Rural Rambles?

It's been a long while since I've done this so I've got a lot of catching up to do.

For starters, it's been a couple of months in Karkala and Suraj and I are discovering more about the culture of this town as the days go by. We're also learning to make ourselves comfortable in "our little cottage" as I'd like to call it by adding small utilities to it every month.

The best part I think has been the revelation that I am probably not a bad cook. Growing up, I was barely involved in the kitchen, which is something I regretted back then and still do now. I never visualized myself cooking any meal. To me it appeared to be a complicated process with multiple steps, each requiring absolute precision in measurements in order to execute the perfect meal.

To be honest, cooking does require skill, but I think having the passion for it and a willing guinea pig are two important pre-requisites in order to succeed in the culinary arts. The availability of authentic recipes of different communities online with a reasonable degree of accuracy has only made it easier for novices like me to try and put healthy food on the table. I strive to make a healthy plate with all components in the diet. It gives a lot of satisfaction to see a colourful plate with a good mix of carbohydrates, proteins, fibres and fat. 
On the fitness front, I've also been taking some steps (pun intended), to be specific, I've been trying to put in 10000 steps a day and I've realized its not that hard, once I made it a habit. Once habits are built, it's really hard to break them!
The other new developments in the work front include

• A small talk at a local rural school on the importance of good touch and bad touch for primary students organized by the Rotary Club

• A small opportunity to co-anchor an IEM Conference at Manipal

• A small but memorable celebration of Children's Day at our hospital

• A Normal Neonatal Care Nursing Workshop organized at the hospital with the support of the neonatologists from KH Manipal. This event was quite interesting to plan and execute, with the support of the entire team at the hospital, because I've never really "organized" a workshop before. It's always been about attending workshops. So I definitely had a lot of learning points in the process.

• Apart from these things, there’s the regular routine of Rounds, OPD in the morning and afternoon followed by evening rounds. There are the regular calls from the PGs regarding any sick case/ admission/ referral that sometimes warrant a visit to the hospital but since the hospital is literally at our doorstep, it doesn’t seem so hard on most days. 

• There is also the regular visit to Manipal once a week where I take clinics or end postings for the undergraduates which in itself is quite an experience that warrants a lot of patience and self restraint. Maybe it’s just me feeling like there’s a generation gap between myself and the new batch of medical students. Or maybe this is how our professors felt when they taught us. I really can’t say!

There was also the personal milestone of having being wedded to my better half for over a year now although I think both of us deserve credit for putting up with each other and enjoying the process. 
On the home front, there have been a couple of visits to Bangalore and Mysore and we’ve also sort of hosted them here in Karkala (to whatever extent possible). 
I also feel the constant urge to be doing something “more” in the professional/ academic front. I know that there’s a lot of time at hand and I can make use of it. But at the same time, I also realize the importance of giving time for adequate sleep, making healthy meals and getting some good exercise on most days. Should I trade this time (which I really haven’t had constantly for the last ~10 years) for some more academic work and hustle ? A part of me says yes but another part is also trying to look at it from a different perspective. I don’t think I am mentally prepared to put in another 3 years for a superspecialisation but I don’t think I would like to stop with an MD either and therein lies the dilemma. 
Anyhow, will be back with more, hopefully sooner than the last time! 

Down Memory Lane

 

Memory is a funny fair weather friend

It’s mysterious ways we are still unable to fully comprehend

Old and forgotten relics from the past

Are etched in our soul hard and fast.

Yet yesterday’s meal or the morning news

The ever vigilant brain comes up with a sheepish excuse.

A childhood relic, a sweet memory of a bygone  age,

Our clever little brain seems to open up just the right page.

The answer lies in those powerful thoughts,

The emotions that connect the dots,

The feelings that make us remember every single detail,

Are the reason we reminisce every nostalgic tale.

In Another World

 

Maybe in another world we will meet,

Pick up on so many conversations left incomplete,

Together, our favourite Pizza and Garlic Bread we will relish in silence and eat,

I wish I could get you your favourite dessert,

without the fear of calories to avert,

Maybe we will work on new artworks together 

Maybe we will go on another long drive in pleasant weather,

Just maybe I could listen to your voice just once again

Because now, memories are all that remain.

Rediscovering, restarting, re-emerging.

 It's been so long since I did this, I'm not even sure if I know how to do this anymore. But maybe I can give it a try, for old times' sake.

So I somehow finished my postgraduation in Pediatrics. I say somehow, because I feel PG is just one step in the direction of Pediatrics. There's so much more to be learnt, along the way. It's a constant effort and one needs to keep at it to be updated as well as to keep recollect what we have read. There's also some difference between how things are done in different setups. Govt Vs Corporate Vs semi-private/community hospitals. Not that the essentials change, but the finer details probably. I'm reminded of how my professors at MMC would say how we would learn how things work once we go "out there".

It’s also been a learning experience for so many other reasons. Learning to live in a different town, trying to understand two different languages (whilst questioning yourself why your Kannada is not sufficient), learning to co-habit with another individual, understanding their way of life while also retaining the way you do things usually, and of course learning to share responsibilities, preparing healthy, wholesome meals (when possible), learning to live away from “home” and trying to build your own home in a different land and of course, learning to try and be there for your family despite the distance. I think the last bit is the hardest. But I’m trying.

Thankfully, the work environment is positive and encouraging, my senior colleagues are accommodative and supportive. I also enjoy being involved in the day to day Pediatric care and watching kids get better and go home. :)

Apart from the usual activities of cooking up interesting meals and taking walks in and around campus, I also dabble in art. It’s quite therapeutic to indulge in something that comes so naturally to me and I enjoy it for the process; if not for the outcome. 

On the reading front, I haven’t been reading a lot to be honest. I’ve got a nice shelf with a couple of books lined up but I think I’m mostly exhausted at the end of the day so I drift off to sleep before I make much progress. I’ve now started “Before the coffee gets cold” and let’s see how that goes.

Leaving you with a few images from in and around where I live. 

A Breath, At Last.

A baby girl was born in a tiny hamlet;

Tiny and blue, she began her first innings in the ICU.

A frequent visitor; the nebulizer was her healing amulet,

To her, the IV Lines and oxygen masks were nothing new.

Bubbly and bright, she greeted everyone in her sight,

The apple of her mother’s eye;

There wasn’t a treatment they didn’t try,

Yet the little one was always cheerfully high.

A constant worry about the future,

A test was done to reveal the disease nature,

It was a faulty gene they said,

Going on, it would be a rocky road ahead.

Yet another episode came and went,

Each time making a slow but steady dent,

Until her poor lungs could no longer pay this oxygen rent,

Every cell in her body was thoroughly spent.

In delirium she spoke of a happier place,

Perhaps there would be a garden at this unknown place,

She hoped she could breathe at a slower pace then,

And thus retired the brave girl to a heavenly embrace.

Written in memory of Darshini a 15 year old girl, a regular at Cheluvamba Hospital who was a case of Primary Ciliary Dyskinesia. 

Darshini fought bravely until her untimely death. Will always remember her for walking into the PG doctors room and making conversation with us, asking us random questions, with a wide toothy smile. 

Rest in Peace. ❤️🙏🏼

The Bride Ride

Just a young girl on her solo trip,

Not so long ago, I thought I would give marriage the slip,

Happy I was in my own little world 

Little did I know how life unfurled.

Always been my dad’s lil girl,

To my own tunes, I would twist and twirl,

Mom’s dearest pet I was, a long time ago,

Never realised I would one day find my beau.

A new lilt in every tune, a spring in every step I take,

A reason to smile every morning as I wake,

A new journey with a partner, equal and beyond,

A companion to cherish a precious bond.