This is not a holiday destination

                    Life was going awesome in CTVS. For the first two weeks I took leave for my cousin’s marriage. The net two weeks I went to the department. But the welcome was rather cold. There was more than enough people in the OT room since it was the vacation time. I got to assist the cases twice or thrice, but most of the other time I was an observer.

                   Then I stopped going to department. That’s when life was awesome. Wake up late, regular gym, FIFA at night, reading Sabiston and above all I got a new keyboard. Then one day I got that uninvited call which I was expecting. A memo from the HOD of CTVS for the missing residents.

                   So as usual we went to meet HOD. He was really infuriated. That’s when he asked “Do you think this is a holiday destination?”

FIFA world cup and life

           There are various thoughts on how the life of a person is staged. Some says life is divided in intervals of 7 years, the climacterics. But according to Rajnikanth it is 8 year segments. But for me and most of the People who are FIFA world cup lovers it is four years.

        

                  Like many others I am a football fan who expresses it only during the world cup. Football is a beautiful game. It is a sport which demonstrates skill, stamina, group work, tactics and hard work. The game extends for a convenient one and half hours. But the best part is if you can get three four guys and a football, you can play it anywhere. Such a universal game.

               

                   So the point is that, the FIFA world cup is associated with a lot of memories. Each time I have been at different places during last five world cups. So when I see a world cup it induces a nostalgia, and at the same time a chance for look back into last four years.

The election results 2014

                I am not a keen follower of politics. But we cannot live without knowing some basic things. Even if I try to avoid these basic things, something will be instilled to mind forcefully by the media and daily personnel conversations.

                Sri Narendra Modi has won the parliament election unanimously and the NDA government will rule the country for next five years. It gives me a mixed feeling of hope, joy and respect with a pinch of fear. The way he won the election with a monstrous majority and his determination earned my respect. The fact that India is able to coordinate and conduct such a big election brings my joy. Last ten years of UPA government was good, but lacked some spirit. They had enough time to change the country. But there was no out of bounds progress. I hope the next government will do something about it. Lastly the reason for fear is related to religion. Even though the government may uphold secularism there is a chance for religion based riots. I hope the inner peace of our country will be maintained and we may forward through the path of progress with this new government. 

Boiled spicy chicken wings

              Recently I have been experimenting with cooking. This is an easy way to prepare chicken wings 100% oil free. Things required are listed here.

     1. chicken wings 500g (9 piece)
     2. ginger garlic paste
     3. chilli powder
     4. turmeric powder (very little)
     5. pepper powder
     6. salt
     7. sliced onion and green chilli (optional)

  Mix all these add ingredients half a teaspoon each for 500g chicken , keep for half hour, then add 250 ml water and boil for 25 min on medium flame. Add more water if it gets dry.

(at 600w if induction cooker). 

Transporting cycle on a flight in India

               Here I would like to share my experience of transporting a cycle with me in a domestic flight in India. I traveled from Kochi to Delhi. I tried to dismantle my cycle ( Hercules Act 110) as much as possible so that the luggage will not be over sized. Anyway I always had the backup plan of sending it in train if the flight authorities deny.

               I got a cardboard box and two extra axles from a cycle shop. After dismantling the cycle, I cut the extra space of the box. After packing the size was about 130 x 70 x 30 cm and weighed 18 kg. The Air India airport staff were kind enough to give concession for that extra 3 kg. Also they gave extra care to the package on my requisition and applied a ' Fragile' label on it. Fortunately there was no damage during transportation. 

The package

The Fragile label for extra care

Side view

Security checked

Parts brown taped to prevent rolling around

Out of the box

Tire off rims to decrease box height. 

       Tires were removed from rim so as to decrease the height of the box. Also the tires were placed at sides of the frame inside the box for extra cushioning.Some extra foam was also kept inside the box over sharp parts and rear derailleur.

         Front and rear forks were fixed with extra axles to prevent distortion. All of this dismantling can be done with minimal tools. 15 no spanner and L keys of two sizes. A star shape screwdriver is optional and I used a flat screw driver for fixing tires over rim.

                                                                    

 

Minimal tools 

Final product 

The Prodigal son

 

This is an inspired painting. I am not so proud to say that, because the painting is very amateur and the inspiration is not a good one either.

We live in a congested area filled with apartments. There is an old lady living across our room. Her room have one door and window opening to the street. There is a wooden chair covered with old cushions and pillow in front of the room. Her relatives live on first floor. There is no much contact between them. Usually she spends her day sitting on that chair if the climate is good.

She has a son, a prodigal son. He is a drunkard, probably with psychiatric disturbances. Nobody knows what he does for a living. He wears shaggy clothes, sometimes a jacket. He comes in the evening and bills gates his mother. This may go till next day morning. Whenever he start abusing her, she gets into the home and shut the door and window from inside.

Rarely have I seen them talking amiably. Even then she will try to keep the distance. He will sit on her chair and she will sit inside the room. She may serve some tea and biscuit through the window. Then he will have his tea and talk to her through the window.

I never understood why is he infuriated against her and I never tried to. Also one day when he was yelling at her, my roommate who was trying to study then, went to him and shouted in some strange language. To my surprise he left the place. And the roommate never explained what he told him in spite of my repeated requisition.

The prodigal son

The Wikipedia doctor meets the Wikipedia patient

In these modern days in which everything is available on internet, the case of medical knowledge is also not different. Even me, a resident who is supposed to read original literature from big fat books find it easy to Google it.

I am not ashamed to say it, but I have become a big fan of Wikipedia. Even though I am not sure about its accuracy, it is easy it get a superficial idea about a subject from it. But I have to assure you that it is just literature. The real skill of a doctor comes from practice and not by literature alone. So definitely it is not going to be a substitute for doctor for treating illness.

Sometimes you get irritated by patients who come to you saying” Doctor, I read in Wikipedia that the medicine you prescribed is effective in only 5 percent of cases” or “the treatment option you suggest is a failure in fifty percent cases”.

Once a father of a boy asked me to comfort his boy suffering from hydrocephalus who was being taken to operation theatre for a shunt placement. It was his third surgery as previous two eventually got blocked.

So I asked him “why are you so worried? You have already undergone two surgeries and you know the usual procedures.”

He said to me “I know. But I read in Wikipedia that this surgery is associated with fifty percent chance of getting permanently paralysed.”

But he was smiling. I thought to myself “brave boy”. He recovered uneventfully from surgery that time.

Another time a young gentleman came to me when I was in Emergency room. He was having some intermittent pain or burning sensation in penis or sometimes in abdomen at some nonspecific points. All this started in two months and only factor I could pick out is his marriage was fixed around the same time. He has already undergone ultrasounds of abdomen, scrotum, urine cultures, microscopic examinations and NCCT abdomen, which were all normal. Then I assured him, “don’t worry, you don’t have any serious illness.”

Still he kept on asking “What is the reason for this, there must be some reason for these symptoms.”

The only thing that came to my mind then was “You can try searching in Wikipedia”