Long 'Q's as usual

May 26 2006: New Delhi - Here I am at the International Airport enroute Thailand, final destination Phnom Penh and Hanoi. The airport is the same, the queue the same and everything else which give one as sense of familiarity thats not always desired but good to be back with the milling crowd as we wait to board TG 316.

Hope things will change in the next 90 days as promised.

The Healer: Doing Angels Work!

The Healer: Doing Angels Work!

The perfect PRESCRIPTION

May 22 2006: It was early in the morning when I heard the phone ring and the voice in the other end was apologetic yet needed to be desparately heard. The voice started with " I am sorry to call early doctor, Good Morning" I responded wearily for it just 7 am in the morning and I had a late night as usual. I developed small swelling on the right side of the face and its awfully painful. I am sure I am having another herpes zooster on my face. Well, I am always amazed by the correct diagnosis my patients come up with. " It could be that and sounds like you know thats a serious possibility?" I responded and then the voice once again in a faint tone..." and doctor I have already started Acyclovir 800 mg Q5times and also a cream which I applied so very frequently almost as soon as the first coat dried". Aw! I said to myself and then suggested " Why dont you come see me at my office and let me have a dekkho and then we will take it from there". I gave the appointment for 11 am and then when this person walk in one could see from afar the vesicles on the side of his face and the swelling that accompanied. I offer a seat and soon no doubt its " Herpes Zooster Ophthalmicus" a correct diagnosis made by my patient. It was obviously not a very difficult one but each day amazed me of how my patients are getting better and better with diagnosis. There is much to learn from them - and as he narrated the drugs from antiviral to pain killers ... I just did jot them down on my official doctors pad and when we completed the prescription writing there was none to add nor delete. I just did take dictation from my patient and the treatment protocol for his condition was just PERFECT

At Bangalore Airport enroute Delhi

Professionals meet at a Dance: Uganda

May 19 2006 at 6:55 Pm and here I am at the Sahara Airlines Lounge in Bangalore, the Silicon City of India. I was with Kachina at the Consortium meeting at Snehadaan since yesterday. The weather was great and the evening rain made it a little chilly which was perfectly fine when I think of the heat of Delhi. Well, a long day where the participants brain stormed and worked on the response 'proposal' to USAID RFP for HIVAIDS intervention in India. The roads were bad and one one roll in disbelief seeing the condition of the roads and traffic in Bangalore and the pocked marked, concavities and rocks in the outskirts of Bangalore on our way to the Cammillians Center for HIVAIDS Care and support center.

Well, glad to be here and waiting now for the 8 pm flight to Delhi. As I sit down I remember the wonderful night in Kampala at the AHF African Bureau Meeting where the cultural troop swoop down to conquer the hearts of the people and of course shook the feet from many of the international participants including the deft and nimble Charles who gave the Ugandan Cultural Troop a run for their money.

Dr C Thangsing, Bangalore 

Doing Angels Work!

Renato Pellicioli - President Asssociazione "Ron Luyou" and Angeliebimbi.
Photo: Dr C Thangsing

April 26 2006: When I check out the Yunan Hotel, Shanghai I was oblivious of the fact that an active session of interesting events were going to unfold that challenges your wits, patience, reaction and of course your endurance to silly redtapes and a taste of bureaucracy and immigration rules and systems and of how friendship and a strong bond of comradeship can be generated, nurtured and put to work immediately.

I arrived over an hour too early as the Alitalia counter as indicated by the TV screen hasn't even have their signs post yet. The airport is clean quite big and wide as yet another International Airport should be and of course nothing to make the Shanghai airport extraordinary, of course one cannot but help notice the himalayan difference with our Desi Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi. I was one of the few who decided to form the queue early up instead of going and moving around in circles trying to create moments of interest in the usual shops and looked at unnessary details of flights other than your own. Well, finally a staff can holding five boards of the Alitalia airline insigna and started hanging them up and three beautiful chinese staff took to their positions at the couter and the usual routine of checking in begin with immediate earnest. I had plans of moving in through the security and take a well earned rest at the airport but that was not to be. I was greeted with a beautiful smile and I gave them my passport and tickets but the face of the clerk turning serious was a surprise and I was all the more surprise when she stood up and said that I couldnt fly today. I was widemouth with unbelief. My Visa will be effective 27th April 2006 and my flight landed on the 26th April 2006 at 10:45 pm which is about an hour and a quarter early and I cannot land on the Netherlands soil that early. I am sorry, you cannot board she said as her senior came over and I moved off the line to let the many other passengers passed through the checkin. I was then told that there were no seats available for the next day too. But, a few calls and many calls to their reservations yeild fruit as I was finally issued a boarding pass till Milan and I will have to check in with the airlines again in Italy. Whew! that was quite a mental exercise.

It was a relief for I was in an aisle and in a two seater row. Soon, the tense muscles,thoughts, stress, and heat generated began to vaporised and I soon settle down comforably when this gentleman walk in and take the window seat. Tiredness seeps in and I was soon drowning in a successive interval of dozing, awake,a little sleep in that pattern. It was over an hours flight when I was alert to the surroundings and the stewards and other airline cabin crew began serving us food. I introduced myself to the gentleman my neighbour and soon we were engage in intense coversation sharing about our work which was similar in many ways for it was both humanitarian - about caring, kindness, and expressing compassion to the less fortunate or the underserve or unserve. Renato is returning home from a visit to the orphans and children in China which his company help and adopts. We soon were sharing so much of our work that we rested just when its about just over an hour before the pilots announce that we soon would be landing in Milan International Airport.

I had this exercise ahead of me, the transit area, line or the immigration line, or ??? collect my luggage or not or could it be sent to Amsterdam ahead? Will I need to buy a ned tickets or will the one I posses do or will it be change, or can I actually be allowed to board for Amsterdam to wait out for an hour at Schiphol - so many questions race through my mind when Renato - who has to catch his connecting flight for his home in Venice; decided to walk me to the Alitalia and be helpful. That was a great gesture, a kind, understanding gesture of concern, comradeship, friendship which put you so much at ease and thats - a nice feeling.

I am grateful to Renato for the time he spared to do that for that was priceless -
Renato my Italian friend may your tribe increase!!!

Note: I am in contact with Renato and he and his organisation will be helping out with the care and adopt an AIDS orphan or HIV/AIDS infected children in India especially the NE India. Shortly - and I am sure he and his other angels will help make the lives of many other children better in the the Asia and Pacitic region.

Dr Dipanjan Roy, MD

Thursday the 10, May 2006: The phone rang and it was Dipanjan and we reconnect after a long time. It has been a while since we had plan for him to visit AHF Asia Pacific Secretariat for a visit. Well, finally after many moons and many travels he finally made the time to come visit me. We recollect the times working together at the CDC Global AIDS Program in India.

Roy works as the Epidemiologist at the CDC GAP Office in New Delhi under the able leadership of Dr Dora Warren. 

Eiffel by night!!

It took us over 2 hours wait moving ever slowly and the queue long and winding before one gets to the ticket counter for a ride up to the top of the Eiffel tower and then finally when we went up to the 2nd level theres yet another one hour wait for the final ascend to the top of the tower. It was all worth the wait for one can see all of Paris and beyond from the top. The evening sunset makes it more memorable and one cannot but feel the overwhelming experience being on the top of the Parisan world and thank Eiffel. It was such a fantabulous experience and the weigh of the enormous feeling sinks in once you are back on the ground and see the tower in the light of the evening night and the golden glow of the tower.

Paris May 2, 2006 Photo by Henry E Chang 

Almost at the Louvre Museum!!!

We rested a while as we almost walk into the Louvre Museum and made a telephone break.
Thats me and Henry in Paris, France. 

Henry Chang conquers Eiffel Tower yet again!!!

Henry E Chang, the Chief of Global Affairs - AIDS Healthcare Foundation, Global conquers the Effiel tower on May 2, 2006 in Paris. Here you see him feeling good, accomplished and delighted. 

At the Eiffel Tower!!!

It was a cool, bright and sunny day at
Paris. A treat and it was such a lively day
especially at the Eiffel Tower.
Paris May 2 2006