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.