Supaul

Mr. Tanaji Sen from RedR India called on an urgent note on the last day of June and asked if I can go to few districts of Bihar to train doctors in flood preparedness. I agreed because the training is going to be more challenging, new and certainly help me to learn more. The first district I was to visit is Supaul. On 4 July I reached Patna and had discussions with officials from Unicef, RedR India and my co-trainer for Supaul, Dr. Ravikant. The discussion started at 6.30 pm and ended at 9.00 pm. At the end of the day I knew that we will not be able to leave early for Supaul on 5th. And that is what it happened. Since some formats were not ready and some training materials had not been printed, we waited and left at 1.30 pm. Meanwhile, I had prepared on a better format for planning at the district and block level which the doctors can use for flood disaster management plan. 

A friend of mine at World Vision had helped us get a Scorpio jeep to take us to Supaul and to other places. Our driver was soft and slow on the wheels, and we had reached Darbhanga at 7.30 pm with another good two and a half hours of drive at his speed. So, we thought of calling it off a day. We went to a nearby temple to see as Dr. Ravikant was interested in visiting the place, and then stayed at Hotel Ganga within the Darbhanga fortress. (Hotel Ganga was big, costlier, but with poor service. I do not recommend people  staying there.) Darbhanga was ruled by the kings of Mithila and Darbhanga and the adjacent districts were known as the Mithila kingdom in the ancient days. On 6th morning at 5.30 am we left for Supaul and the first training started at 11.00 am with the district Chief Medical Officer inaugurating the program. The training was on 6th and 7th July 2012 with about 60 doctors, block health managers and other officials from health department attending the same. (On 6th we stayed at Hotel Gautam in Supaul. The rooms were small, but clean, and the service was good for just Rs. 600 for air conditioned double bedded room. And the food was cheap too. Just on the outside there are many eateries: vegetarian and non-vegetarian, all of them giving good food for spice lovers. I enjoyed my stay at Supaul. Would love to go back again!) Mr. B.K Verma and Mr. Pankaj Kr. Jha from District Health Society were very helpful throughout the program. On 7th, Dr. Ravikant left me at Saharsa and he left for Patna.