Focus Wellness

It was another usual. This time the grandfather was the one who brought his 14-year-old grandson with the usual complaints. He eats nothing and is addicted to gadgets. This covid era has been a fertile period for such issues. Kids just got more engrossed with these gadgets as their schools shifted from real to virtual canvases. Earlier, they had a tablet or a mobile to take an eye off their books and relax to play a game. Now the school itself relocated to the tablet and, parents are unsure whether it's the learning or the playing that's happening at any time. There is no rarity of such kids, be it in my clinical practice or my friends' circle. No gender difference too. Almost on a daily average, I come across a complaint of gadget addiction. Unlike most harmful substances that are addictive, these are at times handy and have thus become a part of our lives. I summoned the mother of the 14-year-old. There was nothing in store as a surprise. A homemaker mother, having to tir...

Doctor, may I hold your hand? As it was not one for a handshake, this request did intrigue me. Before granting his wish, I felt I needed to know the reason. The quest of finding it led to an unfurling of that boys bringing up. The youngest to two elder siblings and, with his father an expatriate, he grew up amid three women; two sisters and a doting mother. During the consultation, he disclosed to me that he never felt attracted to women. He wanted to live with a man whom he could choose when it was time. The parents who accompanied him for a later session were hell-bent on not allowing such a marriage as their religion never allowed it. They couldn't bear the shame inflicted by society. Delving deep into his mind, he revealed the reason why he couldn't accept a woman as his life partner. He had never seen his daddy love his mommy, and they would always quarrel in front of him whenever his father came on leave to live with them. The revelations of the parents were furthermore s...

From the mundane brown and beige uniform, it was an entry to a world of colours when we went for the school tour to Ooty, Bangalore, and Mysore. Even though we pulled out the best from our closets, something was missing. College, too, was no exception. An Armani or the local footpath t-shirt didn't make a difference as the white apron over it cloaked the colours beneath it. We couldn't go beyond a point to showcase our fashion tastes. We had a code. Few teachers used to scold us if we didn't dress up to the dignity of our profession. School and college tours were a break and a breather from the hectic schedules. And we had to look like romantics as tours was the time when most cupids struck. So we had to add to what was missing to complete the effect. The addition was mostly a borrow or an authoritative steal from mother, elder sibling or cousins, sometimes even friends. I remember borrowing my cousin's floral shirt for the school tour. That pattern was a rave in those ...

As I was receiving his symptoms, he said that I spoke good Hindi. Hearing his comment made me laugh deep down in my heart. Setting up my practice after graduation, I had a lot of immigrant labourers as patients; poor them were finding it hard to meet a doctor with whom they could communicate their symptoms effectively. They were so happy seeing a doctor who could "fluently" speak with them in Hindi.  At school, I never understood a single word of what my Hindi teacher taught. It wasn't her fault at all. I was a hundred percent dyslexic when it came to Hindi. Not a single word entered my head nor, would anything come out from my mouth. She used to cane and coax me a lot with total futile results. I barfed out what I had somehow pushed into my grey matter on to the answer sheets and barely managed to pass. Later, my graduation days in English literature was where I met Bollywood through DDLJ and Rangeela, and lo, I was learning Hindi through the language of love in the film...

Without an iota of doubt, you should say that 2020 was a great year. You just witnessed a year that will go down in history books as one of the greatest faced by humans ever since recorded. There have been wars and pandemics before covid 19. But this one got faced by a generation, especially millennials, who had never encountered such things. Yesterday, few were forwarding memes with the apprehension of even using 'happy' to wish the new year. 2020 was, indeed, a great year where new normals got established. Every single human being on this earth got affected, even the remotest humans living on isolated islands. This pandemic has taught us some great lessons. Of them, the most significant I feel is we should not think much of our future. Just think of how we can survive the present. That will bring peace of mind. And whenever you look back, don't forget to say wow! 2020, you made me strong.  And from me, it is a happy new year to all of you.