Music : How Far We've come

Photocredit : cyberius.deviantart.com

June 21st - World Music Day... Celebrating music and its evolution all over the world.
Whilst I type my blog entry , the latest Lady Gaga soundtrack emanates from my laptop speakers...
Its a wonder how far music has advanced; it is indeed a science of various notes,tunes, chords and octaves , harmonised with perfect synchrony to create one continuous stream of pure melody, that can soothe even the most savage of beasts...
Just like any science , music has evolved rapidly, and has many states ...the earliest form being the wind instruments , wherein the "Shanka" (conch) and the bansuri ( flute ) are of mythological origin...followed by other string instruments like the Sitar, Harp and the Lute ; apparently Nero, the Roman emperor played the Lute while Rome was on fire...
The piano emerged during the Renaissance era , as did the violin... Compositions by Beethoven and Mozart served well to bring these instruments to the forefront...
The early 20th century saw the advent of Jazz , and with it the saxophone , guitar, trumpet and the tuba...Post WWII saw the advent of Rock n Roll - Elvis and the electric guitar... This was the so called "Swingin'60's" as they called it...This age saw the advent of the magnetic tape audio cassette...which would soon send the vinyl record into oblivion...

Photocredit : ilounge.com

The 70s saw the emergence of a new trend of Synthesizer music ... imagine a single instrument performing the roles of a piano , violin , a guitar etc etc...!! You'd think it cudn't get any better... If so , u thought wrong...

The 80s saw more advanced Synth music along with the Golden age of Rock - Guns n Roses, Nirvana , Metallica ;teens would be seen blasting away these tracks on their walkmans; a few of their tracks still find favor with the youth of today...

The Digital age (latter 80's) saw in many new technologies, the compact disc deserves a noteworthy mention; for it ensured a longer shelf life for the music album you purchased with your monthly allowance, was fungus proof and also didn't get all entangled in your music system..It also saw the emergence of a few more genres of music - Techno , trance , hip hop and rap started getting prominence,and who could forget the emergence of pop with its king , the one and only MJ....You could call this era - The Golden age of music...

The Internet age spelled doom for cassette players; the Mp3 format combined with the option of getting "just that one good song" : u could store dozens of tracks in a single CD...portable CD players phased out the walkman and before you could say "Compact Disc", Mp3 players came to the forefront - easy to carry, rechargable battery, and flexible use pushed the portable disc player to the attic.
Its now the age of the Mp3,the torrent file - children of the present generation would never recognize a record player , a few of them may have never seen a walkman, the music device with which we ever so eagerly listened to our favourite tracks of backstreet boys , MJ , westlife or madonna...
Guess its the age of the iPod....For now...

Friends , Weight Loss and Photoshop

Photocredit : ligherleiter.blogspot.com

Photocredit : 70pounds.com

My friend Phil was obsessed with losing weight ; I'm sure many of us are but I can very much assure you that he was more obsessed with it than many of you folks...
Phil had this one aim in life , to look as slim and dashing as Brad Pitt or George Clooney in their heydays...

He devised many weight loss plans and at one stage even contemplated joining one of those "World Famous" programmes.
His first breakthrough came during college, where he suddenly and ecstatically screamed, "Whoopee!!! I'm 10 kilos lighter!". It was true, and I was happy for him; but had I known that this was the trigger for his obsession, I would have stopped him.
He then realised that his initial 10 kilo meltaway was due to a change in diet, which somehow led to him starving himself.
Phil had changed, his cheery deposition was replaced by a more unstable one, something like those radioactive isotopes... His next step involved gym workouts, which kind of worked for a while. But Phil wasn't one of those very patient blokes ,he wanted results , FAST and so, soon he was back to his starvation regimen.
One day it dawned on him to try out slimming pills...fortunately/unfortunately , he put those away quite quickly.. apparently his body thought the pills were a food source and rendered them useless.

I must add that Phil was a connoiseur for rich,tasty as well as continental food, so it wasn't unusual to see a few shawarmas or burgers make their way into his diet plan...He deserved to binge once in a while , he said.
So a few months passed and he was apparently surprised that he wasn't making progress.

But Phil wasn't the guy who would give up that easy ; he wanted to show the world that he was still the same ; slim and trim .. which led to photoshopped images on his profile pages...One of the best uses of the "skew" feature , I must admit.
It wasn't surprising that Phil never made it to our reunions, apparently he always had some appointment or the other which happened to crop up at exactly the same date and time.

I finally did manage to run into Phil though; a chance meeting at the railway station. The expression on his face was timeless "Don't recognise me, don't....don't...SHI....Hey! Wassap!"

To be fair, I must say Phil actually DID manage to lose a few pounds ; no longer did he have to visit the tailor for custom - fit clothes . But he still had a long way to go , to attain that perfect figure he always wanted... Until then, he said , photoshop is my savior !

5 Rupees

Photocredit : punjabiportal.com

It was a hot summer morning in April; not that it isn't usually hot in this month but the fact that it had rained the previous night ought to have cooled things down a bit; apparently lots of things happen without making sense these days so I guess this is one of those few...
I walked past the cobbler who sat against a wall of the Medical College ; he looked up at me, expecting a customer; on realizing the negative, he bent down, and carried on with his work, tapping and stitching the tattered shoes of an impatient schoolboy.

A few more steps brought me to my grocery store.Being a bachelor, I usually purchase provisions for a week ; sometimes my purchases would elicit weird looks, for i'm sure it would be hard to charge for something that cost just 6rupees a kilo when all i would buy was around 50gms!! I took my shopping basket to the cashier...95 Rupees! I fished out a fresh 100 Rupee note from my wallet... crisp as a cracker. The cashier accepted it with a smile and returned me a 5 Rupee note...I put the change in my wallet and headed home.

At home, I decided to count my change, when the 5 rupee note caught my attention.It had something inscribed on ,I decided to read it.

5 and 10 Rupee notes have a historical importance, each of them have their own story to tell..
IOU's which were made around 5 years ago,or perhaps someone's telephone number was urgently copied on it after a frantic but unsuccessful hunt for a piece of paper.
Or maybe a few odd calculations ,a list of names of people to call for a party,the name of the medicine pill that you wanted to buy and had forgotten the doctors slip behind but had written it down just in case....

The 5 rupee note was the poor man's post-it note...a true upholder of Gandhian virtue...These are now in short supply as 5 rupee coins have forayed into the circulation ;now the 10 rupee notes graciously offered to serve the impatient Indian,their smooth pale saffron surfaces previously untouched by pen , pencil or inksmeared fingers...

The Wannabe

Photocredit : ericatwitts.wordpress.com

"What about the children Jared?"
"What about them?"
"Who's going to take care of them till I get out?"
"Don't worry about that Hannah, I got it covered; I'm gonna get you out of here, I promise! "

CUT!

"Good show today people!! Nicole, can you come into my office for a minute?"
"You were good today! I'll pass your tape to our producer , I'll get back to you if you make the cut."

She smiled ,and left the set...
"I'll get back to you if you make the cut..."
How many times had she heard this line? 5? 10 ? She couldn't really tell....
After all, with the number of auditions she'd done , who could?

"Study hard, and you will one day make it big in life" her parents used to tell her...
How she longed to go back home, to set things right...but she couldn't ; not after she had stolen the money her father used to keep in the drawer ... "just in case you need it ", he used to say... So technically, she didn't steal the money , after all, she needed it...she'd pay them back once she became a star!! But yet, there was this guilt that pricked her day after day...

As she headed home , she stopped by a pav stall, this poor man's bread was her daily sustenance; she had to adjust her expenses on food if she had to stay in a decent neighbourhood...Besides,once she made it big, she could eat whatever she wanted,a small sacrifice compared to the success she would one day become...
The city could be a real harsh place for a single woman in her prime years...

She reached her tenement at the end of the road; the door creaked open...it wasn't a very great place, but it was all she could afford with her slim pickings, playing the role of an extra in film songs...
The dim, eerie glow of a kerosene lamp kept the place lit at night...a mosquito coil burning in a corner of the room kept away the bloodsucking insects....

The Beggar by the road

Photocredit : dpexpert.com.au

He sat there by the wall overlooking the road;in his rags and tatters and messy state one could easily have mistook him for a gunny bag on the pavement....his sense of hygiene had left him the day he emerged out of the sanctity of the womb into the outside world of the gutters...His hair had never seen blade, and his skin rough as animal skin; from him emanated a stench that would make even sewers smell like a spring field....

People passed by him without a care, sometimes just treating him as if he were a stone or some similar obstacle in their path.A few would look at him and think "Oh my! How can he be so filthy!" or "why can't these people just disappear!" and walk on, to perform their daily errands. Few of the more compassionate kind would drop a coin or two in the rusty tin placed beside him...enough for him to buy a pack of biscuits or if lucky, a loaf of bread at the end of the day to satiate his hunger...

He had been beaten and chased by a constable once or twice, but the pangs of hunger and the desire of survival are strong in the less fortunate;a day or two later he would return, to his spot by the wall...sitting with pleading eyes,searching for a bit of compassion from his fellow human beings...

Life as a med intern and bachelor - EP4 - The Aftermath

Photocredit : notaboutjackie.blogspot.com

Im sure many of you who've been to med school will have encounterd the various queries throughout the entire period of ur course that i'm going to state below:

1st year :
Why did you take medicine?
You finished dissection? Do the dead bodies smell? ( They're dead bodies FYI,you can't expect the smell of eau de cologne to emanate from them decaying remains)
Anatomy is tough na? (Do you even know what anatomy is??)
How were ur exams?1st year is the toughest isnt it? (Its a known fact people.We don't need you to keep emphasizing it)

2nd year:
You passed ?wow! how much did you get?Distinction? (Please people, this isn't a 10th grade board exam.This is med school.I'm lucky to have even cleared 1st yr!)
You go to clinics now right?Did you purchase a steth and all?Check my pulse and BP!By the way i have this swelling in my nether regions which kind of looks like a baboon's rear..would you care to take a look and tell me what it could be? (I just got into 2nd yr folks!I'm not a surgeon!Had I known what that swelling was,why would I even need to go to med school?)

3rd year:
Nothing much here...people expect you to be an advanced surgeon now.

4th year:
You must be daily studying na?Study hard, then we can get free treatment from you.(Yea right!So that's why I spent lakhs of med school fees, to be a philanthropist to you moochers!)

Internship: I won't go much into this one...I'll just quote a few.
You say that I have melanoma ? But that renowned dermatology specialist said that its just a wart?!
I have disc prolapse? But according to the tv med show,disc prolapse is the diagnosis only if I look like a contorted pachyderm?? (ooh! I know whoz gonna make you look like one soon)

So now, you've finished med school...and the euphoria of having survived the most arduous year of your life vaporises with the qn :what next?

Photocredit : ganben.blogspot.com

The first few days are spent catching up on the countless hours of missed sleep, parties, and missed sitcoms
The next few are spent rueing joining med school and missing out on the "joys"of college life, followed by gossiping with your batchmates,on how great college life was.
You are suddenly hit with the thought "I should get a job!""earn cash to get that flat screen LCD i always wanted!" , and search for GPs ( general practice ) ; your newly acquired powers of deduction , previously non-existent/non functional,suddenly go into overdrive, people are rewarded with the rare diagnoses they always wanted so as to be the talk at the dinner table.
You soon realise : Post grad is the way to greatness! ... This begins the Application form era .... Apply,download,print,attest,send.
I personally find it weird that they keep asking for a photograph "Not more than 6 months old"; its not like our facial features metamorphosize like Michael Jackson (RIP)!!
You also probably join an entrance coaching course "to keep with the trends".
Each education board also take turns in devising the ultimate way to torture applicants;For eg: The application must be attested by an officer no lower than the rank of the big poobah or else it shall be discarded and treated as a toilet accessory.
In the meantime, relatives get busy; a photoshopped image of some Miss India lookalike arrives at your door every few weeks, with a biodata,gene tree,horoscope,DNA extract and an RSVP.
(All right,guess I got a bit carried away when I stated DNA extract,but you get my drift)
Parents, eager to show that you're not an unemployed lump of lipid occupying space on furniture, push you into getting a job...which is where I stand,right now, outside the dean's office,waiting for an hour now for an interview..
Being so conscious of time,I decided to sit down and blog this post...

DISCLAIMER: Folks I would like to remind you that this post is completely a work offiction...and may or may not resemble what I or many of you folks are going through at the moment.
SO kindly read it leaving the rational part of your brain in the icebox.Until next time!
P.S:You may follow this blog by hitting the facebook or twitter button at the end of this post, or the facebook button on the page.

When time's a testing

Photocredit : coachkalpna.com

Photocredit : theoutsourcingcompany.com

When times a testing,t future looks bleak
think again about what u seek
When times a testing, u know not where
somewhere to rest,to shed a tear.

When times a testing,you cry in pain
all your efforts, seem to go in vain
When times a testing,you try to hide
all your fears, get pent up inside.

When times a testing,you know not
what had you done,for this misfortune wrought?
when times a testing,you tend to despair
for the damage done,seems beyond repair.

When times a testing,rest for the night
for on the morrow,the sun shall shine bright.
when times a testing,do not sorrow
for after testing times, better days are to follow.

Confessions of a Storyteller

Photocredit : exedes.com

I'm a really poor storyteller..I really am.

Its not that I hate stories or anything, Its just that I've been endowed with this uncanny ability to suck the life out of anything that is even remotely interesting and turn it into a piece of boring crap...

I don't know how it all began, probably might have stemmed from the intrinsic hatred that I had within me for great story tellers, egoistic attention seekers the lot!
After all,what other purpose could these people have in life? Certainly nothing, other than competing with each other to get people to listen to them and showing off to the other the size of their ever - so - increasing fan base.

Initially, I too was enchanted by these beings...Oh,if only i were able to join this elite class!And so, I did try... with the following consequences..

- Apparently my recollection of "Pirates of the Caribbean" was akin to "Tragedy of Macbeth"
- Returning from one of the blockbuster films "avatar" , I managed to keep people from watching the movie.
- almost got involved in a lawsuit for causing the director of an award-winning film to incur great losses.
- got contacted to write scripts for Ekta Kapoor teleseries ( a new low in my life ; watch her shows if you dont believe me)
- Apparently a hospital thought I would be a good replacement until they received their monthly supplies of anaesthetics.(the reason your chief surgeon fell unconscious during surgery was exhaustion and not my narration of the previous day's events)
- as a more humane form of euthanesia ( this i made up )

People who face similar experiences in their lives are free to write about their experiences in a similar fashion on a blog of their own...I need my daily number of hits...(who'd visit if my whole page were filled with gobbledygook!)

Disclaimer: For those visiting for the first time...This piece is purely fiction and any resemblance to any person dead or dying is purely co-incidental.

Mobile phones are here to stay!

Photocredit : languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu

Yup! Mobile phones are here for eternity... For those who disagree :
Here are a few situations where you'd have thought "what would I do without a cell phone?"

AT HOME :

1.Stand out in the balcony facing traffic and tell your annoying relatives that you're stuck in traffic and are unable to make it home for another 2 hours.
2.Silence the baby by playing funny noises on it or just lighting up the keypad.
3.Set up an alarm every 10 minutes to wake you in the morning, or your better half (if you're a heavy sleeper)
4.Call up someone you had forgotten even existed and wish him/her "Happy Bday" and brag about having a superb memory.
5.Message your mom in the kitchen that you will have dinner now, and that you prefer you vegetables stir fried.
TRANSPORT/CONVEYANCE :
1.Play annoying ringtones on your cellphone just to announce to all that you have indeed watched the latest bollywood flop or have downloaded the latest Justin Bieber album.
2.Share with everyone how you were completely exasperated over the fact that your dog pooped in the baby's crib thinking it was a litter box.. as well as the listener's horrified reaction over the speakerphone.
3.Pretend to be texting/calling someone while waiting alone to avoid people's stares.
4.If you're a low-life to show "Hey I may not get 2 meals / day but check out my new iphone!! "

Photocredit : textually.org

WORKPLACE/COLLEGE/SCHOOL :
1.Take embarrassing photos of your colleagues to be uploaded to your favourite social networking site soon after.
2.Secretly take pics of the girl you had a bigtime crush on.
3.Secretly take pics/vids of staff acting dumb. (uploaded to social networking site)
4.Use WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE (KBC) options in an exam : phone a friend, expert advice, audience vote !
5.Ask your friend who's in class to give you proxy as you are watching the latest 3D movie.


CONCERT/PUBLIC EVENTS:
Take blurry , out of focus pics to show everyone "Dude! I was there ! And I was just THIS far away from him/them!!!" Yup my friend, very far.

Je veux dormir!!!!

If any of you have lived in a college hostel, you would very well understand my predicament. Prior to my college days, I used to abide by the policy , early to bed, early to rise... But all that changed once I joined my college... At first, it was easy to continue my earlier routine... But as friendships and acquaintances were made, it was an increasingly daunting task...

Conversations used to last till 1 am in the morning..resulting in me sleeping in lectures, in my favourite first bench....( Tis a well known fact that no one concentrates on front bench student )

Let me describe in brief : Nightlife in a hostel and the various nocturnal species that make their rounds.
With timeframe for ease of reading.
10 PM : Closure of HES (Hostel entertainment system - TV)
11 PM : The rounds by the master predator (the warden) start...he wanders through his territory of 3 floors, looking for unsuspecting prey, his favourite prey being the young and defenseless ones( 1st yrs).
12 AM : The prey sense that danger has passed, and emerge from their burrows (rooms) to forage for food , drink and smaller prey... Some of the pack hunters assemble in the corridor, planning their attack
1 AM : Some solitary predators hunting alone prefer to take their prey by the element of surprise, attacking in their most vulnerable state : the state of sleep
2 AM : Some nocturnal males , start calling their mates, this process may last till sunrise...

Internship brought temporary relief; but even this was peppered with unwanted phone calls in the middle of the night...I contemplated getting myself one of those sleep pods in those sci-fi movies....And that bottle of pills looked very tempting...!

Now having completed my internship and this blog entry, permit me to attain the state that I have been searching for - a state of perfect blissful sleep!!!!! :D

Colors in the street

He sat by the sidewalk, chalk in hand....
What would he draw today?

He worked from dawn to dusk, his hands moving deftly,
each stroke creating a streak of vivid color
upon the gray canvas before him...

Often people would stop by and watch him work, giving nods of approval...
others who felt sympathy, would toss a coin or two into the tattered hat he had placed by his side.

But not everyday in his life was without event ; sometimes onlookers would jeer at him or brush his work away, at other times it was mother nature herself with the rains or wind...Nonetheless, he'd let out a sigh and start over, with the same fervor, on a new work of art...

At the end of the day, he would pack up, chalks, earnings and all, his work now at the mercy of nature's elements...

Life as a Med Intern : Dealing with Writers Block

I really dont know what to write... seriously!!
Lots of ideas buzz into my head,mostly while I'm on the way to clinics, sometimes when I'm waiting for the ever-so-busy-doing-nothing waiter to take my order in the canteen...
Once they popped up when I was in the Operating Room , organ retractor in one hand, liver in other ...(I suddenly realised that the screams were not from my crazy fans but from the head surgeon)...
Its really amazing, this 1400 gm thing sitting within the bony confines of my skull...shows streaks of genius when pen and paper are miles away...

Postings too took a toll on my creative side, I usually ended up too tired at the end of the day; usually trying to put sutures on some poor drunk who has no idea that he has a cut the size of New Zealand on the back of his head...reassuring me and the rest around that he can walk home, bloody towel in hand...or searching frantically for my seniors' phone numbers as the hospital phone interface was affected by lightning...lastly, reaching home late at night after a tiring day's work; the thought "sleeeeeep!!!sleeeeep!!!" hissing in my head like Kaa , the cunning python from The Jungle Book..

And now here I am sitting freely,wondering, waiting...waiting for that spark, for those ideas to flow, from brain to hand....

Life as a med intern and a bachelor - EP2 - Fighting the Flab

The life of a med intern starts at around 8 am in the morning, when we enter the wards, rushing to sign our names in the department register and then attend to our wards we are put in charge of...Workload depends on which department you are posted in...
From actually doing medical oriented work to being the personal assistants of the Post grads whom you will learn to love or hate over a certain period of time...
Med oriented work keeps you confined to a nice cushioned chair...seeing people and having to listen to their chief complaints, followed by some tale of how their husband got a job in an MNC in Saudi Arabia and how a certain cousin of theirs is related to the founder of our prestigious institution...A certain few arrive at our hospital on the pretext of getting complete free treatment...to run away when they feel better; belongings , cannula and all...
This particular period of time caused me to eat,drink and make merry...until I saw "two" of me in the mirror..
On to the next scene,my duty as a post grads' personal assistant, saw me shed all those extra pounds...Work consisted of all fun activities - running up and down some three flights of stairs around 4-5 times a day, going to the post grads rooms and play detective...ok,I meant find a certain pen drive that they have hidden so safely that even they couldn't find it...I'd even done a brief stint as a valet..getting stuff from the car...but nothing would beat what a friend of mine was asked to do...take a few wooden blocks to the saw mill and get them sawed in half, so that they may give the right amount of elevation to the foot-end of the patients beds!!!
Or the other time when they made a certain someone drive 15km to our college from home on a sunday just to get a bunch of files from the other ward!!!

Finally, at the day's end ,a nice warm shower and the bedbug ridden mattress becon to me longingly...I am soon serenaded to dreamland, the singing of the mosquitoes in the background...

Life as a med intern and a bachelor - EP1 - The Chef

Life as an intern in med school can be quite hectic at times...With us writing case sheets, doing dressings and monitoring the daily progress of the patients.
And all this combined with irregular eating times...
All those students in med school, if you're reading this, you are definitely gonna miss the hostel food once u shift out...
Tired of constantly eating out and due to my constant shifts from diarrhoea to constipation, I decided to take this extreme step.....
I was gonna learn how to .....wait for it! .......COOK!!!
Yes my dear friends , i decided to satisfy my tastebuds' yearning for mom's homecooked food by learning to cook on my own!
Thanks to mom and google talk, was able to declare my independence from the hotels!!!

Culinary creation No.1 - The bulls' eye : It looked pretty easy to make, but this simple basic meal took me 5 broken eggs to perfect ! Now a regular feature for breakfast.

Culinary creation No.2 - Egg burji : Now this creation was a little more complex than the first one...for it required veggies!...The first time I prepared this I was in for a shock surprise...No salt! Bleeechh! My fav combo with this dish is chapati/bread with a hint of mayonnaise...

Culinary creation No.3 - The chapati :Now this basic component of the Indian cuisine need the perfect mix of water and atta...if not made right you may end up in a gooey mess ( seriously friends, it can be really messy )

Culinary creation No.4 - Shish Kebabs : Now this didn't take me too long to learn to prepare ... just needed a bit of onions...and a fryin pan and you're set !

Culinary creation No.5 - Vegetable stew :One of my favourite preparations! Absolutely yummy with bread ! Addition of a little more water than required will transform this delicacy into soup...Beware!

Culinary creation No.6 - Payasam : The most common sweet dish in South India!Short and easy to prepare and I dont think you can go wrong with this one !

Culinary creation No.7 - Fruit salad : Just saved myself 25 bucks!

Culinary creation No.8 - Pudding : OOO Yeah! My skills have been honed well enough to take on the intermediate preparations...Took me around an hour to make...and a week to finish ! Yummy!

Culinary creation No.9 - Chicken curry : Now I'm really enjoying this...Mom emails me telling me that she will not be cooking once she comes down home for her holidays...The first time I made this though I went into Hypernatremia (High Sodium - too much salt!!! )..Yikes! Gotta be more careful...

Culinary creation No.10 - Paneer Makhani : No screwups with this one!


Culinary creation No.11 - Egg Masala dry prep :The only prob with this one is whether the eggs have been well boiled....which, unfortunately was NOT the case ...

Man! all this typing is making me hungry ! Gotta go fix myself some snacks ! Banana podi!!! :) :) :)
Until next time ppl!

The Yearly Diary vs. The Blog

A diary is a pretty useful tool, if we know how to use it in the right way; as an outlet to one's feelings, to note down events and anniversaries so as not to forget them...and some people use it to note down their expenses as well... Many a time I had purchased a diary, thinking that I would jot down my memoirs at the end of each day without fail...which I would do initially but became less frequent as the year passed until, I'd finally jot down this :
Dear diary,
Have been so busy that I had no time to write. Sorry!

2009 was in no way different... actually it was the most hopeless attempt made on my part; the only entry made being the information page.

In an attempt to show my eco-friendly side, I decided to avoid buying a dairy and turn to blogging...

My first blog as you all can see was me ushering 2009 with a nice image of fireworks.

I then followed that up with two quick posts...but laziness combined with the stresses of college life and the monotonous hostel surroundings got the better of me...No posts for quite some time after that...

Mobile internet was as useless too...cuz I'd be turning in or would be downloading some softwares and stuff like that...

It was finally decided...Stalemate.
Maintaining a steady stream of happening and interesting articles is just not my forte i guess...

A short stat message on facebook is now a way I voice my thoughts....with the occassional breakthrough being ceremoniously blogged and published; my stat message desperately advertising it for some jobless soul to view and give their feedback...

Until next time folks...Going out to purchase my diary :)

Espresso and med school

Its 530 a.m and I am awakened by the call for prayer in the mosque and bhajans by M.S.Subbulaxmi playing in the adjacent temple...add to this,the barking of the stray dogs fighting over the leftover meal I threw out the window yesterday.
Conceding defeat,I change into my bathroom robe and head for a shower.Only cold water today...the monsoons have rendered our solar water heater useless...No sun,no hot water...I mutter a small prayer and turn on the tap (the prayer was in case I die of the cold)...The icy water was enough to alleviate any residual drowsiness that i had.I dried myself up and went to the kitchen to prepare tea and breakfast...I had only recently mastered the art of making omelettes and bulls-eyes...

'The next time I go home I ought to ask mom to teach me to prepare a few of the basic Indian dishes as well as a few of my personal fav's...' is what runs through my mind as I light up the stove and drop a couple of eggs into the pan.."PLOP!"..add to this a few slices of bread that I had just purchased from Nilgiri's supermarket and my breakfast is complete(with a cup of badam-kesar milk of course).
The time by now is around 730 which means I have to rush out of my house into the streets of mangalore to catch the local bus no.51 which plies to my college which has been conveniently placed in the middle of nowhere...

Away from all the comforts of life,and irritated with the constant cacophony made by those inconsiderate people called roommates had made my life in the hostel pretty miserable....which resulted in the inevitable; me shifting out of the hostel into a nice quaint apartment in the heart of the city...;a two bedroom palace on the topmost floor of the building from where I could see the entire cityscape and the sun rise amidst the early morning mist...

A pretty unpleasant surprise greeted me as I went downstairs to catch the bus...Due to maintenance repairs the road was blocked till God knows when!!which meant that i was going to be late for the first hour which commences at 8am...I take out my cellphone,the life saver of all college going students....now without one of these devices,how'd one know where class would be or if class would be there at all?And for those who like to play traunt,it really comes in handy to ensure that they get their attendance daily...just an sms would suffice.

Now it was my turn...all i had to do was ensure that someone call my attendance and I'd get in to clinics at 9am.An sms to A,B,C and I set off in the direction of the bus stand;Now I kind of like walking but not when I'm late...A rickshaw would have been an option,if they weren't so busy raising the fares whenever they read that fuel rates were up and amazingly,their rates do not go down once the prices subside...I wonder at the economical immunity they enjoy;thanks to their ever-vigilant union which is ever ready to strike and cause a public inconvenience...for eveyone knows an auto can go to places and fit in spaces which defy the laws of physics and dimensions.

It is now 8.20 am and I am now at the bus stop.Its only a bus stop by name;only the swift and agile can get into the buses as they speed by,for as we all know,time is money, you know!

The 25 minute route to my college is not the ideal one; the city I reside in is filled with smells which can really hone the olfactory system to perfection that your nose could actually compete with dogs in sophistication.But there is a small stretch of this route which i admire; the bridge over the Netravathi river.Its almost a kilometer long and lies parallel to a similar bridge for the train,and if you are lucky,you get to witness spectacular sceneries which may inspire many writers,poets and artists as well as photographers as well as people like me,who dedicate a whole paragraph to describe it...

I rush through the hospital gate and look at my watch...8.50 am..That means I have 10 minutes till clinics..they will probably be taking attendance now.Oh well,at least I will be early for clinics...

Clinics were the place where supposedly one was supposed to attain and hone one's skills at conversing and examining patients as well as taking shots at diagnosing them.....But in reality,the only people following this theory were Charan and Sara..They wud rush to clinics the moment our prof left the lecture hall, while we people stop by the canteen for a cuppa coffee or a light snack...arriving at clinics by 9.30..

Now for those interested on the types of people we come across , here's the list:
The "All iz well guy" - He may have a tumor the size of a grapefruit but he says nothing is wrong with him
The private investigator - This guy's main aim is to know all your personal details and if he digs deep enough your social security numbers.
Ivan the terrible - This guy wont let you within 10 feet of him,trying to scare you off with some barbaric behaviour.
Sleeping beauty - This guy is active all day until you are by his bedside when he suddenly slips into a deep slumber,from which try as hard as you want, you won't succeed in waking him up.
The sadistic b***h a.k.a the Drama guy a.k.a the tele addict- This guy once was a wannabe actor...will alter his symptoms so that you get thoroughly screwed by your prof,so that he can have some live entertainment.
The story teller - This guy will tell you everything that you want and dont wanna know..including how costly the price of gold has become..

Clinics - a place for couples to meet,for texting,for booking reservations to some movie or for bunking to see a movie!Or just chat with friends while the 'dedicated' students take the case history.

Come 12 pm and its time for the last hour...By this time most people would be half asleep or reading the latest novels courtesy "Readers delight" (No I'm not getting any commission for mentioning them)...With 4 years of experience, I have mastered the art of sleeping with my eyes open...with the occasional nod giving the prof my "very interested" look.

At last its over and we,the tired students make our way out of the lecture halls taking care not to use our cellphones to avoid detection by Mr.Nandan, the campus officer,whos powers of stealth and detection have earned him a niche with the bigwigs of the college administration...The coast clear, we exit the campus, the hostelites taking their bus to their jail...and I head for the city, another day in my college life over, and another year left to go...

Never Again

Oft I would cry in the silence
in tried and pensive mood
Oft I would run away into the darkness
as fast as i ever could

Oft I would gaze into the candle light
and feel the glowing warmth
Oft I would look into your shinin eyes,wonderin what you want

Oft I would play in the meadows til the end of day
Oft I would taste the dewdrops when under the leaves i lay

Oft I would sit in the garden,listening to the birds twitter
Oft I would lay under the beautiful night sky,just look at the stars glitter!

Oft I would love to return,but its so far away
Such are the pleasures of childhood,which I'll enjoy never again.

Messenger of death?Or Angel of life?

I could have saved him....I knew I could....
The thought lingers in my mind as i walk down the stairs of the hospital out into the rain...The monsoons can be quite unpredictable in these parts,dry for 3 to 4 days and then,raining cats and dogs...
If only I hadn't trusted the machine...if only...But it was too late...He was gone,and there was nothing else to do but inform his companions regarding his demise...
The Intensive Care Unit was always going to be a challenge...Especially since it was my first time being posted as an intern there...I had already managed to charm the nurses with my mischievous smile and talkative nature...and the post graduates had taken a liking to me...perhaps it was because of my skill at handling situations or maybe it was for the ease with which they could dump the entire workload on my shoulders...which makes me something of a modern-day "Atlas" - the giant who once bore the entire heavens on his shoulder as a punishment meted out to him by the other gods.
Anyway,coming to the point...my routine involves an energy draining 12hr stay at the desk,filling up case summaries,examining and monitoring all those admitted in the ward...Yes,quite monotonous isnt it?But all that changed that fateful day when Mr.x was admitted following a heart attack...A frail creature,Mr.x fit the typical characteristics of an MI patient.(for those non-medical folks,MI stands for Myocardial infarction,a condition where inadequate oxygen reaches the heart muscle).So,as per the protocol,we hooked him to an oximeter,a device supposed to save patients' lives by monitoring his pulse,blood oxygen and blood pressure . So,this device had become an inseparable friend,who let us know if anything was wrong,except for that fateful day . Readings showed his pulse was a bit low,with normal blood pressure..nothing alarming about that...So we decided to give mr.x a drip and infusion of a few drugs along with oxygen.
I then continued my rounds,monitoring the rest of the patients...one,a delerious case with cerebral malaria,another a case of renal failure,another case of stroke...whew!time for a break!i went back to the station and started completing the monitor sheets of my patients...nw it was time 4 a routine assessment of Mr.x whose relatives,by this time were waiting to shift him to our main hospital branch where he would be given better care...I checked the monitors,the readings were fine,but wait!...there was no pulse!I tied a manual b.p recorder cuff...great!the monitors readings were wrong!he was in shock...I immediately called the rest of the team...by then he had no carotid pulse...'Adrenaline' came the call,and i injected the liquid...'atropine!' 'C.P.R'!...all to no avail...
We then decided to try our last effort...D.C shock...twice we tried but we realised that our efforts were in vain...his pupils were dilated...he was gone.....
It's really raining hard now and i rush to a nearby hotel for shelter and a cup of hot coffee...As i sip the steaming hot beverage i think again " I wish I could have saved him..".
We,the doctors,the messengers who stand at the gate between this world and the afterlife...It is all a part of fate really...some of them we bring back,the rest,we push them on...we are,after all,just mere servants of the grim reaper..

Through the looking glass

As i gaze through the looking glass, i cant help but ponder,

all these years of mine to waste,wish i had a few years longer.

My smooth visage , now beset with wrinkles...

My tired eyes,ave lost their twinkle..

A tall man was I, 6 feet in all

Now I barely walk,lest I fall

A bird in the sky once I could view,

But all I can see now is a yard or two..

The sound of the raindrops I heard once clear,

Now even my dear once's voice I strain to 'ear

Strong as a lion I once used to be,

but all I am now, is a withered old tree.

As I gaze through the looking glass it makes me despair

If only I had a few more years...

The mind - A personal insight (Mind vs.Body)

The human mind is a channel through which things-to-be are coming into the realm of things-that-are.

HENRY FORD, Theosophist Magazine, Feb. 1930

It is the mind that maketh good or ill,That maketh wretch or happy, rich or poor.

EDMUND SPENSER, The Faerie Queene

Just as dogs love to chew bones, the mind loves to get its teeth into problems. That's why it does crossword puzzles and builds atom bombs.

ECKHART TOLLE, The Power of Now

I am the human mind...the most sophisticated fraction in the human being;my permanent residence is within the millions of sulci and gyri of the grey matter (the brain)...Though my presence has been known of since time immemorial,little is known of me....I still lie enshrouded in a veil of mystery....Many have tried to decipher me but have failed....For i am as volatile as ether,mouldable like clay and as unstable as an atom...

The advancing years change the way I look,the way I think and the way I act...

The various instances in life are classified by me according to their importance...I am the seat of emotion and intelligence...It is I that controls my servant...you....the body.

I have an influence on the way you think,feel and act...I also play a role in the way you look at things....

From the bright colours that attracted you as a child to the curves and contour of a beautiful woman...It is I that makes ur heart miss a beat....

And were I to go away,I wud render you useless,lifeless and without purpose..a single grain of sand in the infinite expanse of the desert....