An ordeal finished....

The last two days had been terribly horrible. Never ever even in my dreams, I had thought that medical examination in a government set up, a mere formality for securing admission in post graduation course, will turn out to be such a major ordeal. I have spent all years of my life after school (not that the time frame has been very extensive...but that constitutes a significant proportion of my comprehending sentient years!!) in a government medical college studying and working. It hasn’t never really been a heavy task understanding how appalling things are to get a work done in a government hospital. Everyone must have witnessed it....some or the other time....they are kinda notorious for lobbing out ill treatments here and there...only if you have gone with some personal reference, you could perhaps think of being able to surpass the callousness eventually incurred over you....otherwise, if you coincidentally get some work done properly, I must say try out somewhere else in life’s context also because you ought to be damn lucky... ;)

Knowing that we are already doctors, maximum from Delhi colleges only...these people almost didn’t care to show any reverence to exemplify the courtesy which ideally should have been bestowed upon us as a matter of similar professions. From calling us fasting at 9 AM to scolding with their eerie directions to waiting redundantly outside their MSS office amidst colossal morning OPD rush and to frivolously bamboozling us with their slowest possible efforts of finishing this rather stupid formality of examining us....they kept us lingering around for almost 7 hours till 4 PM.And not to mention that the person in authority, the very honourable Medical Staff Surgeon was fiercely irascible and looked very peevish inspite of a pretty face.

Now that it is over, I seriously keep thinking where do we as an institution go wrong in handling out these trivia despite not even being that busy in general nuisances. It’s after all not even that difficult to be able to lend out some sweet words. Just letting go off the frustration in life and maintaining endurance should help. Inevitably delaying things, reprimanding over silly stuff only brings out the worst of us. I know I’d never be that creepy or the time will tell, as my sister keeps saying.... ; )

Nostalgia.....

Saturday...I feel is synonymous to SAD-day. They kinda rhyme too. I was supposed to be going to a friend’s place for my very first “Slumber Party” today. It’s cancelled... :( Infact,I felt totally truly embarrassed when on being asked about how I find such snoozers, as they are sometimes very unpopularly called....I happened to be completely unaware of the term...thankfully not the idea!! I have graduated from an All-girls medical college...unique in it’s own since it’s one amongst the only two all girls’ medical colleges of the world. So, basically the girls and the college both ought to be special (Don’t go by my truant self...it might just be illusionary...I can assure you over that letter thing...!!).So, I was literally kind of looking forward to having full fun and loads of our ‘off-late’ recalcitrant mordant girly discussions with my batch mates there.

Girly discussions....or lemme put it more precisely....discussions where only girls kinda get indulged into (I really doubt whether the term really exists....!!)....aren‘t as babyish and silly as some lame souls might just consider them to be. May be...yeah....many of the times, they might not revolve around intellect based prudence [obviously excluding pre-exam and exam conversations where how much hard you try remaining unperturbed, you invariably get trapped in the vicious array of brain use...leaving the gentle amusing side astray :(...]


College times were great...The nonchalant attitude, the nescience of youth{it’s not that we no more are in that category...but it’s gonna last soon in an year as we turn 25 according to WHO conventions...},the nebular rhetoric of fanfaronade, but unlike the unkempt tales of our male counterparts...ours were modest and so, exclusively for entertainment purposes...

The talks still keep bustling with the mindless giggles...hypothetical fancy fables of new found crushes...but the charisma is a little lost as we no more are those typical frolicsome liberated birds who used to show off their snuggle anytime and anywhere...supposedly we are to show more responsibility...we have that hypermature ‘doc’ prefix added to our profile....!!Life would never be the same again except for, may be, a couple of ephemeral enlivening infrequent slivers...Still...I am looking forward to having one...soon...Friends, plan something fast again... :)

With age comes the wisdom ;)

As we complete a course or are on the verge of starting afresh with a new one, loads of thoughts start encompassing our mind…and we in their effluence slowly drift away and sometimes start surveilling our past…

I am about to join as a post graduation student(in a month’s time due to some administration delays) and so have a lot of free time to pamper my conscience…I see myself having wasted a lot of time cribbing about the course, which I could have utilized in some better work (like doing this writing a little earlier)…

For all the five and a half years of M.B.B.S., me, my friends and virtually everyone in my class kept complaining about the peculiarly long duration of this course & kept targetting god’s benevolence of why he let us enter this hell… Had we not get selected, we might have felt dejected for sometime but then would have exalted in some other profession (after all, we are the cream of India!!!! just to satiate our ego!!)…. often we would end up comparing us with engineers who complete their course earlier, study less (our mind was set over this matter, since we egoists thought ourselves to be doing the most Herculean task!!), get placed earlier and hence supposedly become independent before we do…

Oh my god, I want to quit this habitude of mine & look I’m back at expatiating the whole weird thing…. Sometimes, I wonder whether it is only the fear of supposedly prolonged hard labour or only the thought of earning less (my dad does not agree; so I keep telling him to consider my relatively young age also….which I know is old relative to my counterparts in other professions with my kinda job experience!!!!!!!) that keeps me disparaging this profession.

But,as said by everyone-“With age comes the wisdom”.With time,even I have come out of this immature cocoon around me and have realized the futility of my frustrations.The nobility and the honour associated with this profession [and the increment in salaries after the 6th pay commission ;)],as has been made to be acknowledged by the laymen around have been pretty satisfying.So,I have resolved to atleast not fret over my past for now and if you guyz see me doing that,please remind me about the same ;)

Whatever happens,happens for the good :)

Oh!!!!! We poor lady doctors!!!!! The society has always ill treated women and we, the cream of the society (take it as a satiating bit) too have not been acquitted from this disparity. Forget about the species specific side effects that we as females have to face, the genera specific disadvantages- the penalty of being a "supposedly" weaker sex in this profession is also not left much behind; though the definitions this time are related to a different discrepancy…. I’ll just come to that.

We grow up all through our four and a half years of MBBS with our stethoscopes and white coats with the boys at par (not really writing ‘following’ as the statistics say!!!) to one day being addressed finally with the prefix “doctor” in our internship (believe me…. the only yearning of maximum people who enter this profession is the fancy attached to this prefix…my interviewing has revealed so followed next by identical parents’ line of work). The boys do achieve this felicity soon but unfortunately we are left in the rear being referred to as “sisters” every time (the word is used for nurses basically!!!!!!!!) Hmmmm…it might sound hilarious but ya, in a government hospital, most young female docs (with even their doc calling accessories on) are addressed 'sisters' by the patients and their relatives; often to the advantage of male nurses and ward boys who end up being called doctors by these jobbernowls.

I am being very veridical and not really telling this crap (or lemme call it a fact only!!!!) to vie against men folk. No special motive behind since I sincerely think that all those reading it here will (hopefully!!) not mistake calling us ‘sister’ in hospitals. Nevertheless something happened today in wards, which has been making me feel elated over this whole issue. My male Postgraduate doc was called “bhaisahab” by a patient. You might think what a big deal!!!! Sigh!!! Thankfully we are used to be calling sisters, had this not been there, who knows we might have landed up being called “bahenjis” every time…

So the coin has always two different sides. This whole desultory thought made me realize one thing that happens to be the redeemer of every drowning soul –behind every dark cloud, there actually lies a silver lining!!!!!

P.S. This is a part of my internship experience written during my Pediatrics rotation.

An "Experience" out of monetary prejudice!!!

Somebody who once said that “The purpose of life,after all,is to live it,to experience it to the upmost,to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experiences” must have had surely not been reconvening over some not so cool experiences….After all,the term ‘experience’ in itself encompasses a multi-array of adventure, fun, drollery, fret, melancholy, angst and a whole lot enumeration that can probably just keep going on.Each experience with the entwining of mind’s reckless thought process leaves you teaching a new lesson or atleast making you think over a little deeper.

This Wednesday afternoon,with my intuition already scrambling in favour of something bad happening, I went to Patel Chest,Delhi University for completion of my postgraduation programme joining formalities.I parked my car outside it,just as I always did before, and for precaution asked my friend’s driver to heed it and inform me if anything goes wrong. Murphy’s Law, it seemed,had set to prove itself right that day only.

After a little while,I got a call from the driver informing me that my car had been towed away.My clairvoyance was working which I would have had preferred remaining in dumps,atleast for this one.Quitting the work, me and my friend ran down seven odd floors and travelled some 2 kms amidst narrow lanes and traffic to reach Sabzi Mandi P.S. to catch hold of my car,again little knowing about how the arcanum goes and just praying not to get dodged of money for this trivia.What an experience we were chanting,since experience is usually the name everyone gives to their mistakes and I sincerely do affirm to that.

Some minutes after,we were negotiating under the sun over the amount[bribe] to get my car released,giving all genre of excuses which we people,as doctors,are accustomed to whenever caught violating the traffic norms.And that’s why we even keep our stethoscopes and white coats handy most of the times to prove our point.Alas,this time I didn’t have them.Starting from Rs. 1500,he descended down to Rs.300 which was something to be cheerful about.Afterall who doesn’t want saving some extra bucks in the time of recession.And everyone is of same religion when it comes to money.

While driving down back,I did rue a little for two entirely opposite things which might sound hilarious.One,on not being able to save those 300 bucks.I guess,I could have bargained more :).Second,on a more serious note thinking that today I acted like someone who supported a corruptive malpractice which I am condemning in my usual social circle most of the times.I know ethically what I did was wrong but truly speaking,even despite that I don’t see myself strong enough to be acting the other way if the misfortune strikes again.
Paying bribes to get our work done has become a matter of convenience for middle class people like me,an almost incorrigible habit.And may be a food for greediness or avarice for upper class officials and politicians.And there seems to be no respite,to we almost being ‘towed’ towards this chagrin which is sad indeed.

The take off.....

Dilemmas seem to have become an eternal part of my existence…a part of my intangible existence.Even a start up seemingly goes through the thought process of so much ineffectual evaluation that almost everything gets deferred to a point of annoyance and discontent.

So,this time,I have decided to refrain myself from every such belittling thing and to make sure to use this superfluous time of mine to it’s best….by supposedly extending my realm in the world of technology to the blogger’s arena.Cool idea,now I’d be seen at places other than the social networking sites also:)