Hi everybody,

Half the people who go to India get sick. Mainly it’s the food or the water. I’d been consuming large amounts of both, and sooner or later, it had to happen to me! I’d survived a funny belly for some days before, but this time it was something else. I was going to the toilet every 10 minutes and it got boring. So I decided to do something about it. There was a hospital just round the corner from my guesthouse so I walked in, had my tests and was informed that I had an infection. I was to visit the hospital twice a day for monitoring. A few days later, thanks to what I considered to be the doctor’s excellent treatment, I was fine. I went for my last check-up and asked for the bill, but Dr Gandhi told me that following the tsunami they were no longer issuing bills but simply accepting donations.

The hospital is apparently run by Dr Indira Gandhi herself and her husband. I got the impression that they are an extremely dedicated pair, working round the clock and raising money to organise free medical camps in the poorest villages. Mamallapuram was very badly hit by the tsunami, and although only a few people died, many were injured. Dr Gandhi explained that they treated tsunami victims for free and gave them free medicine.

I asked whether they get help from the government and Dr Gandhi explained that they are actually taxed on the medicine. As you might have heard on the news, India had refused help from the rest of the world. Its government claimed that it is a developed country and could tackle the disaster on its own. The result seems to have been an even bigger disaster, if you ask me. She explained that many tourists who were treated after the tsunami actually wished to contribute money, but the State had apparently denied money transfers.

As a result of this, the hospital was flooded with demands. They purchased medicine on credit and actually stopped issuing bills to avoid being taxed on the little money they made. It’s a tax time bomb but compared to the health time bomb the risk was smaller. I gave them my donation, said my good-byes and wished them good luck.

That evening Diana and I headed for Pondicherry. No sooner had we arrived, that Diana got a nasty virus herself. She was rejecting the medicine so we actually had to move to the hospital so that they could monitor her. I had forgotten what the luxury of an air-conditioned room was like. There was even a TV and an IV drip, all paid for by her travel insurance. Three days of luxury later we left the hospital to explore the town.

Pondicherry is a tiny self-governing territory. This is evident because the fact that the policemen wear a red cap, unlike other Indian police, and most of the people speak French. I learnt that the French left Pondicherry in 1954; eight years after India got its independence.

The cheapest rooms in Pondicherry are the guesthouses run by Sri Aurobindo. They are like retreat dorms, with guru quotations carved on doors and paths and strict rules for visitors: no smoking, no alcohol, no guests after visiting hours, no guests in bedrooms, only vegetarian cuisine, and a curfew of 10pm. Diana and I got a room on the top floor with a fresh breeze courtesy of the Sea of Bengal. After our bout of sickness this retreat was just what the doctor ordered!

Take care,

Dery