My only trip to Vellore

A temple at Vellore, 2010

The days were wonderful in 2010 as I knew where I was heading that fall. Somehow, I remember going to Vellore only once in the summer of 2010 but the date on the photos from Vellore says otherwise. The internet has kept me perplexed for a long time now, or is it just my memory? Can’t tell which one is betraying.

It seems a new joint Ph.D. program was initiated in collaboration with CMC Vellore, IIT Madras, and Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute, Kerala. Because of the huge impact of these colleges, this joint program was touted as the best of the best with PhDs working on interdisciplinary problems throughout their tenure. One of my friends got selected for the program and was studying at CMC Vellore. He had just joined the institute and simultaneously preparing for the UPSC.

Since it was a buffer time before my long stay outside India in the near future, I decided to pay him a visit. Apparently, at that time someone from the NGO back in Kanpur was suffering from the infectious disorder so we decided to bring her to CMC Vellore for treatment. So, there is a story behind her illness as biologically she was a male who had undergone gender-change surgery which caused complications later on. This was in 2010, and she was on the verge of death.

After bringing her to Vellore, there were a lot of hassles in getting a guest house booked, preparing food, taking her to hospital, etc. But with my friend and some others there, we managed it somehow. Dealing with the hospital was itself painstaking as it was heavily crowded and there was only so much one could do to get the appointments. If I remember correctly, she had to undergo dialysis for which we waited for days. Some of us used to cook high-protein food to her liking so that at least she would survive her stay in the hospital.

It was a painful time that my friend dealt with the utmost care, a very responsible and humble person. He kept me busy by advising me to talk to the head of his department who was single-handedly running the show there. As the department was just starting, there wasn’t any other professor in the biomedical department except the head. On another day, he suggested going to a mobile clinic. He was altogether a very busy person, who kept others also busy 😊.

After talking to the person in charge I joined the mobile clinic for a couple of days. It was fun as I got to meet some medical doctors from the US and UK who were on their visit to CMC Vellore. They learned, from the local doctors, their ways to deal with some genuine health problems and otherwise superstitions in the remote villages. I also had a dinner with all the visiting medical practitioners.

A lady practicing a ritual at the temple

The marvelous architecture at the temple

Later, when her dialysis was done and she was kept under observation, all of us visited a temple nearby. It was after a long time that I visited a south Indian temple, a huge temple full of people. Finally, when my friend came to know about clearing UPSC he left the PhD program and went back to Jaipur. I traveled to Bangalore as my family was there and stayed for some time before embarking on my journey to New York.