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!