We are bothered

As human beings, we have come quite a way along the evolutionary chain; from grunting, scavenging savages to erudite, intelligent individuals with a whole bag of skills we have acquired/learned over centuries/millennia.

One of these traits being a large emotional cortex. While it has its own benefits, providing us with the ability to empathize, one of the few living creatures proven by science to be able to do so, it comes with a caveat; we are always bothered. There must be a certain dopamine rush one gets from putting one's nose in another's affairs.

We bother about what our relatives are up to, that one cousin who doesn't come to family gatherings, and so on. I'm sure that you've been on one end of at least one of the examples below:

That one relative whose husband passed away recently; "Ohh! Poor thing! How is she staying all alone in that house? Why haven't her sons left their highly paying jobs and rushed home to take care of her? Has he made a will? To whom has he made out that plot of land? I wonder what they will do with all that land." 

That one kid who isn't doing too well at school " Look at him, that good for nothing. I hardly see him study. He must be bunking classes and vandalizing public property. I am sure his best friend was a gang member or something. My kid has been on his PS4 for the last 4 hours and has not even looked at his homework but this other kid...man! " 

That slightly obese lady taking a walk in the park "I wonder if she's on a diet. I know a certain specialist who could help her. Maybe she has a thyroid problem. Why can't she just go to a gym or something and lose weight? I've bought two custard pies and I'm diabetic but who cares? The doctor will just re-adjust my meds! This is more important than me!"

The neighbor who is in between jobs " Why can't he just join his old job? It's not like he left on bad terms. Wasn't he planning to go to the USA? I wonder what happened to that. Maybe I can ask him to call up his old workplace? I have a project report that's due tomorrow but who cares! This is way more important than that!"

The politician who allegedly got injured during a rally " Oh look , the cast is on the wrong foot! He wiggled the injured foot! Let's take a video and make it viral. Son wants to go out to buy schoolbooks? Nah! That can wait! We need to talk more about this foot!"

Picture credit : Shutterstock

"Why did they post that on Facebook? Why did she post that bikini pic on insta? Why did he upload that video of he and his friends drunk on snapchat?"

One allows themselves to be bothered with situations/scenarios that do not require their input/deserve our attention; one allows ourselves to get sucked into that whirlpool of negativity. One "feels" that their opinion may prove to be of "value" and by offering that opinion, they are making a difference, "constructive" criticism if you may say so. The only fruit one may reap of such a practice is that of resentment.

If you are so bothered by anyone or anything someone says or does, the best thing is don't follow them. Mute/Block/Unfollow/Unfriend/Ignore them. Do not make it personal. It is your choice to do so. The world would be a whole lot better if we could be a little less bothered with others and focus a little more on improving ourselves.

The Art of Handwriting

I've always believed that handwriting, particularly cursive handwriting, is an art form; each stroke or flourish, whether it's a loopy "L", an elaborate "A" or some elegant "E", being unique to a single artist.

One can learn quite/assume quite a bit about a person just from his penmanship; perhaps I could say it offers a glimpse into one's soul.

Kids enter the realm of writing by scribbling; annoying as you may find those doodles scrawled on every wall of the house 2 feet off the ground and below, those are the formative steps of a young, developing brain, the result of multiple synapses firing in unison. Scribbles are soon replaced by stick figures and finally cartoonish ABC's on a sheet of paper that may sometimes find their way onto a refrigerator door.

Image credit : parade.com

In a year or two, those awkwardly shaped ABC's will soon begin to to merge together to form what we call "cursive".
To a kid, learning to write is basically like learning to draw, and just like every artist has his own unique form, each one's writing has its own uniqueness.

Looking at old works and writings is like admiring a work of art; they hold lot of memories, particularly if it's the writings of a loved one or someone who's no longer there.
I'd found a few letters my friends and I'd exchanged over the years while I was clearing up my drawers and going through them imbued in me a sense of nostalgia for the good old days gone by and also how much we've grown or changed since then.

Perhaps at this point you may be wondering as to why I decided to choose this as a topic for my post; to be honest , one reason is that I just got myself a shiny new fountain pen (yippeeee!) , the second is due to the reduced use of cursive writing in our daily lives.
Heck, the other day I'd come across an article in the papers which stated that apparently in some schools in the US, kids in their teens can't even sign their names in cursive!
It's a known fact that writing in cursive uses a lot more connections in your brain than just plain printing.
It is a character building tool in one's arsenal of life skills.

Writing cursive is unique. Writing cursive is an art. Writing cursive is your personal stamp of individuality that sets you apart from the multitudes.

Food Papparazzi and their habits dissected

Picture yourself at a snazzy upscale restaurant ; you and your acquaintances seated at a table, engaged in friendly banter, soft music playing in the background. The food arrives ; spicy kadhai chicken , some hariyali kebabs and an assortment of flat breads. The aroma is tantalizing, the waiter goes about his business, putting a generous helping of each dish in everyone's plate, and making it look aesthetically appeasing at the same time.The reason for this is partly due to a well known adage : We eat with our eyes.

Image source :gq.com

So, here you are, sitting in front of the delicious assortment of food in front of you; you're about to reach out for a piece of roti, when suddenly one of your acquaintances says, "One minute dude! I gotta take a snap of this stuff! Looks really great n yummy na?" And he's off, taking hundreds of snaps in quick succession, in different angles, positions and so on, to get the perfect snap to upload on to the social network.
Meanwhile, said kebabs and kadhai chicken are no longer piping hot and the once soft, tender rotis have transformed into brittle papads.

This my friends, is the story of the food paparazzi, a common menace these days..
These individuals have a pre conceived notion of being professional photographers and unlike many of their breed who stick to photographing sunrises and sunsets at every beach and hill station they visit, their focus is on food and unfortunately at times, YOUR food.

Image credit : tumbler.com

And if you have one of them in your friends' circle, then look forward to lunches and dinners of melted ice creams, cold curries , brittle flatbreads and so on..
Now while I don't condone this practice, I ask food photographers to answer the following in the questionnaire I've prepared below:

1.Did you prepare the food and just want to exhibit your culinary talent?
2.Do you own a food blog?
3.Are you a professional photographer seeking to build your portfolio?
4.Are you a food lover who only wishes to help friends searching for good places to eat out?
5.Are you an attention seeking prick who derives sadistic pleasure from taking pictures of food ignoring the grumbling stomachs and drooling faces of the people you are eating out with?

For those who answered Yes to Qns 1- 4 , I can't really fault you folks, carry on....

As for those who answered in the affirmative to Qn 5, you are a menace to social dining and perhaps one of the few reasons that sites like instagram are in business. And may I add, unless you wanna see the day when you consume food via the wrong end, try to enjoy your meal when you're eating out with friends; savor the aroma ,relish the flavor and appreciate the texture; keep the camera aside for when you're eating out alone.

Shark attack

The smell in the surroundings caught his attention; an unsuspecting victim wandered close...
He slowly followed, making sure not to attract the attention of any passersby..
At the right moment , he went for the kill, a brief struggle ensued, but he had the benefit of surprise.
Soon it was all over.
I was attacked by a shark. In Bangalore.
Yup, you heard it right ... I was attacked ..... by a shark..... in Bangalore.

Okay well, my friends know that I love playing with metaphors....
The shark in this context refers to your everyday autorickshaw driver in Bengaluru.
If you listen closely , you may actually hear "da-dum da-dum da-dumm" (imagine Jaws music here) as they approach and also "Ka-ching!" once you sit in.

Mention any location in the Garden city and "150 rupees saaaar!" , pat comes the reply.
Any argument on the matter and you'll be treated to responses such as "very far location saaaar!" or "won't get passenger for return trip saaar!". Yeah right, you won't get a return passenger from the largest mall in the city or the railway station. PUH-LEESE!

Also, there's another strange phenomenon I've witnessed during my Bangalore stay; whenever you attempt to cross a road in Bangalore, an autorickshaw will stop in front of you and ask "Elli hog beku saaar!" (Where do you wanna go?) and I reply "Road cross madu beku bewarsi!" (To get to the other side,idiot!).

Another friend of mine got down to preparing his will , after he was taken for a ride (literally saw the gates of Hades!)...at 100km/h on city streets in peak traffic; on getting down , the auto guy says "Very difficult to drive slow for me saaar! I am 3-time auto race winner! "

So friends , if you're the adventure-seeking type, if you ever make a trip to Bengaluru, if you wanna have the time of your lives, do not forget to add "travel in an autorickshaw" to your checklist; it's an experience you'll never forget in a lifetime.

Books vs the Internet : An Essay

These days , one can source any kind of information from the internet ; be it the daily headlines , recipes for Yorkshire pudding or medical information on how to treat Uncle Joe's frequent heartburn episodes.
The internet has it all.
Or does it?
Does staring for hours in front of a glowing computer screen trump the experience of flipping through the pages of a book?
Do you feel the same level of accomplishment when you dig out information on Wikipedia as when you referenced the same on the Almanac or The Encyclopedia Brittanica?

Source : caribarena.com

For those of you who say that the internet is also a way to pass time, I can justify as well as counter this argument. In all fairness, the internet is definitely a good way to pass time in situations which require you to exercise patience, which in the fast-paced world of today, is becoming increasingly difficult.So yes, a quick log-in on Facebook or a Twitter update would definitely help in passing those monotonous moments.
But conversely, immerse yourself in a novel or a magazine and you'll hardly realize how quickly time flies.

The internet as a cure to chronic boredom. Really? So ,opening and closing Facebook and your email inbox every 10 minutes cures your boredom? Maybe a few tweets, a few photo uploads, perhaps watching the grey line of a YouTube video of cute fuzzy kittens advance agonizingly as it buffers, or reading this article on my blog at the end of it all because you already did everything you could do for the moment?

Alternatively, once you pick up a book , there aren't many things which come into your mind. As one-dimensional as flipping through pages may seem, it enables us to push or minds to the limit, helping us visualize, imagine, opine, innovate.
Books are the cornerstone for evolution and revolution.
"The Republic" by Plato ,The works of Shakespeare ,Charles Dickens , Das Kapital by Karl Marx, "The Prince" by Machiavelli are literary masterpieces which either inspired change, portrayed the conditions that prevailed at the time or offered a ray of hope in the darkness.

Sure, you could download ebooks from Amazon.com , but the experience wouldn't essentially be the same.
At the same time, you wouldn't really want to purchase a book everytime you need reference for a small paragraph of info; not unless you have a reading room that parallels the Smithsonian and the finances of say, Warren Buffet.

Conclusion : I certainly have no qualms about searching for information on the world wide web, as it's definitely faster and more accessible, but nothing beats the thrill and sense of achievement of flipping through the pages of a book.

P.S : I thought of writing this as I was going through a pile of Readers' Digest. Kinda proves a  point. :)

Life as a med intern and bachelor - EP6 - Cure for the b***h

photocredit layoutsparks.com

No folks, you haven't read my title wrong....I don't plan to do a write-up on mushrooms from the netherworld anytime soon.

Perhaps all of you have had atleast one of these in your workplace. In fact, I may even go further to say, any workplace would be incomplete without one of these despicable characters; just like every comic book has a villain.

A few characteristics are worthy of note:

The workplace b***h for some inexplicable reason, happens to be present in the very department you work in.

He/she somehow happens to notice any minor goof-up that you apparently thought was made in utmost secrecy.

He/she is a creative genius....remember that small goof-up we just talked about earlier? Apparently, the effects from that goof-up were equivalent to a nuclear bomb blowing up in your backyard...Kudos to the guy who said that imagination and innovation go hand-in-hand...Wait a second, I think it was me; I kick myself in disgust.

Another characteristic of this creature , who I will henceforth be calling "it" (definitely not human) is its ability to watch your every move with utmost diligence...It also possesses some sort of telepathic ability; the boss is never too far when it's around.

It somehow manages to portray itself as the victim of one of your dastardly diabolical schemes which you have no idea of in the first place and strangely expects you to soften your stance towards it.

A more sophisticated subspecies exists in med school, I've come across quite a few of them during my rotations.

Surely , all of you must be thinking , "Why tell me everything that I already know! Just tell me how to get rid of it!"

Allow me to let you in on "The cure for the b***h" , a sure shot cure for all those poor folk who've been victims of the horrendous acts perpetrated by these beings....

1. Pretend they don't exist; while this may initially lead to an escalation of their atrocities, they get bored quite easily - they have the attention span of a goldfish.
2. Practice working in stealth mode; the less they see, the less they know, less damage control. You may want to take some lessons in speed from Flash Gordon as well.
3. Contemplate purchasing a dartboard, place their picture on it and take a few shots...leave it in plain view...
4. Confront them and tell them that you're in reality a werewolf that preys on b***h blood.
5. Look for a dealer in adamantium exoskeletons.
If all fails, contact the terminator. I'll be back!

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...

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...

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

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 :)

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....

The Hippo'critic' Oath

I swear by Apollo, Asclepius, Hygieia, and Panacea, and I take to witness all the gods, all the goddesses, to keep according to my ability and my judgment, the following Oath.

To consider dear to me, as my parents, him (or her,equality for all) who taught me this art; to live in common with him(or her again) and, if necessary, to share my goods with him(now how are we supposed to do that in this time of economic downturn?); To look upon his children as my own brothers, to teach them this art.

I will prescribe regimens for the good of my patients according to my ability and my judgment and never do harm to anyone.(well..since the university i study in has cut down my course by half a year, i don't know how this can be made possible...Forgive me, dear patients)

I will not give a lethal drug to anyone if I am asked, nor will I advise such a plan; and similarly I will not give a woman a pessary to cause an abortion.(Cause' i don't know of any medicament that i could prescribe to you...Referrals will be made at an nominal charge of 50 bucks)

But I will preserve the purity of my life and my arts.

I will not cut for stone, even for patients in whom the disease is manifest; I will leave this operation to be performed by practitioners, specialists in this art.(yup....this I can do)

In every house where I come I will enter only for the good of my patients, keeping myself far from all intentional ill-doing and all seduction and especially from the pleasures of love with women or with men, be they free or slaves.(or pro's....and i will always enter any house with a vial of Alexander Flemings elixir,and a pack of rubbers,if my will fails me)

All that may come to my knowledge(rather, lack of) in the exercise of my profession or in daily commerce with men, which ought not to be spread abroad, I will keep secret and will never reveal.(heaven forbid if my missus finds out!)

If I keep this oath faithfully, may I enjoy my life and practice my art, respected by all men and in all times;(and buy that Rolls Royce i saw last week) but if I swerve from it or violate it, may the reverse be my lot.(But i Hope money solves my problems)

PEACE

Endless Story

It has always been my fondest dream..that i'd just pick up a pen and write a story as endless as the sea and as intense as the sun's rays...The context and story have to be well concocted for this purpose..a subtle theme,a few strong characters interacting betwixt the swarm of many loosely created ones...looking to fulfil some purpose or the other in their lives,which until now...has been just "live to eat, or eat to live"....The purpose of these characters been defined...now lets go to the story...or more aptly,the plot...


The plot should be subtle,stimulating interest amongst readers of wide age groups,young and old and kindle the spirit of adventure,thoughts and imaginations which until now,were dormant and hidden in coccoon...It should be vivid so as to create in the minds of the readers a colourful painting or to be more descriptive,a 3 dimensional view of the scenario unfolding as he unfurls page after page...


The style of writing - Not to forget should be brief,crisp and with a pinch of this and touch of that....in fact it should be almost like a recipe...for there are a few words which give eyes to the readers...eyes to see what each character sees through his own...preferably the protagonist..
For a story to be endless,it should always be within a shroud of mystery...mystery as to what may happen next...the looseness of the other characters should enable the twists and turns that make the saga versatile...


Loopholes are a must in such a venture so as to stimulate reason and to help multiple paths unfurl from the original classic...in other words...a BABEL where each action influences the other's life and epitomises the word "karma"