Nostalgia Revisited

"Nostalgia". Have been living with this word for quite a few months now. It started just before my Internship got over. College life of five and a half years came to end and everybody parted ways, with promises of keeping in touch in one way or the other. Thanks to facebook and free sms packages, few friends still do keep in touch. However, no means of communication matches the company spent in person.

One of my friend D left Mysore last week. Again, it was going away of a friend for six years. She, and two more friends - S and S shared a room in the Hostel. Me and another friend who were localites were found at that room very often. There were n number of times when Mom called asking, "Where are you?" and the answer was invariably "Hostel"; even though I was elsewhere at times, because I knew saying 'hostel' would be safe! We discussed crushes and gossips there, slept in the afternoon and missed classes, had those late night combined study sessions during exams, prepared Maggi which took ages to cook on that electric stove, slept the night over when we got late roaming outside and it was past the curfew at home and so on. We've shared laughter and tears, success and failure in that very room. Six years of all that, and now its all over. I can never go to that Hostel again, and never can I answer my Mom's question about where I am as 'hostel'.

Just the day before D left, we friends had gone out on a drive. A friend A got a call from home and he went, "Shh!! Call from home." And everybody went silent. We've done so much of that all this while and now, that's over too. One reason is that we are getting older (??), more responsible and hence parents won't bother. One more is that everybody is getting busy with their lives, trying to make a career or getting married. Nobody has time to loaf around and hence, this situation won't arise in the first place!!

Yesterday I and a friend S were chatting. The topic of conversation shifted to Marriages. He said, "There is still time. Look for a guy who can get you a Management quota Post Graduation seat and get married. Enjoy life till June 2011 and then start your Pg life". No surprises, Me the rebel, started talking about 'Compatibility' and how funny a few arranged marriages are and the business proposals that go with it. My friend thought it looked like I would get into a Love marriage and said so. The conversation continued and I said, "Arre yaar, If I want to get into a Love marriage and my parents don't agree, aur main bhaagke registered marriage karoon, tum please witness banke sign karna." And He said,"Tu chinta math kar yaar.Main tumhaara Bhai banke tumhaari shaadi karvaaonga". And then both of us burst into a laughter. The Dulhan is here. Dulhan ka Bhai is ready. Now where on earth is the Dulha?? One fine day when I get married, such thoughts and comments and conversations will also cease and turn into nostalgia. What would we talk about then? The gifts to get at baby-shower??

Life's been just books and books nowadays. Whether I 'actually' study or not, top most priority now is books. Everybody's got busy studying and hardly anybody calls or messages, forget meet anybody. I have two friends -T and S. We message each other at night so that we have some company to keep us awake, which is very difficult with those fatso books in front of us. The sms conversations we have everyday are very typical. Its always like - "Hey, sup?"  .."Studying ya. You?" .. "Same da. How's it going?" .. "Bad. Yours?" .. "Pathetic. how many questions?" .. "60. You?" .. "Arre don't ask. Im sick n tired. What bakwass is this..." and on and on. But thinking in the sense of nostalgia, maybe one fine when we all get our Post Graduation admissions done and shall be pursuing our courses, maybe we shall miss this part too. Maybe not the frustration we have now, but maybe the pleasure of waking up at our own time, not worrying to dress up, mom making coffee for us more than a couple of times a day, ghar ka khaana and maybe these conversations. Pre-PG life is the worst phase of a Medico's life. With all the frustrations and insecurities, the friends who give us company through this journey sure make the tiring journey easier, even though its a wee bit.

Well anyways, I want this Pre-PG life to get over soon. And like all other souls who are sailing in the same boat as I am, I too want a happy ending to this.

Until next time,
Chandana C. Shekar

When bored, at the Lib.

Got bored while studying at the library today. At the library I go to, people seem to have some sort of a 'syndrome'. Seems like they need 'studying' to be alive and not air and water.I obviously don't have company to loaf around when I get bored. So I try to just look around myself. I look for some eye candy ( which I spotted only once till now and then, he too seemed gay), count the number of broken window panes, see how far the spider on the wall has moved since yesterday, count the number of people without spectacles (coz that's easier than counting the ones with spectacles there!!) and so on. Today, was just flipping through the pages of my notebook, and happened to open the last page, where 'amazing facts' were given. Few were kinda amusing actually. I'll tell you.

"The combination 'o-u-g-h' can be pronounced in nine different ways. the following sentence contains them all. A rough coated, dough-faced, thoughtful plough man strode through the streets of Scarborough; after falling into a slough, he coughs and hiccoughed"... I guess the bugger who sat and searched for the words with these pronunciations and then went to frame a meaningful sentence with them was as bored as I was!!

"Do you have 'pnigophobia'? It's the fear of choking on fish bones". .. Well, I don't have it. But my vegetarian mom does, when I am eating fish!. Wonder when she'll realise that I'm a pro at having fish. Yummy!! I love sea food :-). Been a while since I had it though :-( .

"'Caligynephobia' is the fear of beautiful women".. Such a waste that this word was coined. Will anybody ever suffer from that? Men? No ways!! That will be the biggest joke on earth. Women? well, the only thing a woman can feel about another beautiful woman is jealousy, nothing else.

I repent giving my lecturers gaalis ( in my mind ofcourse) when I used to enter late to class and he/she would yell, "how dare U enter late? ". Little did I know till today that they were yelling at the alphabet "U" and not me! Wondering what and how? Because, "The original English alphabet had only 24 letters. J and U joined the alphabet much later!".

Wrote this at the lib. Thank goodness there was nobody sitting in my immediate neighbourhood and hence nobody saw me doing this. Else I would have surely been called either an alien or a looser. Was at the lib and not studying you see ;-)

p.s.- I miss the chit-chatting, gossiping, sight-seeing [;-)], sleeping (and studying ofcourse) and the nescafe sessions we used to have at my college library during my college days.. Was fun :).

Keep smiling,

Chandana C. Shekar

Wordless Wednesday #2

Eggjham time ;-)

Chandana C. Shekar

Life changes so soon...

The number of pictures clicked on my (fav) Sony Ericsson Satio during,

February 2010 - 52  hmmm..

March 2010 - 410 Whoo!!

April 2010 - 13 , of which 10 belong to my mom's b'day!!

Life changes so soon!!! Pathetic!! :(

Well, for those who were not my batchmates at JSSH, here is some explaination. We were supposed to finish our internship on 15th march 2010. So the nostalgia of the 5.5 years spent together hit all of us sometime during late january. So, all the parties and get-togethers increased and spending time with everyone was at the peak durin late feb and march. Duty doctors' room was the fav hang out and writing out slam books was the most important job. Graduation, final parties, farewells, drives, movie nights, my b'day what not!!And every moment was a photo oppurtunity. March was an amazing time. April ? Well, I was at home, jobless!! Miss my internship. Miss the 04-05 batch, big time!!

Chandana C. Shekar

Down the memory lane

This one goes specially to the 2004-2005 batch of  J.S.S. Medical College, Mysore :-) .

Finally Internship's over. Feels so empty today. I wokeup in the morning, and as usual, the still-sleepy me was deciding what clothes to wear for the day to hospital. Having nice coffee at home also felt inferior to the ordinary coffee my friends and I used to have at Parivar or Chavdi almost every late morning. I don't know if I'm missing the work. Maybe I am, a bit. But friends, oh god...missing them big time...Divya messages me saying she is feeling bad to walk to hospital alone. Moo messages saying he doesn't see any of those familiar vehicles parked... Well, that was enough to get me miss hospital more.

5.5 years of JSSMC...I still remember the very first day when we went to college. Everything was new. All the twists and turns, ups and downs, laughters and tears, crushes and enemies, jealousy and pride, so much happened. Spent the most influential years of our lives with a batch of people. One campus united different kind of people from different parts of the country and taught us to cherish and enjoy life together. Everything we did and everything that happened in life had the same people in it. And now, it's already time to part ways. Won't ever see atleast 70% of them again in life I guess.. Now it feels that 5.5 years happened within a spur of a moment..

UG life was fun. First couple of friends in college, bunking classes, proxys, the first year college day competitions, organising something for the first time, Sixers' trophy and the ragging, the birthday treats in first year, the whole class flunking in Biochem first internals, dissection hall and all those memories, pricking ourselves at Physio lab, some conference that happened and the whole class going to the movie 'Black' after that, unwanted rumours and gossips, few friends flunking in final exam and everybody going sad about it... First year had a lot of memories. Everything was in front of us to explore.

The Hospital postings in second year, standing on the footboard of the college bus to go to hospital on the very first day, getting posted with 'unit mates', with whom we scared the shit out of those poor patients, some medicos strike that followed, sitting at nescafe every single day in third term until dusk... enjoying the bus rides, cribbing on missing the bus back to college, asking for music to start in the bus before the bus itself started, the crushes and dates, my first ever trip with friends,organising events for college day competitions and participating too, getting shit scared whether we would pass in Pathology exam or not, getting caught for getting mobiles to Forensic class, never ever attending Pharmac classes,... Well, second year was an experience for sure.

Community medicine was one subject where we scored without actually knowing anything. That's where we learnt to leave hulas. The Jipmer fest ( we won antakshari there too ), kerala trip, all of us gathering at one patient to look into his/her eyes/ear/nose/throat at a time, our first class party, worrying about attendance at the end.... all was third year.

Whether we learnt anything in final year or not, we sure learnt how to copy in exams!!! Oh everybody did. All the internals and all the very intelligent methods of copying!! From chits, to sheets, to mobile and ear phones...and different ways of using the ear phones... From booking benches to dividing the portions with neighbours to finding out what size sheets would be given in the exams... well, everything was taken care of :). The long awaited class socials and finally clearing the exams to become Interns!!Whoo!!

Whatever said and done, Internship was the actual finale.. New name plates with 'Dr.' added to our names, steths hung aroung our neck and unbuttoned aprons.. Finally things were how we dreamt of always :). Made friends with people who we never thought we would even talk to. 'Duty doctors' room' was the most sought after place. Parivar and Chavdi trips became as necessary as air and water. From rating the PGs to complaining about night duties to going out for unit treats, well, had a lot of fun.We were no more students, nor were we responsible staff. Tensions resigned and outings and fun reigned. We complained about collecting reports and those stinking dressings and those post-op duties. But deep down, we enjoyed postings sure..For me in particular, Internship was one really important phase of life. Everything that happened in this one year was very unexpected. Something happened which I would say was the best thing that could ever ever happen to me. Was yet living it and something awfully pathetic happened too. But well, learnt my lessons atleast. Who can forget the last one month? Everyone started feeling nostalgic already. Interns' room got full with more and more people. Treats and parties happened every now and then. And the slam books!!!I need to write one mroe article to explain the slam-book-filling experiences. When I sit back and think, I enjoyed Internship. Memories of it always and always will bring a smile on my face. It would be one year of life which I can never forget. Lots and lots of memories.

We are done today, still wanting to live those days. Grad day is around the corner and after that, everyone would go their ways... How much ever I write about college life, would never suffice.Neither would I be able to make complete justice to it. All that I can say is, We've lived life's biggest bargain these years. And will miss it big time sure... Loved life at JSSMC n JSSH :)

P.S.- Happy Ugadi to one and all.... n yeah, my blog has crossed the one year mark :)

Cheers,

Chandana C. Shekar