Memoirs of early years

I remember an incidence when I had just started my hospital. There came a patient, a rather young male who had just entered in his thirties, after being suffered multiple burn injuries by getting inflicted with high tension wires. At the time of his admission, the likelihood of his survival was pretty miserable in view of clinical state. He had sustained about 60% burns that contained both superficial and deep ones. The patient stayed at my hospital for about 6 weeks and emerged out a winner. I could not gather a single moment when I saw him getting hopeless or dull; he had this verve of life – a superfluous one. At the time of discharge, his total hospital bill was about Rs 94,000. Though we have this rule of getting payments deposited as the expenditures soar high, we don’t follow this rule with finicky attire. This is one rule that has been kept flexible; especially for the poor patients, I have instructed my staff to practice more compassion than what is the usual norm. This patient had deposited Rs 24,000 in his hospital’s account and was left with no more money. He explained this to me and said he is not in a position to return me the balance amount. 

I was curious to know why he did not opt to get his treatment done at some of the government hospital where expenses would have been far less and they even have separate burn care units with specialists 24X7. He responded after a long silence with lachrymose eyes and a heavy heart. What he said was enough to bolster my amour proper to a significant extent. He said ,” Sir, I am really sorry for not being able to pay you back for the services that you provided me when I needed them most. The moment you first attended me, I knew I was in exceptionally safe and capable hands. Had I not been in a penny-pinching state, I would have merrily given you the balance sum, and I promise to return it back to you in the years to come. What you have done to me is angelic and now I believe my mother’s words that used to stress over the fact that one comes across angels and demons in flesh and blood. I am yet to see a person as self-sacrificing as you.”

With years of social experience it does not take me a long time to decipher what’s going on in a person’s mind as he speaks a certain sentence. I was sure that this person stayed at my hospital in spite of not having any money because he trusted me with his life. I patted him on his back and told him to attend the follow up sessions on time. The moment he was about to leave my consultation room, I whispered softly that I don’t need the balance amount from him. Even before I could have finished my statement, he was brought in to tears. He cried for a long time and I consoled him. That is what I say a seraphic relationship. Beyond the description of ordinary words; the more I see life, the more I want to indulge in such selfless relationships where you only spread hope, love and compassion. Had I not been a doctor, I would certainly have not been able to experience the tranquility that peeps in my life from such sacrosanct experiences.

5 self help tactics for depression

Pangs of depression hold the abhorrent capacity to incapacitate a person. In today’s life, we have a lot of people suffering with underlying depression in view of fast changing values, expectations and poor support system. Depending on the extent and severity of underlying depression, you should seek medical help; depression help tactics are a grand way to start the healing process.

Setting goals are a great way to build confidence. When you set a goal for you, you instill self belief in your dejected soul and that, precisely, acts as a panacea in replenishing your positive hormones.

Work out in improving your body language and physical posture. Practice more often to stand straight, smile lavishly, hold your head high and maintain eye contacts. Do it in front of the mirror and commit to memory a time you felt great; this would not just wipe the depression to some extent, but would also help you regaining the lost self-righteousness.

Exercising is an imperative step in releasing gush of positive hormones in your body. This is no hidden truth that exercise makes you feel better, and you must incorporate exercising in your daily routine. It would be great if you can arrange someone to accompany you so that you remain motivated.

Don’t get burdened with a pile of must-to-do activities. Lighten down your workload and split your tasks into smaller portions. Don’t leave a prominent window for unnecessary procrastination; this allows you to complete your projects in a timely manner and desiccate the pulp of problem to an extent.

Surround yourself with happy, supportive folks. Spend time with people who understand you and participate in activities that you revel in such as checking out a new dress, going out for a meal, seeing a movie or visiting some friends.

Determining the causes of your depression is a first-rate first step towards determining the best course of action. In some cases depression suddenly appear in one’s life without an easily discernible root cause; if this is the case, it would be best to see a doctor while continuing these self-help measures.

'Star' of my hospital

I have learnt some of the biggest lessons in my life by being in the company of selfless people. One such name that has always rekindled hopes, even in the state of uncontrolled inner turbulence, in me is Sister Mercy Mathews. She is, without a second thought ever, matron of Khetarpal Hospital and one of the best persons that stepped in the realms of my life ever. I am yet to see a more disciplined individual than her. She has never turned a minute late for her duties in past 15 years.

Most of my old patients know her, and take pride in the fact of knowing her, for they believe to have been looked after by the most angelic personality ever. Sister Mercy remains imperturbable, and glowing even in the face of prevalent chaos and mounting work load. She, possibly, is alien to the concept of any other vocal tone except to that of utter compassion and care. Many a times, patients’ relatives, in a frenzied state, tend to speak harsh, but that hasn’t came across her way of displaying the most beatific and saintly spirits.

I have seen her fighting some of the callous battles of life alone with undeterred belief in the power of hope and belief; needless to say she has been able to overcome every possible atrocity that crossed her life. I make it a point to appoint the newly joined staff nurses under her supervision so that they may take a slice of life and attempt to reinvent themselves. I have never had a patient complaining directly about her, and the list of patients who genuinely express eloquent words for her selfless nature, compassionate attitude and kind gestures seem to be on a constant uphill. 

The Vogue of 'Doctor bashing'

In past few years, I must have read more than 100 times that a doctor has been beaten up by the public, citing reasons for medical negligence. The policy makers, however, remain in the state of acquired & selective immune state to the pity condition pertaining to security of doctors. Being in the medical profession actively, I have, myself, been in unpleasant states many times; I have been threatened, I have been bullied at, I have been shouted at.

Doctors, in the aftermath of such an incident, kick a strike or raise slogans against authorities, which leads to solutions with little shelf lives. Can a doctor work with free mind when the dangers of being maltreated loom high? Would a parliamentarian agree to consult a doctor for his own treatment minutes after the doctor had been at the receiving end of mass apathy stimulated by a mean rabble-rouser? A doctor spends golden years of his life in the company of volumes of books to get well equipped with the art of healing; but that doesn’t mean that every ailment is manageable. Things take their own course despite the best of treatment plans and outcomes might not be in direct proportion to the hopes and prayers of the patient’s relatives.

Sometimes, I feel nauseated by the phlegmatic gesture of the people who rule the country. If a doctor feels unsafe while serving the patients, there is something gross amiss in the policies and groundwork. No one likes to be humiliated by public bashing after unsuccessfully trying to save a life; not being able to possess divine powers is not akin to crime. 

A Handful of Sky

Charity must be a way of life. I strongly feel that a life is incomplete without making others feel your presence in a beautiful way. The sense of caring, the sense of belonging, and the sense of inclusiveness gives you that ripsnorting edge in life. Society expects a lot from the doctors. The policy makers, the leaders, the common man – all of them expect near-divine gestures from the doctors, all the time. Perfect! But it doesn’t mean that other people should get away from charity. Doctors are supposed to work in rural settings as per the law, but why this bias? I mean, it’s well enough that the doctors would work for the cause of underprivileged, but why not include other think-tanks also? Why not include engineers, social workers, teachers and professionals of other frontiers to display the same gesture? Everyone bears a responsibility for the country, and its people.

It must come to our own inner self to work for the people who are in need. Money and career are important, but not at the cost of humanity. One must indulge in charity regularly, and charity doesn’t always mean financial help. Offer free services in your best capabilities. India resides in villages; get a break and observe the reality closely. It’s important for our kids to get a brush with the realities of villages, realities of a common man. Life has a meaning; get in to the groove and emerge out as selfless and as noble as possible. Till proven otherwise, believe that you have been given human life to serve some purposes; and what better that to create a change in others’ lives?

Don't let your expectations dry one's chances

I feel sad in knowing that the moment someone takes birth, the heap of expectations start piling up. Initially the lion’s share of expectations comes from the parents and the family, then from the teachers and friends, then from the calls of your professional world, then from your spouse and so on. Life can be hard if you don’t attempt to find your own call. Its just one life; would you consider it nice to be told what are you good at, your, rather, what activity or profession you must enjoy? 

I believe when you carry others’ expectations or dreams rather maniacally, you are being dishonest to yourself, and to the cause of your own life. If you seek others’ thoughts for you to be in the driving seat of your life, you are being infidel to your own mind that contains a mish-mash of your own thoughts. Don’t suppress them to the extent of getting asphyxiated. Help them see the light of the day; they are in the pool of universe of some reason, and it lies in your prerogative to decipher the reason and lead your thoughts to their destinies.

It gives me goose thrill to see a young doctor in my hospital customizing the HTML code of his tumblr, to see a nurse giving extremely apt financial consultations to the people in her vicinity, and to see the chef-in-chief of the hospital acting like an electronics wizard when one or the other equipment went berserk. Life is all about possibilities, and the more you see the more you believe in. The moment you stop exploring your environment, and your own inner self, you defy the whole purpose of existence. To get hurt should be a matter of conscious choice; to feel happy must come naturally to you. I am lucky as I see myself completely fit in my profession; I could never have gained this much satisfaction in anything else.

Even while I am not at work I think like a doctor; I miss my surgical equipment; I miss the whiff of freshly fumigated operation theatre; I miss seeing the faces of my patients; I miss instructing my patients about their diseases; I miss the plebian, yet so rejuvenating, daily chores of my life as a doctor. Performing a surgery or treating a patient never comes as a work to me. It is rather being at no work; my profession makes me feel at ease. At times I feel that I don’t work at all; all I do is just to live my life the way I always wanted to. Cakes and ale come at a good price in life; I was just fortunate that I loved my profession, and in a way excelled in it, but not every person is as blessed.

10 tips for attending a conference

Know the program schedule completely. It would help you in fashioning your expectations in a perceptive way. Only if you are well aware of the detailed program schedule, you can know what academic preparation you need beforehand to actively participate.

Select the sessions that you think would be most productive in your perspective. There is no point being there at the talks which are of no, absolute or relative, use to you.

Make is a point to get the basic idea about the conference probable participants. You may catch up with someone you have been looking forward to meet since long. It is always advisable to attend a conference with one of your colleagues; it would not just add you a company, but also help you in thin-slicing the essence of the sessions.

Try to be there for the entire duration of the conference. It doesn’t appear gentle when you attend a conference on the last day and come out with the certificate in your hands. A conference is a group effort to make progress for a vital cause; make your contribution by lending keen ears and wide pupils.

Carry a bag with you that contains a notepad, few pens and may be some hand books. Of course, you would be provided a kit, as soon as you settle down in your seat, with all the essential tools right in place to help you making notes; but then why to take a chance? I feel a lot of people feel best in holding their own pens, scribbling down in their own notepads.

Keep a check on your behavior. Don’t sound standoffish. Behave cordially and display a keen and pleasant personality. You have the power to make someone’s day. Ask pertinent questions and get involved in rendering replies.

Make it a point to know the route directions a day prior to the actual conference day. Eat light the night before and sleep sound. Aim to keep your concentration levels high the coming day.

Keep your business cards with you. In a conference a lot of professional people meet and business cards exchange hands. I remember I was in Boston few years back in SLS (Society of Laparoendoscopic Surgery) Conference, and I exhausted my reserve of business cards. It was not one of the best sights to watch me writing my contact details on small white sheets, provided by the conference coordinator.

Take a keen interest in conference materials (CDs, books, products) that are kept for purchase. Roam around the stalls with intuitive mind. You might find something extremely productive for your profession right there; always keep a budget for such expenses.

Don’t forget to thank the people around who made this conference possible. The high and mighty, the successful subordinates, the amateurish interns, and the people who had been serving you with snacks – all deserve an equal bow. 

Robotic Surgery: The Holy Grail?

I feel good to see the advancement of robotic surgery in the milieu of surgical sciences worldwide. A lot of competent surgeons have been doing robotic surgery in India with good results, and the future seems even brighter. This is akin to the era when open surgery was replaced by minimal invasive surgery (for the cases that could have been managed by this mode), also known as laparoscopic surgery; I have belonged to that epoch and I can well understand the gusto associated with learning a new technique that has a potential to rewrite the rules. Robotic surgery, in coming times, would be making patients’ lives a lot easier, as it offers a lot of distinct advantages when compared with traditional forms.

As robotic surgery depends on efficient use of computer console, required to let the robot perform operating steps, the day is not far away when doctors would be operating upon patients sitting on the other side of the globe. This would enhance doctor’s reach and physical barriers to the optimum treatment would take a back seat.

Robotic surgery offers enhanced surgical precision and reduced operative trauma. This also means lesser healing time, lesser pain and improved surgical outcomes. This is especially useful in patients who are having several associated morbidites that bear the potential to affect the prognosis adversely.

Robotic surgery would reduce the presence of persons in the operation theatre, and that would considerably reduce chances of transmittable infections from the hospital staff to the patient.

Robotic surgery decreases doctor’s fatigue that is caused by prolonged hours of standing in conventional surgeries. Fatigue induced tremors of hands can result in occasional glitch, whereas there are no such issues when a surgical robot is on the mission. The programming of such systems is in a way that even if a doctor’s hand flickers, the robotic system identifies it, and ignores it to complete the surgery in the most stable way.

7 benefits of becoming a doctor.

You get heaps of professional satisfaction, every passing day. You manage to transform despondent faces to the ones that radiate sheen. You manage to help someone duke out that pessimism and roar back in life. A doctor may not get all the cakes and ale in life; but on the professional frontier, he is a winner on most of the days.

You are generally taken with mighty respect. Generally people consider doctors to be noble and selfless chaps. And generally, people are right when setting their opinions. Barring exceptions, the prevailing lot of doctors is sensible, compassionate and hard-working.

You get to meet a lot of new faces daily. Social insulation might never occur to a doctor, as the prevailing equation of demand-supply ratio is in favor of doctors. By meeting strangers every day and offering them a slice of life, as a doctor, one increases one’s chances of blending in life quite easily.

You understand the importance of being punctual and being regular. As doctors, we have to be there on time, every time. It might not prove to be a sabbath’s day journey in the initial days; however, as the time passes, you don’t need an alarm clock or a manual reminder. You are always on a programmed mode.

People look up to you as a role model. I am not saying that doctors are the only role models of the society; the list of provisional role models is packed like sardines - soldiers, scientists, farmers, honest officers, teachers to mention a few. Being a doctor attracts a plethora of attached emotions; you are looked upon as one of the more responsible citizens of the country. People come up to you to take advices. Kids want to emulate you when they grow up.

People want to befriend you. I must say that in India, there is still a large mental gap between a doctor and non-medico population. A lot of times I feel that my patients get elated when I ask them about their lives, their families and their own spaces. It’s a common perception that a doctor doesn’t make friends easily; though with the changing mind-sets, advent of sophisticated communication channels and evolution of social media machinery, the feeling is fading fast.

Your voice is being sought after. People want to know the reality behind printed medical news, which so often contradicts itself if all the versions are put together. People want to know your opinion about their genuine illnesses; people trust you verbatim. In most of the cases you don’t have to stress a point to make it feel relevant; the fact that you said it twice is enough for a patient to realize its importance.

10 Random things that Doctors hate.

You discover that home made sweets are being smuggled in for the patient by the attendants, in spite of the fact that the patient is a known diabetic and admitted with Ketoacidosis.

Your patient is in evident septicemia and in spite of your best intuition & clinical wisdom, you don’t really get the cultures positive.

That X Ray Chest film is in rotation again.

You smell that the I/O (Intake/Output) chart is crooked by some of the lazy staff on duty.

The old gentleman in the ICU got very sick again and no attendants are being traceable. Even the provided cell numbers are in sleeping mode (read switched off).

A hematological test, carried out at ABC lab, provides an unexpectedly bizarre value. You want to be reconfirmed so this time you send a fresh sample to another high profile lab, let’s say XYZ. To your amazement and mounting frustration, this time again the values are bizarre, just on the opposite pole.

A chronically non-compliant patient gets admitted in a bad shape. He holds a history of being treated for pulmonary tuberculosis on a number of occasions at different places; and to make the matters worse, he never really finished the treatment as per his doctors’ advices. This time he is diagnosed to be having MDR (Multi Drug Resistant Tuberculosis). You feel bad.

You have just 30 minutes of your OPD Consultation time left for the day and 18 patients are scheduled in the waiting list.

Your JR signed of the discharge slip without taking heed of the fact that Tab Crocin can’t be taken 2 tea-spoons full.

One of the attendants tries to judge your clinical and academic knowledge by making his internet-acquired-medical-knowledge the standards of excellence.

Who kicked the hornet's nest? Don't target Bhagwad Gita.

The controversy over Bhagwad Gita is unholy and unexpected. I don’t purchase the theory that Bhagwad Gita is biased in its interpretation of life and its true meaning, leave aside of allegations that it contains inflammatory scriptures. What I collect is that the controversy is more due to anti-ISKCON stance of some mighty forces in Russia than due to the neutral teachings of our holy book. The matter is interspersed with a lot of indwelling hullabaloo; while the prosecutor says that his plea gains its status based on the expert opinion of the concerned officials related to Tomsk State University, the irony is that the so called ‘expert officials’ deny their opinion as being the official word. They render it to their own personal estimation.

The whole basis of stigmatizing Bhagwad Gita takes its birth from the interpretation of the scripture by Swami Prabhupada. Some have termed the explanations to be potent enough to cause religious divisions and some also travel to the extent that abusive words have been used for the folks who display no faith in Lord Krishna’s teachings. I have this deep insight that things are being manipulated and there are some gains on offer for the people responsible for stirring the hornet’s nest.

We, the Indians, have absorbed moral values, tranquility and wisdom by following the teachings of Bhagwad Gita ad infinitum. And why just Indians, I am sure a lot of our global citizens have seen their lives being catapulted to higher spheres just by pouring unconditional faith over the knowledge shared in Bhagwad Gita. Bhagwad Gita has been and would remain a favorite with scholars, sages and wise people all over the world. Leo Tolstoy was an ardent aficionado of our holy book; its first Russian translation took place about 225 years ago. The knowledge has no boundaries; its always on the self propogative spree, enlightening everyone that comes across its path. It would be best if this storm is resolved as soon as possible and I am sure the government of Russia would act in an exemplary way. 

The World is a Canvas; and I hold the Brush.

The darker days in our lives help us shedding away the myopic view of the world. One must be having a visionary stance on the finer nuances of life, so close to us yet so esoteric. I saw a new world when I was passing through the roughest patch of my life. Many a folks who used to frequent me like I have been their diurnal source of oxygen, vanished in oblivion. Many a folks started believing that I must have done some sins in my present life to have reaped the bad days which swallowed me those days. But I felt stronger because my family and my close-knit friends, who had knew every inch of my life, provided me rock-solid support.

The reticulum of intuitions came into play and all of us were connected even when we were at far ahead distances and chose to remain mute at our respective places. Such is the power of faith and belief, when you start experiencing it, you start seeing the world from an entirely different perspective. And this is what the real call of life is. I don’t think we are born just to earn, eat, make merry, shed tears, sleep and then die in isolation one fine morning. Life is meant for something bigger, something of a grandeur measure. It’s a journey to refine one’s soul and to escalate it to higher echelons of spiritual plane. God lies in methods and our methods must be godly. The fabric, its threads and its patches are all important for the essence of a cloth; in the similar spree, life, along with its limitations, unsolved quests and riddles and confusing questions are all important for the essence of a soul's journey through the mortal world.

Have You Came Across God-Like-Particle?

 If universe is the answer, what is the question?

If Xenoglossia (a condition in which people start speaking in languages that have been unknown to them, though the languages exist. This is most frequently found in children) is the answer, what is the question?

If death is the answer, what is the question?

Does a logic exists that has universal applicability?

You chase your destiny willfully or you get trapped in the lanes that point to it?

God-like-particle is in the way of being discovered. What next? The final decoding?

You catch hold of an extremely engrossing book, one vivid evening. Is this a coincidence, or is this something else?

If religion is the answer, what is the question?

If dream is the catalyst, what is the reaction?

Mental anesthesia has been a reality. In later part of 19^th century, a Scottish doctor operated more than 300 patients in Bengal without giving any form of traditional anesthesia that involved exposure to an agent. All he did was to hypnotize his patients and not even in a single case did any of his patients complained of any discomfort. The variety of surgeries that he performed was overwhelming; brain tumor surgery, abdominal surgery etc. So, if pain is the question, what is the answer?

In the marriage of Sensory Nervous System & Motor Nervous System, who plays the cupid? My choice is Autonomic Nervous System. Who bears the biggest brunt out of all these?

We are not born equal. Congenital illnesses prove this. Is the celestial constitution biased?

A Nurse. An Angel In Motion.

• They have taken care of my patients as if they were their own kids.
• They have spent sleepless nights in the wards, ICU and Casualty so that the patients can bear a sound sleep.
• They have stricken friendship with desolate patients so that they don’t feel homesick.
• They have refused to leave from duty if an emergency arrived in the waning end of their shifts.
• They have made sure that every nook and corner of the hospital looks spick and span.
• They have abandoned visiting their home towns if there was a shortage of equivalent man power in the hospital.
• They always brought home cooked delicacies when they returned from their ritual of once a year visit at their native place.
• They have cleaned the spilled vomitus and blood stains when the ward boy was not in sight.
• They have juggled hard to learn computers so that they can help the hospital’s vision of keeping the systems as per the advanced standard protocol.
• They have attended their duties even when they are down with viral fever or acute gastritis.
• They have cold sponged the infant suffering with ‘febrile convulsions’, even when the child’s parents slowly drifted into sleep.

Just observing them at work makes me retrospect and realize that I have been bestowed with tons of knowledge by all the staff nurses I ever came in contact with. They have this altruistic attitude to life, and they never make qualms about petty things. A doctor is incomplete without an equally capable army of allied nurses; patient management is a comprehensive process. A nurse is someone most close to God; a mother figure, a sage in motion, an emotional healer. I wish every person of the world gets to know that the nurses sacrifice a lot to make sure that the ailing ones start gaining health again. I don’t think I can do anything that can ever match the favors that have been bestowed over me by nurses. One needs to have this in her soul, in her tissues to be as selfless as a nurse is.

A Nurse is one of the most divine animate beings. I salute to their spirit and their cause.

I am Immortal. Are You?

I have learnt some of the best lessons of my life in the courtyard of Lord Krishna’s temple in Vrindavan. The importance of self-discovery and meaning of physical existence was oblivion to me years back. Then the rendezvous happened, a transcendental one, a stirring one. There is more meaning to the basis of our existence than to earn, eat and die solemnly a fine evening. Why at all we take birth in a cosmos full of nebulous hints? As I embraced Lord Krishna, my soul found a conduit that was full of light and at the end of it, there was nothing but magical and ecstatic easiness. The moment one comes across the aim of taking birth, fears alleviate.

I have experienced the profound power of being at the center of celestial orbits when sitting solitarily infront of Lord Krishna’s idol, enjoying the nothingness of inner self. The quintessence of consummation is realization of self. It is rhapsodic to say the least. A soul is free from general emotions of guilt, hatred, anger etc. and the moment we start feeling ourselves not as physical bodies but as wandering souls, we attract cosmic blessings. A blessing is nothing but shared enlightenment. This is why we live; to understand the course of our trajectory, to perform better in the world that we inhabit. I often see people perturbed at the very thought of death; in fact death is the opening door. When someone dies, he just switches his place. A soul is immune to death, so why worry? You can never die; you are immortal. So why not plan a journey keeping in account of your soul? I believe in Lord Krishna, someone else believes in Jesus and so on. We have different idols, different faiths but the essence is the SAME.

'Observations' have been my best buddies.

Serendipitous observations have always been my thick friends. As my profession demands, I have to spend a lot of time observing my patients’ gestures and expressions in the hope of getting a vital clue about the indwelling disease. This way I am blessed, for the requirements of my profession and my personal interest blend in perfectly. To observe is the prerequisite to learn, and eventually to grow.

I hold this deep-seated belief that by keenly observing a person, or a situation, or a mere thought, we allow our energy fields to get closer to that of our subject of observation. And this gives us power to reach a state where the intervening lines no longer exist; you reach as close to your subject as you are to yourself. And this is precisely the point where you start producing the desirable changes, the changes of betterment. Observations start touching the key-points when your intuitive abilities have outgrown the ordinary standards.

To enhance your intuitive powers, you have to know and put your faith on the virtue called ‘belief’. If your subconscious gets to know your belief, it turns the desire into the reality. But then the belief should not be an artificial one, or one with fragile integrity. Nothing is a miracle. The cosmic reality is all studded with the mutual arrangements and reactions of energy fields. Your thought is a cloud of specified energy; energy that has power to transform. Prayers get answered when the faith is unalloyed, because the subconscious perceives this as your deep desire and the natural forces act in accordance to make your desires see the light of the day. So strengthen the roots of your existence; start practicing faith and stop worrying.

New Kid in the Block. Welcome Doctor.

A lot of young doctors are joining the existing brigade of healthcare professional every day. This profession can be very demanding and tiresome; even confusing at times. To be a successful doctor, an intern or a newly crowned resident doctor must adhere to some basic tenets and the glory would be on its way to greet with open arms.

• Plan your day ahead. It would be awesome if you can divide the day in the chunks of 2 hours each; that will give you greater flexibility and clarity over the acts, their courses and end results.
• Don’t lose your sleep. A healthy mind needs your daily quota of hypnotic trance. 
• Talk to your patients. Talk a lot. Make moves to understand their insights.
• Don’t hide any fact from your patient. You sit in the seat just next to that of the God in your patient’s eyes. Do your best to keep up to the heightened expectations.
• Always take consents as per the protocol. On a bad day it would save your skin as well.
• Follow sanitation standards. Wash your hands as per the WHO recommended protocol. Don’t abridge the minutes passed practicing hand washing.
• Take Hepatitis B vaccination. Everyone tries to be smart enough to avoid a needle prick injury, but one can never predict a bad moment. One stitch in time saves nine.
• Take complete history of the patient. Remember to include allergy history, family history and past medical history as feverishly as you take history of present ailments. The deeper you dig, higher you soar.
• When in doubt, take help from the seniors.
• Respect the nurses and allied healthcare staff. You can learn a lot from them just by observing them closely.
• Give wings to your lateral thinking. Why this? Why not that? Keep the handy versions of your reference books always available.
• Get access of the medical and surgical journals of your choice. The more you read, the better you know. You get to know a lot of latest modifications in the standard regimens of treatment when you read journals.
• Be acquainted with a patient by his name (not his bed number or room number).
• Write legibly.
• Never write about the clinical state of the patient in the case sheet unless you have examined him.
• Participate in the academic activities. Get enrolled for seminar, workshops, conferences etc.
• Co-operate with the quality control team of the organization you work with. They are not your enemies; they just want to make patient care more effective.
• Go slow on stimulants.
• Practice meditation.
• Try not to get irritated even in the adverse settings. No one comes to the hospital in a serene mental state.
• Write notes about the key things that you learned. Maintain a diary, if possible.
• Wear clean uniform.
• Sport that warm smile more often.
• Love your profession.

Find Out and Celebrate.

1. You don’t get to see any red light during your trajectory from home to office which carries 14 signals.

2. You wake up in the morning very fresh, and very awake.

3. You smell an impending headache and the sight of aspirin seeps in your visual field.

4. You go out to shop with a defined budget in your mind, only to know that the budget was an overrated one and you are left with much money even after shopping.

5. You just had the most succulent breakfast in the morning, very appeasing and very satisfying.

6. You don’t happen to read any disturbing news in the morning daily.

7. Your facebook profile shows 15 notifications, 3 messages and 6 add friend requests.

8. You look in the mirror and you appear 10 years younger to yourself. Where are those blackheads and wrinkles?

9. You observe your kid to be making same pranks as you used to do in your formative years.

10. You visit a worship place and instantly feel a divine connection; you don’t feel to come out of the transcendental state.

11. Your work, in which you didn’t put in many efforts, gets praised by your colleagues and superiors grandly.

12. You make your parents happy, genuinely happy.

13. You are able to live your day without hurting anyone.

14. You remember all the passwords of your virtual world (that includes 3 email ids and 7 social networking profiles)

15. You feel the thrusts of wind over your face, overjoyed thrusts.

Be Unpredictable. Be Erratic.

The learning phase of a living human being starts from the embryonic state itself; we come across the hard realities and we learn the measures to move ahead. In scientific language they term this as conditioning; a process in which a human being learns to respond appropriately to the stimulus being offered. As our brain tissue keeps on getting conditioned in a hackneyed way, it starts behaving in a predictable manner. You cannot really blame the brain for this; in our society, we get punished and criticized if we don’t act in a particular way in response to a stimulus, hence with the intention of keeping the reward centers satisfied, the brain follows the traditional, utterly jejune path. This is precisely the point where we, unknowingly and indirectly, start behaving like robots. Give us a stimulus and we will behave in the most predictable way that has been taught to us. Give us a peck on the cheek and we will reciprocate, show us the middle finger and we will show you the fist, the list is never ending.

There is more to life than is visible from naked eyes and is observable from a brain conditioned to behave in the predictable manner. There have been people who displayed abundant courage and behaved in unpredictable, may be out-of-the-box manner, and have been at the receiving end of all the glory, affection and praise. Masaru Ibuka founded Sony Corporation at the age of 37 years with no clear idea of what products would the company deal in. They struggled with a failed rice cooker, failed tape recorder and kept on paying the electricity bills by the incomes generated with crude heating pads. It took them 10 years to deliver their first successful product, the pocket radio, and from that point there was no looking back. The corporate history is stuffed with examples that created legends just because t hey refused to act in the defined, particular way. It’s important to keep on asking questions to yourself; to stay active, even the brain muscles need stimulation.

Act as if there is no tomorrow. When you analyze or think, do it from every possible angle. Discard the stereotyped notions and allow yourself to see the real light of wisdom. Understand the meaning of life; it gives you opportunity to live the way you want, not the way your acquaintances have conditioned you to.

A Doctor and A Tweet.

Twitter is something that always astonishes me. If facebook is akin to a coffee house, twitter is no less than a parliament. The joy is boundless the moment you come across 140 characters typed by someone you hold immense respect for. You get to know the real thing, no media manoeuvrings, no added floss or deprived gloss. You don’t have to gain the permission to get a glance over anybody’s view, except for the random souls who believe in ironies – being on twitter and keeping your tweets protected. There aren’t a lot of doctors that use twitter regularly; I have came across a lot of profiles that belong to the health care fraternity, but to my dismay, either the profiles were made in the quest to keep pace with the advancing social media engineering where the user had made little efforts to keep and stay updated, or the profiles were fake identities, created by marketing czars to advertise about the newest kid in the town of wonder diets.

If you want to be on twitter and make the most of it, you have to keep on tweeting. Tweeting is expressing your thoughts, ideas and observations in 140 characters or less at a time. The more you tweet, the more buzz you create and more credible your online presence becomes. Twitter is a practical and powerful tool as it gives you the power to express your thought and send it to any chosen user in a moment of time. You can retweet to spread the thoughts expressed by any other user as well; your timeline (the synagogue of facebook wall) gives you a compact view of all the tweets posted by people you choose to follow. Like a tweet? Now you have plenty of options; retweet it or put in a reply or type your views and send it to your choice of end listeners. However, things don’t work on auto-pilot mode all the time; you have the power to plan the delivery of your tweets but you have to browse every now and then to know about the twitter trends. What is a twitter trend? A twitter trend is a word or phrase that is been most talked about in the world of twitter. There are different twitter trends for various geographical locations and are hugely inspire by the events happening in various places. Did I hear someone say twitter is the public spittoon? It is indeed a myopic view. Twitter opens countless minds in front of you; the more you read, the more you learn.