Doctors' bane

I had a very minor surgical operation on my leg under local anesthesia at a neighbourhood nursing home yesterday. I strode into the OT and chatted with the doctor while he operated (the nurse had solicitously offered to blindfold me - good heavens!), and all the while he assured me I could resume my daily routine directly the procedure was over, including normal diet, walking, using the scooter and so on. Well, I swung my legs off the table as soon as he gave the word, and was striding briskly out of the OT when he yelled after me, with obvious alarm in his voice, 'Slow down, slow down, don't hurry like that, you're acting as though nothing has happened...!' I obeyed, of course, but I was puzzled: hadn't he just been saying that I could start doing everything 'normally' as soon as he was done?

Reminded me of a more serious operation I had four years ago. On that occasion I was back on my feet within 24 hours, and insisted on leaving the hospital and getting back to work on day three, in spite of being advised 'complete rest' for at least seven days, and the doctor had grumbled about 'the patient (being) too impatient'...

Culture shocks preferable?

Someone asked what 'culture shock' meant, and I illustrated with the example of the governor of a certain northeast Indian state, himself hailing from the northwest, a passionate dog lover, who presented the chief minister with a little poodle. Sometime later he asked the CM whether he was happy with the present, and that dignitary replied, 'Oh yes, certainly. It was delicious'. This, with a smacking of the lips...

When people are very different in their tastes and manners, such experiences of culture shock are bound to happen every now and then. In one country giving a girl a red rose is a compliment; elsewhere it's a deadly insult. But, I was wondering, isn't that better than creating a world which is so homogeneous that you won't know whether you are in Sao Paolo, New York, Mumbai or Shanghai? Twenty-odd years ago, I had a feeling while going round a certain Wal-Mart outlet in a small American town that if someone were suddenly knocked unconscious and whisked away to another Wal-Mart outlet a thousand miles away, s/he would never notice any difference. Now Indian cities are beginning to give me the same feeling.

We are the music makers...

I read a remarkable line today in, of all places, a book of grammar. "Let a man be free to write the ballads, and I don't care who makes the laws". I wonder who said that. And even more so, whether it makes any kind of sense to my readers, though it took my breath away...

Looking for a new name

Mamata Banerjee's new government says it wants the name of this state to be changed. I cannot help seeing their argument: 'West' Bengal is silly and out-of-date, since East Bengal has become Bangladesh long ago. They also say that since the name starts with W, our state figures at the bottom of all lists when the central government considers the needs of the various states, which puts us at a quite avoidable disadvantage.

So I fell to musing about what alternative tag we might put on. Bangla, Bongo, Bongo Pradesh, Bengal 2? Or, harking back to history, Bangal, maybe, or even Gour? Do my readers have some suggestions?