The Year Ends.

2011 is few hours from ending forever. Never again is it going to comeback.

Here is a brief anamnesis of what I was upto in 2011. (Lucky day today I logged into dictionary.com and the word of the day is ANAMNESIS. I had never heard of this word before ever in my life).Just highlighting some events of 2011.

JANUARY- Regular classes and regular tennis session. My clinical classes went on well and I enjoyed surgery postings and gynaecology postings. And observed the Indians celebrate their 62nd Republic Day with pomp and prestige.

FEBRUARY- My attendance was fine. But my clinical attendance was super fine. :D

MARCH- Annual fest Karta Blanche in my college which was fantastic this year because I was actively involved in most of the events. And also I performed on-stage with my Bhutanese friends on Korean remixes by WONDER GIRLS.

APRIL- My third semester exams went well. I had prepared hard for it and my results were great. My boyfriends' results were as good too.

MAY- Summer break starting mid-May. Back home in Thimphu, Bhutan and I took guitar classes in KILU music school along with a bunch of 6th graders. And I met my wonderful mentor Mr. Samten who is a genius with musical instruments. I developed love for music and playing in groups.

JUNE- The summer break was memorable. End of June I went to Sri-Lanka to meet my sister. Sri-Lanka truly is the pearl of the Indian ocean. I met a lot of Bhutanese people living on the island. I had a great week with my sister and her boy friend. They are really wonderful people there. I improved my photograph skills drastically. Maybe it was my phone Nokia n8.

JULY- Back to college. I had missed a week of my classes. Tennis session was irregular because the rainfall made the court wet always.

AUGUST- I went on a wonderful vacation with my family in the archipelago of Andaman. It was a great week. And I took plenty of photographs and many people appreciated my photographs. :D

SEPTEMBER- The month started with my birthday party. 

OCTOBER- Festival month in India. Dashera and Diwali. Most of my Indian friends left for home. We the Bhutanese decided to hit the beach side. We had awesome time at the Puri beach. And then fourth semester exams.I didn't have enough time to prepare. But I personally think my results were the worst. I failed badly.

NOVEMBER- Back to regular tennis session. I quit from playing at the tournament because of self-doubt. I regret that. I am not going to back out next year. Therefore to make myself feel not so low, I decided to join in successful ventures like the blood donation campaign

DECEMBER- World AIDS day at my college. And the Gynecology conference where I played guitar for a Hindi song. Supposedly we have all-girl band now, which raises my coolness level from down there to up here. And the Indian Science Congress supposedly will one of the biggest events and we are preparing for it. 

All in all, 2011 was a fantastic year.

Stones and Stones.

As the Indian Science Congress is drawing nearer, my campus has undergone dramatic transformation. New paved roads, paint jobs on dull buildings, cleaner streets and blossoming gardens to name a few.


So a few Nobel laureates going to be here. I so hope Barry Marshall is one of them. I am not a big fan of his really. I didn't even know who he is , till I read about Helicobacter pylori infection in chronic gastritis and his demonstrations from my Pathology textbook. So I googled about him and turns out he is still alive and well won the Nobel prize. Therefore, I hope he visits here.

Today was the day we were to meet at the School of Fashion. I had never been inside the building. They have lines of models clothed in their designed garments in the corridors. How cool is that. 

I shouldn't have gone at the said time. I should have known they always turn up late. The coordinator turned up an hour late. In the mean time I made new friends. 

It has been a busy day today. I kind of miss my boyfriend even though we spent the whole day together yesterday. And he is stuck up in his own registration line. While I have to showcase the culture, art and craft of this state. Oh dear lord do grace upon me. I am a foreigner to India myself.

Later in the evening a wonderful person gave us his time. He is the one involved in beautifying the campus. Geez I couldn't catch his name except that he has world wide acclaim. I would mention more about him tomorrow. 

His lecture was very philosophical. Stone has known mankind long before and it has seen every development brought about by man. The stones can speak to you if you try to. They have gender too. And the sculptures that people make pay tribute not only to the subject but to the stone itself too.

Wow. It felt good. The wind was cool. It was about time the sun left for the other side of the world and we were outdoors sitting on stones shaped in semicircle and in the centre more stone sculpture from where water dripped creating a constant ripple on the reflecting surface of the water body.
Tomorrow we are going to set up the art gallery. Excited about it. I have so got to join the art club here.

A Pup In My Hostel Room.

TJ ( a Bhutanese guy) handed me his pet dog so that I would take care of it. I was thrilled by the idea of hiding a pup in my room and secretly taking her out for walks and feeding it pup food.

He told me it's a bull dog, so I was even more thrilled. I had never really fondled a bull dog pup before.

So when he handed me the pup in a big black bag of his I was literally trembling with excitement.

And when I opened the bag, out came a normal white, brownish pup. I know a lot of dog breeds but I didn't know how to classify her. A free-ranging dog or most would called a stray.

But I have often wondered why do we classify dogs. They belong to the same genera, same species. Canis lupus familiaris. And yet so many different breeds based on their appearance- some exotic like the Saluki, some highly coveted like the German shepherd, some adored like the Pomeranian. 

If we classify the dogs and differentiate them then it becomes likewise easy for humans to differentiate humans and treat them accordingly. We are of the same genera, same species too- Homo sapiens sapiens! So should we go around differenting ourselves on how we look? 

Every one of us are special, and so is every dog. Let's not discriminate people on how they look and let's adore every dog!
Let the purpose of classification strictly remain for education and research purpose and NOT for discriminating!
Let us not create hierarchical classification amongst people and amongst any living creature.

I thank my friends for loving the her while she was here and especially roommate for bearing it with me.  The poop session was the worst. She would poop anytime and under the cupboard. But she had taken de-worming and was giving out pin-worms out of her butt. I had to return her right the next day and Acho UT has taken her for now.

Here are here varying names.

For me------===--- Ponyo.

For TJ----------- Nicholayta.

For Chuni and Karso--Lucy.

For acho UT------ Bob Marley.

Anger Management:

I am angry and I don't know why!
I am not boasting but I have this reputation of being the coolest head among all of the friend circles I belong to.
But I am angry now and I don't even know why exactly.
I have scheduled plan to finish reading my text book. It doesn't go with the timeline however. And I find myself lagging behind by few pages a day and in a week I am late by a whole big chapter. 


I just had dinner. I was sitting across a fellow dental student of my batch. I am eating from my plate and drop drop- tiny drops of pulses fall on my plate from that sloppy girl. I don't know. I could have been more forgiving. But I cursed in my mind. I pictured myself slamming the food on her face hard and finishing her up by whacking her hard on the head. I didn't smile. She apologized. A voice in my mind said "Bloody sloppy girl!"


A few days ago I screamed at my friend. I don't know but I lost it. I have lost my fluidity. My ability to coax someone into smiling and pacifying the situation is there no more. Instead if I face some uncanny situations I retaliate at it and show out my angst and I want to scream and shout and make everyone around feel bad. I have got to get a grip over myself.


So first thing first I am going to keep studying everyday even if I lack behind my planned schedule.  I am so going to nail "Robbins and Cotrans- Pathology" and I am so going to remember the classifications of all the medical drugs. Then I am going to scream less and smile a little more. 

Kim Jong Il dead. Now what.

Kim Jong Il dead. Now what.


What next? Honestly I am telling you North Korea scares me. Scares me to the core. When you say North Korea a grey scale image of fat middle aged North Korean politicians flash in my mind. And then comes in the flood of the mid 1900s which left them devastated with very little arable and available land. I picture tiny Koreans half dipped in muddy water and the nuclear plants they have kept us all terrorized about.My evil side sniggers at it and says to itself "Thats' what come for trying to be so superior". But I think of the civilians. So tangled up with the militarized nation. I have this strong feeling that all that strong LOVE they have for their nation is all out of fear and presentiment!  Short by nearly inches from their cousins in the south because of malnutrition and impoverishment yet they display an altruistic vigilance for their nation. Are they even allowed to be happy? Generally, "chinky's" are supposed to be short ( So Kim Il Jong why would you want to shorten your already short civilians, unless he fancied "chinky dwarves). Don't call me a racist, I have tiny chinky eyes myself.


And then when a guy you are playing tennis with askes you "Are you from North Korea or South Korea?"- it's time you slap the guy right away. BUt ofcourse the sensible me didn't do so. Though I badly wished I had. North Koreans-do they even travel? I am sorry late Mr. Kim, but your dwarf specimen are hardly known in the real world. And even if we know one we are afraid to socialize. You might drop the nuclear bomb on our heads anytime.
But condolencses I offer to you Mr. Kim. You wanted to establish a nation uninfluenced by the USA. Not like your southern cousin South Korea trying to make their music sound like "Yeah it's a party in the U.S.A". Respect for you but maybe you went a little out of the way. Because now you have created dwarfs. Your southern cousins are yes growing tall like the tall Americans. And maybe blonde too. The next time we meet them let's say GOODBYE instead of ANYONG!




All the while it is a good drama. Making it a movie, the USA can be the tall blonde guy and the Koreas can be two sisters. North Korea gets the elder sister role, heartless and invincible. South Korea can be the cheery flowery younger sister. Mr. USA falls for the younger sister and this outrages the elder sister. Quite a drama! 

This Week....

This week was like any other week, but I am writing about it because of the delicious pasta that we made all by ourselves in the hostel. And the other reason is now I am a member of girl musical band.
I had the Italio de Pazzta since I last visited Anniesha(my sister) in Sri Lanka. I finally decided it was time we eat it up because I finished up my noodle supply. As a Bhutanese here the food of Orissa, India-HOSTEL is a little too bland for me. Therefore we equip ourselves with whatever packaged food we can transport.
So I ripped off that packet and out came the lovely multi-coloured pasta. After getting instructions from Arunima's mom we set to cook a delicious pasta. Yummy!

Soaking it up with water, oil and salt.

And lots and lots of tomatoes.

The cheesy milky paste and tomatoes :D

Appetizing, isn't it?

The combination of chilli chicken with pasta was scrumptious. It has now sparked an interest in cooking and I just can't wait to get back home and raid my kitchen.
And what more can be more delectable than belonging to a cool all-girl band. Yes. 
Vocalists- Madhurima Roy and Maneesha Sabat.
Guitarist- ME of course.
Casio- Sandeepta Dalal.


We are rocking, but we chose quite an unheard hindi song titled "Iman ka asar". It is melodious I will say but I was not really sure if it would enrapture the audience. Not that I want to enrapture them, but at least not be said that we sounded bad.  We practiced pretty hard. The skin on my finger tips well firstly became paper thin and sensitive. And right after that there was this magical proliferation of skin and so it has thickened to become stiff and insensitive.  That's why I always say "Nothing comes without a price". Therefore you have to make sure how much you are willing to pay and if it is worth investing on or not!


Oh did I forget to mention where we were performing? We were going to perform for renowned gynecologists from India and other countries who were here for AGOICON-2011 (Association of gynocologic oncologists of India). Graying old people would dominate the crowd for doctors are not revered as long they are young. Sad but true.


Here are some clips. 

AGOICON-2011

Sorry, but I can't stop uploading. They are good pictures... Don't go yet.

Thank You for Reading.

And the night closed with a wonderful dinner at the banquet hall. I was surprised to get good reviews from some of the senior doctors present at the dinner. They described us as "talented musicians" (grins much).


Now I feel hungry writing about the pasta and thinking of the dinner.

Plant trees- It's a very cool activity.

One tree can filter up to 60 pounds of pollutants from the air each year!


Planting trees is the big thing that we all can do and I mean literally it is a cool activity because it reduces the green house gases (pollutants). So it helps keep our earth cool.


I want my earth to be cool and awesome. 

WORLD AIDS DAY at KALINGA INSTITUTE OF MEDICAL SCIENCES.

Worlds AIDS day on December 1st,2011 was observed in KIMS with much contemplation.
To create awareness among us all there was the quiz competition and  skit competition for medical students. But the most engaging and enlightening activity was the candle march in the darkness of the night at a short distance of about15 minutes walk. 


Most of the medical students attended the occasion.  Red ribbons were pinned to our lab-coat lapels and there were speeches on HIV/AIDS. The most eye catching was the documentary video of AIDS patients. It featured the patients, desolate ones and the ostracism they face from the society.

I remember seeing one HIV positive person on a field trip to a slum area. To be honest I was scared of him. Even though I am fully aware of its infection and epidemiology I couldn't help but feel a desire to get away from him. Then I realized how unintelligent and non-nonsensical I was! How can the illiterates stop ostracizing the infected persons if someone of my position thought that way? Or how could they possibly know and prevent the ways the disease is spread?


The theme for this year was "getting to zero: Zero new HIV infections, Zero discriminations, Zero AIDS related death"
And as I watched the video and listened to the speeches I suddenly got enlightened. I would not discriminate an HIV patient. Neither would I despise him. I am going to be a doctor and it is my duty to be my best to my patients.
After this I felt happier and we all had the same thought in our head- AIDS you cannot destroy the human race.

The candle march proceeded. Hundreds of students carrying a candle each illuminated the area. It illuminated our minds and especially our hearts.
























My role in zeroing AIDS maybe small and insignificant. But I know that every action counts. My role maybe just to protect myself from getting infected and to the most educate the people on HIV/AIDS and stop discriminating the infected people. I will follow my part very well for I know that every little action of ours won't go in vain.


Let us all work towards GETTING TO ZERO.


Later in the night I found an article titled "Positive people". It appreciates and applauds the five people in Bhutan who stood up to the public and admitted they are infected. 
Please read the article for you may find it inspiring.
http://www.tsheringtobgay.com/health/2011/positive-people.html 

Pathology

Colours are an integral part of my life now. The colour pencils are an absolute must-have in our stationary list. Without them wherever would our learning deter to! 

Pathology is the science or study of origin, nature and course of diseases. We have excellent set of lecturers here in our college. The theory classes are strictly taken and the practical classes are taken more strictly. But if only we would take it strictly otherwise we would be very excellent students.

We peer through the microscope and we have to see everything in detail- starting from the colour to the shape and the size and the relative positions and identify and then diagnose. It is strainful to the eye but the colours add some sense to it. 
But by colours I mean mostly pink or lilac and blue. Different shades of lilac is seen because of the particular stain used in the laboratories.
And then we have to draw what we see and get it verified and checked. 

A compound microscope.

The slide 

And then this is how it looks under the lens.

It is a productive class where we take invaluable lessons throughout our lives that could help save a life. 
Colours help us guide through the course. We use them on every page of our book which help us remember the cell colour and texture and most importantly help us to diagnose the disease.

Blood Donation- Not a Selfish Deed.

Here it Starts- The Mission.

 The compelled volunteers turned up today. And I had to give them briefing on scabies ample enough for them to diagnose a scabies case. Of course chances are they may mistake it with a chicken pox case or plenty of mosquito bites. 

I started my 'lecture' with "this would be your first medical class." Come on it is a funny line. But nobody even flinched! I proceeded anyway and at times added some tiny remarks like "scabies is caused by a parasite, but let's call it a bug for now", and some cheesier lines like "the burrows made by the scabies mites are like the underground burrows made by the moles".

I think I need to improve on my exhibition. I have got to appear confident. But over all I have a feeling that my briefing was a good one.


Then a KISS student took us on a tour of the campus. We went inside the hostel of the kids. They live in a very close community. Three stored bunker beds and lots of them in a single big room. And in a single room there was at least three or four of them infected. 


Tomorrow these people are going to start examining the kids and compile the data. Convenient for us. And I hope my friends join me in this. I am not involving them much because they might feel obliged to volunteer. But if they ever want to join in I am always ready with open arms because a medical brain and medically trained eyes are very useful. 


But the closer you get to doing the project a bit of indolence creeps in. Just thinking about the number of students we are going to examine makes me regret a bit for pushing on with the project. But I will keep pushing on till we are successful.

Mission: Curbing Scabies.

Curbing Scabies

It's too early for me to be writing about my big project since we really haven't gone out to the "field" yet. But I am really excited that we got this project in hand.

I am really shattered after well people don't recognize me for all the hard work that I did. But that won't stop me from doing what I want to. I have heard of some saying some time ago which said " If you can't fly then run. If you can't run then walk. If you can't walk, then crawl. But whatever happens just keep moving forward."

And forward I am moving with every step I take. I may fail now, but I know I am better than this. And one more thing I want to add is whatever you do you should enjoy doing it. That is one of the perks of life. I don't want to be a doctor who is going to complain about how tedious and tiring the job is. I am going to be very dedicated and positive. 

I am glad Debashish is there with me for this project. It is a huge one and everyone thinks it is a noble deed we are doing. One of them even called us "angels in disguise". :)

Tomorrow I am going to be presenting about scabies to the 15 students who are to be punished. And their punishment is to help us do the project. :P Punishment for them because they are B-Tech students who booze and break rules of the college.

Now I am blogging....

Now I am blogging.
So this is where I start writing online. 
Umm.... Er... I live in Bhubaneswar, Orissa. You may just go to Google and find out where it is on the globe.
The weather out here is very unpredictable. One moment the sun is right above your head, the next moment you will experience a downpour.  I am not going to complain about it. I am going to keep everything positive. :) 
I have learnt Oriya (the official language of this state). I am excited about it. That makes me multi-lingual. It is mandatory for medicos to know the local language as much a possible. One of my lecturers who is currently pursuing psychiatry asked me to teach him Nepali, because the place where he is in i.e. Ranchi, there are many Nepali patients and he cannot communicate with them at all. This incident got me feeling all excited and very important of course.
So language is important for medical career.


I will end my first post here. 
As of now,  I rather sleep for an hour or two, after a long tiring working day.