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.

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.

A picture of the school at Sneha Deepam - about 2,000 students attend between PreK and 12th.

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>

You never ​know what you might see on the roads of India. . .

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