A cube of cheese...

So few days back my friends took me to an undecided detour on an evening for a supper. After careful evaluation and debates, it was decided to visit a seafood restaurent. My cute Marathi friend just came back from abroad with a lust for sea food, which he used to hate before. So we went to this place which looked cheap on the outside but passably elegant on the inside. And we were the only customers there. So this aged waiter with a wide grin and a massive forehead comes to us and asks us for our order. We sent him back to discus our order. But he would keep returning every 5 minutes. So I guess, on his 6th visit we asked "whats special??" Next thing u know we have an assortment of live and dead animals on our table to choose from, but we had crabs in our mind. So we were shown two types- one small orange kind and the other- a massive mud crab, that looked eternally beautiful. So obviously we choose that. Later we find out it costed us a buttload but whats done is done....

The patients these days are no sheep either. Think about it. As the Doctors became more commercial, the patients became smarter, in there own ways. A lot of patients come to hospital with their own Diagnosis and ask prescription for that. Thanks Internet!!! They happen to think a five minutes research on WebMD outshines the last 15 years of experience the Doctor has. Sadly the diagnosis they generally come up with are too far fetched and serious. And luckily theres no discount for patients who diagnose themselves, the fees remains the same. :D So that's a win for us at the end. Silver linings. I used to be one of those people and when my friends pointed that out, I decided to always take a Doctors opinion when I'm ill instead of WebMD treatments, till I become one myself. Further ever since Indian patients learned that they can sue Doctors for any unsatisfactory treatment or accidents, they have started using it for their benefits. I have read news reports about how so...

A lot has changed over the past few years. When I was a child my parents used to say that being a Doctor is the greatest profession in the world and that Doctors are next to God. Now that I am about to be one I have a very different perspective. Were my parents naïve or has things really changed so much. I don't know about the rest of the world but here in India the sacred relationship between a doctor and a patient is no longer sacred and its a two way street. Every week in the news cycle theres a report about some Doctor who messed up and that the people are furious. The immediate inference amongst people is that the quality of health system has fallen drastically. What they fail to realise is that due to improved technology and connectivity, Media reports every single medical mess up to the public which was not possible few years back. Doctors are human beings too. They have a life and their own set of problems. And yes they mess up sometimes. Its onl...

My friends would know, just last week my sister got married and I flew home for the occasion but that wasn't the only purpose. Being from a Brahmin family, essentially the priests of the Hindu religion and the supreme of the myriad of castes it hosts, I have to undergo a ritual called 'Upnayan sanskar' in order to become a Brahmin and apparently its a big deal. However it did destroy my life. I had to lose all my hairs and be bald, strip before hundreds of people on several occasions, no clothes to wear on the top half of the body (way to aggravate major insecurities), no shower for 3 hot summer days, no food for 5 days (except fruits and sweets which I outgrew in hours). It was a total nightmare. And all this religious torture was happening to me in a house filled with a million guests, some of which are seeing me after 10 years or so, coming together for the wedding. Well coming back to the topic in hand. I am not at all a fan of the Hindu wedding. No!! I am not ...

You know the drill. Book the tickets, pack your bag, go to the airport, board the flight and reach your destination. While some find it simple and easy, for me it causes severe anxiety and depression since I find travelling highly uncomfortable. I hail from a small town, so travelling to home is tricky for me. My flight takes me to the closest metropolis i.e. Kolkata from where I need to board a train to hometown which involves hours of cab/bus, waiting in the heat and hunger. So by the time I reach home, I am dehydrated, starved, sun burnt, stinky with sweat and from the most recent experience- ill. Few days back I came back from a horrible event at home- that would be my sister's wedding. Why horrible you ask?? Will let you know in another article. Same drill except that when you travel TO home, your excitement and joy of meeting your family masks most of your pain. Its going back to everyday life from a vacation like event that causes real pain. The synergy of unhappiness...

As a male kid growing up in India, I was never given a lesson on how to cook. But after I started staying out, away from my family I began experimenting. Maggi, Tea, Coffee, boiled eggs etc. I soon mastered the most basic stuff. My cooking skills stayed at that level for several years to come coz that was all I needed at times of need. But lately I have started experimenting again. Not coz I need to, but coz its making me happy. In my whole life I never thought that I would have any passion for cooking and here I am. I don't have a lot of space or resources in my tiny flat's kitchen. Primarily coz as I use it as a library, kinda. It houses all my books, notes, rough books, journals, dictionaries etc that I bought for my medical curriculum since I got here. Further I have never made any active efforts into learning how to cook. Just few months back I started taking interest in some simple exotic dishes. Cuz let me tell you, cooking Indian food requires a certain level of...

This article is a continuation of the original post titled "Real Funny stories from my medical College", don't forget to read that too... Being in a Med-School is a pretty boring affair, but every once in a while entertaining things happen. While in the first part of the post, I talked about things we noticed as a new comer. Here I will talk about stuff happening as of late. So here we go. The Patients hate us-     Generally patients are supposed comply with us students taking up their cases for study and presentation. But they are understandably annoyed when it leads to hours of questioning and examination by students of various semesters. Some of them come down to even abusing us for the reason. Its rare though. The last time it happened, two of the girls in my batch were verbally abused in Marathi. It was atrocious but theres nothing we could do about it. While some male patients have a change of heart when they are to be physically examined by the beautiful f...

I will tell you one thing, I am not a very nice person when someone disappoints me as a customer. Its especially true when that someone is a big multi-billion dollar international firm. You might remember it from my shitty experience at the Café Coffee Day. From Idea Cellular to Hewlett Packard, here are some incidents where I avenged them single handedly on a phone call, or other wise. When Idea Cellular Stole from me- During my first year in the college, upon several localite's recommendation I picked up an idea cellular sim card and started using it as my primary contact. After a few months of service, it started spontaneously sending me to offensive sites to download pornographic pictures or videos, every time I tried to surf the net. It happened several times and each time they would deduct some amount of money from my account for "using" their services, in spite of the internet subscription being fully paid for already. One fine day when I was already mad a...

Calls and invitations are being sent to all the relatives now that my sister is getting married and everyone seems pretty excited about it. While I'm dead scared about what happens when all these people come under the same roof together. Our extended family like any other Indian family has camps which are highly politicised. Each family has to decide which camp they want to be in. While insecurities made a lot of those families to join some camp or the other, my parents boldly decided to fly solo. It means we do not lick other people's butt and don't give a shit of what's happening in other sides of the border. So its a phone call every once in a while to ask if they are still alive and formal invitations to marriages and funerals and vice-versa. It wasn't easy for my parents to cut off the strings but the decision was taken after they faced years of pretence, drama, back-stabbing and back-bitching, insults hurled behind their backs, intended misunderstandi...

On a wonderful warm sunny afternoon, We went to a popular café for coffee and snacks. Located in one of the posh areas of the city, foreigners and Ferrari owners(metaphorically) were regular customers over there. Me being neither was apparently a pain in the bum the manager could not get over. Stereotyping our own people as inferior over outsiders is still a common site in my country. Well just so you know, it was not a one time thing with that café manager. Few weeks back when we guys went for snacks, my food was not served for quite some time. So I went up to the counter and enquired for the same and was met with a rude and loud answer - Sir you will get your food when it is ready. It did not feel good but I didn't say anything. I succumbed to my tolerance as usual. 3 guys- including me, returned to the café once again. We ordered the food and beverages as usual and I advised my friend- who was paying for us all against making any payments in change. Smaller denominations...

It was 2010. Most unfortunate things happened to me in this year. You might remember I used to stay away into the main city, for my 11th and 12th grade studies, our car chauffer would often drive me to my school on Mondays or during exam period. One such day I was in a great hurry to reach my school. The car was waiting for me and my dad asked me to take some cash from my mom in order to get some fuel for the car on the way. I ran to my mother, being busy she just directed me to her purse which would usually lie in the cupboard in her bedroom. In a great hurry I reached for the purse and grabbed the first four-five hundred rupees notes kept together totalling to two thousand. I left in a rush without a clue of what was about to happen. An hour past we reached a big Petrol Pump in the city. I asked the employee to fuel up my car with 2000 Rs worth of petrol. He did the same, I reached for my wallet and paid him the money, he looked at the currency carefully as is custom...

I am not a very frequent flyer. I generally prefer Railways over Flights. This year in Jan I travelled to-and-fro to home after my exams to meet my family after a long time. I was flying after a very long time. Thank fully my friend was accompanying me to my layover in New Delhi. Before the flight I was scared that I might get air sick. So as per my text books and advice by my friends I took an Avomin tab right before the first part of the journey. And Oh boy! It was a bad idea. The tab has a very strong sedative side effect. As soon as I boarded I tried to entertain myself in all possible ways but it was all in vain. My eye lids started feeling heavy, and nothing would keep me awake. I am a 6 feet tall person and the space provided by Indian economical airlines for a person is hardly enough for a 6 year old, all to increase their margins. I dropped my tray and crashed my head over it but it was so congested on my seat, my legs felt numb coupled with at lea...

Tomorrow is Diwali. The most Beautiful and Expressive of all Hindu Festivals. Although this Festival of lights is now darkened with air and noise pollution and Extremely high electricity consumption but it doesn't stops us from celebrating it in same old ways. Anyways I am away from my family this Diwali again and I miss them badly. As usual these days I woke up very late, watched some old but supper funny Ellen Degeneres videos on YouTube from her early Stand-up days and finally I showered in the evening. Its no secret to my friends that my little flat is an example of Worst Ventilation that may exist so every now and then I have to open all the doors and windows to facilitate the movement of fresh air and bad air out. That's when my land lady came up to door and asked me for electricity bill papers. I pointed it out to the stairs and handed her my two months bill money. She was in particularly good mood today, she asked me about college, parents and finally...

Hello, I'm a medical student, 3rd year and this blog is my hobby. Thinking about what to write next I had a stupendous idea. In this article I would like to tell u about a few funny incidents from my med school. Most are funny and few sad. The thing is life of a doctor is not exactly very interesting, as they show on Grey's Anatomy. But sometimes you do encounter interesting stories that you remember for long. The first time I saw cadavers- Anatomy is a first year subject, and I can never forget the first afternoon at the college, when we entered the dissection hall. The pungent, strong smell of formalin was everywhere and it made my mind wonder can formalin fumes be harmful to health, that's until I saw shrunk, dark & scary dead bodies lying on the table waiting for us to touch, dissect and learn from it. I remember a poem saying "when the dead teaches the living", it was literally meant over there. It was utterly disgusting first few days. The obe...