SHOCK: The Congress has been further shaken up by the big defeat in the Zilla Panchayat election.

By Rajan Narayan

AND a few stray thoughts for yet another Saturday. For a Saturday following the week when I returned from the Goa Medical College & Hospital under the suspicious that I may have TB or tuberculosis of the spine or skeleton. This is not proved yet. For a Saturday following the week when I came to appreciate the extended family network in Goa with dozens of nephews and nieces to help in a crises. For a Saturday following the week when the BJP won the Zilla Panchayat elections to further damage the image of the Congress party. For a Saturday following the week when Congress MLa Mallikarjun Kharge was elected the first non-dynasty president of the Congress in the open election held on October 17. For a Saturday following the week when there were no visitors for the under-17 years in the Women’s World Cup football (FIFA) which is being held at the Fatorda stadium in Goa.
AND a few stray thoughts on when I returned from the GMC after three weeks. The provocation of going to the GMC this time was an MRI (magnetic resonance imagery) at the Radiance Diagnostics at Dona Paula. It was done after I complained to my good friend neurosurgeon Dr Ajay Netalkar of the Manipal hospital, that I am getting severe pain at my neck. Dr Netalkar examined me and told me that the muscles of my neck had become very weak and could not support my swollen head. There was also a hint that my spine was affected by an infection.
Netalkar referred me to orthopedic specialist and dean of GMC, Dr SM Bandekar, who is the expert on ortho matters and especially the spine. When I suggested to Netalkar that he should treat me he said the ortho boys at the GMC will do it much better. In the GMC I was asked to get admitted by Dr Bandekar in OPD.
To complement the MRI, Dr Bandekar’s resident doctors asked for X-rays to be done and something like 17 X-rays of every part of my spine made my insides visible and wherever I complained of pain was noted. All these X-rays provided a bird’s eye view as against the eagle’s eye view provided by the MRI. At an early point the diagnosis was that of TB of the spine or skeleton. Dr Bandekar even advised starting me on standard DOT TB medicine. The TB medicine is a very, very aggressive dose. For the benefit of the common man the Central TB authorities have combined four tablets into one mega magenta pink tablet. It is so huge that elephants may swallow it. I crushed it into a powder and added it into coconut water and drank it.
Apart from the MRI ultrasound revealed a small lymph node under the armpit. A biopsy was also done. The biopsy revealed no evidence of TB bugs or bacteria. The clinical evidence indicated TB according to a resident doctor but I was happy to immediately stop my TB medicine which was having some extreme side effects on me and kept me in a swirling chakar the whole day. To the extent that I could not walk from my bed to the washroom without somebody’s support, it made me feel very helpless.
AFTER almost a month of going to GMC I was told finally on Monday, October 17 that I was more or less fit to go home and continue treatment at home. I still am not sure about the source of my pain and to what the infection is attributed and if I will survive this skeleton infection although I feel much better but have become weaker. I have been bombarded with very heavy doses of antibiotics for over three weeks. So I am weaker and can barely sit or stand even at home and have been ordered best rest. I still have dizzy spells. The moral in all this is to if you go to the GMC or any hospital the resident doctors assigned to you will keep prescribing tests to confirm although treatment will start on what is anticipated through symptoms which may be common to many other problems…in the process as a senior citizen I suffered a great deal of pain and suffering, the doctors just could not testify to spinal TB, but apparently the spine which has supported me from childhood is in very bad shape and now I must rest it as much as possible.
AND a few stray thoughts on when I came to appreciate the extended family network in Goa with dozens of nephews and nieces to help in crises. In Goa there are large extended families because of the Uniform Civil Code perhaps where every member of the family has a right to family property. The previous generation of Goans had on an average seven to 10 children, sons and daughters. As life went on there were many nephews and nieces and cousins and uncles and aunts. So the average size of a family like the Pinto family which may add up to a hundred over relatives with several ancestral homes across Goa.
The large families add up to a lot of manpower and woman power and if it’s a loving and affectionate family they stretch themselves to helping one another in times of illness or emergency or any tragedy. All this is in sharp contrast to the case of my wife and me who have family outside Goa only. In the first place both of us hail from outside Goa with me being historically being from Kerala although born in Pune. My wife Tara is Gujarati born in Gujarat, brought up abroad in Malaysia on the island of Penang. We have practically speaking no family in Goa and since we married too late in life we have no children either, she was in late 40s and I in early 50s when we decided to marry in February 2001. So, no family in Goa.
IT IS only in times of crisis like when I was in hospital recently that we felt the absence of a family network! With my better three-quarters trying to keep the Goan Observer (goanobserver.in now) online going, there was no one to help and it was a particularly a harrowing time.
Especially with me in hospital and over a couple of days I was given a tablet which sent me off into hallucinating nightmares for three nights until the guilty tablet was removed from my prescription. I was quite in a violent state, I am told, I was seeking mukti or nirvana by trying to jump out of the bed to escape because I was seeking peace from pain in my head and body. I kept shouting for death to come. This was a most traumatic episode and mercifully the tablet was removed. The side effects left me in bad shape and I could barely make it to the bathroom.
I did not die. I was back to my new normal and by which time all tests had come through and proved me negative for TB except for infection of the spine…I stopped taking unwarranted medicines and concentrated to getting better with the help of excellent nursing and various medical resident doctors who came and went until I was stable enough for discharge. It was saying goodbye to the GMC one more time.

BJP WIN
AND A few stray thoughts on the BJP winning the Zilla Panchayat elections anf further damaging the image of the Congress. The BJP swept the Zilla Parishad election even in the Congress stronghold of south Goa. Even in Navelim and Margao the BJP scored convincing victories. The BJP credits this to the entry of the ten Congress MLAs into the BJP. It may be recalled that eight Congress MLAs including Babush Monserrate and Digambar Kamat joined the BJP.
But this time the more shocking defection was the defection of Digambar Kamat, Congress chief minister twice. This time around Digambar justifies return to the BJP by saying that money is God and wealth is health and such justifications. The actual reality is that the Congress leaders have lost their minds in the party. The only Congress MLAs who remained loyal to the party are the newly elected Advocate Carlos Alvaris from Aldona and Rudolf Fernandes from Santa Cruz and the Cortalim MLA.
The curious part is that AAP came second best in the just over Zilla Panchayat elections. It would appear that AAP which won one seat in the last assembly election is replacing Congress as the main opposition to the BJP. Naturally, the BJP president, SN Tanawade, sees the Zilla Panchayat election victory as a sign of greater support for Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Goa.

IT’S MALLIKARJUN KHARGE!
AND a few stray thoughts on when Mallikarjun Kharge was elected the first non-dynasty president of the Congress in the open election held on October 17, 2022. The announcement was made on Wednesday, October 19, when Kharge scored a straight victory over his rival Shashi Tharoor. The Gandhi family seems to have supported Kharge in preference to Tharoor. Kharge is the first non-dynasty president for 22 years during which time Sonia Gandhi dominated the party. There has been a revolt against the leadership of Sonia Gandhi by a group of senior Congress leader led by Kapil Sibal.
We know Sonia is very keen on her son Rahul taking over as president. Rahul however keeps running away from the responsibility. Even the marketing genius Prashant Kishor had suggested to Sonia Gandhi that Priyanka should be made Congress president, but Sonia is too much a mother who loves her son Rahul.
With no leadership or guidance from the Centre in recent years the Congress has been in bad shape all over the country, including Goa. Though in the last election the Congress got 12 seats, eight of the 12 defected to the BJP. Congress MLAs are only keen on getting a kodel of ministerial power. In the Opposition there was no chance of making their money. The moral is sabse bada rupaiya.

WOMEN’S FOOTBALL
AND a last stray thought on why there were no visitors for the women’s football cup which is being held at the Fatorda stadium in Goa. Goa has the honor of hosting the Under-17 Women’s World Cup. The majority of the matches are being held in football-crazy Goa. There were 16 teams from all over the world including Brazil, Argentina and all other world champions. India got entry only because it was the host. Within the first week the Indian team lost thrice and was eliminated.
Goans have travelled to Europe and to the United States and are all set to go to Qatar for the main world cup in football which should be held in the Gulf. While sadly Goans have not been going to the Fatorda stadium to encourage the under-17 young women footballers from all over the world! The Fatorda has a capacity of 10,000 but alas, this time there barely 1,000 visitors. We hope with the end of exams and the beginning of vacations more students will attend the matches.