Pointy Obsessions

We’ve all had this phase in our life where we obsess over silly little things… Not really silly sometimes..Right now my current obsession is pointy shoes..

Wen I was a kid I used to think that we were just  ugly projections on people’s feet… Boy was I wrong! (OK but with men’s footwear they aren’t really attractive)

Your pointy shoes can completely change your mood.. To me, they seem just smart and confident… Clearly you can see the difference, can’t you…??

It’s not just with shoes… All pointy things are bold and eye-catching… Even in architecture (well you cant really blame me for bringing architecture into this :P) pointy things are overwhelming!

V M Houses, Copenhagen, Denmark by Bjarke Ingels Group

This bold apartment block was designed by the BIG architects in the letters V and M. Razor sharp as they are, they seem frightening and exciting at the same time.

Knarvik Community Church, Knarvik, Norway

This wooden angular church is just full of drama as it sits on its beautiful Norwegian landscape. It stands out as a bold landmark in the scenic west-coast of Norway.

Clearly no caption required to describe this picture 🙂

 

So let me point out that pointy is the new pretty… And most obviously, it’s not pointless to obsess over them. Point taken I hope 😉

Ciao,

A from TAD

5 things I learnt when I turned 21…

Well I actually turned 21 a couple of months back, but these are a few things I’ve observed so far in life:

1. Sometimes change seems like the only constant thing in life.

We all realize this at some point or the other in life… Life is constantly changing as we grow…Once childhood slips by, we realize that things can never be the same…We slowly grow apart from our friends as we all go in different directions.. For colleges, jobs or even just moving to another city.

And its not just people around… We change too.. Our thoughts, our choices and our way of dealing with things and our priorities.. Sometimes we simply learn to grow out of our shells… So much that sometimes we really wonder how wierd we were before.

2.We learn to look beyond taste when eating or drinking something.

Well this may not really be the case with everyone…All through childhood I was quite a fussy eater… I hardly at my veggies and I was picky even with fruits…The only thing I was never fussy about was probably chicken.♥♥

These days, I realized that I eat just anything I’m given…At a point we realize that as yummy or un-yummy as it is… Its just food… It’s only purpose is to fill our tummies and and nothing more.  So why fuss about it?

3.Life goes on… Whether we choose to be a part of it or not.

Well this is sort of a tough one to explain… Life is full of ups and downs… Sometimes it feels like its only going downhill… And sometimes I realize i spend a tad too much time wallowing in self pity… I don’t realize that that’s the way its gonna be however I react to it… whether I decide to face things head on or just sit back and weep, life just goes on unaffected..

4.There are really no escalators in life, only stairs

As much as we all like short-cuts in life, we cannot just by-pass things and move on. It takes a lot of effort, hard work and passion to achieve even the little things in life and nothing comes easy.

So go the extra mile; it’s never crowded ☺

5.It’s all you.

This one might be a little hard to take in. Yes we all have God, family and friends that love us dearly and will continue to do so…

However things are not as it were when we are kids. Though people around might help us through.. We came into this world alone and will leave it the same.

And us who has to face things and be an adult. We cannot always be in our comfort zone and must learn to stand on our own two feet as hard as it seems!

So these are a few of the things I’ve realized when I turned 21… Comment below if you’ve dealt with the same or have realized anything else.

 

Ciao,

A from TAD

My Childhood Friend.

With my back against the open window, I sit at my table, preparing for an exam. I hear the noise of the incessant monsoon rains lashing Mumbai city as I try to concentrate on my reading. “Foucault’s essay… gave an impetus to a number of…” I am rudely interrupted by the strong wind that has now decided to wage war against my loosely tied hair. I try hard to push the locks of hair behind my ear while struggling to not take my eyes off the page. The wind had easily won the battle, my hair was no more under my control. The wind now rushed and brushed against the back of my neck. I felt a sudden calmness. It was almost as if the cool wind was tugging at my hair, my childhood friend, calling out to me, to play in the rain. I stood up, turned towards the open window, closed my eyes and let the wind take over.

We went on our journey. On the edge of a cliff we stood, peering over, to marvel at the vast gorge that lay ahead. We stood there smiling, with an assurance that we could do anything. The whole wide world just waiting to be conquered.

A sudden uneasy warmth in the air I breathed. The wind stopped. I opened my eyes to  feel perplexed and lost. My childhood friend had left.

I am at my table , reading…”historicist convince authorship to be…”, with my back against the open window. But for how long?

 

T from TAD.

Pretty Personal Poetry

A sponge in a bucket of
dirty water.
Soaking it all up
like a hero.
All the hurtful words,
the curses, the angry faces
their scowls.
Their greatest antipathy
Was me ?

But for how long
Untill I am fully soaked up
Not a drop more will i take
Completely drowned in the bucket of dirty water
Hit the bottom
Heavy. No question of floating back up
No escape. Never?
Sunk in sorrows and hate
Not mine.
Too late to disown ?

Filled with dirt, flowing
In and out.

T from TAD

Hungover

I have a pounding headache and the clock warns me that I’m not going to catch my bus to work on time. Arghhh the light… the ticking…that chirping… the bus. Arghhh. Anyone else in my situation would have had caffeine by now. I hate coffee…but I’m a desperate woman. Thankfully there is no nausea but my eyelids refuse to stay open.

As I put my head back on the pillow try to cover my ears I ask myself why. Why do I always decide it’ll be the last and then do it the very next day? Why can’t I just let go? Why does it feel like I’m alive only then? I need to check into rehab I think …nah next time it won’t happen.

Next time …gosh I’m already thinking of it. The next time I’ll hold it in hand. Sigh now I’m sure I need therapy.

Just before I close my eyes deciding to put my life on hold for a day, I look at my bed stand and see it. Those yellowing pages of a well worn book. One that I’ve read a hundred times and yet will read another hundred. Sleep will hopefully cure my hangover …my book hangover.

Signing off,

D

It’s okay to be alone sometimes …

My friend tells me that there are two types of people in this world – the ones that entertain and the ones that observe. Ha I’m just kidding (thats a line from Britney Spears – circus). In a weird way she’s right, when people are put under pressure they react differently but can be divided into two large groups – introverts and extroverts.

When we joined medical college we were given a test in a palliative medicine class to find out which we are. It was supposed to help us see that everyone is different and you can’t treat them all alike. Ideally the extroverts are the ones who were more into debates and cultural activities while the introverts were more individual sportsmen or the studious ones.

So we were debating between the introverts and the extroverts, and it was surprising how true to our natures we are. Like honestly the extroverts were all in the introverts faces and nothing was communicated in the end. It was slightly hilarious

The thing is all of us are different. So when we try to understand someone else like they are us, there is bound to be misunderstandings. For example a friend of mine has been trying to get a huge bunch of people to go out and I was supposed to be one if the bunch. The outing never happened coz a few of us said no. She was very annoyed and we had an argument (sounds nicer than a ‘fight’). For me an outing is about the food and I’d rather go alone. For her an outing is about the people. It took us both a while to understand the other person’s side to the story and then we calmed down.

That’s how a lot of relationships break, coz they dont want to see the other persons side. So when I want to be alone it doesn’t mean I don’t like you or I’m depressed or I’m angry, some people are just made that way.

Signing off,

D

Do adults do that?

I’m definitely an adult. I mean I’m 18+ so I’m definitely an adult. At least legally I’m definitely an adult. Others definitely think I’m an adult. I think?

Do you ever wonder what in the world does an adult do? I mean I remember looking at adults when I was small and feeling like they knew exactly what they were doing. Now that I am here on the other side, I’m not so sure. But dang did those ‘adults’ make it look believable. I’m sure they used used the tips A gave in the article ‘how to be an adult 101’.

https://tadtooomuch.wordpress.com/2017/06/02/how-to-be-an-adult-101-2/

I think I should implement it in my life before something stupid happens and trust me I’m one those people who trouble keeps finding.

I’m the one who gets caught pulling funny faces with my tongue out at the kid on the bus, falling off a bunch of steps coz I still haven’t figured out the whole gravity and balance thing or dancing to barbie- aqua. Am I the only one who learnt about trismus (inability to open the mouth) and tried talking like that for an hour? Or tried balancing a cup full of tea on my head only to end up with tea all over me? Well maybe I’m the only adult whose still not grown up or maybe not?

I in fact challenge you to a childish bet where you have to do something childish and blog about it or …well you know your the wet chicken :p

Signing off,

D

In Clinics

Clinics is what we call the discussion we have of a patient after we work them up. So basically its the part of the day when we spend 2hrs working up the patient after reading a 100 books the previous day to know what to do only to find out we did everything wrong. Well one mistake made makes one mistake less the next time right? Except when you find a new mistake to make every time.

Well any who during clinics we learn the right way to do a few tests. I remember the first time we learnt about the Chvostek sign (I challenge you guys to say all the signs I ever mention and make a gif and put it in your blogs somewhere) which checks for hypocalcemia. So this is a sign where you tap the cheek and check for muscle twitching (I bet you tried it). There isn’t much funny with that. No but imagine the same thing with about 10 people standing in a solemn semicircle just tapping each others cheeks 5 mins solid in the middle of the hospital corridor.

Don’t even get me started on the whole learning to tapping issue (that’s the story for another day).

Signing off,

D

P. S. Don’t forget to tell us about your professional foibles.

When but a medical student

This is going to be a series by all three of us. Well I think the title explains it all but to those who haven’t read my One word at a time post …Here is the link https://tadtooomuch.wordpress.com/2017/05/25/one-word-at-a-time-4/

So every profession has its foibles whether you accept it or not. Sometimes I catch myself thinking gosh doctors must be the funniest creatures.

When I joined med school after years of hard work and a million tests that are mostly useless, I felt like I knew the world in and out. It takes a while before medicine knocks some sense into our heads and takes us down a couple of pegs. But that time when we think we know everything and yet have only learnt a few medical terminologies (which is a feat of its own) is when we are probably the funniest.

There is something called the ‘medical student syndrome’ I’m not even making that one up!!! It makes them think they have the disease they are reading about. For example, a chest pain is as good as a myocardial infarction (heart attack) and one kg decrease in weight is cancer or one cough is tuberculosis! Infact my cousin called me recently to tell me that she has meningitis coz she had head ache (i can literally feel people go ‘huh’).

Then we move on and learn some more things and realise it’s almost impossible to learn everything,I guess that’s part of growing up in the medical profession. I’m past the medical student syndrome phase (at least I hope so).

So to all of you who have seen foibles in your profession comment or email us your stories 😀

Signing off,

D

Slow down, where are we running to?

On my first day of medical college we were asked to ‘shadow’ a consultant. In retrospection it was like a warning – look what your getting yourself into, but all we saw was ‘WOW’. Anyway so we didn’t exactly understand what they were doing but just followed them around and we were so surprised at how fast they walk. The Doctor was already on the top of the stairs before we made it even half way through.

Now after all these years that’s how I walk albeit unconsciously but I still do it. So When I need to walk leisurely or wait for the public transport that seems to be coming at its own time, I tend to get frustrated.

I grew up in a town, almost a village and life was so calm. A time when parents actually had time to play with their kids instead of putting them in coaching, a time when we’d wave at everyone who passed us on the road instead of the constant blaring or when star gazing wasn’t on a planned night out and the roads were more animal dung than tar.

But I was way too small to understand how lucky I was, except maybe the dung.

Then we moved… to the CITY. Capslock and all its glamour. Everything at the tip of the hand, complicated simplifications and fast paced life. So much so that we seem to think that fast is the only way to go.

I admit sometimes especially in medicine you really need to rush coz a minute might be the difference between life and death, but sitting here, right now losing my mind even with nothing but the weekend to look forward to makes me wonder? What am I trying to achieve?

Signing off,

D

P. S. When you have to urge to honk at that car ahead of you, rush the lines in the supermarket and yell at those in the line ahead of you, ask yourselves, ‘where are we running to? ‘

P. P. S. Take the time to say hi to whoever you see or at least a smile