Brave Heart!

The next weekend after Sinhagad trek ...

God forbid you fall ill in Pune! I don't know about other big cities because I have never lived in cities other than my very dear twin-cities (Hyderabad and Secundrabad) but cost of living in Pune is high as it is and rising steadily. Back home in my place Doctors charge no more than 100 bucks for a consultation and they don't charge a follow-up consultation fee if the visit is in less than 15 days! The other day I woke up only to feel a searing pain in my left calf. It thought it was a muscle cramp and just went about doing my work thinking that it would subside. After 4 days it worsened still. I had no choice but to visit a doctor lest it was something serious. The doctor was a very experienced old man who examined my calf for a couple of minutes and pronounced gravely "Cellular Thrombosis!" as though he just passed a death sentence and as if to confuse me with his medical jargon. Perhaps he thought I was one of those innumerable software drones who lead a very happy life typing away on the keyboards to their pay checks and are blissfully ignorant about Biology either animal or plant or human! :) . But he was wrong. I did understand that he meant a blood clot in my leg! My real ailment surfaced when I was about to pay the consultation fee at the counter. I didn't know that I had a cardiac problem until I saw that his 5 minute examination was worth 350 bucks!! - My only offence: I admitted that I was a software engineer! He prescribed a sonograph to determine where exactly the clot was( And that cost me about 1300 bucks ). He asked me to come back and see him the next day with the test results. Armed with the test results I consulted him the next day morning only to be charged 150 for the follow-up consultation that lasted just better than 2 minutes. The doctor kept charging me 150 on each of my subsequent visits over the next two weeks. On my last visit that lasted less than a minute I was finally relieved to hear that I was completely cured. But by the time I was finished I realized that the bills totaled 3300 which included a 1000 for consultation fee alone!

In Pune it is not enough if you have an ailment to consult the doctor - You also need a brave heart!

Sinhagad trek

The last two weeks seemed like eons of geological time to pass by. I embarked on a trek to Sinhagad on one of those Saturdays but was very unlucky because of the rain and heavy fog that engulfed the place - So no great photographs - the photo you are seeing on the right was taken from the digital camera of a friend who was extremely patient with his camera so as to shoot the images at all the right places at all the right spots. The fog, the rain, the chill, all made the trek a memorable one but the only complaint I have is that I could not photograph the extremely well preserved fort walls of Sinhagad as the valley was thick with fog. There was an area at the top most point in the fort where the wind was blowing so fiercely that I got the feeling that I was flying. All the small waterfalls near by became water-"ups" :) as they started shooting upwards towards the fort instead of flowing down into the valley. It was certainly not the most demanding treks but it was certainly the most trickiest treks with water flowing all along the path below my feet making me nervous to get every step right. Once on the top I was hungry like hell and was relieved to find myself treated to pitla bhakari (Jowar roti), kandha bhaaji (onion pakoda) and dahi (curd). We had hot roasted peanuts as well. As I wanted to explore the roadway to the fort also (So that I can come by bike another time) I came down by Jeep. Due to the incessant rains I was wet, trembling and exhausted by the time I came back home. Again a hot water bath came to my rescue ...