Reflections through my lens

A series of surgeries amongst family and friends and a recent self experience opened my eyes to the new face of medical facilities in India. Gone are the days of dreary hospital stays. Circa 2010, the multi-specialty private hospitals have transformed hospitalization into an uber-cool experience with their state of the art facilities. My earlier experience of hospital visits used to be to the big city hospitals such as AIIMS, Safdarjung, Manipal, BHU and so on. Entering into the huge facility teeming with people, figuring out the departments, the typical hospital smells and the sight of illness all around were enough to make one reel in exhaustion. But in the modern private hospitals, relationship managers usher you around the air-conditioned lobbies as counselors explain the various “packages” ranging from economy ( read general ward) to deluxe ( read private ward) to the suites. All kinds of luxuries are available based on the size of your pocket. The rooms are not only equipped wit...

I’ve often wondered that if there is life after death and if we do get to meet some of the folks from our lives even after we are gone, who are the ones that I would like to meet. Of course there is a long list of family and friends; there are 500+ people in my business and social online networks. When I ask others, for most people, the spouse would top the list. While this is not an excerpt from the famous work of Mitch Albom, asking this question to myself just helped me be cognizant of those relationships in life that deserve to be invested in forever yet have been lost in the layers of a busy lifestyle, distance or maybe just a “Can’t care so much” attitude. For the current discussion, I would skip the popular choices and focus on some other not so apparent relationships that make all the difference. The Parents: You must be thinking why I included Parents here because they should also be part of the popular list. I did it because they are the most taken for granted. The one r...