Maf kijiye, dear reader.  It’s been too long, and I can only still promise a massive screed currently under construction to bring us all up to date.

This morning after an early conference call with the CRY America Pittsburgh team back home, the sins of my colonialist ancestors were visited upon my gastrointestinal tract.

Well, that’s kind of an exaggeration.  To my knowledge, the Brits pressed only the unruliest of Scottish Highlanders (themselves an enemy of the empire) into service in India back during the raj, and these blokes probably came against their will.  And the dizziness and faltering stomach that I awoke with were nowhere near as bad as my last brush with India’s exotic bacterial flora (Google “gerogerigegege”).

Under Abhilash’s advice, I walked to Powai Hospital where a doctor saw me within minutes.  He gave a balance test, blood pressure reading and listened to my lungs, after he surveyed my symptoms.  I was prescribed with three medications sealed in mysterious-looking little foil packs (one read, ‘made in Himachal Pradesh’) with instructions to take one a day for three days until it subsides.  And, I’m under doctor’s orders to avoid street food and anything uncooked.  This is fine by me, as I leave for Calcutta by train tomorrow evening for my site visits, and I certainly don’t want to spoil the centerpiece of this trip with ill health that’s otherwise easily treatable.  Total cost of this visit (after which I am already feeling much better): $9 US.

Doc Prasad told me that the 20-bed Powai hospital was the first hospital in the region, having been here 35 years.  Back then, I imagine that Powai was much more overgrown with this quasi-jungle that encroaches upon the high-rise apartment buildings and highways.  The interior was not air-conditioned, but the exam room was.  This was a relief, as my dizziness peaked when I rounded the turn on the stairwell landing en route to the OPD (yes, that’s right Chad and Jeff) where a small shrine to Ganesh, the elephant-headed god, was nested in the wall.  Of course it came as little surprise that the staff was incredibly helpful and friendly.  India’s health care system - where it is delivered effectively - is on par with world-class standards in my experience thus far.  Sure, the waiting room might be open-air or the furniture a little dingy, but the treatment is top-notch.