. I chose the 23 rd December. Two of the three conditions that I like were fulfilled, but the Kanchenjunga , alas was not to be seen. We were ...