A Fart story


We were on our way to attend the annual meeting of  Kerala Medical Graduates Association. A big bus had been hired on the hopes of many members, but only few turned up. So we were seated in the bus, scattered around, one seat for a person. We have a very old doctor here doing private practice who is always lethargic and sleepy, and can go in to deep sleep at any time or place. He was also popular for his farts, which were always untimely. (Some people secretly call him Dr.Fart ) He had just placed his handbag on the overhead rack, settled on the seat and then promptly gone to sleep. Just when others were settling down, and were planning to have the breakfast, we heard the roar of a fart, like a trumpet horn.  It was from the still sleeping doctor. Everyone stopped talking and looked at his direction .He ripped another, longer fart and went on with his sleep. Children, who were playing at the front of the bus, stopped playing to run to the ripper doctor. They were giggling and laughing, and were expecting another round of the fire work. The women were trying to suppress their laughter and one lady doctor couldn’t hold on and went in to an uncontrolled laughter, and in the process, ripped a small high pitched fart, which suited her good looks. I asked the driver to start the bus; ours was an old school bus which could swallow any sounds around. Everyone was laughing for quite some time, and it was a good start towards a meeting which turned out to be shit.

When I was young, nothing could make me laugh harder than farts. There is just something about the way the air sliding between your butts, and the noise it makes, which makes people laugh. Not to mention the way they smell. Everything about a fart is funny!
All along the way to our meeting place, I was thinking of this fart and the responses. It made me laugh many times. I was thinking how come we were so unkind to farters . If someone belches and makes funny sounds, no one thinks it is bad. But when the same air is passed through the other end, the story changes.

There are many kinds of farts and I have also seen some people who enjoy farting. They never bother about others around and can produce different fart music depending on their moods. Then there is the "coughp". A coughp is where you accidentally fart while coughing .It often happens, and can go unnoticed in the fuss of the cough.
Another name introduced to the fart world is "Aachoorpoo". Aachoorpoo is where you sneeze and fart at the same time. It is like… Aaaaah… Choooo..Porrrrrrrrrrrrr.
Then there is the "Sissy Fart". This fart is often characterized by a high whining noise, similar to the air being let out of a balloon real slow, with the rubber mouthpiece stretched real tight. The kind of fart a princess would do. I guess the sissy aspect of the fart is that men should have loud, earthmoving low-keyed farts. At least a baritone, but a bass is preferred. Real men just don't do sissy farts!

The word “hang time" is very important in a fart.. Hang time is the time a fart lingers in a general area. A fart is said to have good hang time if you can leave the room, like to go to the restroom, come back and be hit by the same fart again. Another term for the same thing is "time bomb". The way a time bomb is used is after you fart, you stand still just long enough to let all of the air escape your pants. Then walk off!  Time bombs are especially good to use when in the supermarkets or other public places.

 I can give you a good practical advice here. Make sure to push a small test fart before you try to blast someone away!  If you are in a crowd, like in a lift or in a train, and if you happen to rip a nasty fart, just stay cool. Act as if you have not done it, and look sternly at the faces of people around, and they would think someone else has done it. Never try to wriggle your butt and squeeze it out without making sound; It would come out with a more squeaky sound, like the whine of a dog hit by a stone.

A friend of mine was having his engagement. As they were having lunch, he started having really bad gas.  It got to the point where he could hardly hold it in.  After lunch, they were all sitting together in the family room when the house dog Sancho came and sat next to him.  As my friend crossed his legs, and was trying to hold the explosion, he let one rip by accident.  Terrified, he looked at his future father in law who turned to the dog and said,
"Sancho!" very sternly.
My friend grinned.
"Great, so he thinks it was the dog.  Damn I can't hold it in any longer. Let me rip another one and blame it on the dog."  He thought as he was petting the dog and ripped a stronger one, this time in real bass tone.
"Sancho!"  The father in law to be, exclaimed gain.
"Aaah.., that felt so good, once more and I will be so relieved."  And he let another one go, this time, like from a trumpet..

"Sancho !, I warned you twice ! GET THE HELL AWAY FROM HIM BEFORE HE GASSES YOU TO DEATH!"








The story goes that the girl’s father was so concerned about himself and his dog and my friend’s fart, that he was reluctant to give his daughter in marriage to my friend.

The favorite fart story in my memory is from my childhood, and it really happened.
Ittirachan was the richest man around those days. His family owned plantations all over the state. During those days, when very few had cars, Ittirachan had three cars at home and drivers too. He had a palatial bungalow and was close to politicians and bishops alike. Ittirachan could order the Bishop , that was what they used to say.
So it was, his youngest daughter was getting married at the Cathedral. The whole gang of politicians and half a dozen bishops had arrived. Bishops only attend the weddings of those stinking rich. Only those marriages are made in heaven. The poor gets simply married on earth.
The Archbishop had blessed the couple to be married. There was pin drop silence. Ittirachan’s wife was a fat Ammachi with a huge backside .She was dressed in the traditional aristocratic style in white Mundu with a decorative frill at the back, and a Kasavu shawl and a diamond brooch to match. The knot had just been tied and Ittirachan’s wife ripped a huge fart. Within the walls of the Cathedral, it echoed many times and sounded like the roar of a lion. All eyes turned towards Ammachi and she wished if she had vanished in to thin air. Her face became red and sweaty.
Suddenly she got the brain wave. There was this skeleton of a woman Mariakkutty Chedathi, who was her servant, standing behind her, carrying Ammachi’s bag and umbrella. She whispered to the woman.
“Mariyakkutty, I will give you five hundred rupees, if you act as if you have ripped the fart.”

The poor woman didn’t have an idea of how to act the fart business. But the amount was impossible, about a year’s salary of the poor woman. Her small brain did the work. She got it!. She noticed the tall pulpit, next to her and without further thinking climbed on to it. As loud as she could, she announced.
“I take the full responsibility of the fart you heard, for a sum of five hundred rupees. It is not Ammachi, I am the one who ripped that fart”



Cheating husbands





I knew this family from the time I joined this hospital. She always used to accompany her husband when he would come for his checkups and also when he got admitted occasionally for his uncontrolled diabetes. Theirs was a happy family. Two bright kids, an excellent job, stylish living, regular attendance at the church for weekly services….I used to think they were a perfect couple. I also used to mention this to my wife, as to how happy this couple was. He never had any major health problems, and the woman was strikingly good looking even at her middle age. That was one reason  my wife was not very enthusiastic about my comments.

And so I was surprised to see her waiting for me at my clinic, alone. That was unusual. One look at her, and I guessed something was wrong. She looked as if she hadn’t slept for days. I had never before seen her so shabby with unkempt hair. Her eyes lacked the usual luster. Without my asking, she just murmured” I want to talk to you” as if in a trance. There were patients waiting with appointments, and so I left the message with my sister to ask her to wait. Soon after I finished my patients I called her in.

I waited for some time, but she couldn’t start the conversation.
I asked her “Is it something to do with Jacob?( Not the real name) Is he not well?
A sob was the reply and then she burst in to tears. The nurse in my clinic was a Malayali, and I was worried whatever she may overhear would be a news letter on the same, if not the next day. It took her some time to get her composure and then she came up with this story. Through the sobs and whimpers , I got the story that her husband was having an affair. And that too, it was going on for quite some time , but she came to know about it now. Had it been a hear say, I wouldn’t believe. Jacob was such a nice guy. But apparently her own brother had seen the husband with another woman at a hotel, where he was spending the weekend on ‘official meeting’. The woman was known to them as well, being the wife of another friend of theirs. Now, both the families were in trouble.

There was nothing much to offer her, and I was even surprised why she chose me to confide her stories. I am a well known sympathizer, that is all what I can do often, and probably she expected me to come up with a solution. Her own brother was making a mess of the whole situation, letting the whole world know about it, if not already known. I offered to go to their home and discuss the problem, and somehow, managed to send her back home. If a good looking woman is seen crying in my clinic that could be another story. They won’t spare me for my age.





If infidelity hurts so many people, then why do men cheat on their wives? It’s like asking, “Why do some men beat up their wives?” Only nowadays, we’ve made progress on the sexist idea that she made him beat her. I am sure the elderly mother in laws would definitely find that reason acceptable.” She was a little too much from the beginning” attitude. However, when it comes to sex and infidelity, that’s where things really get sticky. Society is still inclined to blame a woman as the reason for her husband's philandering. Or at least, insist she take half his responsibility for choosing to betray his wife and family. We continue offering excuses as to why a man messes around with another woman when they have a perfectly well equipped partner at home. A  partner with perks.  Comfortable living, happy kids, compassion enough to care for each other, respectability, and a safe place to call home.

Cheating husbands usually start their experimenting on the house maids. They are easy victims, often helpless in the confines of a home, and ashamed or afraid to complain for fear of job. The saddest part is that even when there is sufficient evidence to prove that the men do commit adultery with maids , most women feel reluctant to take action because of the fear of breaking up the family or hurting the children.

We say to one another, "Well, he must not have been happy at home."

Contrary to assumptions that only dissatisfied, unhappy men cheat, happy men cheat, too. According to an infidelity expert: “This information may surprise you, but research has proven time and time again that a man’s happiness or the quality of his marriage have no bearing on whether or not he’ll have an extramarital affair.”





Well, it is difficult for us to understand what quality of marriage one can have, while pursuing extramarital affairs. Qualities and values differ from place to place, and so do marital rules and regulations. Maybe, it is so till everything is kept secret. Cheating husbands and wives are unduly considerate and caring to their partners, it is said. If your husband becomes suddenly and unusually caring and concerned, be a little cautious .Could be, that lovely looking saree he brought home after the tour was meant for someone else. And the new fragrance he wears, a gift for him from his secret friend.

But this does not mean there are no cheating wives. It is hard to get statistics on this. But my feeling is that their numbers are on the increase. With increasing freedom, exposure to new acquaintances and friendships at workplace and other outings, women these days do not lack in opportunities. Monotony and unhappiness at work, lack of time at home to spend with partner, and also at times, as a revenge on a cheating husband. If women appear to have less affairs, it is probably because they are more careful then men, who would fall head over heels at an affair.

Now, to my blogger friends, don’t be upset and get irate over this. Just see me as an
infidelity expert!

When I come across such problems, (Not very usual because we are so secretive and also they need the support of experts in the field) my plan of reconciliation would be to give the lovers the boot. For casual relationship, it ends instantaneously once it is known to others. Neither of them wants to take such risks in life. In what we call extramarital love affair, it is more difficult. To leave the lover, and reconcile with the spouse is still not an unattainable task, once the husband and wife learn to meet each other’s emotional and physical needs. Bring to the notice, the long forgotten commitments of marriage and how it would affect the lives of children and alter their fate. Life is not meant for those few moments of carnal pleasure.

Signs of a Cheating Spouse.

Now, don’t take these tips lightly. These are pearls of wisdom gained from years of scientific research ! Learn them by heart. Might come handy some time , and then you might want to thank me!


 He/She shows a sudden interest in a different type of music or song
 Spouse's co-workers are uncomfortable in your presence.
 Always appear to be in a dream world.
 He/She has a sudden preoccupation with his or her appearance.
 Spends an excessive amount of time on the computer when you are asleep.
 You find items of intimate apparel that you did not give your spouse.
 Your spouse seems less comfortable around you and is "touchy"
 You get calls where the caller hangs up when he or she hears your voice.
 He/She uses a low voice or whisper on the phone or hangs up quickly.
 Begins to delete all incoming phone calls from the caller ID.
 Deletes all incoming e-mails, when they used to accumulate earlier.
 Picks fights in order to stomp out of the house.
 Your spouse stops  seeking advice from you.
 He/she sets up a new e-mail account and doesn't tell you about it. 


Here are some lessons to learn from the misfortunes of many well known cheaters.



Don’t let your desire for sex over rule your common sense.
The cost of infidelity is not always in money.
Mistresses often have ulterior motives in getting involved with married men.
Infidelity won’t improve your marriage .It might destroy it.
Sooner or later you will slip up and get caught.
Somebody else always knows what is going on.
Money can’t buy silence when it comes to infidelity.
Hell has not the fury of an offended spouse.








Overconfidence will give you away one day.
Cheaters always leave signs behind !









Changing Lives

I

It was Raji who sent me the link to this video,while commenting on my post on child sex and abuse.
I was moved by it and felt disturbed. It is easy to talk about principles.To go through personal losses and sufferings and then talk about them in public,is an altogether different matter.A rape usually ends the life of a girl.The rest of her destiny is like a caterpillar in a cocoon, never going to get the chance to be a butterfly.To gather the smouldering  remains of a  life and start a  new journey with  a mission set apart for others, is next to impossible.


Sunitha Krishnan has dedicated her life to rescuing women and children from sex slavery, a multimilion-dollar global market. In this courageous talk, she tells three powerful stories, as well as her own, and calls for a more humane approach to helping these young victims rebuild their lives.

Dr Sunita Krishnan is an extraordinary person. She makes us think about our own social commitments and how insensitive most of us have become to the problems of the underprivileged around us. How much can one Sunita do? How long can we remain silent? It is shameful to notice that she gets the help of American organizations to get her tasks of raids and rescues done. The police wouldn’t have helped otherwise.

There was an overwhelming response to Sunita’s talk.  Her organization is gaining recognition as the leading force against trafficking of women and children in India. She was honored with the' Real Heroes' award in April 2008. It is also worth mentioning that Prajwala was recently awarded with the prestigious AGFUND International Award for its pioneering work to combat trafficking women.

For most of us it would be hard to believe such things happen in our country. Teenage girls are forcibly kept as slaves and traded. I have posted a link to an actual raid in a brothel to rescue the girls. Sunita’s initiative is involved in routine raids of such brothels with the help of local police.

Dr. Sunitha Krishnan is the chief functionary and co-founder of Prajwala. After gaining a doctorate in social work, she had founded the organization along with a friend of hers. He  was a Christian missionary and  died in 2005. Prajwala  means "eternal flame." It is dedicated to removing/  rescuing  women from brothels. It begins with helping their children. In 1995 she started a school with five children. Today, aside from this boarding school for HIV positive kids, Prajwala runs 17 schools across the city of Hyderabad with 5,000 children.Her organization deserves help from all kind hearted people.

About two million people are trafficked each year within India or from neighboring countries. Most are inducted into the sex trade at age 10 or even earlier, usually destined for big cities and tourist areas. Prajwala has developed a network of informants in the sex industry to help conduct what have become trademark brothel raids. Most of the young women rescued are already veterans of the trade. Many are actually very reticent. 

Malini, one of her inmates responds. When we asked the police, "Why are you hitting us?" they said "because you do this immoral work." And I said, "Well, why are you catching us? You should go after our house madams, not us. But they just beat us some more".

“The rape per se was not so much of an issue for me.  Sunita talks about her own experience of rape.”I don't know, for some reason I was never traumatized by that, the fact that I was raped. But what happened after that made me think [about] the way my family treated me, the way the world treated me, the way people around me treated me. The sense that thousands and millions of children and young people are being sexually violated and that there's this huge silence about it around me angers me. This huge normalization of that angers me”. 

Prostitution is a very lucrative organized crime she says. She's been beaten up 14 times since starting Prajwala, the price for rescuing thousands of children from what she calls "the world's oldest form of slavery." 

Bonds of Love





"So live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart. Trouble no one about their religion; respect others in their view, and demand that they respect yours. Love your life, perfect your life, beautify all things in your life. Seek to make your life long and its purpose in the service of your people. Prepare a noble death song for the day when you go over the great divide. Always give a word or a sign of salute when meeting or passing a friend, even a stranger, when in a lonely place. Show respect to all people and grovel to none. When you arise in the morning give thanks for the food and for the joy of living. If you see no reason for giving thanks, the fault lies only in yourself. Abuse no one and nothing, for abuse turns the wise ones to fools and robs the spirit of its vision. When it comes your time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with the fear of death, so that when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way.

Sing your death song and die like a hero going home"

Chief Tecumseh (Crouching Tiger) Shawnee Nation 1768-1813



I was doing the on calls during the Christmas week because I had to come home the following weekend.

Abdulla ( Not his real name) was brought in on Thursday night through the ER. He looked around forty years old and had severe shortness of breath. Through the middle of his struggle for air, he said it was just few days that he was feeling unwell. He had gone to Bangkok for a medical check up and just come back a week back and the doctors there had told him that “everything is fine, and there is no need to go back”. I asked him if he had any medical report with him and he said, “My doctor had gone on vacation and would send it once he is back”

The x ray chest showed he had massive fluid collection in his right chest. I shifted him to the ICU because his oxygenation was dropping. We did an immediate aspiration to remove the fluid and drained a litre and half of bloody fluid. One look at the nasty looking fluid, and I knew this was no ordinary infection, and must be cancerous. But Abdulla was confident. His wife and young son were around. He was relieved of his distress once the fluid was removed and was talking cheerfully to his family and asked his son to go home and bring his favourite food.

The next day we did a CT scan of the chest and found he had a large tumour in the lung. He also had operation marks on his chest, and the films had shown that they had resected some ribs from his chest. Everything put together was clear. I suggested a CT guided biopsy and he refused outright. By the third day he was comfortable and during rounds, he asked me permission to go home. I explained the condition to him and the need to do further tests. His family was outside the ICU. He smiled at me and took an envelope from under his pillow and handed it over to me. There was a detailed medical report stating that he had advanced cancer which was inoperable and resistant to all the chemotherapies they had tried on him. He only had limited time. He had prevented his doctor from disclosing the diagnosis to his family, giving in writing that he was taking all the responsibilities on himself.

Finally, he smiled at me and said’ Doctor, I knew from the beginning you had guessed it. Both of us know now. I know I don’t have much time left. But I want my family to be at peace till the inevitable. Isn’t that reason enough?”

Medicine exists to fight death and disease, and that is, of course, it’s most basic task. Death is the enemy. But the enemy has superior forces. Eventually, it wins. And, in a war that you cannot win, you don’t want a general who fights to the point of total annihilation. I agreed to what all he asked for.

I have seen many terminally ill patients during my career. But not a single one like him. He had tremendous guts. And a concern which is rare these days. I realised how sincerely he loved his wife and son. Love, is not only in taking, it is more in giving.

For the bonds of love are enduring and cannot be severed by death. This is the ultimate comfort in the presence of death and dying – that the bonds of love can grow roots within the heart itself, and once implanted there, are able to remain forever.

He went home the next day, promising to come back to the clinic.

An angel passed this way

“To live in the hearts we leave behind is not to die”.

                                             Thomas Campbell


Sheri Susan Thomas




Death is nothing at all.

I have only slipped away to the next room.

I am I and you are you. Whatever we were to each other,

That, we still are.


Call me by my old familiar name.

Speak to me in the easy way

which you always used.

Put no difference into your tone.

Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow.


Laugh as we always laughed

at the little jokes we enjoyed together.

Play, smile, and think of me. Pray for me.

Let my name be ever the household word

that it always was.

Let it be spoken without effect.

Without the trace of a shadow on it.


Life means all that it ever meant.

It is the same that it ever was.

There is absolute unbroken continuity.

Why should I be out of mind

because I am out of sight?


I am but waiting for you.

For an interval

somewhere. Very near.

Just around the corner.


              Henry Scott Holland


When someone you love becomes a memory, the memory becomes a treasure.

We treasure the memory of Sheri, our daughter in law, who left us forever this day last year. I can’t write anything more about her. My daughter used to tell me “ Acha, you love her more than me”.

And she loved us all in her own special ways. She was just an angel who lost her way.

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