March-April 1996
.and so I commence my all-important PSM posting. Every morning, around 15 of us get into a college van and make the half hour drive through some nice countryside to a small village, whose name escapes me. I have a Pocket Robbins in my pocket all the time and spend the journey revising the stuff I have already read. This really adds up to a lot of Path that I know now but very little Micro and I hope that will not come back to haunt me.
We are accompanied by 2 PSM guys, one of whom is a constant called "Shortie" and the other one varies. Shortie is a bit of a pain. I have heard many stories of previous PSM postings and in one, a senior got a bit carried away and jumped up onto a bullock cart, succeeding only in scaring the bullock who promptly got loose and ran away. I also heard that he failed his PSM exams. Shortie, it seems, has been posted with us to prevent exactly that.
The first few days are spent looking around the village. It's a typical place, lots of thatched roofs, semi-nude kids and plenty of fresh hay. Lots of sunshine, palm trees and general peace and quiet. But of course, it's not a holiday and so we are divided into groups and made in charge of some families and houses. The first task is to get the orientation and layout of the place, which will be presented as a map later. This done, we do a census, and there is plenty of information to get. Who lives where, how many live there, is there overcrowding (and of course, there is), the sanitation, water, what the kids eat (if they do), etc etc.
My job is to interview all the kids I can find and get details of their food habits. I will evntually have to make a massive presentation about nutriotional status, caloric deficits and Protein malnutrition. There are around 300 questionnaires to analyze.
While this occupies my mornings, I continue to slave in the afternoons with Pharm, which is now holding test after test. They think they are helping to improve Internal Assessment but I think they are just being sadistic, as is their reputation. However, I have the benefit of having read all of Pharm already last year and so I score spectacularly (relatively) in the tests and suddenly become the darling of the batch from the pariah.
I also spend time looking over the specimens in the Path Museum, some of which are going to turn up for the exams. There are plenty of these, from hearts to lungs to livers to genitalia and they are all either black, or shrunken or enlarged or "creamy" or " jelly-like" or like "bread and butter". Path is pretty morbid.
But I have to admit, constant steady reading does make me more confident. I've never felt that way before, having spent my course so far doing night-outs amidst desperate attempts to pass exams. That has it's benefits sure, but good steady reading cannot be beaten.
It has taken an attendance disaster and much face loss for me to get here and for the moment at least, I'm savoring my new found ability to answer any question and face any viva.
All of this, however, is not applicable to Micro which has now begun to catch up with neglect. There are 2 reasons for said neglect.
1) It's so damn boring. And dry.
2) There is SO much Path to cover.
And I have a PSM presentation in 2 days. The posting so far has been fun overall. I've spent the journey to and from the village reading Pocket Robbins and the time in between interviewing semi-nude kids and their parents. Some of this time is spent generally doing nothing, wandering around the village, noting the only 2 brick houses with TV antennas, drinking Coke from a road stall and very happy to get away from the academic environs of the college. Shortie is always around, making sure no bullock cart type incidents happen.
I am in charge of presenting the nutritional status of all the kids in the village and there are 300 or so questionnaires to analyze. Lots of numbers related to how much food they eat, what they eat, how much protein goes inside and what the caloric values of rice, idlis, dosas and other stuff are. In another time, this could be useful for me also, since I do need to diet, but that is furthest from my sleep-deprived and tired mind which is somehow buzzing at the same time. I'm living on adrenaline most of the time.
In the middle of all this, our Send-Up dates are announced and will take place shortly after this posting ends. I have 5 of these to get through. They will be starting quite soon and I have 5 theory papers and 5 sets of practicals and vivas to face. They are all really closely bunched up and there won't be any time between them. This is for the good since there is no time to panic and generally get depressed and philosophical-something I'm quite good at that.
First, there is Pharm, a Department with which I have made peace, partly because I have to and also because my Internal Assessment has skyrocketed, thanks to more tests. There is a Theory paper, a viva and 2 Practicals-Pharmacodynamics and Pharmacy. Then there is Micro 1, taking care of General Micro, Bacteriology (a HUGE chunk) and Immunology Again, a theory paper, a viva and a practical. And of course, there is Path 1 which has General Path and Hemat, with it's own theory paper, viva and practical.
The Path paper has something called "Diagnosis" where we are given a short 2 line case history and asked the diagnosis and related stuff. It can be hit or miss. It also has Hemat slides with Leukemias, Anemias etc and Bone Marrow charts to interpret. I find this both simple and fascinating. But then, to make up, there is the Histopath slides, which, for all intents and purposes, is a just a collection of pink and blue dots and blotches on slides.
All of that, of course, I should have finished last semester.
THEN, there is Path 2 , which covers all of Path except Hemat and it is massive. It is also very interesting and I love it. The viva has a section on specimens where I can be asked to describe any specimen floating around in the mueseum and the Pracs has the dreaded slides.
Micro 2, I'm sure, will be my downfall. Parasites, with their life cycles and eggs, Fungi, which are described so inadequately in the book and Virology, full of viruses which can have DNA or RNA and come in many shapes and sizes and cause so goddam much.
When writing these many papers, something has to give, and Micro 2 suffers. I coudn't care less.
I am now really sleep deprived. All of the constant readimg is taking it's toll and it's a relief that exams are around the corner. It's like a marathon run at a very fast clip with no room to fail.
But before we get there, there is PSM. The night before the presentation, I am running around the hostel collecting questionnaires from my batchmates. By 11 PM, I have all 300. I have all night to sit and analyze them, make my "extrans" and perhaps get some sleep. I start with a flask of coffee and get down to it. Classifying malnutrition, calculating how many kids fall in which category, protein deficits, caloric deficits etc. I know exams are in a few days, but after 3 months of non stop mugging, this is actually a welcome breal from the tedium. And I am back in my night-out mode which is when I am at my most productive. It's ass on fire time.
Around 5 AM, I finally finish. I have made about 35 extran sheets and it better be received well. There are figures in blue and red, neat lines in green, final figures in black. It looks pretty good. I'm totally dead on my feet.
Somewhere in the middle of all this reading and mugging, there was a Cricket World Cup. I didn't have time to see much but when India plays Pakistan, how do you resist? So after India finished batting, and Jadeja had provided some soul food by smashing Waqar Younis, Pakistan got off to a flier and I abandoned all hope and went up to get some precious sleep. I didn't really sleep though, cricket not too far from my mind and when a massive roar went up, I rushed down to find Prasad and Aamir Sohail replays being played nonstop.
I do hope you saw that incident but if you missed it, here it is.
It gave me goosebumps and I sat happily sat through the match.
I also sat through the disaster that was the Semi-Final with Sri Lanka and was very happy that India was not playing the final and I could avoid it completely.
In the meantime, Shom has decided to get married and will do so next month, in Delhi. There is a long story behind this, but maybe he can get into it himself at some point.
May means that I won't be able to attend it. Another punishment from God. Damn attendance.
I'm groggy but still alert. This state of mind is very usual for me and I'm used to it. So, I present the mountain of data I have in front of the entire department, get chewed off a bit but manage to escape mostly unharmed. On the whole, it's been exhilarating. I love this last minute, massive presentation stuff. My PSM posting is over and I have exams to look forward to. The fun, it seems, never stops.
2 days later, something very weird happens. Our University Exam dates are announced. And I find that Our Univs are starting 5 days before our Send Ups are ending....
This means that I may have to write a Univs paper, come back the next day and write the same Send-Ups paper and go back to Univs the next day. It's crazy and is duly conveyed to the College authorities who happily oblige by bringing our Send-Ups 1 week forward.
So, now my Send-Ups start in 2 days and there is a whole 48 hours between Send-Ups and Univs.....
And 5 papers.
If there is a God, he better be on my side.
.and so I commence my all-important PSM posting. Every morning, around 15 of us get into a college van and make the half hour drive through some nice countryside to a small village, whose name escapes me. I have a Pocket Robbins in my pocket all the time and spend the journey revising the stuff I have already read. This really adds up to a lot of Path that I know now but very little Micro and I hope that will not come back to haunt me.
We are accompanied by 2 PSM guys, one of whom is a constant called "Shortie" and the other one varies. Shortie is a bit of a pain. I have heard many stories of previous PSM postings and in one, a senior got a bit carried away and jumped up onto a bullock cart, succeeding only in scaring the bullock who promptly got loose and ran away. I also heard that he failed his PSM exams. Shortie, it seems, has been posted with us to prevent exactly that.
The first few days are spent looking around the village. It's a typical place, lots of thatched roofs, semi-nude kids and plenty of fresh hay. Lots of sunshine, palm trees and general peace and quiet. But of course, it's not a holiday and so we are divided into groups and made in charge of some families and houses. The first task is to get the orientation and layout of the place, which will be presented as a map later. This done, we do a census, and there is plenty of information to get. Who lives where, how many live there, is there overcrowding (and of course, there is), the sanitation, water, what the kids eat (if they do), etc etc.
My job is to interview all the kids I can find and get details of their food habits. I will evntually have to make a massive presentation about nutriotional status, caloric deficits and Protein malnutrition. There are around 300 questionnaires to analyze.
While this occupies my mornings, I continue to slave in the afternoons with Pharm, which is now holding test after test. They think they are helping to improve Internal Assessment but I think they are just being sadistic, as is their reputation. However, I have the benefit of having read all of Pharm already last year and so I score spectacularly (relatively) in the tests and suddenly become the darling of the batch from the pariah.
I also spend time looking over the specimens in the Path Museum, some of which are going to turn up for the exams. There are plenty of these, from hearts to lungs to livers to genitalia and they are all either black, or shrunken or enlarged or "creamy" or " jelly-like" or like "bread and butter". Path is pretty morbid.
But I have to admit, constant steady reading does make me more confident. I've never felt that way before, having spent my course so far doing night-outs amidst desperate attempts to pass exams. That has it's benefits sure, but good steady reading cannot be beaten.
It has taken an attendance disaster and much face loss for me to get here and for the moment at least, I'm savoring my new found ability to answer any question and face any viva.
All of this, however, is not applicable to Micro which has now begun to catch up with neglect. There are 2 reasons for said neglect.
1) It's so damn boring. And dry.
2) There is SO much Path to cover.
And I have a PSM presentation in 2 days. The posting so far has been fun overall. I've spent the journey to and from the village reading Pocket Robbins and the time in between interviewing semi-nude kids and their parents. Some of this time is spent generally doing nothing, wandering around the village, noting the only 2 brick houses with TV antennas, drinking Coke from a road stall and very happy to get away from the academic environs of the college. Shortie is always around, making sure no bullock cart type incidents happen.
I am in charge of presenting the nutritional status of all the kids in the village and there are 300 or so questionnaires to analyze. Lots of numbers related to how much food they eat, what they eat, how much protein goes inside and what the caloric values of rice, idlis, dosas and other stuff are. In another time, this could be useful for me also, since I do need to diet, but that is furthest from my sleep-deprived and tired mind which is somehow buzzing at the same time. I'm living on adrenaline most of the time.
In the middle of all this, our Send-Up dates are announced and will take place shortly after this posting ends. I have 5 of these to get through. They will be starting quite soon and I have 5 theory papers and 5 sets of practicals and vivas to face. They are all really closely bunched up and there won't be any time between them. This is for the good since there is no time to panic and generally get depressed and philosophical-something I'm quite good at that.
The Path paper has something called "Diagnosis" where we are given a short 2 line case history and asked the diagnosis and related stuff. It can be hit or miss. It also has Hemat slides with Leukemias, Anemias etc and Bone Marrow charts to interpret. I find this both simple and fascinating. But then, to make up, there is the Histopath slides, which, for all intents and purposes, is a just a collection of pink and blue dots and blotches on slides.
All of that, of course, I should have finished last semester.
THEN, there is Path 2 , which covers all of Path except Hemat and it is massive. It is also very interesting and I love it. The viva has a section on specimens where I can be asked to describe any specimen floating around in the mueseum and the Pracs has the dreaded slides.
Micro 2, I'm sure, will be my downfall. Parasites, with their life cycles and eggs, Fungi, which are described so inadequately in the book and Virology, full of viruses which can have DNA or RNA and come in many shapes and sizes and cause so goddam much.
When writing these many papers, something has to give, and Micro 2 suffers. I coudn't care less.
I am now really sleep deprived. All of the constant readimg is taking it's toll and it's a relief that exams are around the corner. It's like a marathon run at a very fast clip with no room to fail.
But before we get there, there is PSM. The night before the presentation, I am running around the hostel collecting questionnaires from my batchmates. By 11 PM, I have all 300. I have all night to sit and analyze them, make my "extrans" and perhaps get some sleep. I start with a flask of coffee and get down to it. Classifying malnutrition, calculating how many kids fall in which category, protein deficits, caloric deficits etc. I know exams are in a few days, but after 3 months of non stop mugging, this is actually a welcome breal from the tedium. And I am back in my night-out mode which is when I am at my most productive. It's ass on fire time.
Around 5 AM, I finally finish. I have made about 35 extran sheets and it better be received well. There are figures in blue and red, neat lines in green, final figures in black. It looks pretty good. I'm totally dead on my feet.
Somewhere in the middle of all this reading and mugging, there was a Cricket World Cup. I didn't have time to see much but when India plays Pakistan, how do you resist? So after India finished batting, and Jadeja had provided some soul food by smashing Waqar Younis, Pakistan got off to a flier and I abandoned all hope and went up to get some precious sleep. I didn't really sleep though, cricket not too far from my mind and when a massive roar went up, I rushed down to find Prasad and Aamir Sohail replays being played nonstop.
I do hope you saw that incident but if you missed it, here it is.
Prasad-Sohail 1996 WC QF.
I also sat through the disaster that was the Semi-Final with Sri Lanka and was very happy that India was not playing the final and I could avoid it completely.
In the meantime, Shom has decided to get married and will do so next month, in Delhi. There is a long story behind this, but maybe he can get into it himself at some point.
May means that I won't be able to attend it. Another punishment from God. Damn attendance.
I'm groggy but still alert. This state of mind is very usual for me and I'm used to it. So, I present the mountain of data I have in front of the entire department, get chewed off a bit but manage to escape mostly unharmed. On the whole, it's been exhilarating. I love this last minute, massive presentation stuff. My PSM posting is over and I have exams to look forward to. The fun, it seems, never stops.
2 days later, something very weird happens. Our University Exam dates are announced. And I find that Our Univs are starting 5 days before our Send Ups are ending....
This means that I may have to write a Univs paper, come back the next day and write the same Send-Ups paper and go back to Univs the next day. It's crazy and is duly conveyed to the College authorities who happily oblige by bringing our Send-Ups 1 week forward.
So, now my Send-Ups start in 2 days and there is a whole 48 hours between Send-Ups and Univs.....
And 5 papers.
If there is a God, he better be on my side.
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