Coffee.com
Posted by Gopal on 17 August, 2008
We are all blogging from a fantastic coffee shop/internet cafe/restaurant called coffee.com. We left MGMCRI via the commuter bus. Fortunately, we ran into Niharika, one of the med students we met at the conference, at the bus stop. She and her friend were going into town as well and guided us on the bus. All went well until the bus came to a screeching halt at the bust stop and Niharika’s friend slammed her trachea against the seat in front of her. She is ok, though, I think.
The bus ride was fantastic. It was a slower pace than the 80km/h preferred by our taxi drivers, and afforded us the luxury of looking at the roadside as we made the 20km trip into town. We passed rural sections, marked by paddy fields, neat rows of coconut trees and banana plants; interspersed with partially constructed houses and small, roadside shops. There was no closed sewage system between the college and the city, so we were treated to open sewage canals ranging from one foot to 10-12 feet in diameter. Tamil filmi music blared from the radio next to the bus driver’s seat, and the atmosphere was fantastic. The bus was not as packed full as one would see in the big city, so we were able to look around and enjoy ourselves.
Paras gave a lecture today on organophosphate poisoning. This led to a spirited discussion on research priorities. He observed that the vast majority of funding (>99%, I would estimate) goes to prevention research for things like sarin poisoning. Bioterrorism. This is despite the fact that people in developing countries get OP poisoning from either accidental exposure or as suicide attempts. Treatment research, which is what these patients would benefit from, is almost non-existent. As Tim pointed out, this merely reflects the priorities of the countries best positioned to do the research (resource-rich countries). It was an interesting discussion, and it was nice to see talk about global health issues beyond infectious diseases.
Finally, the baguettes here at coffee.com are as good as the ones in Paris. I know that may sound sacrilegious, but it is true. And the barista is conducting her business in 4 languages: English, French, Tamil and Hindi. I am impressed. Even though she yelled at me. We are now headed to the French area and then the beach. Tomorrow with the dawn of the work week, we hit the hospital.
