As a teenager, I used to give a lot of cards.
Birthday cards, friendship cards, 'simply for no reason' cards... you name it. I actually had a whole bag of them with me, ready to whip out and use at a moment's notice. For friends, I was the go-to guy to get a card at the last moment. For me, giving cards was a genuine expression of respect, friendship and love. I liked the set of people around me and I was not scared to let them know how I felt, ably aided by Hallmark.
A single act by someone who used my cards against me destroyed this quirk in me. But we will talk about that at the end of this post.

Before that, I want to go out of the light and into the darkness with you for a moment.
The theme for this month's #1000Speak is 'Inherent Compassion'.
Is compassion something that exists within all of us? Passed on perhaps from generation to generation? The generous and pious father implying that the daughter too is definitely going to grow up to be kind?
Yes or no? Choose one of the two in your mind before you continue.
Done? Now let us flip that question around a bit.

Can I interest you in keeping an extra note in your wallet?
It is slightly bigger in dimensions than your average 1000 rupee note but I promise you, it can be a lot more valuable. No, it does not have the face of a Gandhi or a Washington upon it, I fear, though you are free to add your best drawing to it.

Would you like to see my note? Yes? First hear me out.

As per the most recent available statistics, 1 life is lost every 4 minutes in India due to road traffic accidents alone. Over half a million documented road traffic accidents took place last year.
These numbers do not include events like strokes, seizures, hypoglycemic episodes, allergic reactions, poisoning etc any of which could also render you unconscious. These scenarios can be scary even in a familiar environment. But away from the safety of your home or work place, you are left at the mercy of the rare species that is the good Samaritan to help get you to a hospital.

The problem for an emergency medicine doctor or a casualty medical officer is that he is given an unknown person with no clear history at all of the patient. The kind strangers who delivered you to the hospital too don't know your medical history. As doctors, we can save you during the golden hour if we know not just your immediate history but also your past medical history which includes
1) Your illnesses
2) Medication you are on currently
3) Allergies you may have.

This can be crucial because in addition to narrowing down the cause behind your ailment, it helps determine what drugs to use and what to avoid. And the honest-to-God truth is that we have lost lives because of lack of information. We have lost lives we could have saved had we known...


So do us a favour - print out the note below (OR just take a regular paper next to you right now), fill in those details and put it in your wallet.

I've made it in dimensions a tad larger than a Rs 1000/- note so it should fit easily with a single fold

Nobody goes out of the house expecting to be rendered unconscious. But if such a situation occurs, you can help yourself by having your emergency contacts, ailments and medication history ready in your wallet should someone check when they try to identify you.



Help yourself.
Help us help you.

Authors note:

A few more random thoughts:

•  Consider doing it for the elders in your family. It helps not just in case of an accident but also if they have to come to the hospital for something and cannot remember their medical history.
• Have you added an ICE (In Case of Emergency) number in your mobile? It helps if someone finds you unconscious and does not know the nicknames you have for your spouse or parents. Just re-add the contacts of the people you would want called in an emergency and add the word ICE beside their name. For example, my phone would show ICE Deepika Padukone & ICE Priyanka Chopra. (Now, if they would only give me their number to fill in the rest of that contact entry!)       
• For those of you who want to make better templates for your 'health note', here is the required data which you can 'copy and paste' instead of typing it down from the beginning.

My Health Information

Name:
Age:
Address:


In case of an emergency
Person to contact (Name/number/relation):
1)  


2)


My Ailments:




Current medication (Dosage):





I am allergic to:

THANK YOU FOR HELPING ME



One thing you learn as a doctor, in the end, it is the simplest things (like this DIY note) that can make the biggest difference. Anyway, be safe. Have a nice week.

Less than 72 hours after its release and Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury's Pink is already on its way to being heralded as one of the best courtroom based movies that Bollywood has ever made in its 103 year old history. In Pink, you have a movie that forces you to introspect, using the courtroom to show society a mirror of its own prejudices.

Which is a good thing because we have been sorely lacking in that department, even if you include the likes of the testosterony Damini or a few melodrama lathered ones from the 80s. (A big part of that is probably because a good courtroom drama requires actual writing skill from a knowledgeable mind as opposed to a typical Bollywood superstar worshipper but that is a discussion left for another day.)

Now that the 'courtroom based movie' bug has bitten you and you think you would enjoy it over the regular 'good guy thrashes a dozen goons' fare, are you in the mood to see some more? Here, in my opinion, are some of the best that Hollywood has provided us over the years.

A Few Good Men

When two marines are accused of murdering one of their own, a young team of lawyers are sent in to take on their case. Fighting the rigid army laws and codes of honour, they end up staking their reputation as they try to uncover what happened on the night of the murder.
My two cents: Arguably one of the best courtroom dramas of all time and one of Rob Reiner's best movies as a director. A magnificent star cast at their brilliant best - Tom Cruise, Demi Moore, Kevin Bacon, Kevin Pollak & in one of the most memorable cameos of all time, Jack Nicholson. The tension holds till the very end with minimal digression in between.

Onam - the most awaited festival in God's Own Country - is here.
Flower carpets, flower carpets everywhere. Of course, you know me by now so naturally you know that my roving eye is always headed towards the kitchen where the traditional Kerala feast - the sadya - will be 'under construction.'

If you need to refresh your memories, here is the list of the most common 29 items (yes, 29 items in one single meal) that one can find in a Sadya. Invariably, the final two in such a list will be sweet payasams. The common ones you can expect to see are:

1. Semiya payasam (vermicelli pudding)
2. Ada pradhamam (rice ada/pasta pudding) 
3. Pazha pradhamam (banana and jaggery pudding)

But as usual, we Mallus are quite malleable (Malluable? okay, okay. I know. That was terrible!).

• As a teenager, you become addicted to drugs and alcohol. Unable to handle life, you commit suicide.
• Having suffered the shame of being homeless earlier and now watching your marriage fail, you successfully kill yourself via carbon monoxide poisoning by running your car in an empty garage.
• Struggling to come to terms with your hidden sexuality, you kill yourself using the gas oven.
• A failure at your job and with no real prospects for the future, you drink a bottle of furniture polish. You successfully die.
• Raped at nine and pregnant at 14, you don't know what to do. So you drink a bottle of laundry detergent and end your life.

The reasons are many but the premise remains the same - you suffered and are sure that there is no way out. You are ashamed of how far you have fallen from where you thought you would be.
It is okay. You need to believe me, it is okay. I hate that you lost but you need to know this isn't the end.

Read it aloud if you must - The end of a journey in life is not the end of your journey in life. Whether it is in love or in your career, whether it is an exam or an ailment, it is not the end of YOUR journey.


You don't know how brilliant your life can be if you only try.
Today, you may be someone who has lost in love. Someone who is divorced or broke or both. Today you are someone who cannot find a single friend to spare a moment to listen to you. Today you are watching everyone else move forward in life while you are sinking.

Book: Curtain Call

Bragging rights

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