Rettai Vaal Kuruvi

Happened to watch this old movie "Rettai Vaal Kuruvi" for the first time; I was quite surprised to know that such a movie was made during the 80s. The movie again revolves around bigamy, which is nothing new. The director (Balu Mahendra) has projected what he wanted in a bold fashion. Mohan is married to Archana; Mohan is desperate to get into family way but Archana insists on planning their family, guess this was because of the serious campaign by the Indian government to control the population explosion. The open discussions people get into in the movie about sex and the use of contraceptives is quite surprising. The liberal attitude exhibited was quite rebellious. I am not sure what kind of opposition this movie would have received during the 80s when I believe our society was so closed and conservative. Some scenes where dumb but the movie on the whole was really interesting. Archana's voice was really annoying at times. Mohan was at his very best with his histrionics and for once gave some respite to the mike. Radhika is the other female lead; she is a singer in the movie and falls for Mohan. Mohan too falls in love with Radhika and impregnates her even before marriage (Kushboo) :-) Also, Archana becomes pregnant in the mean time. Both Archana & Radhika are admitted to the same hospital for delivery. As usual you can expect the confusion that is due as the movie tends towards the climax. I am not sure how many got a chance to watch this movie, but IRs songs for the movie were a super hit like.. "Kannan Vanthu Paadugindraa.." I am told is based on Nattabairavi and "Raja Raja chozhan naan.." (Ar/Av goes like this S R2 G2 M1 P D3 N3 S S N3 D3/D2 P M1 G2 R2 S, no staight match but very closely match Varunapriya & Naaghabaranam).

I don't recall this movie ever being telecasted on Doordharshan, for that matter not even on any of those private tamil channels. Now coming to the Kushboo issue, why all those political parties (PMK, DP) threw a tantrum over what kushboo commented about pre-marital sex. It seems quite absurd; people should realize that such absurd protests happen once in a while to get some kind of political/media mileage. In a way both Kushboo and Suhasini gained some media mileage in the process which they would not have got, otherwise. For PMK this has become a routine, the big brother attitude, trying to act as the moral police. Dalit Panthers, nobody knows who these people are, they really don't represent a majority and they also prey on such petty issues to gain political mileage. Another perspective; why is the media itself so damn interested in covering such issues?...because of the interest people show in such things. Our society is full of gossip mongers, they just need some petty things to chew on.

The irony here is that few years back the same people/fans built a temple for Kushboo.

Learning to Walk Again !

I am sure none of us remember how we learnt to walk. It has been few million years since our ancestors decided not to scamper on four limbs and stand upright. What is startling is that the process walking made so simple by nature. As a toddler we never even think about how we are going to stand up on two legs and walk. Everything is already programmed into the system and are simply executed at the right time. I suddenly feel I've completely forgotten how to walk. Every step I take makes me feel like I am re-learning it all again. 3 weeks of minimal use of my right leg has resulted in a lot of muscular atrophy. Human anatomy is an amazing piece of inteligent design, well should I call it "Intelligent Design" or "Evolution" ? How our muscles, tendons, ligaments and bones work together more than that how are we able to control them subconciously. I realised this when I tried to moved my leg around without assistance.

Since the surgery I've always been using my left leg or my hands for assistance to move my right leg around. I didn't try moving my leg without assistance fearing that I would hurt it more, in fact, but not moving I was actually hurting in a different way. I was losing the ability to control the muscles so that each move is graceful and without much pain. Recently I tried to lift my leg from the ground lying flat on the ground and I couldn't in the first few attempts. The reason; I had simply forgotten how it is done. I was able to the same thing with my left leg. Now, just instructing my brain to lift the left leg was good enough to get the job done. While, when I tried the same thing with the right leg it couldn't execute it. I tried different things like contracting the quads, contracting muscles around the knee cap and having my ankle stiff, nothing worked. After sometime I got the hang of it,though. I was easily able to do the leg raises with very little discomfort. I was truely puzzled at this un-learning aspect of the brain. Goes to show that it does take too long to forget things that come naturally to you.

My leg ROM is at 110 degrees after about 3 1/2 weeks after surgery. I am told that's good :-)

2 weeks

It has been 2 week since my knee surgery and I must say I have come a long long way. The first few days after the surgery were surprisingly easy with all those pain medicines. The best thing about pain medication is that you don't feel the pain and you get to sleep all day :-) but, the worst thing is that you end up being constipated; imagine not pooping for 3 days..! I was warned about this and asked to eat lot of food with fibre, I convieniently forgot about the whole thing and for once _shit_ didn't happen. I was already getting a little tired of the oral pain medicines for I couldn't get any work done so, decided to stop. I slowly stopped taking the pain medicines by extending the interval between each dose. By the 4th day I had completely stopped taking all PMs. Luckily all the pain I had was well within my bearable pain spectrum. I removed the pain pump 2 days after the surgery and that night I was running temperature. I called up doc and he said it was normal and said I would need help only if the temperature was over 101 degerees and the pain was un-bearable. In my case the high point was 99.6 degrees and virtually no pain. I continued to manage the fever with tylenol; the fever kept coming and going for the next 3 days. This period was the most annoying period for the fever forced me to lie down and sleep; couldn't get any work done again.


6th day after surgery I had an appointment with the doc. There was so much blood stain over the dressing that I was a little scared. The doc. removed the dressing and was quite happy at what he saw. Everything looked good and they also removed the stiches. I could see a staight line cut from the bottom of the knee cap running down ~6cms. There was another 1cm cut, an inch from top of the knee cap, I guess that was for the arthoscopic procedure. The doc.'s assistant dressed the thing back again with some steri-strips and a ACE bandage. The doc. handed over a physical therapy referal and asked me come back after 3 weeks. The fact that the doc. was happy about the progress brought back a lot of confidence to me.


Physical therapy...now, for all those out there who intend to or have already torn their ACL: __"there is no way you can avoid PT"__. Post operative rehabilitation is one of the most important things in ACL reconstruction cases and PT is the major chunk of the rehabilation process. I started my PT exactly 10 days after surgery. Even before PT, I was asked to bend my knee as often and far as I could. The issue with cut wound or any kind of tissue rupture is the growth of excess scar tissue. Early movement at the knee prevents excess scar tissue growth. I would also recommend anyone who has to undergo such a procedure to google and educate themselves as to what the surgery is all about and what are the post-op. dos and don'ts. I have completed 3 PT session till now and with every session I can see my knee improving. I was able to bend my leg at the knee to about 60 degrees during the first PT visit now I can do about 85 degrees.

I know, I still have a long way to go ! I am just waiting for that day when I can let go the crutches and the stupid brace. Work in coming along pretty well, I am really starting to like the concept of telecommuting, there are some downsides to it, though. Next post after my 2nd doc. visit.