Life of Doctors – Patients, Medicine and Beyond…

Dr Suresh Venkita, our Group Medical Director, a senior cardiologist and an avid writer, has yet again shared this lovely story from his desk.

WILL YOU BE MY VALENTINE?

In the middle of the flight, Kiara woke up to go the washroom. When she returned, she was too lazy to push her way into the middle seat. And with Rishaan readily offering to shift seats, the seating arrangement changed. With 20 minutes still remaining for the flight to land, a sleep starved Kiara took another power nap, this time holding Rishaan’s right hand more firmly. Rishaan’s other hand, though, nervously moved to touch Diya’s. Her heart skipped a beat. Diya pulled her hand away. But a defiant Rishaan held her wrist again, this time firmly and more reassuringly. The changing behavioural dynamics between the three perhaps gave out a foreboding of what was to come in Goa.

When the flight landed at the Dabolim Airport, Rishaan felt uncanny. His excitement seemed replaced by an unknown fear that he found very difficult to decipher.

He was both surprised and confused when Kiara and Diya, his class mates at the National Institute of Design, asked him to join them on their abruptly planned visit to Goa, the exact objective of which was unknown to him; he could only surmise that it was probably just a holiday jaunt. He was not naturally comfortable with the opposite sex. He had grown up as a single child in an insular family and the only woman he knew, or thought he knew, reasonably well was his mother. The few cousins he had, and the few friends he had, were also boys.

He was never quite sure what made girls tick- how they chose their male friends and what they expected from them. He felt attracted to some but was not confident about being comfortable in their company. He did not quite know what to do, what to say, or not to say, to cultivate and nurture a friendship with them. While he had not felt Kiara’s hand on his he had sensed with dismay that his clumsy overture with Diya had not gone well.

He was awkward, uncomfortable and anxious. He was a geek who was comfortable in his cyber space and felt acutely insecure elsewhere. His anxiety rose by the minute as the aircraft descended and turned to fear on landing, worried and shaken with the thought of navigating his way in the company of these two smart, accomplished, articulate and vivacious girls. He did not know why they chose him as their escort to this city with its lingering Portuguese culture, a town bustling with visitors looking out for excitement on the beaches, sailing in the rivers and sea, exotic sea food, dances to the beat of its joyful music and recognizing and responding to the powerful, often irresistible, vibes between the sexes that seemed to come rising, pounding and crashing with the waves. Did he know Kiara and Diya at all? He was not quite sure.

Kiara was a naturally friendly girl who liked to reassure herself as well as others through reaching out for friendship. She had a core of insecurity but cleverly managed to hide it under the veneer of bonhomie with one and all. That vulnerable core was probably responsible for the ‘fear of flying’ which made her reach for his hand.

Diya was cool and careful and never liked to be taken for granted. She was capable of great sensitivity and tenderness but expected refinement and character from the friends she chose to have. If her conditions were not met, she became aloof and distant, very much ‘touch me not”.

He had not suspected the least that he was now a subject in their ‘social laboratory’. Behind his back, the girls’ eyes met, twinkled and winked in conspiracy.

Rishaan did not know what hit him once he was on the ground. The girls took over his life completely which was in a constant whirr and whirl thereafter. They deftly led him along two tracks in parallel, both equally unfamiliar to him. It turned out to be either exciting or excruciating, while also exhilarating and exhausting.

Kiara took over some time and Diya at other times. There was no warning or timetable. Life suddenly became a roller coaster ride, up and dizzying one moment, down and with butterflies in the stomach next.

Kiara was a veritable encyclopaedia on the history and culture of Goa and whisked him away on whirlwind tours of the old city. She introduced him to the historic city of Margoa which still exhibits the cultural influence of the Portuguese, who first landed in the early 16th century as merchants and conquered it soon thereafter. ‘Portuguese India’ existed for about 450 years. On 19 December 1961, the Indian Army launched military operations with Operation Vijay resulting in the annexation of Goa into the Indian union.

When Diya was not spiriting him away to the beaches Kiara exposed to him to Goa’s ancient places of worship, to its world heritage architecture and to its rich flora and fauna which made Goa a biodiversity hotspot comparable with the Amazon and Congo basins.

He learned from her that the Indian epic Mahabharata refers to the area now known as Goa as Goparashtra or Govarashtra, which means “a nation of cowherds”.In the 3rd century BC, Goa was part of the Maurya Empire, ruled by the Buddhist emperor Ashoka, during which time Buddhism took slender roots in Goa, a fact known only to a few today.

He saw some of the oldest rocks in the Indian subcontinent in Goa, some estimated to be 3,600 million years old and dated by rubidium isotope dating. There was a specimen of the rock exhibited in the Goa University. Rock art engravings exhibited the earliest traces of human life in India.

Kiara led him to the banks of Goa’s two great rivers, Mandovi and Zuari which are the lifelines of Goa.

At the renowned Salim Ali bird sanctuary he learned that the state bird is the Ruby Throated Yellow Bulbul.

She took him to Goa’s World Heritage Sites: the Bom Jesus Basilica that holds the mortal remains of St. Francis Xavier, regarded by many Catholics as the patron saint of Goa and the statue of the bleeding Jesus on the Crucifix at the Santa Monica Convent in Velha Goa.

Rishaan‘s scientific curiosity was excited by the visit to Naval Aviation Museum, the National Institute of Oceanography and the National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research. Standing there, soaking in the sunshine and sparkle of the Goan way of life, it was difficult to even imagine how life would look and feel if you jumped into the ship and sailed to the frozen continent many weeks away.

He learnt of many famous Indian classical singers who hailed from Goa, including Kishori Amonkar and Kesarbai Kerkar and about Natak, Tiatr and Zagor which are the chief forms of Goa’s traditional performance arts.

He who did not play an outdoor game learned that Football is the passion in Goa and that the state’s football powerhouses include Salgaocar and Dempo Sports Clubs. He also learned that Dilip Sardesai was the only Goan to date to play international cricket for India She tickled his palate with rice and fish curry (xit koddi in Konkani), the staple diet in Goa. He enjoyed the catholic cuisine -pork dishes such as Vindaloo, Xacuti, chouriço and Sorpotel.

But there was no siesta on a beach side hammock for him after such a sumptuous lunch. Diya made sure of that. She pulled him, on beach wear, to the exotic beaches of Kalangute. She dragged him into playing beach volleyball with excited girls in skimpy bikinis and dunked him unceremoniously at intervals into the stinging salt water and its surging waves. She taught him on the beach the Biblical lesson that there was a time to gather shells and a time to throw them away. She let him glimpse the fascinating plight of the crabs that were washed up on the sand and had to scurry to avoid capture by digging into and burying themselves under the sand. She showed him turtles that arrive in hordes at night to lay their eggs and bury them in the sand to escape predators. There she carefully exposed him to an exciting encounter with Goa’s most popular alcoholic beverage Feni, made from either cashew or coconut. And before Feni could take a hold on him, he was hoisted on to the decks of a boat sailing into the Mandovi, Zuari and the high seas, to dance till the break of dawn with young people from all over the world who were drawn irresistibly to Goa to soak in sunshine on its silvery beaches imbibing the abundantly accessible Feni and inhaling at times tantalizing whiffs of marijuana.

Diya showed him why Goa stands 6th in Top 10 Nightlife cities in the world in a National Geographic survey.

‘He could have danced all night’, like Eliza Doolittle in ’My Fair Lady’. Rishaan popped out of his shell and sprouted to full bloom on the sands of Goa’s boisterous beaches.

When they flew back, it was a different Rishaan. He was laid back, chilled out, attired in faded T-shirt’s that declared outlandish affinities and decked out in tattered low hip jeans. His hair was cut in the fashion of the day, he had beads around his neck and wrist and a tattoo on his right upper arm. He sported outsized sunglasses, and most of all, bubbled with effervescent laughter. He was reluctant to leave, was the last to board, and had to be dragged up the stairs by the two girls who bounced up the steps. When they found their seats and sat, he made sure that he was seated in the middle again so that he could hold both their hands, firmly yet tenderly, all the way home! At last, he had found friends.

Kiara’s and Diya‘s eyes met behind his back, they were shining and sparkling with laughter as they had smelled the sweet scent of victory. They had accepted a challenge from the girls at the Institute to transform Rishaan completely by Valentine’s Day, and they had ‘done it’, well before time, with more than a month to spare. Now it was time to collect the prize from their friends- the cost of their entire travel and the bonus- for each to buy an iPhone 6 S.