The above is the newest campus of Christian Medical College. It is a 1,500 bedded super-speciality hospital - my palliative care team has an outpatient presence there. That brings the total number of beds to almost 5,000.
The room on the left was my home for 5 years in India and where I've stayed as a guest many times since. It's missing some of the furniture from when I lived there, so a bit sparce. But the room can be divided in into "living room" and "bedroom" by pulling the floor to ceiling drape in the middle. On the right is a screened in lanai/porch that overlooks the ambulance garage and beyond that the K --> 12 school that the Catholic Retreat Center runs with one of the Sisters serving as the principle.
On the left is a geyser, aka hot water heater. (a blessing on a chilly winter morning - chilly like Hawaii) The picture on the right is the shower, which really is a place to take a bucket bath. The water in the bucket is the total amount you use to bathe, as water is a precious thing in India. When I first lived in India, 35 years ago - the seminary didn't have running water and as students we would collect a bucket or two to meet all of our water needs for the day - bathing and toilet flushing particularly.
This is a photo of my barber Sadish. I got a haircut, beard trim, face wash and head and shoulder massage. As I went to pay, he said that it would be free this time. He discovered I was the same age as his late father - and this was a way to honor his father.
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Today is Republic Day - On this day in 1950, the Indian National Congress declared Poorna Swaraj, a declaration of India's independence from colonial rule.
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A picture of the school at Sneha Deepam - about 2,000 students attend between PreK and 12th.
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This photo is from 2009 and was a training program for nurses in end-of-life care. I helped organize that and you'll see a much younger John in the back row - next to a younger JP>
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You never know what you might see on the roads of India. . .