May-June 1997
The Ramanathpuram misadventure was just a small welcome break in what has become a long drawn out struggle to stay afloat in my ocean of books, patients and classes. Final Year is unique in that constant study is not only needed, it is expected. And expected of every Final Year, by everyone else. If I am spotted in Snappy, I start to feel guilty I'm not in the Library or mugging in the room. Tea in the shacks has similar consequences. The guilty pangs have started-a feature of the Final Year student.
I can handle a barrage of "Start Reading" exhortations from the Consulatants but frankly, "Start Reading Bugger" and " Bugger, your prognosis is dismal", " This is basic stuff Bugger" and the like are beginning to grate on me.
Final Years are the whipping boys of everyone. The First Years torment us with Anatomy and Physiology, the Third Years with their newly acquired knowledge of Pharm, Micro and Path and Interns with their know-it-all attitude. The Interns especially, just a year senior and only 4 months out of their own Final Year hell, have forgotten the trauma, the trials and the tribulations they have suffered to get there. Sid makes it a point to walk into what has been a nice pleasant Snappy evening and hit me with Medicine case scenarios. Deb wil usually follow him but will keep wise, silent counsel. Bong used to be a master at this kind of mental torture but has thankfully graduated and gone home. Shom has too many worries trying to sort out the politics in his Department and Rahul is sensible enough to realize that most people just pass from sheer luck and keeps away from any academic conversation.
My last vacations in MBBS are over. The next 6 months will be my last in this course and all I can see is proverbial puddles of quicksand and minefields to somehow navigate and dodge. The next 4 postings will complete our course and then it will be Send-Ups and after a few days, the Finals. Supposedly the toughest Finals anywhere. I start with OG again, continuing with Paediatrics next and followed by Medicine and Surgery. Orthopaedics and Paediatrics are considered minor subjects and will constitute a part of the Surgery and Medicine papers respectively and therefore only have the one posting. Which I'm very grateful for. A full exam in Orthopaedics would have had me reeling in despair. For the next 4-5 weeks, though, I'm back in the Ground Floor corridors of OG.
This time, the emphasis is on the Gynae part of the subject and most of our Ward Clinics are held in Ward 16, opposite the SLR. Ward 12 houses the Obstetric related patients, some waiting for a Caesarian, some just post-Caesarian and a few others kept in observation for various reasons. This is perhaps the only ward where "Floor Admissions" are allowed and so, on occasion, I see a patient without a pre-assigned bed. This is rare though and I have been impressed with the efficiency of admissions and corresponding discharges in all the various wards and departments that keep Jipmer looking well organized and clean.
10 of us troop in to the Ward at 9 AM sharp and bid adieu to the first 6 in the batch. They are heading to their last Labour Room posting where I shall be banished to in 14 days time. I am also now reading in earnest. Back from class and a few teas later, I am in the room planning my assault on the exams. This, however, I find, is more of a feel good strategy than any concrete progress. I am very very good at planning reading and studies.
The planning is where I usually stop though. Over the last few months, I have made extensive detailed plans to study Medicine, Surgery and the like but I usually head off for tea/booze/food/gossip once this is over ad the whole plan then needs to be continually revised, the time allotted for each topic getting progressively shorter. This is a malady I have not been able to fix since I joined this blighted course.
I need to finish Shaw, the Gynae book and also go over Dutta for the last time, since with Paeds, Medicine and Surgery to follow, there won't be any time to get back to OG. Shaw is not big and I find Gynae quite easy. It starts off with the usual Anatomy chapters and moves on to core Gynae including cancers, endometriosis, PID and the like. It's the thinnest book in Final Year but will carry 40 out of the 80 marks in the OG paper. There will also be a Gynae case in exams and so this cannot be ignored.
The tension levels are rising. I can feel this and so can all my classmates. Condom and Anup are in the same batch and I meet them off and on in the corridors, all the talk centring on the latest cases they have seen and the weird findings they have missed. In the exam, any and every case is fair game and it seems that with every passing case discussion and in gossip sessions with the others, my huge lacunae in knowledge are getting increasingly exposed. The ease with which some of the others discuss the more complex cases leaves me despondent and unsure and back in the room, all attempts at reading are stalled by despondent thoughts on gross under-preparation and helplessness.My books are strewn all over the place-on the floor, on the bed, in the black bookcase Vikrant once owned and scattered all over my table. It takes a lot of effort to blank all this out and just read Gynae, the subject I am currently posted in.
A lot of Final Year outcomes depend on what happens inside your head. It's a Test Match in cricket terms, a lot of dips and the occasional high. There is only one acceptable outcome. I have to pass. Maybe.
My room, 428, is on the Top Floor in Osler House. The Osler Annexe is a shorter, equally tall building at right angles and my windows face the squarish space enclosed by these two hostel buildings. I have a double room all to myself and next to me is an Intern, who is intensely private and his door is mostly locked. I would do that too, except that I can't find my keys in the mess that my room is in and I have had to resort to unscrewing the latch. When I leave the room, all I can do is close the latch which results in the doors being partially pushed open, the mess inside visible in all it's glory. I think this is the reason I have not been burgled yet.
The windows, however, are open to the outside and face some tallish trees. When coming back from my short summer vacation, I brought a couple of cans of Baked Beans, which I love, and which my mother had insisted I take back. This can be heated on a stove (which I can borrow from Anup) and gobbled up in the dark times when I am hungry and there is no time to go out hunting for food. (Most of Final Year is like this).
One day, back for lunch, and looking forward to a quick nap, I peep into the small gap left by the partially open doors and see my can of Baked Beans lying neatly on the table next to the window where I had for some reason, left it.
I also see this:
There is a monkey. The monkey is small, brown and sitting on his haunches next to my Baked Beans can. I stare at this scene for a second and the monkey discovers me, turns his head at right angles and stares right back. The next minute, both monkey and Baked Bean can have disappeared through the window.
At this point, deep into Final Year, nothing can faze me.
My neighbours on Osler Top (or OT) are my usual companions on my long, ardous journey.
Bhargav, an Intern, is rather short and stocky. He occupies a single room in the middle and is often seen smoking yet another cigarette with one leg swung over the 4th floor parapet. He wears round glasses and when I see him, all he says is "Hey Golu, reading going on OK"? (क्या बे गोलू , पढाई ठीक है?)
Anup is in 413 and he is always found on his mattress underlining some book and making notes of what he reads. I don't know what he actually reads since all his time is spent underlining and making notes of ALL that he reads. I tried to do that once but found that everything went straight from the book to the notes, bypassing me completely.
Condom is happy in 427, having ditched his roommate, Harry (Harpreet) who now lives in 415. Harry is the lone Sardar in campus and is pretty studious, doesn't (yet) drink, but loves to stake out the eating joints. He has discovered a video game called "Brick" where patterns of bricks fall and one has to arrange them so that none accumulate. A bit like Tetris I suppose.
Lobsang, a super senior is in 426, just 3 doors down and separated from me by the loos. He has been an Intern for a while, keeps mainly to himself but is otherwise nice to talk to.
Vinod is my other classmate in this wing. We call him Dodo for unknown reasons and he likes to write poetry. Maybe Final Year does that to you. His poems unfortunately go way over my head and actually make me laugh, though since he is dead serious about them, I think that would be rude. He has met the girl of his dreams, another classmate of mine and many times, all I see of him is when he's running down the stairs to Curie House, presumably late again for an appointment.
After a few days of this new, final semester, at 1 AM and after a rare episode of intense reading, I take a bathroom break. I am still there when someone strolls in. It's a girl! She strolls past into a stall, says "Hi" and goes in. Anup is there too, and in stunned silence, we go out and wait for her to walk past us into my neighbour's room where the door is promptly shut. Anup and I tiptoe to 429 and very quietly, put our ears against the door. Only some soft music wafts out. That's a tad disappointing but it still serves as some entertainment for heavily entertainment deprived Final Years.
This happened to VSP, another Intern also. Same situation and the girl in question waltzed into the loo, took one look at him, said a husky "Hi VSP" and went into the stall. VSP was left stunned for a few minutes.
Back to Clinics and the days pass by quickly enough. Fortunately, in the exam, I discover we won't have to do an actual Per Vaginal exam to get the findings. So, for example, in Cancer Cervix, we'll still have to take a detailed history and do the rest of the examination, but the PV findings will be given to us. That greatly simplifies things. The history focuses mainly on vaginal bleeding and discharge and swellings in the abdomen and is manageable. Every passing day of Clinics, the occassional test and the evening despair brings me closer to Labour Room. This time, some of the excitement is missing.
But it's still 14 days of 24/7 action. I might even miss it when it's over.
The Ramanathpuram misadventure was just a small welcome break in what has become a long drawn out struggle to stay afloat in my ocean of books, patients and classes. Final Year is unique in that constant study is not only needed, it is expected. And expected of every Final Year, by everyone else. If I am spotted in Snappy, I start to feel guilty I'm not in the Library or mugging in the room. Tea in the shacks has similar consequences. The guilty pangs have started-a feature of the Final Year student.
I can handle a barrage of "Start Reading" exhortations from the Consulatants but frankly, "Start Reading Bugger" and " Bugger, your prognosis is dismal", " This is basic stuff Bugger" and the like are beginning to grate on me.
Final Years are the whipping boys of everyone. The First Years torment us with Anatomy and Physiology, the Third Years with their newly acquired knowledge of Pharm, Micro and Path and Interns with their know-it-all attitude. The Interns especially, just a year senior and only 4 months out of their own Final Year hell, have forgotten the trauma, the trials and the tribulations they have suffered to get there. Sid makes it a point to walk into what has been a nice pleasant Snappy evening and hit me with Medicine case scenarios. Deb wil usually follow him but will keep wise, silent counsel. Bong used to be a master at this kind of mental torture but has thankfully graduated and gone home. Shom has too many worries trying to sort out the politics in his Department and Rahul is sensible enough to realize that most people just pass from sheer luck and keeps away from any academic conversation.
My last vacations in MBBS are over. The next 6 months will be my last in this course and all I can see is proverbial puddles of quicksand and minefields to somehow navigate and dodge. The next 4 postings will complete our course and then it will be Send-Ups and after a few days, the Finals. Supposedly the toughest Finals anywhere. I start with OG again, continuing with Paediatrics next and followed by Medicine and Surgery. Orthopaedics and Paediatrics are considered minor subjects and will constitute a part of the Surgery and Medicine papers respectively and therefore only have the one posting. Which I'm very grateful for. A full exam in Orthopaedics would have had me reeling in despair. For the next 4-5 weeks, though, I'm back in the Ground Floor corridors of OG.
This time, the emphasis is on the Gynae part of the subject and most of our Ward Clinics are held in Ward 16, opposite the SLR. Ward 12 houses the Obstetric related patients, some waiting for a Caesarian, some just post-Caesarian and a few others kept in observation for various reasons. This is perhaps the only ward where "Floor Admissions" are allowed and so, on occasion, I see a patient without a pre-assigned bed. This is rare though and I have been impressed with the efficiency of admissions and corresponding discharges in all the various wards and departments that keep Jipmer looking well organized and clean.
10 of us troop in to the Ward at 9 AM sharp and bid adieu to the first 6 in the batch. They are heading to their last Labour Room posting where I shall be banished to in 14 days time. I am also now reading in earnest. Back from class and a few teas later, I am in the room planning my assault on the exams. This, however, I find, is more of a feel good strategy than any concrete progress. I am very very good at planning reading and studies.
The planning is where I usually stop though. Over the last few months, I have made extensive detailed plans to study Medicine, Surgery and the like but I usually head off for tea/booze/food/gossip once this is over ad the whole plan then needs to be continually revised, the time allotted for each topic getting progressively shorter. This is a malady I have not been able to fix since I joined this blighted course.
I need to finish Shaw, the Gynae book and also go over Dutta for the last time, since with Paeds, Medicine and Surgery to follow, there won't be any time to get back to OG. Shaw is not big and I find Gynae quite easy. It starts off with the usual Anatomy chapters and moves on to core Gynae including cancers, endometriosis, PID and the like. It's the thinnest book in Final Year but will carry 40 out of the 80 marks in the OG paper. There will also be a Gynae case in exams and so this cannot be ignored.
The tension levels are rising. I can feel this and so can all my classmates. Condom and Anup are in the same batch and I meet them off and on in the corridors, all the talk centring on the latest cases they have seen and the weird findings they have missed. In the exam, any and every case is fair game and it seems that with every passing case discussion and in gossip sessions with the others, my huge lacunae in knowledge are getting increasingly exposed. The ease with which some of the others discuss the more complex cases leaves me despondent and unsure and back in the room, all attempts at reading are stalled by despondent thoughts on gross under-preparation and helplessness.My books are strewn all over the place-on the floor, on the bed, in the black bookcase Vikrant once owned and scattered all over my table. It takes a lot of effort to blank all this out and just read Gynae, the subject I am currently posted in.
A lot of Final Year outcomes depend on what happens inside your head. It's a Test Match in cricket terms, a lot of dips and the occasional high. There is only one acceptable outcome. I have to pass. Maybe.
My room, 428, is on the Top Floor in Osler House. The Osler Annexe is a shorter, equally tall building at right angles and my windows face the squarish space enclosed by these two hostel buildings. I have a double room all to myself and next to me is an Intern, who is intensely private and his door is mostly locked. I would do that too, except that I can't find my keys in the mess that my room is in and I have had to resort to unscrewing the latch. When I leave the room, all I can do is close the latch which results in the doors being partially pushed open, the mess inside visible in all it's glory. I think this is the reason I have not been burgled yet.
The windows, however, are open to the outside and face some tallish trees. When coming back from my short summer vacation, I brought a couple of cans of Baked Beans, which I love, and which my mother had insisted I take back. This can be heated on a stove (which I can borrow from Anup) and gobbled up in the dark times when I am hungry and there is no time to go out hunting for food. (Most of Final Year is like this).
One day, back for lunch, and looking forward to a quick nap, I peep into the small gap left by the partially open doors and see my can of Baked Beans lying neatly on the table next to the window where I had for some reason, left it.
I also see this:
There is a monkey. The monkey is small, brown and sitting on his haunches next to my Baked Beans can. I stare at this scene for a second and the monkey discovers me, turns his head at right angles and stares right back. The next minute, both monkey and Baked Bean can have disappeared through the window.
At this point, deep into Final Year, nothing can faze me.
My neighbours on Osler Top (or OT) are my usual companions on my long, ardous journey.
Bhargav, an Intern, is rather short and stocky. He occupies a single room in the middle and is often seen smoking yet another cigarette with one leg swung over the 4th floor parapet. He wears round glasses and when I see him, all he says is "Hey Golu, reading going on OK"? (क्या बे गोलू , पढाई ठीक है?)
Anup is in 413 and he is always found on his mattress underlining some book and making notes of what he reads. I don't know what he actually reads since all his time is spent underlining and making notes of ALL that he reads. I tried to do that once but found that everything went straight from the book to the notes, bypassing me completely.
Condom is happy in 427, having ditched his roommate, Harry (Harpreet) who now lives in 415. Harry is the lone Sardar in campus and is pretty studious, doesn't (yet) drink, but loves to stake out the eating joints. He has discovered a video game called "Brick" where patterns of bricks fall and one has to arrange them so that none accumulate. A bit like Tetris I suppose.
Lobsang, a super senior is in 426, just 3 doors down and separated from me by the loos. He has been an Intern for a while, keeps mainly to himself but is otherwise nice to talk to.
Vinod is my other classmate in this wing. We call him Dodo for unknown reasons and he likes to write poetry. Maybe Final Year does that to you. His poems unfortunately go way over my head and actually make me laugh, though since he is dead serious about them, I think that would be rude. He has met the girl of his dreams, another classmate of mine and many times, all I see of him is when he's running down the stairs to Curie House, presumably late again for an appointment.
After a few days of this new, final semester, at 1 AM and after a rare episode of intense reading, I take a bathroom break. I am still there when someone strolls in. It's a girl! She strolls past into a stall, says "Hi" and goes in. Anup is there too, and in stunned silence, we go out and wait for her to walk past us into my neighbour's room where the door is promptly shut. Anup and I tiptoe to 429 and very quietly, put our ears against the door. Only some soft music wafts out. That's a tad disappointing but it still serves as some entertainment for heavily entertainment deprived Final Years.
This happened to VSP, another Intern also. Same situation and the girl in question waltzed into the loo, took one look at him, said a husky "Hi VSP" and went into the stall. VSP was left stunned for a few minutes.
Back to Clinics and the days pass by quickly enough. Fortunately, in the exam, I discover we won't have to do an actual Per Vaginal exam to get the findings. So, for example, in Cancer Cervix, we'll still have to take a detailed history and do the rest of the examination, but the PV findings will be given to us. That greatly simplifies things. The history focuses mainly on vaginal bleeding and discharge and swellings in the abdomen and is manageable. Every passing day of Clinics, the occassional test and the evening despair brings me closer to Labour Room. This time, some of the excitement is missing.
But it's still 14 days of 24/7 action. I might even miss it when it's over.
unputdownable...if this is how one can describe reading from the computer screen.pl. don't stop after ch.100
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