I get to see many things in life, even if I dont want it, and one such is this hospital. Fate brought me here after my father had a tryst with heart related issues. After his pulse rate dipped drastically to 30 beats/min he had a temporary blackout and had to be rushed to Sagar hospital. Note that I said Sagar and not Sagar Apollo, as the two are now disentangled much like Congress and RJD 🙂

An angiogram test and a sinus node function test revealed more than just the surface. With about 30% blockade in the right coronary artery, and a low pulse rate varying by the minute, there was an urgent need to do something about such a heart condition. So we decided to try out Narayana Hrudayalaya, the much acclaimed hospital in Bengaluru for heart ailment treatments. The doctor had advised my father a pacemaker insertion procedure, which is pretty much a non invasive one these days, and hence we had to come over to NH for the same.

What follows below is a radically different version of what I really expected from a hospital such as NH. You can also consider it as a detailed review of the features of this hospital.

The cost of the entire procedure was pegged at close to two lakhs, and for about three days of stay. I will put down a few things which I find good and bad about this hospital which will make you decide whether a treatment here is really worth it.

The PROS first:

• The hospital is big, and has enough space to walk around it, and is located in a rather tranquil stretch of NH7 (Hosur Road) beyond Electronics City.
• For those worried about commuting this far from city center, there are more than the needed amount of buses coming to this location, a couple of volvo AC buses 356N and 600K directly into the hospital itself. So in about an hour, you can easily reach from anywhere.
• The registration counter, and cash counters work well, and they answer most of your queries without ambiguity.
• The experience of the doctors is good, and they are able to take critical decisions well. My father’s was a complicated case and they did their best. This is where NH excels in its chosen field and no hospital can come close to its achievements for sometime in the future.
• This hospital discusses upfront on all costs involved and wants all surgery related deposits to be made upfront which is a good thing. All communication in his regard is clear

Now the CONS:

No hospital is without CONS. The reasons for the CONS is sometimes that the doctor is also the owner of the hospital, or the management and medical fraternity are completely out of sync. NH is no exception and here are its CONS

• The PHONE in the room – There is absolutely no instructions on how to use the phone in the room, or any ready reckoner of the frequent numbers available.
• The TOILET – this is of anglo indian type and perhaps not so comfortable for western toilet users. there is also NO tissue paper, which does not gel well with the image of this hospital being a world class one. I say this because if a hospital can accept cash in foreign currencies, it can surely do with some tissue paper in the loo!
• The FOOD – I am not of the opinion that patients must be forced to take some food they dont like and NH precisely does this. My father was expected to buy a coupon booklet having food coupons for the three days of his stay even though there was an option that we could bring food from home. No proper explanation was given why this had to be so and why this was not part of the overall package charged to us during admission. Add to that the fact that no WATER bottle was given even to the patient and this issue gets rocky. Some small hospitals do better in this department compared to NH and surely NH can take a leaf or two in adopting best practices within the organization
• The FRONT DESK service – is not the best in class and it sometimes takes a while for your request to even be heard and understood. Its easy to pacify patients or attendants, but its more than that to understand what they really want and when. The sensitivity and urgency is missing in the attitude.
• The PRICE of food – is slightly on the higher side, and its strictly not meant to be so.
• The arrogance of Hospital authorities towards villagers – This has always been a long standing tussle and while the hospital prefers to follow its rules, it also fails to realize not everyone in this country is literate and understand rules. It does not aim to educate people who cannot understand stuff, about its policies. I personally saw a villager get unruly within the premises and the counter staff and security whisking him away when one of his kin was in bad shape and admitted here.
• No BUSINESS features – Ok everyone is really busy so much in life thanks to recession that even when their kith and kin are having surgeries, they still have to parallely work on their job. So I did not find even a single Wireless Internet Connection installed in the premises of NH anywhere. For a hospital earning in crores each day, is it too much to install even five WiFi hotspots? We are talking about technology going hand in hand with medicine. If it were five years earlier, I’d have discounted this fact, but now WiFi is like Water, you cant live without both!
• No CAR park! – yes you heard it right, for a guy coming from miles away to a peaceful campus like NH, you are expected to dump your car in a small 25 x 25 ft muddy patch opposite the hospital. So much for professionalism. Wonderful! Dear westerners, do observe all this when you are here. Cheap India welcomes you.
• PHARMACY is near the main gate – according to me this is a CON. Now how do you expect old people to walk miles together to just get some medicines. A tightly knit pharmacy within the hospital is much sought after.
• the ATTITUDE of some people who attend to you – this is not a generic comment but specific to those individuals who screw up the hospitals name and fame by acting in a manner not so much like NH. Some attendants talk roughly to patients who already are enduring pain and agony. This is because of their illiteracy and ethics to handle such events, and the hospitals attitude of only being strict on them instead of educative to them about handling such situations.

The next time you want to decide coming over to Narayana Hrudayalaya, please think of the facts mentioned above and make decisions. If you are willing to overlook all of the above in lieu of the fact of presence of some experienced doctors, then its fine, but there are definitely hospitals which are having a good mix of both expertise and attitude to consider, otherwise. The choice is yours, since the mental peace is also yours! 🙂

Its  not easy that you would have missed the one page advertisement in Times Of India, given by the BBMP. The subject was to take DLF to task and advising buyers not to buy into DLF homes, in South Bengaluru for obvious reasons of DLF trying to sell houses even before it procured the necessary permissions from the competent authority. There are a few worms that have crawled out of the can, and as a buyer you need to ask yourself these questions before trying to invest into that coveted apartment complex

Is the price of the apartment getting misquoted?

Is the discount genuine or because of some permissions not available?

When is the project likely to get permissions?

If you have doubts, head to the nearest BDA or BBMP office even if that sounds a bit of a tiresome task to do. After all you are investing 40-odd lakhs and thats not a small amount by any means. Add bank loan interest for first five to ten years of loan and it totals to a whopping 60 lakhs of money which is not small.

What is the waste treatment and water usage policy for this apartment complex?

Say after ten years, do you think you will face acute water shortage?  In that case what are your options? Would you then sell the flat? Yes, but unfortunately you have to think of this answer since by then you would have ended up paying 60 lakhs.

Would you like to insure your loan with the bank?

First of all if the bank does not give you a loan for this project, then this apartment obviously has some issues and the bank knows best about it. Even if they do sanction loan, in your own best interests, you must insure your loan such that in case something happens to you or the project, your interests have atleast one way of getting safeguarded.

Finally, some questions remain to be answered as to why BBMP had to issue such a big advert against DLF cautioning buyers (considering the fact nothing moves with respect to bangalore property without bribery)

Did the DLF high handedness irk BBMP?

Did the DLF not pay sufficient moolah to BBMP?

Did the negotiations DLF had with BBMP on this project reach any deadend?

Is the BBMP becoming proactive towards us citizens? (Your bet is as good as mine 🙂 )

Is inflation and rising recessionary trends causing BBMP to act properly?

Has the government instructed BBMP to be extremely citizen friendly?

Well, your choice would be between the DEVIL and the DEEP SEA here and ultimately its your intuition that must guide you! With the BBMP stating BDA has nothing to do with this project and DLF stating they have BDA approvals, another can of worms is about to open between BBMP and BDA themselves in the nearest future. This is one of the reasons why the property buyers in Bangalore are a harassed lot for the past decade or two.

How many times in life has this small insect made you lose your sleep? How many different repellants have you been using and inhaling for the past ten years or more? Don’t you think its been a long time since you have been taught that repellants and coils are the only way to keep away mosquitoes!? So much so that you did not even argue or tend to look at the problem and solution in a different perspective at all thanks to commodity advertising on consumers heads! 🙂

Its been close to two years now, since I came across and use the Comfort net. First the reason for this: My wife was very clear that neither she nor me nor my newborn son be exposed to the repellant chemical crap at any point of time. Tough call for me, but me being the curious guy I am to find solutions, chanced upon this net. So how is it different from other such nets!? Well by a large gap I must say. I have only been used to nets which had to be tied to the walls at six to seven different ends and were a mess to deal with and keep wrapped during the day.

It was a pleasant thing to finally come across a viable solution – the Comfort Net. Marketed by a company in Bangalore with tie up elsewhere in India, the provider was receptive enough to my needs, and understood my requirement well. He took about a week and delivered two nets, one which you see above of standard size, and another of a custom size for me to do yoga on the terrace. Priced at Rs.1200/- for the big one and Rs.800/- for the smaller one, these were delivered to my house in the promised time. Learning to use this, assembling the net and living with it has been a regularity since then! You basically tie the net up to the frame at different ends, and the frame opens and closes like a rainbow as you see above. So when you use it its on, and when you don’t, its folded and rests along the borders of the bed. The net can further be secured to the bed by clipping it on with the bedspread. And oh yes, the net can be hand washed too without any problems!

As such the net itself can be done in a better way and its a matter of time by when people will come up with more enterprising ideas. So there you go, an economical way, to keep the pests away naturally without wasting their effort or yours! 🙂

What are you waiting for, look up ComfortNet and order one now. Tell them you found information on chowchowbath.com! Enjoy the summer with a sound sleep.

   2006 A.D.

      Hi Motoming 🙂

  2009 A.D.

  Bye Bye Motoming,

    Hi Sony Ericsson W705!

Coming soon . . .

Another life snuffed out. Another mistake. No accountability. No regards for safety. No comments from organizers. Minimal action from police. India surely is a free country isn’t it? Free to live, free to die even. When I saw the article regarding the Bungee Jumping event yesterday, I was thinking : “What if …. ?”. And then this article today.

If the organizers had decades of expertise in running the bungee jump event, then why was not the safety net in place? Is it too much of ask for safety? This clearly shows the level of maturity in organizing such events in India. Why do I  say India? Because I don’t hear such things happening too often in other countries. Why again? Simple – for them safety comes first. For us, the thrill and money comes first. Its time we sit back and think for ourselves, be it organizers of events, or people who take part in them. Whether this kind of unsafe cheap thrills are to be offered or taken. I think the future of our lives are in our own hands. To take mature decisions and stick by them. We have only one life and we have many more useful things to do in that life of ours. Not to forget to mention the people who depend on you – your family. They want to see you at home every evening. Not your dead body.

And remember something about today’s event: The death occurred because the guy fell on his head, but from JUST 50 feet above him. Its not even from the actual height at which the jump started. And remember another thing : In this unholy nexus of all people around us colluding to create these kind of unwanted consequences, its only in our hand that we have control over what we wish to do.

WHAT’S YOU SAY? LET ME KNOW IN THE COMMENTS SECTION.

Was it real, or was it just me!? Well, I was still rubbing my eyes, but this cant be a joke. It was indeed real. My hotmail inbox just disappeared. Content, folders, settings everything for good. See for yourself.

This audacious provider even went to the extent of telling me I never had an inbox! So much for free email. Well it did happen with google once. But just once and they apologized heavily for the downtime encountered  by millions of users. But they just told their users, that accounts were locked and they had to unlock them due to the downtime. Not like MSN’s audacity. Now just imagine if your business relied on email providers like these. I do agree Email services have their downtimes. But what matters is the professionalism of the provider. And their data storage capabilities that will ensure that even if one server goes down the replica content from another would do its duty.

In my past ten years of email usage experience, I have only one provider to recommend wholeheartedly. FASTMAIL. This is a company started by two to three individuals and is now a reckoning force in email services. With far more facilities, (except ajax interface) than its counterparts, even at a price this service looks juicy enough for use.

So the next time your email inbox collapses, just hang on there for a few hours and it will all be back again to the same glory as any usual day!