Rach back from kutch...

Hi guys!
Rach back from Kutch....
15 days of salt-water and no internet and that is just the beginning...
Anxiety and apprehension initiated this much-awaited trip of the new year..But there was a good friend on board to alleviate my stress..presenting Khushnuma Calagopi (parsi) homeopathy grad from pune (been buddies since over a year after spending 15 days together at Dr.Chetan Bhatt's clinic). So u can say we were like the jay and veeru of this story (literally inseparable).
After 15 hr long journey , where we chatted incessantly,from bandra terminus to Gandhidham (gujarat), we woke-up to ass-freezing weather and gloves and socks doing nothing to help us.
We somehow unloaded our luggage with almost 10 other people from the camp ( some doctors and volunteers) and got into an ambulance which drove us to our camp-site 1.5 hrs away from the station.
Enter-Bidada..the name of the village where it is based. The trust is called Shri Bidada Sarvoday Trust and this was their 37 th annual fully charitable camp. They have senior famous doctors from all over the country, mainly gujarat and mumbai coming over for 2-3 days for each speciatly and checking alomst 400-600 patients each day and performing surgeries worth Rs.20 lac each year and providing medicines worth lacs to the patients who come there. WOHWOW!!
The place has progressed from doing operations in oil-lamps to air-conditioned OTs in the middle of this desert called kutch...
We used to have duties starting at 8-8.30 each day going till atleast 7 or occasionally even 9 and later...
sometimes we used to be in OT assisting in surgeries or in the wards taking care of post-op patients...mostly i the OPDs...examining patients and writing prescriptions...
In the morning we used to hate getting up and out of the cozy bed n blankets in the 5degrees cold , with mist coming out of our mouth when we spoke...but having hot coffee at such times was a boon!
and i had carried maggi! so i made maggi and had there! it never tasted so amazing..!!
All food was jain..so no potatoes or onions or carrots or garlic ..!! imagine my state!!! uf....!
But luckily Amrita Rao came there one day to stya and one day John abraham came so there was a lavish dinner on both days with onions n potatoes....man i hogged those days!!!
And one day in the honour of Consul General of USA who had come there to fund the camp..a dinner and DJ party was organised at a nearby farmhouse.....so the food and music was awesome!!!
There is this beach called Mandvi beach about half an hour from our place...me and khushi went with the whole team of general surgeons there! it was good fun tohang out with practicing surgeons almost as many years of experience as my age..!
There we witnessed a very beautiful sunset...and chilling cold breeze...and ate the original kutchhi dhabeli and frozen falooda...
i dare say it was anything less than yumm...
One day when we went for the peripheral OPD at Mundra Port, abt 2hrs from our camp, we shopped with two young surgeons...one from KEM and other from JJ...we bought kurtis with kutchi work on them and suit-pieces and they bought sarees for their new wives...
Till the second last day we had made good friends with a room-mate who had just joined us 3 days back...so all three of us went to mandvi market and bought more suits and bedsheets....Gosh..so pretty..!!!! had i more cash on me i think i would have bought atleast another 5 kurtis and few bedsheets...
In the market we had some awesome pav-bhaji which is like finding water in a desert, in kutch...and it was delicious...
and on the way back...as we shivered in the cold wind in the rickshaw,,,,we halted at this divine temple called 72 Jinalay..its absically a jain temple of Lord Adinath made fully in purest marble...it has 72 temples surrounding the main temple... replete with exquisite carvings in every pillar and arch...it was beautifull...one of the most beautiful temples i ahev ever seen
and were we lucky or wat..!! the lights went out just 5 minutes after we enterd the temple and it was almost a complete moon that night with clear skies...the entire temple and idols were glowing divinely in that moonlight and i was with one of my closest friends(khushnuma) and mum and rachel messaged me in those 5 minutes that they were missing me...(too much of a co-incidence na ) (rachel is my closest college frnd) the only words to cal that experience is DIVINE...
Aur kya kahoon....these are all the good memories...and they are the maximum ones...
Not a single moment waas dull as i had khushnuma the ever sparky with me...
We had some issues with other junior docs on campus but they were so triffle that i wouldnt want to even recall them..only recollect that i learnt that you gotta be really smart when amongst compete strangers..and diplomacy goes a long way...
So hopefully and maybe i will go there again next year...keeping fingrs crossed...
I am going to miss the calm and peaceful atmosphere and balmy wintry afternoons and my new found mate..but boy am i glad to be back to internet, family and sweet water...(not in that order) ...