The literal Hindi translation could actually imply 'My murder' as in a murder I committed or my own murder committed by someone else. I know gets to the point where I may have to be committed. Whatever that means.
But this is not really about anything drastic like that. Rather a satirical view of this annual ritual we wimps in the US have come to follow in the form of an annual check up at your friendly neighborhood doctor's office. First you get that appointment. Typically you want to shoot for an early morning chit chat since the blood suck has to happen after you have fasted for at least 12 hours since your last meal.
Last supper notwithstanding there is nothing holy about this experience. You have to drive on an empty decaffienated tummy to the docs office and expect some strange person who might or might not look like they just stepped off a boat from faraway lands stick needles in your arm. This while putting on a face that is ready to make small talk like weather forecasts and traffic nightmares. You don't want to upset the boat person when they are attempting to drain you of the vital fluid - aka blood.
The extraction begins after the extractor stares at both your arms to see which looks juicy enough to yield the Khoon quickly. Once they select the winner a rubber band is tied at the upper arm tight enough to make the donor section more juicy and eager to squirt.
Then comes the longish stainless steel that like an Anopheles at a buffet smoothly glides in to the artery and starts filling up the glass tubes at the rear end of the needle.
Several test tubes later they snap the rubber band off your arm and proclaim you are free to go.
Then you wait to see your khoon's quality assessment. Depending on how fragile or ailment ridden you are there can be multiple tests ordered on your juice and the results are made available within 24 hours. At least if you are a person on his last breath you have the pleasure of going online and looking at what you were made of.
This autumn the weather gods cooperated as we took a family trip in the northeast to see six states that qualify or makeup what is known colloquially in America as New England. Mass, Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut and Rhode Island (tiniest state in the union). The outing helped tally up the states we either lived in, visited or have worked in to 47. Guess which three have eluded this intrepid traveling family. Any rate the drive was all in about 1,800 miles and included some memorable geographic wonders or points of interest. Easternmost part of state of Massachusetts being one. Furthest drivable road east in Mass being another. Visit to all Ivy League schools (term harkens to a collegiate athletics conference and generally regarded as elite academic institutes of some repute worldwide) is another random bucket list item of which this trip afforded the chance to knock two more of the list. Dartmouth in Hanover, NH and Brown (and its sister institute the RISD - school f
Is ek boond khoon ki keemat tum kya jano, boat mein se nikle hue prani...a variation of a famous recent dialogue.
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