On 10th of June, at around 7.30 p.m. I went inside the security check of the Bangalore Airport to board the 7:55 flight back to Delhi—from where I had started this journey 20 days ago. Inside the lounge I found them, the three weary hunters! Six of us had boarded the same flight from Delhi but as per our policy only three of us were going back to debrief the game and the others returned back to their respective working places. We were so glad to see each other and soon we found ourselves huddled in one corner and turn by turn we started sharing our experiences. Each of us had covered 2 districts each in Karnataka State. Soon we started showing off our newly learned Kannada like Gotila (I don’t know), Ila (no), Krimi (Germ) etc. Suddenly it was time to board the flight.

My seat turned out to be 28B and it was in the last row. I realized that all around me were new parents who were there with the children—some months old and some few years old. As the plane took off I closed my eyes and I could see my 3-month-old daughter learning to smile. I remembered that today was her immunization day and such are the days when one wishes both the parents were together. Somehow my family could not join me in Delhi due to some unforeseen circumstances and this LEM had also come up. Probably for our Nation’s children we had done our little bit. I had to console myself. These days I will remember and call them as MAGUDI DAYS!

As I told you earlier during our stay in Bangalore we put up at SIHFTW hostel and it was located at Magadi road and I used to remember it as MALGUDI road to the surprise of my friend Sudhakara who couldn’t imagine that I knew RK Narayan. So the stories had been near-aptly named the Magudi Days! The hunt at Bangalore had been continuing for some days by then and would continue for another 5-6 more days. On such a day we went to a Health Facility located some 45 kms away and again to another PHC some 15 kms away. We went inside the PHC and met the doctor who was busy running the OPD there and after disarming him by telling him that we were there to help them and for suggestions for future course we settled down to see the records in the prescribed formats. When all was done we congratulated the Paramedical worker for maintaining the records so nicely and was about to leave for the Community interview when he offered “something to drink”. Every turned towards me to make the choice and I said, “Well, Nariyal paani would be fine.” I had said so because I saw all coconut groves around and that would make things easier. But to my astonishment the man came back after a minute and told,“ Sorry Sir, coconut water heavy shortage please have Spirit, Oh! Sprite (correcting himself quickly)” I immediately agreed but thought within, “Oh! My God they are already here. The MNCs”

So we went to the community and started the interview. The first few attempts yielded only ‘Gotilas’ i.e I don’t know in Kannada. I was shocked to hear them say that these villagers staying in the periphery of the IT hub were unaware of leprosy. But we found out later on that it wasn’t ignorance but the die-hard stigma attached with Leprosy that stopped them from talking about the disease. So from the next house we change the style –we start from some other disease and come to leprosy later on . the comment that they knew quite a lot and that we need their advice did the wonder ( Indians are very good at advices, aren’t they?). Then we started getting huge responses. The day went on with normal response and some weird responses at times. One such weird one was the man who said that we should pour petrol and burn all the leprosy patients! When we confronted him by asking him what he would do if a member of his family had the disease, he told that he would do the same. Oh! God! So with all these ideas collected we would come back and thanks to the PMW Prassana who was my interpreter and the well-behaved driver Subhaan, they would take us to any tourist spot that would come up on the way. Thus we had seen the Ramgarh (originally Ramnagaram of Sholay) and the Big Banyan Tree etc.

Each day ended around 7 o’ clock in the evening. After a warm bath it was then time to unwind. This was the most interesting of all activities. Two of us discovered each other gradually. He was a pure veg and would sip beer on special occasions only and was very apprehensive about my food habit (right from our training days at NIHFW). My face was deceptive. I told him that I was non-veg by choice and veg by convenience and challenged him that I would take whatever vegetarian diet he desired. Later on I gave up on idli and feasted mostly on dosas. And as for the other stuff I told him that I was already so fully drunk with life that it would be wastage. This immediately put him at ease and the days passed off without we realizing it.

One night as we were coming back after dinner my friend told me that he wanted to void the bladder (no offence please) and asked whether he could do it at the dark corner of the street. I told him to go ahead and after he finished I asked him to turn around and scratch back some soil at the spot just like the dogs do. This made him roar with laughter and he laughed till the room. Once we reached there he asked me how I learnt that. I told him that some friends taught me in school. Then I told him how teachers used to scold us for talking and discussing physics in urinals (like saying 1,2,3.FIRE! And discussing the viscosity of the flowing liquid). By then he was on his bed (the squeaking one –the white one that we normally see in the hospital) and when he laughed the squeaks followed so he was laughing with the bed literally and this made us laugh more and more until we beg each other to stop. The unwinding of a hard day was thus done and the next day we were ready for the game.

Thus we stayed in Bangalore amidst all these happenings and the Malgudi Days quietly merged with the IB DAYS at Hassan.

Next –The IB days