an itinerant observer

If you are lucky you may come across a book that challenges your assumptions, upends your convictions and knocks down your indoctrination. If you are really lucky then said book may present an alternative and limitless world view of possibilities that generates a warm fuzzy feeling within, perhaps because your assumptions have been challenged, convictions upended and indoctrination knocked down. I can safely say this has happened to me recently. After several years of sporadic reading of contemporary fiction, creative non-fiction and general non-fiction, I present to you….drum roll….Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari! This remarkable book belonging to the genre of ‘popular science’ per it’s cover is certainly that but goes far beyond. It is a highly evocative, provocative and candid outlook on Homo sapiens (modern human beings, in other words) – where they’ve come from, but more importantly where they are headed (hence, Homo Deus alluding to humanity version 2.0). All that, ...

One fine day, Cyto, the white blood cell, was on his merry way through the blood stream. His job was to look for anything unusual that could become a menace for Biloongra , the kitten in whose blood Cyto lived.  While he was going about his work, distracted by thoughts of some relaxation at Pool Plasma, Cyto noticed something rather peculiar. There was a large lump forming off the side of Arty, the artery he had been born in.  He immediately called his best friends, the twins Leuko and Lympho. LL, as they were fondly called since few could tell them apart, were better than Cyto in communicating with unusual cells that the three would encounter while guarding  Biloongra’s   blood stream. The three cell buddies looked very closely at the mysterious creature. None of them had ever seen something like that before but they all knew that it definitely should not have been there. Cyto called out to the unusual being. “Who are you and what business do you...

We do not claim to be experts on Narrative Medicine ‘criteria’ - particularly where the reflective aspect of the writing is concerned. However, based on our experience of reading and writing reflectively, we provide the following 15 key suggestions for effectively written medical narratives. Keen observation  is very important. Medicine is fast paced so taking time to reflect on every day happenings can make way for some very interesting narratives.   Have a central ‘message’  that needs to come across without sounding didactic / academic, lecturing, holier than thou, etc. Think of this as a subtle point you’ll be making to the reader by the manner in which you narrate the happenings.   Honesty is important  because it is difficult to pretend when you are writing. Sure you can but when you write about real things it shows.   Be creative and purposeful  in writing. Is the purpose to advocate for the p...