Category: miscellaneous

November, November

Time freakin’ flies. 2012 swooshed past so quickly I didn’t even realize it’s the beginning of my favorite month tomorrow.

How many new year resolutions have you accomplished as of now?
How many times have you told yourself you’re going to do certain things but never got to it until you eventually forgot about it?
How many times have you been touched by other people’s kindness?
How many times have you touched others by a small act of kindness?
How have you lived your year (life) so far?

A little too early for year-end reflection, but November is a good time to think about it, because you still have time to make up for what you haven’t done.

Pictures of some happenings in November worth remembering-

Hands Percussion’s Performance- “The Next” @ KLPAC.
10 of us went on Nov 1st, it was great. A sad thing happened though- one of the performers/volunteers (I wasn’t sure) died in a car crash that Friday or Saturday (can’t remember), and the most tragic part was he was only 18. He was my cousin’s classmate, just finished his UEC exam in high school, at the peak of his youth, ready to venture into the real world. Alas, life played the biggest prank on him… My heart goes out to his family. May he rest in peace. Life is short- appreciate every moment you have. 
Halloween Party that the PU-RCSI peeps threw. They did a great job organizing it, and awesome decor I must say. Everyone was so dressed up! Unlike us lol. That’s Benny’s real hand above my head, my fake hand I used to scare people around, Malini’s fake fingers as the Snow White’s witch, and 3 pretty zombies who cried blood lol. 

Fooling around in class

This was post-NBME exam. End of neuro block and the start of endocrinology. We decided to call that Tuesday a Punjab suit day and have everyone wear one, as a post-Deepavali celebration. Turned out we had to film the Gangnam style dance for some skit that same day, special request from the Dean and Patrick. What a day to be wearing Punjabi suits! The final product was hilarious though. The embarrassment we put ourselves through was kinda worth it, I guess. XD

November is also Malini’s birthday (birth-month). Had this little surprise for her at our temporary campus of a week, specially arranged by her bf. Super sweet. 🙂 

Sense of Urgency

Third week into neurology block and we’re beginning to worry about the exam that we all have to take in June next year. Seems like a long time from now, but in truth it’s everything but. Pretty soon we’ll all be panicking about it… if we don’t start preparing right now. I don’t know about the others, but I sure feel that sense of urgency, and I really have to start working on it. No more excuses and no more blog posts about doing everything but the thing that I should be doing i.e. studying.

The general feeling towards the exam seems to be apprehension. I’m going to try to take another approach and feel excited about it. Easier said than done, yes, but still. Worth trying to change the mindset for. That way instead of having the fear of failing as a force to make me study, I’d feel all gung-ho about it and be all motivated to do my best. lol. We’ll see how that goes. Sometimes I feel I’m such a nerd. 

Formula for a Problem

Problem = (what the situation should be – what the situation is)  x  concern

     Therefore, if concern = 0,

     there is no problem! 😀

Having a ball of a time during occupational and environmental medicine intersession, especially when Prof R is talking. Personally I think public health / occupational medicine might be a very interesting area to go into in the future.

Untitled

It’s been quite a while since I last blogged, I don’t know what or how to blog anymore. And now I’m sitting here thinking why I’m even writing this. The thing is, I can’t remember why I keep a blog anymore. Maybe I should delete this whole blog, or remove it from public’s view. Maybe I should just stop blogging altogether.

Leaving for KK in a few hours. Am excited, and nervous at the same time- nervous about the climb, that is. This is the one highlight of my summer, I hope it doesn’t disappoint. Signing off! Will write more later, on the go.

The Neighborhood Kidnap Story


It’s always just someone else’s story, stories you only read on the news-  until one day it happens to you. Got to come to one’s senses and realize that things like kidnapping, rape, or robbery, are real; and it happens around us all the time. Every day. Heck, it could very well be you or me, if we’re unlucky enough. Be careful when you go out, friends! 
Here’s the story about the girl who had a close encounter the other day at The Curve: https://www.facebook.com/notes/chin-xin-ci/30-hours-ago-i-escaped-from-being-kidnapped/10150980821959859 

The Oatmeal- On Nikola Tesla

I take no credit in any part of this, just wanted to share it because it cracks me up. If you’re my friend and you have the same kind of humor as I do, you’ll like it for sure. If you’re not, well, I’m 88% sure you’ll like it too. 


Enjoy! (Click on the picture below.)

Reunion

10 years ago I went to Russia with these friends. Left the place 8 years ago, and I haven’t seen some of them for that long. Now they’re all doctors (except one, who came back like I did), and I’m still back where I first started with them a decade ago. Hard as I try to not think about it, sometimes thoughts invade my stream of consciousness without my consent, and I wonder how I’d turn out if I had just stuck on. I suspect I would’ve turned out just fine, but that’s me speaking in present time, and I couldn’t have known that way back then. There were many reasons why I left, it’s much more complicated that the simplified version I tell people. But there’s only so much of explanation one can provide, and sometimes I’m just too lazy to explain myself to everyone. After all, I don’t owe anyone an explanation (except for my dad who paid for it), just like how they’re free to perceive my actions. Anyway. Not that it matters now. Just glad I got to see them. We were all quite close back then; I hope it won’t take another 8 years before we see each other again. 🙂

Sharing is Caring 04/30/12

Thought my friends would find these links interesting:

  1. What’s the trouble? by Jerome Groopman – As we go for our longitudinal clerkship every week, witnessing our preceptors diagnose their patients accurately and quickly (most of the time), I wonder how they do it, and if they ever got it wrong sometimes, or missed something. This article talked about how doctors think, how sometimes they, too, can make errors even when they have the best of intentions. Heuristic errors. This article made me want to read his book, titled ‘How Doctors Think’. Adding that to my to-read list.
  2. The Paradox of Altruism, by Jonah Lehrer – I’ve always wondered- are human beings inherently good, or bad? What about altruism? Does it truly exist, or is it just cover-up? Lehrer explores this topic, but this article is but a teaser. The complete article is in The New Yorker, of which you need to be a subscriber to read it. A poor med student like me don’t get to read it, so if anyone has it and would like to share, please shoot me an email. 🙂  
  3. Finding Your Purpose and Doing What You Love: Brain Pickings – More often than not you meet people who don’t really know what they love (to do). Most are just going with the flow, so to speak, and doing what they think they’re supposed to do. Of these people, most don’t care if they ever find out what they’re truly passionate about. But a tiny fraction of people do. This is for those tiny fraction of people. And even if you already know what you want to do, it doesn’t hurt looking at what some others have to say on this. There’s a lot of wisdom in this link. Worth your time, I promise. 
  4. Patient of the Future: Technology Review – The future of medicine will be smacked right in the middle of some form of technology, whether we like it or not. At least that is how it seems to be at this point in time. Sure, there’ll be people who frown upon technology playing an increasingly larger role in medicine, but it is bound to happen anyway. Better to think of ways to resolve whatever predictable problems than to resist the inevitable force. That’s not to say we shouldn’t care about the art of medicine though, the humane aspect of things. In a time where we will rely more on tech, it is even more important that doctors master the art and use tech to achieve better health outcomes. 

Mindless Babble

the world does not stop spinning it doesn’t care if you have exams tomorrow or the day after or whenever, it doesn’t care if you can’t finish studying or if you need more time to study because you waste too much time lingering on social media/news sites or because you are ill. it doesn’t care if you’re bleeding to death and you need more blood for transfusion- blood that better match your ABO blood group and best be HLA-matched as well. it doesn’t care if you’re a genius or a janitor when it comes to accidents, diseases, or cancers. it doesn’t care if you’ve been hurt by someone you thought you loved and needed time to heal. all this, just points us to one brutal truth- that the world waits for no one. there is no time to spare. doesn’t matter if you’re a bazillionaire, a president, a king, or a holy man. you’re not getting any extra time that any others do. if there is anything that is fair in this world, it is the time given to us at any living moment.

here’s the million-dollar question: how would you spend your time at this very moment? or, how are you spending you time at this very moment?