This is what "its" all about....

“Its” all about sharing lives with other lives like fingers interlocking. Letting souls of people comingle and explore one another through the words you share. Divulging your secrets to those you barely know, with an innate trust. This allows your words to melt together without judgment and evaluation.“Its” about making someone understand the things that you have experienced; the fires that warmed you when you were erupting goose bumps in countries where you had nothing in common with the soil; nothing that could be conveyed in a spoken language or a classroom. Introductions without physical meetings-the people who share your life with you to the people who became your family, and in turn, you became theirs. How many brothers, mothers, grandfathers, uncles and sisters I have had? I would say far too many to count, but not far too many.

Having lived on the same earth and having heard the same sound echo-the convergence of one pinpoint moment in time where two, three or thousands of lives have all had this experience with different backgrounds and soundtracks…In many parts of the world amidst bombings, tears, ice, and storms.

Some share “it” through art--each brushstroke bringing the viewer into an emotion, a time, a memory- where colors converged to express that moment. Words have their limitations-confined and construed by grammar and semantics; but color seizes no rules-No beats and no rhythms. Only a person who has experienced the same quandary or emotion in some form or another can understand the meaning of the mixing colors, shading of the values, contrasting and comparing.

Then, there are those who measure....for the entirety of their lives. The timekeepers that count down the seconds. The scientists are inquisitive- in search of theories and explanations to that which will remain unknown. They seek to understand the amount in which "it" varies from the next.

The “measurers” are not to be confused with the "do"ers; Who keep themselves busy, like the bees in a hive. They are keeping pace with the pony at the local county fair; going around and around in circles till they are fed and given a furlough. Are they able to comprehend the esteemed thirst for magic they satisfy for the irreproachable hearts that enjoy them? Can they see they are a component in life like a wheel that keeps life moving, some more lubricated than others

The “sharers”, “artists”, “measurers” and “do”ers all combine efforts to deepen our understanding of life because each of us embody a part of them. When the sun sets and the stars shine, the people in your life that take the time to listen and understand the unspoken ideas and the complex portrait of emotions that come with these ideas….those are the people that make the sunshine in ways you could have only dreamed of, no matter how dark your world may seem. Those are the friends you keep, the people you miss, the only stories that are worth telling; if not to share them with these people-the experience was barely worth having. That’s what “its” all about.

World Insect Museum and my New Best Friend Manop

On the recommendation of dear Ramesh, I ended up spending a few hours today in an eccentric little museum of a man who dedicated his life to mosquitoes,nature, and the power of art and beauty that keeps the world in balance.

I pulled up to the house-turned museum in a tuk-tuk and was swiftly greeted by a little old man with a smiling soul. He asked where I came from and happily escorted me into his quirky little museum. Housed inside is a collection of insects (with a specific interest on mosquitoes), artwork, natural wonders, Manop's random thoughts, scientific and historical data and artifacts, and relics of 80 some odd years of a man and his wife dedicating themselves to classifying mosquitoes in Thailand.

I can't begin to describe the wonderous things inside--so I'll just name a few.. There is a collection of termite art where wood modified by termite holes would be titled "dog and bird"--(one really had to reach to the cobwebbed realms of your imagination to see what Manop saw). The walls inside housed his artwork influenced heavily by Thailand's Buddhism, awesome use of color and shape, mosquitoes, balance with the world and of course the power of nature. There was a room dedicated to Malaria, Dengue, and Filariasis which was a random smattering of diagrams from text books, Manop's typed thoughts on the subject, and labelled field notes and scientific specimens along with the story of when he almost died of malaria as a young boy after forced relocation due to political instability caused by the Japanese Army.

After the tour, I spent a few hours picking Manoj's brain about what he thought were the major barriers of taming the malaria epidemic. He spoke of the appropriate uses of DDT and how we needed to be using it inside the home and not diluting it and spreading it outside the home. He thinks that ecosystems harmonize themselves and if we truly understood the disease from a larger standpoint of not just host, we would be able to figure out exactly where to do an effective intervention that was not based on chemicals. He cited the lack of confidence in the mind body connection as a barrier to cure and the medical establishment and drug companies pushing medicines. He also talking about the political barriers to malaria and how governments sensationalize the problem into being bigger than it is.

We talked about the force of nature and how modern medicine is trying to change things like creation (cloning) and aging. I helped him edit a story he was working on for the museum. He told me to come back anytime and please stay at the museum next time. It was one of my favorite experiences in Thailand so far to meet a man so gently fusing nature, science and his passion of mosquitoes and sharing it with the world.

Northern Thailand-Chaing Mai and Chaing Rai

coming soon

Laos PDR

will write about my trip to Laos soon

Last Days in Bangkok

coming soon

Mumbai

I'll write about my trip to Mumbai here soon

Space Saver

I'll write more here when I can

Sunrise in My World is Sunset in Yours

Last night when the sun was setting, I looked over the balcony and noticed a tree with a mystery fruit on it. It looked beautiful in the glow of the sun.

A little before 6am this morning... I woke up to a wonderful rainbow of colors splashing in my window. I quickly grabbed my camera and realized this sunrise looks a lot like sunset (I am guessing thanks to Bangkok pollution) but wanted to share with you some views from my daily life in Bangkok.

Scenes from the country side

Family

Please click on the Full Screen to View the photos

After a whirlwind of days through Malaysia and Thailand, I finally had a chance to be pampered by Nani's (grandma's) cooking and spend much needed time relaxing and laughing with the family. Nothing feels more like home! I started my trip in Guragoan outside of Delhi and spent a day with my Mausi (mom's sister) and cousins. We packed up and headed to my Nani's house in Vikasnagar which is nestled in the foothills of the Himalayas. You can see by the map above that it is pretty far north. Time seems to stop and 3 days felt like 3 weeks. We took a trip to the hillstation of Mussorie and visited more family in Dehradun. One day, my cousin and I took my uncle's motorcycle out to take some photos of the slower pace of life in the countryside.

We ran across this cute little girl named Sita who found it fascinating to stop and chat with us for a while.

These are the kids of the caretakers of my unlce's factory. Instead of the tour of the factory, I opted to play with them.

These are 3 of my mom's 7 siblings. My grandparents shown below just celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary last year.

It was great to see my nephew playing with his great-grandpa. The ninety some years difference in their ages did not seem to matter as he insisted on showing off his muscles and asked Nana to do the same. Extremely cute!

When we returned back to Delhi, we were forced to take a day relaxing although both my cousin and I had plans to meet with our respective special persons. Thanks to the Gujjar protests in Delhi where they were burning buses and closing down streets, we were forced to stay inside.

I spent one afternoon painting with my 8 year old niece. She has such an amazing talent that is so raw and beautiful, we created this hummingbird and flowers.

All and all, not that exciting and eventful of a trip but nothing warms the heart and soothes the soul more than family!

Videos, maybe?

I'm trying my luck with the videos. Unfortunately, my camera does not have audio . So, these are some images that you can just add tilt your head left and let the music in your head play.

Cool, I think it worked. Here is one more from the butterflies I visited in Penang. One actually landed on me.

And the last glimpse of a rainbow from my apartment in Bangkok, pic only, no video

Back to Bangkok for some Art Therapy

Pretty well exhausted, I arrived back in Bangkok. I realized that I had taken 7 flights in the past 10 days and was looking forward to my fun roomate and the space in Bangkok. I was greeted by this scary image of america! I laughed at the airport taxi people who wanted to take me back to my place for 500 THB (15USD) and had a small victory by taking public transport and coming back for 43 THB (a little over a dollar). Although I showed up drenched by the afternoon shower, It still felt good.

I had a day or so to work and relax before preparing for Saturday May 17th's patient group meeting in Bangkok where I was piloting an art therapy program. After waking up with a slight fever and sour tummy, I headed to the meeting. I introduced the topic of using art to express your feelings with the disease to the patients. Then, we put on some music and let them create. After, we all talked about what the images meant. There were some profound forms of expression andd I was pretty happy with it. I've placed some photos and quotes below.

"I drew a tree in morning in the busy happening around. If people just take a break and admire the things surround themsleves. People would know how beautiful this world is"

"Idrew a sick person and a healthy person compares to myself in difference situation .When I was sick, it was dark and depressed, first thing in my mind was my family. Who is going to take care of them? What should I do for them? After I got medicine, I felt more bright full and cheer full and can appreciate things around me"

"I wish having a house on the beach near the sea, tres , coconut trees, and the brightly moon which I can climb up to admire how beautiful it is. I wish everyone has no sickness and cheer full as the moon"

"I drew the nature because I like it , small cottage. 3 Birds are my family members , mom, dad and me. I want us to be as birds have strong wings flying to anywhere"

"The circle can be the moon or the sun, it has 2 parts , bright and dark. On the bright (red) side there is a dark spot which mean all the good things can be a bad part included. On the dark side there is a bright spot (red) which mean in the bad situation there would be a small spot of solution that can give us get over it. And around the sun is the busy happening. Just be conscious on our life"

So now back to trying to wrap up my work and get ready to leave for a 10 day break visiting family in India.

Miss you all!!!!!!!

Heading East-Kuching Malaysia on Sarawak Island

We arrived into immigration in Kuching in eastern Malaysia and I found it strange that in the same country, you had to go through immigration just to travel to the other side of it. The island had a different climate and the people were mostly aboriginal and native Malays. I sense a more relaxed vibe here. I was impressed to meet a taxi driver who wears more jewelry than me :)We stopped at a batik factory and observed the way they make Batiks using steel dye presses which was nice.

In the morning, we set off to Sarawak general hospital and set up for another smaller patient group meeting. I was thoroughly amused from my public health point of view at the mural in the hospital to avoid overeating and to watch your weight.

The air conditioning was turned on full blast, so I would escape and take a few breaks outside in the sun. I met a junior resident and picked his brain a little about the health care access issues on the island.

Apparently, with global warming, most of the remote areas of the island are being flooded creating smaller islands which were the previous mountain tops. The Malaysian portion is very challenging to deliver health care because it is a long territory with a range of steep mountains in the middle. There are 27 tribes and a public hospital about every 1 1/2 hours from major cities. They have satellite clinics in place that are staffed by a nurse or paramedic. The satellite clinics are often very underutilized and used just in case of emergency. They have an issue of keeping enough stocks of medicines there. Once a month a boat comes to replenish, but since it is not used much, its hard to tell what they need or have.

Something I thought was very interesting is a helicopter service funded by private donations to the Ministry of Health physicians. It goes out pretty regularly to pre-scheduled locations and the populations come to meet them. They drop off a team, and continue on to do life flights and attend to other urgent situations. Apparently there have been an increased number of crashes, so now physicians are a little reluctant to go. Also, they have a floating boat medical clinic (similar to what I saw in Ecuador).

We then headed off to an impromptu patient group meeting at a fancy private clinic. The contrast was incredible! They had fish tanks built into the walls of the waiting rooms and flyers that looked like menus of services. You could purchase packages that included physical exams, ultrasounds, pap smears upto bone density scans. It was a little bit like a menu. Very strange. Most of the population was wealthier (but of course, not wealthy enough to afford some of the medicines) and spoke English. So, I had an easier time communicating.

For those of you who are into geography (eh hem, Biniam :) here is a little map of where I went

Kota Bharu Malaysia

After a week in the city working away, we took off for a frenzy of outstation patient group meetings. This time we headed to the Northeastern Coastal town of Kota Bharu to the teaching hospital of USM. This is a predominantly muslim region (in fact the weekend is on Friday and Saturday to ensure Friday's Islamic day can be observed). We came in late at night and the physician from the public hospital came to take us out for Nasi Kerabu (a traditional dish from the state of Kelantan). This consists of blue rice (colored from a medicinal herb), dried fish, spring onions, chilis and BBQ chicken. Even my vegetarian version was pretty good. He showed up in a "vintage" car that had no muffler and the bare minimum functionality and it gave me a glimpse into the pay that public physicians receive.

The next day, we welcomed some 100 plus patients for a great meeting. They spoke a regional dialect so even our Malaysian staff had a little difficulty communicating. Most of the people were of extremely low literacy levels so we had to make a lot of our materials photo based. It was overall a successful event and I made great friends with a patient's 5 year old daughter.

After the event, I took a short walk into the peaceful countryside and was quickly surrounded by mature palm trees, whooping birds by the creek and mooing cows. It felt wonderful to return to the simplicity after the hustle of the capital city. I found my self in the middle of a swarm of swallows. Incredibly peaceful and chaotic at the same time. I will try to post the video here. Ok its giving me an error message in Thai, So here's a pic (doesnt really do it justice)

The next day, we transitted through KL, and headed off to the island of Sarawak which Malaysia shares with Indonesia.

Bussing It!

So, I realize it's been a while since I posted. Thanks for the implicit reminders (Shawn and Leah :). The reason being is of course, that I have been entirely too busy, so let's rewind back to Malaysia.

On the way back from my artsy, farsty adventure at Central Market. I took the bus back home. I proved that my experience of taking the bus in many countries is consistant. It ALWAYS takes me two times the fare. This time, it was an amusing little attempt.

My friend ensured I was on the right bus and told me to make sure the bus driver knows you need to go to hospital Ampang. Easy enough. I told the hyperactive ticket taker this information and she assured me she would let me know. So, about half way through the journey, I notice she gets off to have dinner and the bus continues on. So, I wait and wait and finally walk to the front of the bus and say "Hospital Ampang". Well the bus driver starts yelling something at me in Malay and pointing out the window. He stops the bus in the middle of a 4 lane busy road, yells something to the driver of the bus going in the opposite direction, and tells me to get off and take the other bus.

So, frogger style, I dart through traffic while people are honking at the bus to continue and hop on the other bus. After a few minutes, a lady comes to collect my fare and I say "Hospital Ampang". This time the whole bus starts yelling something to me in Malay trying to convey that I should have been on the other bus. So, he continues with me and drops me off in the middle of nowhere and tells me to wait there until the bus comes and make sure it goes to Hospital Ampang. I recognize the place as where the 1st ticket taker stopped for dinner.

I wait about 20 minutes, until the correct bus comes. I hop on, insist the lady confirms that this bus is going to the correct destination and continue. Things start looking familiar and I see my block. I tell the driver, this is where I need to be and ask to get let off. He refuses since it isnt the Hospital once again. Then I see my apartment, once again I ask. He refuses and tells me we are almost there. SO, the bus continues, loops around and then just stops. Everyone gets off. The driver and ticket lady turn the bus off and leave and I ask, what am I supposed to do? Apparently, it was the end of the route. In about an hour (mind you its almost 11pm at this point) they will load a shift of hospital workers on and continue taking me to the place i need to go. So, I asked them to point me in the direction of the apartment and I set off on foot. Twenty minutes later, I was home.

I guess moral of the story, don't listen to the bus drivers and maybe a taxi is worth it!

Artsy Fartsy-World Music Festival Penang Island

So, Thursday was May Day and most parts of the world had the day off to celebrate the 8 hour work day. Of course, this is a little too close to communism for the good old red, white and blue, so I decided to celebrate my own way by taking a little time off and having my first art lesson with my little Bohemian Artists at Central Market in Kuala Lumpur.Here is a pic of my first lesson on how to draw on eye. My teacher is an incredible pastelist; I felt like karate kid. He made me draw 100 circles and shade them while he chain smoked cherry hand rolled cigarettes and watched and told me I needed to "become one with the graphite and the paper". Apparently I was lucky to have him as a teacher because he was just coming out of a vow of silence for 5 years.

Then this weekend I took off to the island of Penang for the World Music Festival which was a great experience. Penang is an early 16th century port where traders from Portugal coming from Goa used to come. It became a place for all traders following the Spice Trails to come together and I guess a perfect place for pirate raids. So, it is a historic town opening to the straits of Malacca in Northern Malaysia. I finally found my beer and then decided that its too hot to drink beer because I had a headache all day.

The festival was a wonderful time (http://www.penangworldmusicfestival.com/). Great production, great performers. I met some fun musicians from Kenya (Lake Victoria) called KENGE KENGE and spent time with them. Their performance was amazing and the music incredible. Overall the festival was great.

On Sunday, I headed to the butterfly garden. I forgot how amazing it is to feel the gentle touch of a butterfly on your skin. That was amazing combining my 2 favorite things: butterflies and orchids. Then I went and pampered myself at the beach. Sang show tunes with some gay manicurist from Singapore...all in all a good trip.

For more photos you can go to http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=406924&l=2d2d6&id=508474203

Cutest Rock Star Ever!!!!!!

Melting Away in the Asian Melting Pot

So, I have almost been in Malaysia for one week. I haven't had too much time to explore and have been working too much. I have found a fruit called a rambutan (a relative of the lychee) that is sweet and just fun to hold. I've been trying not to embarass myself with chopsticks, but I think I am getting the hang of them.

On Saturday we had a huge patient group workshop of about 110 plus people. It was very successful and I had the opportunity to meet many patients that I only knew as names. That was very rewarding. I designed a map for patients to come and sign and put a sticker where they are from. Patients liked it and we plan on taking it when we go to do some rural meetings to show them where the other patients are in the country.

Malaysia is a melting pot of many cultures--Malay, Indian and Chinese. As a British colony , the Chinese came to build the railroad and the Indian to do the rubber tapping. Because they have natural resources, I think Malaysia is much better off than a lot of the other nearby countries. It is very modern and clean in Kuala Lumpur.

I wondered how 3 very different races live in such harmony, given other parts of the world have tensions amongst "their own" people. It appears the rascism here is not within these 3 groups-but to the outsiders wanting a better life. They are mostly Bangladeshi and Indonesian with a sparse group of Africans (Nigerians and Somali). Everyone tells me that crime has increased once they arrived, especially the Indonesians) and there is now some ethnic tension.

I can't gauge how safe it is here. I know there is a warning against travelling to Eastern Malaysia because of terrorist activities and kidnappings. Everyone says a woman should never walk alone, its very dangerous. Being double the size of the average man here, I feel I have a little advantage :)

So, when I first arrived I was in the mood for an ice cold beer. Then I realized, all the shopkeepers are muslims and it is against their religion to carry, sell, and consume alcohol. So, I want a beer-just one. My mission to find one continues. I hear there is a Chinese shop somewhere that may have one :) I'll let you know how that goes.

I spent an evening touring around an art market and that was wonderful. One of our patients is an artist there and he introduced me to some amazing pastelists and painters. I will return tomorrow and some of them have agreed to give me some lessons. I'm really excited. I saw a Malaysian kite stall which was incredible. Many colors and each kite hand cut and painted.

I decided to stop working so much so this weekend I am taking a short flight to Penang province for their 2nd annual World Music Festival. Should be fun!