The Vagabond

It was a beautiful sunny day yesterday. Finally it’s summers, and it’s good to have those days where I don’t need layers and thick puffy jackets. It’s green everywhere and I have seen flowers in almost every colour. For the first time, I have seen nature in so many colours over the past months. White to Pink, purple, blue, yellow, orange, red and green.

Another week passed by quickly. It will be Sunday again, and then next week would creep. Growing older day by day. Two things I will commit in writing, even though I won’t forget them. It feels good reading about them later. First one was another bank holiday and the trip to Edinburgh. I had fallen in love with Scotland when I had visited in 2019. Going back, I was mesmerised again. This time, we went to Hollyrood park, which was teaming with yellow flowers. The long walk, was a time when me and my son connected over discussions he loves especially economics and politics.

This takes me to the Blogchatter bloghop of the week. The topic was creative ways to involve your kids. It took me a long time to get involved with my younger teenager this way. It is easier to engage a younger child. When he was small, we could do colouring, drawing, blocks, ball games. Later we moved to our own version of Atlas. We still play that on all long drives. When I introduced him to books, there always used to be a book where we both could connect. We moved to board games and I never was empty of ideas to engage with him. Over the past year, I found increasingly difficult to hold a conversation without argument. Of course,as a teenager, he has questions but our generation just accepted things silently so I found these ideas difficult to process and answer. Over the past month, though I have improvised. I listen to him with an open mind and then just suggest him in subtle way what I feel. He too is liking this change. I feel its difficult to be creative with a teenager, yet it is important to involve them in day to day activities.

Later we went to Edinburgh Castle and the view from top was just amazing. Another significant event was my first blood donation in England. I have donated earlier thrice in Dubai. Having managed a blood bank, I know how difficult it gets to arrange blood at times. Each donation can save 3 lives. Blood donation is one of the causes I’m passionate about. And I’m taking this platform to encourage people for blood donation.

One another cause which is close to my heart is the burnout among doctors. This has been rampant ever after Covid. It is like Covid came and just stripped off a bandage and now the wound just keeps oozing. I was frustrated with the private corporate healthcare which try to project a nice image, yet are empty inside. The constant tussle with Insurances is an additional stress. Patients do not want to pay. Niether do insurances. End result is patients filing huge complaints just to be appeased by managements. In addition, the consumerism and the tendency of patients with money to behave as if they can buy even death and freedom from illness, got on my nerves. I moved to the biggest public healthcare, NHS. I can see restlessness here too because of government apathy. Healthcare and education are never business. The monetization of these sectors has bled them. Every cloud has a silver lining and I am just waiting to see one.

This post is written as a part of Blogchatter Bloghop. #BlogchatterBloghop