an itinerant observer

I am an emergency physician, and dealing with life threatening emergencies such as sudden cardiac arrest is something I do daily. I am not a storyteller, but today I am going to tell you a story that changed my life and my attitude toward being an emergency physician altogether. It  is the story of my mother.... The full narrative was published by  Annals of Emergency Medicine  and may be viewed at   https://authors.elsevier.com/ a/1UDwsib7DumPQ [from   Narrative Medicine ] CREDITS : About the Author: Dr.  Mirza Noor Ali Baig completed his MBBS in 2006. Since January 2013 he has been an Instructor in the Dept. of Emergency Medicine at the Aga Khan University Hospital. His areas of interest include medical emergencies and timely resuscitation.  Acknowledgement: The full narrative was published by  Annals of Emergency Medicine  and is available to be viewed at   https://authors.elsevier.com/ a/1...

Having left youth behind, in the throes of my midlife crisis (per my dear wife), I often ponder: What is change? Why is it needed? Where is it needed (most)? How is it brought about in a sustained manner and by whom? Before delving into this more, let me introduce you to my two young friends: Alezeh, a 14-year-old 9 th grader, and Mayank, an 18-year-old college student, with whom I conceived ‘ Biloongra -Books for Change ’, a grass roots effort promoting global child literacy and education. They pondered the above questions along with me at a café, over coffee and kolaches, at Rice village in Houston, on a sweltering summer morning. The discussion, dialogue and debate were timely. I had struggled with the questions primarily because it was unclear to me why we wanted to do something that might affect ‘change’ in public sector kids’ education in Pakistan. The oft cited ‘there’s a crucial need’, fell by the way side, once the going got tough. Such work from afar, while...

“It’s time to put the kids in private school”, used to be Ayesha’s mantra, a few years ago. My companion and much better half of over a decade would have me believe that private schooling was exactly what the doctor ordered for our young kids. I, being somewhat twisted in logic, had a hard time coming to terms with that. I understand, thus believe, that the private versus the public school dilemma is not new and that it is faced by many people across a wide spectrum of our nation’s populace. I also feel that it is of particular interest to the über-competitive desi (South Asian) Diaspora in Houston, and elsewhere. In fact, it is of such significance that it makes for much conversation whenever there is a meet and greet, typically at a birthday party, baby shower, bridal shower, or even the fashionable  GNO  (Girls’ Night Out). The argument for private school goes somewhat like this: better teachers, better curriculum, more motivation, and more inspiration. If...

To, Medical Students Wherever & whenever Dec. 31, 2015 Dear Medical Students, Upon returning to Pakistan and resuming my medical career in Karachi after 15 years in Houston, I became acutely aware of my buttons. Those, if touched, would get my goat. If done at a particularly inopportune time then activation of said buttons would make me rebellious. And that was not a good omen for you. Perhaps you could extol my being attuned to my ins and outs – in particular, realization of my dark side, what triggered it and how I manage to control it, being part of the learning that you, my dear medical students, forced upon me.    Today’s letter is about the most significant of those buttons. I call it “The Button”. I realized early on, “The Button” was being called “Sir”.  It all began when I started receiving seemingly innocuous email from you. Email that would inevitably start with the salutation “Dear Sir….”, or ‘Respected Sir..”, or “Dear ...

“Enaya has told another child in class that the world will end on December 21, 2012. This is unacceptable behavior…”,  were the 1 st lines of the email from the class teacher. Enaya aka Noori, the 6-year-old 1 st grader had happened to mention the Mayan prophecy to her young class fellow. She had done so without realizing the repercussions of mentioning doomsday scenarios in a public school setting. Maybe saying such things in a private school might not have generated a hyper-anxious email from the class teacher. Ayesha and I promptly responded to the email. I think Ayesha did so a bit apologetically. I, on the other hand, gave a complete account of the Mayan prophecy that I had taken quite a fascination to. I explained to the teacher that per that prediction made many hundreds of years ago, the world was going to end in a few weeks. I went on to inform the teacher that what Noori had mentioned was well known to most, if not all in Houston. The publicity of the world en...

Full article available at following link: Children's books from Houston to Karachi: Biloongra goes global - written by students of the CAS school [First published in the Houston Inner Looper Newspaper, Sept. 2013] For additional information, such as ordering & purchase, click on link:  Biloongra bilingual books .

Full article available at following link: Summer Book Launch Event a Success for Biloongra by Frances Allday (Guest Writer) [First published in the Houston Inner Looper Newspaper, June 2013] For additional information, such as ordering & purchase, click on link:  Biloongra bilingual books .

Full article available at following link: Promoting a Better World Through Children's Books by Frances Allday (Guest Writer) [First published in the Houston Inner Looper Newspaper May 2013] For additional information, such as ordering & purchase, click on link:  Biloongra bilingual books .

Pink Floyd in the 70s in the epic album ‘the wall’ came out with the famous lyrics sung by children ‘we don’t need no education, we don’t need no thought control.’ Delving a bit into the lyrics and the history of Roger Waters, the lead vocalist of the band, one realizes that this was a protest song pushing for social reform along the schooling domain. It was antagonistic towards rigid schooling prevalent in the Western hemisphere, primarily in the U.K. and the U.S. The deromanticizing of education was made all the more potent by reference to tyrannical teachers and pedantic pedagogy. Considering that education was merely ‘another brick in the wall’, the poignant lyrics of the song should have been an obvious reminder to educationists the world over. Intriguingly, also in the 70s, an energizing and exciting discourse on the deschooling of society was ongoing in Latin America. This was led by Ivan Illich (1926-2002) an Austrian by birth, who obtained formal training in philosophy...

I recently came across an article that listed ten common parenting mistakes. It got me thinking about my own parenting skills, or lack thereof. The insecurity about parenting likely stemmed from my biases that were challenged by that article. I think parenting is made out to be harder than it actually is or should be. The point I’m really trying to make is this: in parenting misperceptions abound. The so called mistakes simply reflect the struggle that exists within all of us as human beings, compounded by the fact that we as parents are liable to err. The conflict arises when we attempt to assure a fool proof successful future for our children. Because the alternative, that is a presumably unsuccessful future for the child, is simply unacceptable to us. But what is success really? Isn’t it a perception, or contrarily a misperception? For instance, many times I have been successful only to realize that in that success I’m unhappy, so it’s really a failure. Conversely, many times I...