tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16466729290024537462024-02-18T20:52:45.111-05:00SRI'S REPERTOIREAdorning the voices in my head and heart with the beautiful garb of language!CandidSrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15739705785011650500noreply@blogger.comBlogger18125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646672929002453746.post-57427803498068480992017-11-28T12:36:00.004-05:002017-11-28T12:40:23.986-05:00CHRONICLES OF A NEWLY-MINTED INTERN<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="color: #fff2cc;"><span style="color: #ffe599;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Far from havens as med schools would</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #fff2cc;"><span style="color: #ffe599;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">To very first treads into doctorhood,</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #fff2cc;"><span style="color: #ffe599;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Emerged a tender naive young doctor crop</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #fff2cc;"><span style="color: #ffe599;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">To face it all out in a New York City backdrop.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #fff2cc;"><span style="color: #ffe599;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Diversity is our staunch middle name</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #fff2cc;"><span style="color: #ffe599;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">From countries myriad with a lot of game,</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #fff2cc;"><span style="color: #ffe599;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">To homes and hearths in Five-one-five</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #fff2cc;"><span style="color: #ffe599;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Or hole up in a pricey Ten-Amsterdam life.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #fff2cc;"><span style="color: #ffe599;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The routine begins at the crack of dawn</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #fff2cc;"><span style="color: #ffe599;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Brush, shower, don scrubs without a frown,</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #fff2cc;"><span style="color: #ffe599;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">No wait and rot for the elevators, Blimey!</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #fff2cc;"><span style="color: #ffe599;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Run, coz you don’t wanna miss the Jitney.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #fff2cc;"><span style="color: #ffe599;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">A day on the Floors is an experience sound</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #fff2cc;"><span style="color: #ffe599;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">With prerounds, rounds and post-rounds rounds,</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #fff2cc;"><span style="color: #ffe599;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">And then there are the IDRs</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #fff2cc;"><span style="color: #ffe599;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">With safe Dispos as endless dialogues.</span></span></span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.656; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #fff2cc;"><span style="color: #ffe599;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">A sigh of relief when it's finally Clinic block</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #fff2cc;"><span style="color: #ffe599;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">At Ryan, Chelsea or Thelma round the clock,</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #fff2cc;"><span style="color: #ffe599;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The best of it all are ‘Hopkins Modules offs’</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #fff2cc;"><span style="color: #ffe599;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">You’re on Sick Call folks, there ain’t no taking off!</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #fff2cc;"><span style="color: #ffe599;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The ‘units’, the ICUs</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #fff2cc;"><span style="color: #ffe599;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Where Life and Death weave their tangos,</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #fff2cc;"><span style="color: #ffe599;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Once in, you never come out the same</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #fff2cc;"><span style="color: #ffe599;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">‘Tis Intensive, it does live upto its name.</span></span></span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.656; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #fff2cc;"><span style="color: #ffe599;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">And then there is Sloan-Kettering</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #fff2cc;"><span style="color: #ffe599;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Where some find their true reckoning,</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #fff2cc;"><span style="color: #ffe599;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">And who does not love many a consults</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #fff2cc;"><span style="color: #ffe599;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Brief specialists you become as a result.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #fff2cc;"><span style="color: #ffe599;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">How can we forget our many EMRs?</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #fff2cc;"><span style="color: #ffe599;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">PRISM, eCW, now EPIC raising the bar,</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #fff2cc;"><span style="color: #ffe599;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Navigate we will with some help from Seamless</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #fff2cc;"><span style="color: #ffe599;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">For Chiefs make sure your hunger ain’t helpless.</span></span></span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.656; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #fff2cc;"><span style="color: #ffe599;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Together we serve, a large happy family</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #fff2cc;"><span style="color: #ffe599;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Younglings in decades of strong legacy,</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #fff2cc;"><span style="color: #ffe599;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">With residents and Attendings to your help and rescue</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #fff2cc;"><span style="color: #ffe599;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What can I say, but To be Continued..!</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #fff2cc;"><span style="color: #ffe599;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #fff2cc;"><span style="color: #ffe599;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Writers note: Penned midway through first year Residency. Two & a half years to go! </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #fff2cc;"><span style="color: #ffe599;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Writer's insights might be naive at this point and are subject to change! </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">😁</span></span></span></div>
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CandidSrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15739705785011650500noreply@blogger.com0New York, NY, USA40.7127753 -74.005972839.9423093 -75.296866299999991 41.483241299999996 -72.7150793tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646672929002453746.post-12355981894535819222017-04-03T10:35:00.000-04:002017-04-03T10:35:29.062-04:00A HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO INTERNSHIP<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">What you need to know as you step out of your comfort zone!</span></i><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The transition point from the naiveté of being a medical student to a fledgling doctor that is the Intern is but the main exams one sits for at the completion of final year of medical school training. And in a matter of one single day post results declaration, you’re declared as a ‘<i>supervised medical practitioner</i>’ by your university and state medical councils in India. Facebook and WhatsApp statuses overflow with the cathartic release of profound exhilaration and relief as we feel we have finally earned the two hallowed letter prefixing our names for eternity – Dr. ABC has arrived folks! Pumped up with idealistic energies and untainted hope for a promising career ahead, we don our new white coats which we have upgraded to professional-looking full-sleeved white coats and sling our Littman stethoscopes proudly around the neck as we report for the first day at work. The excitement is palpable. Everyone has a Cheshire cat grin going from ear to ear as they high-five and compare their respective postings. After a brief pep talk, off we all go to our assigned departments. Internship year has begun! As Day 1 progresses though, that buoyant energy ebbs away to be replaced by a haunting anxiety of committing blunders as we stumble our way through duty hours and tasks. Uh oh. We know theoretically all about Diabetic Ketoacidosis cause and management so much so that we ace our final year essays. But when you get a call from the Medicine ICU with an urgent plea to come see a patient in DKA who’s gotten agitated and unresponsive, you break out into a cold sweat. Your go-to persons, the postgraduates, are busy with their OP duties and other work. You’re on your own. Completely. So what do you do now? Welcome to reality finally people! You’ve reached the boundary of your comfort zone. Beyond - lies real life. </span><br />
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<a href="https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/63/6e/30/636e30486fa982d269fcc42544325769.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Image result for medical intern meme" border="0" height="200" src="https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/63/6e/30/636e30486fa982d269fcc42544325769.jpg" width="150" /></a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Internship or our House-surgeoncy year in my high patient load tertiary-care medical college hospital in India was an ennobling experience. Like a coin with two sides, it comes as a great privilege and also a burden you have to bear. The privilege? To deal with patients on a first-hand basis, make diagnoses and also manage them, provide care and finally start doing the actual doctoring part. And yes, nothing trumps that entitlement feeling during the first few months of being addressed as ‘doctor’. The burden? Making the right calls regarding what ails the patient, what needs to be done, doing that at the right time and umpteen obligations you are now expected to satisfy. All this can be overwhelming. Been there! So I just decided to give you all a few life hacks I learned from the collective wisdom of seniors, peers and my own limited experiences which you can use during your legendarily grueling Internship year to sail smoothly. Read on;</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><u>Life hack #1</u>: <i><b>Being on time makes you be on top of things and avoid inefficient ‘hand-overs’</b></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The foremost important message! Managing your time well is an art that has to be mastered. For starters, getting up early enough for morning Prerounds gives you plenty of time to study the patients and note their progresses in the charts. If not, by the time Grand Rounds start, you’re a sweaty nervous wreck with notes written haphazardly, incompletely and any question from the profs regarding a patient you’d rushed past out of the left field will leave you cutting a sorry figure in front of the big shots. Another more important consequence – the later you or your colleague report for duty to relieve each other, the worse becomes the ‘hand-over’ of patients from one shift to another. In her hurry to end her shift, she just breezes over the details of her patients to you and you find yourself in a dismal dilemma as to how to deal with the murderous stares of some patients who have already been waiting for a long while, sometimes missing to add a medicine or stop a medicine as the instruction has not reached you. Fatal mistakes that can and should be avoided at the cost of only being on time!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><u>Life hack #2</u>: <i><b>Dealing with bystanders of adult patients</b></i></span></div>
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<a href="https://cdn.meme.am/instances/58180611.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Image result for difficult patient meme" border="0" height="163" src="https://cdn.meme.am/instances/58180611.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">One of the most difficult parts of internship is not the endless hours you’re on duty but maneuvering your way around bystanders of patients. Now most of the patients themselves are not problematic and in fact obliging to cooperate with you but their overprotective, overbearing spouses or children regard you with skepticism writ on their faces. Some even put forth the fact bluntly and snub, ‘Have you even finished studying? Why doesn’t the senior doctor who was there for rounds come and see my husband?’ It will burst your bubble, trust me, to not to be taken seriously but here the key is to not lose your decorum or temper for that matter and explain to them in a dignified manner that you report directly to the senior doctor they were expecting and that you have been assigned by him/her to see to them. Be polite and gentle but firm. In most cases, they will calm down and let you do your work.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><u>Life hack #3</u>: <i><b>Dealing with Paediatric patients and their caregivers</b></i> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Tricky one this. Most children who get admitted are usually very sick and their caregivers which include parents, grandparents, uncles and aunties have their nerves frayed with anxiety. Any attempt at eliciting a history apart from the first time is met with tremendous irritation. This often happens when we are taking duties from another intern during the beginning of our shift. The parents have just detailed out the entire history to your friend but he couldn’t note down all points as he was called elsewhere and now you have to fill the case sheets. Before accosting them inexorably to run through the details again, try to gather all the information you have at hand, examine the child attentively and affectionately and then introduce yourself to the parents saying you have a few doubts regarding the history and if they would be kind enough to recapitulate it once more. Very unlikely that they wouldn’t.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><u>Life hack #4</u>: <i><b>Drop that journalist-style note taking while eliciting history!</b></i> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We all develop this habit unconsciously during our early years in the wards. Terrified of missing out on a chunk of information, we all huddle around a ‘cooperative’ patient in the wards, bombard him with questions which he so good-naturedly answers while we do him the injustice of not even making eye-contact with him as our pens furiously scribble through the pages taking down the precious little nuggets of information. And as we evolve into Interns, this habit sticks on. To be honest, at this point, it would look rather unprofessional! Blatantly evident that you are a newbie and this is enough for patients to regard you contemptuously and perhaps even withhold crucial history points from you thinking you are way too junior to reveal that skeleton in their closet to. The result? During rounds, our senior doctor will unearth the skeleton easily and your history-taking skills might get appraised upon. What I try to do is go to each patient, listen to them while they relate their complaints, ask pertinent questions and complete the examination part making a mental note of salient points and then set out on filling the case sheet. This way, your direct eye-contact and manner bolsters an immediate rapport and trust. You can always then revert to them to fill any gaps after writing your case sheet. Another advantage would be testing your memory and attentiveness to reproduce the history you just elicited onto paper. A skill we definitely have to nurture to become good physicians. A note to my dear juniors as well – try to refrain from huddling around in flocks around patients if you can help it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><u>Life hack #5</u>: <i><b>Holding the nursing staff in high esteem</b></i> </span></div>
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<a href="https://pics.onsizzle.com/Facebook-9cb79a.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Image result for medical intern meme" border="0" height="200" src="https://pics.onsizzle.com/Facebook-9cb79a.png" width="193" /></a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">A departing senior shared this precious insight that to hold the nursing staff in high esteem and deeming them with respect can help you a long way. I say it with awe that it turned out to be so right! Right from informing us about a new admission or promptly notifying regarding the deteriorating condition of a patient to sharing their wisdom while we attempt procedures in the Emergency room and the wards for the first time, nurses are treasure troves of practical information next to your doctors whose no-nonsense efficient dealings live by the mantra ‘<i>Give respect, take respect</i>’. It’s an open secret that nurses and staff are notoriously uncooperative to high-handed arrogant interns/residents. We all share a common goal of efficient patient care and are a team. And it’s a humbling thought to be reminded that we are the newest and youngest link in the chain who can only grow by help from seniors.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><u>Life hack #6</u>: <b><i>Do not disclose too much information!</i> </b> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">As Interns, we start to be directly involved in patient care and we are privy to a lot of sensitive information that come along our way. The fundamental dictum of Doctor-patient confidentiality has to take its roots here. As you step out of the ICU or room for instance after your Prerounds, you will be hounded by inquisitive and imploring bystanders who will beg, beseech and bombard you with questions regarding test results, diagnosis or prognosis of their loved ones inside. While it is downright rude to merely walk away without giving answers (remember that we might as well one day be on the receiving end, tables turned) it is also unethical to reveal too much of information to them – which should be ideally dealt with by the consultant. This tight-spot has no easy way out but with common sense figure out what all information can be safely shared, if possible. Otherwise, shut the heck up coz we novices do not have the experience of specialists regarding the significance of each test result/prognosis and you do not want to be responsible for unnecessarily alarming or reassuring patients’ bystanders. As the age-old axiom goes, ‘<i>A little knowledge can be dangerous</i>.’</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><u>Life hack #7</u>: <b><i>Brace yourself well for Casualty duties</i> </b> </span></div>
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<a href="http://previews.123rf.com/images/sparkstudio/sparkstudio1208/sparkstudio120800876/14887920-Doctor-running-towards-the-Emergency-Room-Stock-Photo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Image result for doctor in er cartoon" border="0" height="200" src="https://previews.123rf.com/images/sparkstudio/sparkstudio1208/sparkstudio120800876/14887920-Doctor-running-towards-the-Emergency-Room-Stock-Photo.jpg" width="156" /></a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">During our days, circumstances provided only one Casualty intern on duty for 12 hours. It was perhaps the best and the worst times of the year. One was kept perpetually busy with hordes of patients flooding in from the door, handling their ailments, triaging them and calling the respective departments to refer their patients to. Every waxing and waning wail of the ambulance siren sends a shiver of anticipation and trepidation down your spine as you cast a glance at the already full ER. To handle the ER posting well, you need to have 3 abilities in my opinion – <i>Nerves of steel, bowel of steel and a bladder of steel</i>! To endure the gruesome sight of mangled limbs, broken bones and blood of accident victims and galvanize into prompt action, to keeping in check the alcoholic patient in withdrawal or the schizophrenic patient in delirium until the Psychiatric resident arrives requires you to fortify your nerves and not recoil from the challenge. On certain days, the very idea of it being lunchtime or dinnertime doesn’t even enter your mind as work piles up with you desperately trying to catch up. Getting to take a potty break becomes a luxury as you stay awake with bloodshot eyes. Brace yourselves and don’t complain. For these are the very experiences that will carve out the best in you in the coming years. Deal with belligerent bystanders in the Casualty in a firm and professional way. In the throes of their anxiety regarding their loved ones you are tending to, they will scream, intimidate and badmouth you to draw out some information but hold your ground. Under no circumstances, allow them to bully you or treat them back discourteously or angrily. This will only go downhill for you, the patient and the hospital.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><u>Life hack #8</u>: <i><b>Do not take rebukes to become regretful and disillusioned</b><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Let’s face it. We might screw up colossally at times. Maybe due to ignorance, exhaustion or other reasons. Some departments are invariably easy-going and some, well not so much. The take home point here is to take every censure and criticism positively and not lose heart. Find out where things went wrong and make amends. No one was born perfect in this world. And this is our learning curve – it might be sigmoid for some, steep for some or even plateau out for some. Stop comparing with others. It may not seem rewarding at times in contrast to the work you put in and you will develop disillusionment and disappointments easily. Just remember that there’s light always at the end of the tunnel.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><u>Life hack #9</u>: <i><b>Figure out what interests you now!</b><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<a href="https://cdn.meme.am/instances/54577446.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Image result for what's my interest meme" border="0" height="200" src="https://cdn.meme.am/instances/54577446.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Your career is at its threshold of blossoming and now is the perfect time to figure out which specialty you would want to specialize in. Instead of fielding questions regarding your career goals or dismissing them away, give it serious thought. As you work your way through each department, ask yourselves this: Do I see myself working in this specialty in the future? Can I do it? If the answer is in the affirmative, you know what to aim for!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><u>Life hack #10</u>: <i><b>Don’t live under a rock!</b></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Internship is a state perpetual exhaustion and we are considered as near ascetics by family and friends. We become oblivious to the world revolving around us and have to miss out on several occasions due to tight schedules. While it is imperative to take our work seriously, it is also important to strike a balance with your social life which, in our early-mid twenties takes a turn to be rather active. Be there at your sibling’s/cousin’s wedding to witness the blissful union, be there on your parents’ anniversary, be there to meet up with a friend who is in town after years. These precious moments are rare to come by. It will also serve as a chill out time to save you from a burnout!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://pics.onsizzle.com/problems-in-personal-life-choose-medical-career-no-personal-life-6130939.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Image result for medical intern meme" border="0" height="194" src="https://pics.onsizzle.com/problems-in-personal-life-choose-medical-career-no-personal-life-6130939.png" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Bottomline: Enjoy the Internship year. We get only one shot at it. Work, laugh, share, learn. Embrace the challenges thrown your way and learn from each experience. This is the time to be tested by adversities, petty humiliations and hardships to emerge wiser and stronger. Smooth seas never made a seasoned seaman! And of paramount importance, master the art of communication with patients – your panacea for success. <i>Primum non nocere</i> fellas!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Dr. Sridevi Rajeeve</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>Alumnus, 2008 Batch</i><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church Medical College Hospital, Kolenchery, Kerala, India</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Affiliated to Mahatma Gandhi University</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">P.S: <i>Primum non nocere</i> is one of the cardinal rules in the Hippocratic Oath. Originating in Latin, it translates to ‘First, Do No Harm’</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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CandidSrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15739705785011650500noreply@blogger.com1Kolenchery, Kerala, India9.9782707 76.4738970999999319.9469937 76.433556599999932 10.009547699999999 76.51423759999993tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646672929002453746.post-69181102115280682402017-04-03T10:00:00.000-04:002017-04-03T10:43:40.796-04:00THE ENGLISH LESSON<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">A poem from my childhood, with which my fascination for the English language started. Read on to know why! </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The English Lesson</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: 11pt;">by </span><b style="font-size: 11pt;">Richard Krogh</b><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> (Published in the 1800s)</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">We'll begin with box, and the plural is boxes;<br />But the plural of ox should be oxen, not oxes.<br />Then one fowl is goose, but two are called geese<br />Yet the plural of moose should never be meese.<br />You may find a lone mouse or a whole lot of mice,<br />But the plural of house is houses, not hice.<br /><br />If the plural of man is always called men,<br />When couldn't the plural of pan be called pen?<br />The cow in the plural may be cows or kine,<br />But the plural of vow is vows, not vine.<br />And I speak of a foot, and you show me your feet,<br />But I give a boot - would a pair be called beet?<br /><br />If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth,<br />Why shouldn't the plural of booth be called beeth?<br />If the singular is this and plural is these,<br />Why shouldn't the plural of kiss be nicknamed kese?<br />Then one may be that, and three may be those,<br />Yet the plural of hat would never be hose;<br /><br />We speak of a brother, and also of brethren,<br />But though we say mother, we never say methren.<br />The masculine pronouns are he, his and him,<br />But imagine the feminine she, shis, and shim!<br />So our English, I think you will all agree,<br />Is the trickiest language you ever did see.<br /><br />I take it you already know<br />Of tough and bough and cough and dough?<br />Others may stumble, but not you<br />On hiccough, thorough, slough, and through?<br />Well done! And now you wish, perhaps<br />To learn of less familiar traps?<br /><br />Beware of heard, a dreadful word<br />That looks like beard and sounds like bird.<br />And dead; it's said like bed, not bead;<br />For goodness sake, don't call it deed!<br />Watch out for meat and great and threat,<br />(they rhyme with suite and straight and debt)<br /><br />A moth is not a moth in mother.<br />Nor both in bother, broth in brother.<br />And here is not a match for there.<br />And dear and fear for bear and pear.<br />And then there's dose and rose and lose --<br />Just look them up -- and goose and choose.<br /><br />And cork and work and card and ward,<br />And font and front and word and sword.<br />And do and go, then thwart and cart.<br />Come, come, I've hardly made a start.<br />A dreadful language? Why, man alive,<br />I'd learned to talk it when I was five,<br /><br />And yet to write it, the more I tried,<br />I hadn't learned it at fifty-five!</span></div>
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CandidSrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15739705785011650500noreply@blogger.com0New York, NY, USA40.7127837 -74.00594130000001839.942317700000004 -75.296834800000013 41.4832497 -72.715047800000022tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646672929002453746.post-39569134822905339692015-12-31T05:57:00.000-05:002015-12-31T06:06:36.531-05:00SAMARITANS DO EXIST<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Too often we all face a trust deficit when it comes to bus, rickshaw or taxi drivers in the context of lost/stolen valuables. Their ignominious reputation stems from the many larceny cases we’ve all been privy to and it effectively seals the predetermined notion: Say goodbye to your valuables once you lose it in any of these. The following incident completely decimated my prejudice;</div>
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While travelling back from a friend’s wedding at a distant place, my friends dropped me off at a place relatively near my home which required me catching 2 buses for short distances. It was 5.30pm in the evening and the bus was teeming with people returning home after work, sweaty school children returning after tuition class or sports lessons. Not wanting to be late, I got into the first private bus that came my way and squeezed myself into the overly crammed vehicle. After taking the ticket, I managed to count the minutes and got down gladly when my transit bus stop arrived. Rummaging in my handbag for my purse, I found to my utter dismay that my precious commodity was missing. It had to be quite recent for just minutes before I had bought my ticket. To make matters worse, the bus had already long gone leaving me in a post-traumatic state with no immediate recollection of the bus name or colour. I had no money on me as everything was packed into the said purse so I trudged home walking in the wedding finery drawing queer looks both for my glittery attire and for my wan face. Once home, after facing a barrage of reprimands and recommendations, I blocked my 2 ATM cards online and went to the local police station to lodge a complaint. The policeman on duty courteously informed me that he has very little hope of retrieving it as I could not furnish him details of any sort regarding the bus except the route and the time of plying, for private buses are abundant in our city. Everyone around me including the policeman, friends and family absolutely ruled out any remote possibility of getting back the packed purse and lectured on the avarice of bus drivers and conductors in general.</div>
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At 8pm that night, my father got an unexpected call from an unknown number. To his utter surprise, the caller asked to identify my father’s nature of relationship with me and whether he knew anything was missing from my side. My father responded that he knew I had lost my purse and the caller thence identified himself as the driver of the bus in which I had lost my purse and asked my father to collect the purse from him the next day morning and we fixed on a time and place.</div>
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Arriving at the predesignated spot before the predetermined time, my father and I were on the lookout for a bus described by the magnanimous driver. A white and red bus screeched to a halt at the stop just then and a man in his fifties sitting in the driver seat began scanning the crowd energetically. Rightly guessing this was the bus and the man we were waiting for, we hurried over. The man looked quite intimidating with a bulging belly, beefy face and bloodshot eyes from a distance. As we drew near, he leaned out and handed over the purse to me. Overwhelmed by gratitude, I thanked him profusely and his kind eyes broke into a genuine smile of understanding and said, “I have a daughter of your age. She recently lost her purse and never got it back. I watch her everyday lamenting her badluck and scrambling to get her license and other cards back. I don’t want to see another daughter going through the same.” In the background I heard his conductor whisper to him to ask me for some ‘compensation’ for the trouble he took but the driver silenced him with a cuss and a glower. With another paternal smile and a wave, he revved up the engine and went his way.</div>
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<a href="http://myupperwest.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/lostandfoundtextbrick1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="http://myupperwest.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/lostandfoundtextbrick1.jpg" height="133" width="200" /></a>As I looked into my purse, I found my entire contents intact – the odd notes amounting to nearly 3000 rupees, my driving license, 2 ATM cards, other membership cards and photos. Wondering how he managed to trace my father’s number, I finally understood that he came across my old college ID card which had my father listed as an Emergency contact.</div>
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I felt the prejudices I had so long ago harboured against drivers in general and recently bolstered by the negative anecdotes and opinions of others dissolving away as profound gratitude filled its place. Here was a man who could have easily misused the purse contents who safeguarded it and who painstakingly and intelligently unearthed my father’s number and strove to reunite it with its owner as soon as possible. All I know is that his name is Suresh and that he drives a bus named ‘Baselious’ plying in Kochi city. Let’s not let appearances and blind associations ever generalize the character of an individual. May such of his tribe increase!</div>
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CandidSrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15739705785011650500noreply@blogger.com0Kochi, Kerala, India9.9312328 76.2673041000000479.4307463000000009 75.621857100000042 10.4317193 76.912751100000051tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646672929002453746.post-16215372606087531522015-12-31T02:11:00.000-05:002015-12-31T02:11:24.150-05:002nd ARTICLE IN THE TIMES OF INDIA!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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So 2015 gave me a second chance to wield my pen again and be featured in the Onam special cover of The Times of India on 17th August 2015. Thanks to the opportunity meted out by Sherene Joseph at the TOI whose offer I took up eagerly!</div>
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Now if you can manage to read the fine print from the image my article that I've posted in this blog, you can figure out that I've heavily referenced from the personal anecdotes my paternal grandfather penned down exclusively for me under the nostalgia section.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhyUl4fP00JfWPyHaI8ILukdaz_PH8AI1hyxND4Ccq_z7oQVgKkeK7lBj0Qgy2K5oZSgE7OjWAC6_OwxcrE77hG_y9SAC4zRACZSqh9DXZ4HepNQdNaY-5gLHW5lzHd8UnkAz4h4HM25Ch/s1600/Onam+article+-+Times+of+India+%252817.08.2015%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhyUl4fP00JfWPyHaI8ILukdaz_PH8AI1hyxND4Ccq_z7oQVgKkeK7lBj0Qgy2K5oZSgE7OjWAC6_OwxcrE77hG_y9SAC4zRACZSqh9DXZ4HepNQdNaY-5gLHW5lzHd8UnkAz4h4HM25Ch/s640/Onam+article+-+Times+of+India+%252817.08.2015%2529.JPG" width="347" /></a></div>
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<br />
In fact, this was I think the last of his writings that ever saw a press. For within a fortnight after I had submitted my entry, my grandfather fell sick with a brief spell of illness that saw him being hospitalized for the first time in his astonishingly healthy and rigorous 86 years.<br />
<br />
I remember the doused enthusiasm and blunted happiness with which I received the news that my article was going to be featured and the dull sense of joy when I saw it in print. For the hospitalization of my grandfather which was progressively turning worse as he began to be in intensive care, quite sapped the positive feeling out of Life for a week.<br />
<br />
Being a doctor, it was painfully evident that my grandfather was approaching the termination of his commendable journey and so in a flash of inspiration which was undoubtedly from Heaven, I took a clipping of my article and highlighted the paragraph where I paraphrased his contribution to the article. He took it in his hands and smiled a weak smile that reached right up to his eyes that sparkled with pride and joy and at that moment, amidst the chilly cold and beeping machines in the ICU, I knew he was silently blessing me; comforting me and earnestly beseeching me to find closure.<br />
<br />
We discharged him at his behest and our request (and obviously against medical advice!) and brought him home the next day. He spent a day in apparent recovery, good health and cheer and at the crack of dawn the very next day, passed along to the void as silently and as painlessly one can ever hope for!<br />
<br />
So yes, this article is immensely important to me in more than materialistic ways and has forever the mark of poignant sentimentality attached to it as the last words my writer-grandfather penned for his novice granddaughter. </div>
CandidSrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15739705785011650500noreply@blogger.com0Kochi, Kerala, India9.9312328 76.2673041000000479.4307463000000009 75.621857100000042 10.4317193 76.912751100000051tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646672929002453746.post-43372765839603616292015-08-08T14:50:00.001-04:002015-12-31T02:11:45.252-05:001st NEWSPAPER ARTICLE<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
When I got a call from my good friend inviting me to try writing about my internship experiences, especially regarding the rural posting experience, it was a loud wake-up gong to the Creative Right Brain, which had unfortunately been lying dormant since final year of medical school life forced the Retentive Left Brain to take over and dominate.<br />
<br />
Its been nearly a year since the article I submitted to <b>The Education Times</b> of Times of India group got published - <b>10.11.2014</b> to be exact - got published.<br />
Here is a glimpse of the feature; <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3HbA9q8iTSpEvbB_TtVvBRlqcj3IZLC306M4wEmfTIJUMLxGEmiFQCTcmji3nwOrEwM3OHDEWEcgQSZbSfQla6DqtC4NHM5UH_iJoynjBv4lraLeSOJV_SZBmaamNNM05qJgz9Vm-dLvW/s1600/Article+pic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="520" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3HbA9q8iTSpEvbB_TtVvBRlqcj3IZLC306M4wEmfTIJUMLxGEmiFQCTcmji3nwOrEwM3OHDEWEcgQSZbSfQla6DqtC4NHM5UH_iJoynjBv4lraLeSOJV_SZBmaamNNM05qJgz9Vm-dLvW/s640/Article+pic.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Hopefully this will be the first of many!<br />
<br />
Root for me guys. I hope to take hand-in-hand my passion for Medicine and for writing in the near future. Watch this space for more!</div>
CandidSrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15739705785011650500noreply@blogger.com0Kochi, Kerala, India9.9312328 76.2673041000000479.4307463000000009 75.621857100000042 10.4317193 76.912751100000051tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646672929002453746.post-1620527127638360942014-08-15T14:37:00.001-04:002015-12-31T06:06:10.708-05:00THE SELFIE CRAZE!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Our latest obsession!</span></div>
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I’m sure all you Facebookers, Twitterati and Instagramers would know which newly coined word was declared as the <b>Oxford Word of the Year for 2013</b> as social media was literally flooded by the news. The word and world of ‘<i>Selfies</i>’ have taken over Gen Y by storm and not even our parents’ and grandparents’ generation are immune to it! Just flip out your phone and take a look at the WhatsApp/Viber profile pictures in your friends’ list. Aren’t a good number of them selfies? Wait. Even <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">you</i> might be sporting a selfie pic in it. You get my point! During the glittering Oscars ceremony in LA, California in early 2014, the host Ellen Degeneres took a star-studded selfie photobombed by many red-carpet celebrities (Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Kevin Spacey..you name it!) and uploaded it which got so swiftly and rapidly re-tweeted across the globe that Twitterverse actually crashed for a few minutes due to heavy online traffic! It just goes to show the dominance this phenomenon has had in our daily lives.</div>
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For the uninitiated and unacquainted, a ‘<i>Selfie</i>’ is the Internet slang term for ‘<i>Self-Portrait</i>’ <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>- a fast self-portrait usually taken at arm’s length (and in front of a mirror with a flash), clicked with a smartphone’s camera and immediately shared in social networks as an instant visual communication of where we are, what we’re doing, who we think we are, and who we think is watching. Selfies have changed aspects of social interaction, body language, body image, self-awareness, privacy, humor, irony and public behavior and sentiment. The advent of digital cameras and the ubiquitous mobile cameras can be considered as the main culprits for the epidemic. When I use the word epidemic, I use it with caution for I am not implicating that it is a disease per se but a certain degree of acquired malady of the mind is at hand here according to many ongoing and published research. In fact, a recent study published by a reputed University in the US created an uproar when it declared that the so-called Selfie Mania is but a different manifestation of <b>Body Dysmorphic Disorder</b> and <b>Narcissism</b>! </div>
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Its no secret that the fairer sex are the ones obsessed with taking selfies. Not that guys are far behind though! Boys and guys showing flexed biceps, sculpted abs and sweaty gym sessions to sporting flashy rides and expensive gadgets have emerged in contrast to girls who usually click a million pictures of themselves in front of mirrors at the best possible vantage angles. Let’s have a closer look at this craze – the Good, the Bad and the Ugly! </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHxuNcUzOPlzoT4oPXygww2XzOfcGKbnHaHc3DPTzXphw0JhkleCrR-QjfgrEG8DDpuAzZopQLJ5uKE2wh-gSjVElCNqY2filvo7eS-QDuqvhcuxPpH9uMfiJ7aykvWr7_PIgQiAeEIL2f/s1600/total_drama_lola_selfie_by_realtdilola-d6jztcf.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHxuNcUzOPlzoT4oPXygww2XzOfcGKbnHaHc3DPTzXphw0JhkleCrR-QjfgrEG8DDpuAzZopQLJ5uKE2wh-gSjVElCNqY2filvo7eS-QDuqvhcuxPpH9uMfiJ7aykvWr7_PIgQiAeEIL2f/s1600/total_drama_lola_selfie_by_realtdilola-d6jztcf.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b><u>The Good</u></b>: Well, for starters, people have turned more image-conscious. We groom ourselves better and tend to seize opportunities to click the best-looking and the most flattering image of ourselves. It’s a self-esteem booster according to some friends who claim that a good selfie pic makes them feel happy about their physical appearance and feel that the lengths they’ve gone to get that look (a new haircut perhaps!) finally paid off when they get that perfect selfie. Also, the appreciation we receive from our friends who ‘like’ and ‘comment’ on the picture stimulates us to take more and more selfies in future albeit with changes in pose, locale and look. A self-propagating self-love!</div>
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<b><u>The Bad</u></b>: Plenty to say here, I’m afraid. We spend an inordinate amount of time in front of mirrors or sifting through pictures in our phones’ gallery and editing them with a million apps till we are satisfied with the end result – a good looking portrait! Does it end there? Nope. Dissatisfaction often creeps in fuelled by the subconscious mental image of friends who have managed to click a far better selfie than us. <i>Click-View-Edit-Upload</i>. The vicious cycle goes on! A gross waste of productive time and energy for something so trivial! Alarmingly, many teens and adolescents who are less physically endowed than their good-looking friends end up having low self-esteem and depression at not being able to be on par with their peers in terms of looks. A disquieting trend whose tentacles have insinuated their way into our mainstream lives is the way cosmetic products and picture editing apps have started to become indispensable! Almost every beauty product shows an A-lister celebrity endorsing a particular product and clicking a gorgeous selfie (“Be seflie ready!” as one actor croons from the TV) as if the sole reason why they’re looking that delicious ain’t the hours spent in the dressing room but by the single use of that product. And we as faithful consumers lap it all up! *<i>facepalm</i>* Yet another worrisome habit that has spawned is the inopportune moments we seize to take a selfie and shout out to the world that <i>I-was-there-when-it-happened</i>. For example the ‘<i>Funeral selfie</i>’ that never went public – that of US President Barack Obama with British Prime Minister David Cameron <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt took a group selfie at Nelson Mandela’s memorial service in 2013; we saw only Roberto Schmidt’s photograph of them doing so and a visibly miffed looking Michelle Obama sitting two seats away turning her face against the indelicate gesture displayed by her husband and other leaders at the funeral of a great man. That act drew a lot of scathing criticism at the irreverence displayed by world’s top leaders and the opportunistic mindset that has taken over us. Another sound example would be the ‘<i>Accident Selfie</i>’ when a person poses in front of an accident scene and clicks a picture of himself in its backdrop. Seriously. <b>WHAT</b> are they trying to tell the world? That they’re so full of themselves and so ‘cool’ that they actually can’t deign to lend a helping hand to those in distress behind them? Ugh. </div>
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<b><u>The Ugly</u></b>: The one that irks me the most personally. I like good selfies by people don’t get me wrong but there are just some poses that grates the nerves like anything. The most hated selfies of all according to popular vote is the ‘<i>Pouting selfie</i>’ nicknamed as the ‘<i>Duckface</i>’. Restricted to girls mostly they show selfies of girls making pouty face with their lips and other grotesque postures which they erroneously think are cute and adorable. Sorry to spill the beans kids but no one really wants to see anyone’s lips magnified and focused in a picture as soon as they log into their social networks unless they’re of stalkerish tendencies! The kiss-ready pose has been dubbed as the worst kind of selfies showcasing narcissism and true to human nature that’s the number one trending selfies among girls. Unfortunate! Guys are of no exception. The various sweaty ‘<i>Work-out selfies</i>’ from the gym showing pumped up biceps, the coveted 6-pack abdomen and monstrously large muscles are anything but appealing sometimes! But they just don’t get it, do they? </div>
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Did I just discourage y’all (or myself) from taking selfies ever again? I hope not. Did I succeed in enlightening you to the growing narcissistic tendencies and at times disrespectful gestures involved in being absorbed in taking pictures of oneself? I sure hope so. Mission accomplished! All I’m concerned at this point in time is that our generation does not transform itself into an insensitive and self-absorbed young herd who would go to many lengths to get a picture of ourselves and drown our creativity and energies to accomplish a task so trivial and inconsequential in life when we can be devoting our time to <b>Live</b>! And not just appear to live via frozen pixels to showoff before others!</div>
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So until the next wave of change hits our mania-prone technology-reliant generation, signing off on this note with a hope that we all will hitherto not overindulge in a fad that can potentially change our psyche and not for the good. Oh and before you go, update your latest selfie or atleast take one if you haven’t. Might as well jump on the bandwagon. Just take care not to travel too far alone. Over and out!</div>
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CandidSrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15739705785011650500noreply@blogger.com0Kochi, Kerala, India9.9312328 76.2673041000000479.4307463000000009 75.621857100000042 10.4317193 76.912751100000051tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646672929002453746.post-46737760987462170752014-07-20T13:03:00.002-04:002015-12-31T06:10:36.723-05:00I KNOW YOU USE THE ‘F’ WORD!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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- <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">An Insight into how your friend’s friend’s friend affects your Psyche, and much more!</span></i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDy612WNA-q9yRYWdxTHautvFZ2GXSSxPw7I-uec5Fi01dKTqvDg3EBFmia5RGTZMYJuyYCp2LUw7CbVNJnlJ_B7xdKyYGgrgPmCjxcBExqB1xfVRcBrzJe-CpaeCgRNDS_FlQICQ-ue8y/s1600/SN+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDy612WNA-q9yRYWdxTHautvFZ2GXSSxPw7I-uec5Fi01dKTqvDg3EBFmia5RGTZMYJuyYCp2LUw7CbVNJnlJ_B7xdKyYGgrgPmCjxcBExqB1xfVRcBrzJe-CpaeCgRNDS_FlQICQ-ue8y/s1600/SN+1.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Before you leapdive into the conclusions that your fired up Brain is churning forth the moment it saw the phrase ‘F word’, allow me to explain myself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While I’m not denying that the title was a deliberate wordplay to grab attention (aren’t titles supposed to do that??), it just refers innocuously to <u><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">F</b>acebook</u> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i> the profanity I know you thought at first! And although the title sounds uncannily like the I Know What You Did Last Summer movie-series, it does not in anyway reflect what you’re about to come across in my write-up. If I’ve succeeded in arresting the page-flicking tendency of your fingers long enough to spark an iota of interest, read on...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I do not intend to write about Facebook or Twitter and weigh their pros and cons. They are a much clichéd discussion topic now gathering rust. I merely would like to analyze <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">what it is that attracts us to social networking sites</i> so much and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">why Internet is a resource as vital to us as the air we breathe</i>! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">So onward to the million-dollar question: Why are we obsessed with Internet and Social Networking? Perhaps the easiest answer that springs to my mind is the oft-heard explanation that ‘Man is a Social Animal’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>True. Human beings are gregarious creatures. We tend to mingle and interact. And what better a platform than social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter and Blogger and Hubs? Here one can add friends and share photos, tweet about what is happening around us, blog about our lives and argue our heads off regarding shared topics of interest. Now if things were this simple, I wouldn’t have bothered writing this piece…</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Today, these sites are not merely places where you interact with people in your life (albeit for some, people they’ve never met also!). They are places where you live out your best Alter-Ego. Come on, we’ve all done it! No one ever puts up self-derogatory comments or photos (unless yes, they are pathologically depressed) and always tries to project one’s best facet to the public. (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Big</i> reason why one should always be wary of online relationships – whether it be love or friendships!)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">So just think – How many times have you hunted your gallery of pictures and let out a frustrated sigh at not being able to find that perfect profile picture? How many times have you logged in minute after minute to check for new status updates or tweets from friends or the celebrities you idolize? Or to see how many ‘like’s and ‘comment’s your photo upload or status or share has garnered? (Hey I’m not judging. Been there, done that!)</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-hZMNF8RkemgrU7df9DSey6GcFnVTCvvW6TYx3qW59T5ZxKJmkawYPyDS4IQWQ5I8_abNbSIDqErV0oo0kfnWTj2gFHAVbNxkAUimEY76cRcUzPtA48CdMBZOUDojtw6dI4MpvttP5iUm/s1600/how-teens-and-their-parents-use-social-media-1-638.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-hZMNF8RkemgrU7df9DSey6GcFnVTCvvW6TYx3qW59T5ZxKJmkawYPyDS4IQWQ5I8_abNbSIDqErV0oo0kfnWTj2gFHAVbNxkAUimEY76cRcUzPtA48CdMBZOUDojtw6dI4MpvttP5iUm/s1600/how-teens-and-their-parents-use-social-media-1-638.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The thing is, we’re all <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">starved</i>. Yes, starved for acknowledgement of our existence (stemming from the fear of going unnoticed), for acceptance as someone of worth and for praise. It has been said that Praise nearly equals Power in its aphrodisiac qualities! Except that here, the love it generates and tries to sustain is self-love a.k.a Narcissism. No wonder socialites and icons who used to be in the limelight can rarely thrive outside it! But I digress. Let’s move forward.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Our day-to-day lives are influenced to a very vast degree by online networking, whether you realize it or not! If you want me to exemplify, here goes: </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Every time you go dress-shopping, you tend to buy branded attire even if it lasers a huge hole in your wallet – why? Because your photos in Facebook may showcase it, that’s why!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Before selecting a new mobile or car or home appliance, you mentally go over the popular gadgets that your friends sport – why? Because you want to buy something that equals or rivals theirs so that yours can become the talk of the town, that’s why!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">You dislike a newly-released movie or book after seeing some downbeat reviews without even giving it your chance – why? Because you tend to value others opinion more than yours, that’s why!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">You pretend to like a popular chartbuster or a new food fad even though you didn’t like it personally – why? Because your peer group is crazily tweeting about it and you don’t want to be <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i> doing the same, that’s why!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">You cast your vote for a candidate without bothering to check his/her credentials – why? Because you saw that their fanpage in Facebook or Twitter profile had more likes and followers, that’s why!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">It is exactly on this kind of ‘Herd Mentality’ on which that social networks thrive. I’m not opining that it’s bad, neither am I saying its all-good. Just that, the individual assertion of views seems to be lacking in many a circumstance and it is a powerful influence on our perceptions of right and wrong and our opinions! It is innately hardwired in us biologically to mimic others (after all, we’re said to have descended from the Apes right?) And Darwin sure was right about his <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Survival of the Fittest</i> theory. It is the opinion and the trends set by the ‘fittest’ (i.e. intellectually, socially and financially better placed) individuals that dominate and mould the perceptions of the gullible - who strive mimic them to fit into the Hot & Happening dance floor than remain as a Wallflower of the party of Life! </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin26KgBJHDibjZJM-ZTnkTl311EAOl5sSAc4w86TMZqgxxDpZnvXur1bkZjzo6dbXOCROInK6QBzzUCyU2yV81ycF3aoyYURke16n9NqDo49A_DBDOmUIGczPVSFl2Vhv-hnjOdf1YRtXq/s1600/networky.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin26KgBJHDibjZJM-ZTnkTl311EAOl5sSAc4w86TMZqgxxDpZnvXur1bkZjzo6dbXOCROInK6QBzzUCyU2yV81ycF3aoyYURke16n9NqDo49A_DBDOmUIGczPVSFl2Vhv-hnjOdf1YRtXq/s1600/networky.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">My dear readers, your well-intentioned writer is not asking you to forego any of the pleasures that social networking can bestow. All I’m asking is for you to stop and think and act rationally. Just because you saw while browsing that some of your friends have got a new BMW from his wife or recently acquired a Samsung Galaxy </span><span style="font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif";">S</span>III<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> (does that make him/her more human, like their ad says?) or went to exotic locales for holidaying or got a promotion, it does <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i> mean that your life sucks (excuse the strong language – it is just to drive home the point)! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">People tend to showcase only the most witty, joyful and bullet-pointed success versions of their lives. By making conscious or sub-conscious comparisons with their lives (in an apparently greener pasture!) you are making yourself vulnerable to a loss of self-esteem and fear of asserting your individual opinions dreading the contemptuous looks or remarks you might invite from your more highly-placed ‘friends’. Are they then your friends in anyway?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">So after all that dire Freudian psychoanalysis of mine (Sigmund Freud, pardon me!), I really hope I’ve not deterred you from the social networking bandwagon! Trust me when I say that Facebook, Twitter, Blogger, YouTube, LinkdIn, MySpace and the like are immense fun and a novel way of keeping in contact like never before! It has enabled me to keep in touch with all my friends right from kindergarten to college, most of my school teachers are there in Facebook, not to mention neighbours and family members who have settled in different continents altogether. Temporal and geographical boundaries blur and only their physical presence is wanting. Even my parents have joined up and revel in meeting up with their spread out family, long-lost classmates and batchmates of their erstwhile college life, plus their current colleagues and students!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">My take-home messages? Simple.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Cease to compare your life with that of others. Do not judge a book by its cover and a person by their looks or online persona alone.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Preserve and nurture your self-esteem. Do not let it pale in comparison to the projected facades of others or their supposed accomplishments.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Be honest. Online and offline. It makes life a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">lot</i> less complicated.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">‘Blood is thicker than water’ – Family always comes first, friends only next – whether real or virtual.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Cyberworld is here to stay. We use it to network, for our travel purposes, for research,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>business transactions and for entertainment. It is sutured so securely into the fabric of our daily lives that there’s no escaping it. To be a good digital/real-life citizen, the best analogy I can come up with is to urge you to be like the goblin-crafted Sword of Gryffindor (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, remember?) – imbibe only that which strengthens you and be impervious to other detrimental influences! So what are you waiting for? Go log in!!</span></div>
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CandidSrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15739705785011650500noreply@blogger.com0Kochi, Kerala, India9.9312328 76.2673041000000479.4307463000000009 75.621857100000042 10.4317193 76.912751100000051tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646672929002453746.post-43238206791248608452012-02-19T01:30:00.003-05:002014-08-25T13:49:16.371-04:00THE TRAVELBUG!<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMnMPlWoWxamK1I_juPbXknqC69ms_naQCw1s3D4dnVptnu4W8vSewf0SvYw2-KOX7-FCKiQrvvsGonrycpDELQHR6tZYTJXBBjq5XS-OJRXtCWrx0LW6ekVV8SNUp_D7WsrI5Bavhy-YA/s1600/blog1.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 213px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMnMPlWoWxamK1I_juPbXknqC69ms_naQCw1s3D4dnVptnu4W8vSewf0SvYw2-KOX7-FCKiQrvvsGonrycpDELQHR6tZYTJXBBjq5XS-OJRXtCWrx0LW6ekVV8SNUp_D7WsrI5Bavhy-YA/s320/blog1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5710730745353451554" border="0" /></a><br /><!--[if gte mso 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mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} </style> <![endif]--> <p style=" text-align: left;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u><span style="font-size:11pt;"><br /></span></u></b></span></p><div style="text-align: left; font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:100%;"> </span></div><p style=" text-align: left;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;"> <span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">Have you ever been bitten </span></span></p> <p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">By the bug that ain’t a bug?</span></p> <p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">Bitten and very much smitten </span></p> <p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">Am I with the TravelBug!</span></p><p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p> <p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span></p> <p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">Oh! What joy it is to pack </span></p> <p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">Your tiny world into a rucksack</span></p> <p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">Heave it on your shoulders tight </span></p> <p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">And off we go to see the sights!</span></p><p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p> <p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span></p> <p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">Sometimes walking, sometimes trudging</span></p> <p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">Inching forward without grudging </span></p> <p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">The heady climb of hills quite steep</span></p> <p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">Does make you forget you’d craved to sleep!</span></p><p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p> <p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span></p> <p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">At the summit as I stand</span></p> <p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">I begin to understand</span></p> <p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">The world’s far more beautiful folks</span></p> <p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">Than to you and me it at first looks!</span></p><p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p> <p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span></p> <p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">Off we go to the next destination</span></p> <p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">Unhindered by the creeping exhaustion</span></p> <p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">For Will now leads my weary limbs</span></p> <p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">Striving am I to keep with the climb!</span></p><p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p> <p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span></p> <p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">From valleys deep and canyons long</span></p> <p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">Spring forth brooks with their gurgling song</span></p> <p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">Tiny rivulets meet and merge</span></p> <p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">And raging rivers thus emerge!</span></p><p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p> <p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span></p> <p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">As each reach the gorges tall</span></p> <p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">They have no go but to fall</span></p> <p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">And thus are born mighty waterfalls</span></p> <p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">Get under it and you have a ball!</span></p><p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p> <p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span></p> <p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">Wet and weary you set up camp</span></p> <p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">On meadows kissed by fresh dew damp</span></p> <p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">Hit the sack as the stealthy night</span></p> <p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">Robs the sky of its light!</span></p><p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p> <p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span></p> <p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">I wake up at the crack of day</span></p> <p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">With troubles at a land far, far away</span></p> <p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">To the serenade of birds which twitter and tweet-</span></p> <p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">Their lungs out many melodies sweet!</span></p><p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p> <p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span></p> <p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">Making our way through the thickets</span></p> <p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">And brambles which are nothing but wicked</span></p> <p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">On we run with open hands</span></p> <p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">Out of the woods onto plain land!</span></p><p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p> <p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span></p> <p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">Before this trip is ever complete</span></p> <p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">We wolf down a meal that is so replete</span></p> <p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">And off we go on the final lap</span></p> <p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">To the cities marked out in the map!</span></p><p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p> <p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span></p> <p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">Now each city is a different story</span></p> <p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">Laden with years of unique history</span></p> <p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">Castles and relics cheat time and last</span></p> <p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">Reminding us of a valiant past!</span></p><p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p> <p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span></p> <p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">Cars speed past on roads so fast</span></p> <p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">Leave in their wake mere gusts of dust</span></p> <p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">Buildings so tall they scrape the sky</span></p> <p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">Vying to be the one most high!</span></p><p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p> <p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span></p> <p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">From the verdant jungle to the concrete one</span></p> <p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">Life’s diverse under the blazing sun</span></p> <p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">While fauna scamper to hunt and be hunted</span></p> <p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">People scurry past each other undaunted!</span></p><p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p> <p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span></p> <p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">Nightfall brings an exotic glow</span></p> <p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">To the sea of humanity which on the streets flow</span></p> <p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">I drink in the lights, the smells and feel</span></p> <p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">Swamped in my senses and so I reel!</span></p><p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p> <p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span></p> <p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">Sorry am I to turn my back </span></p> <p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">As I heave on last time my precious rucksack</span></p> <p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">Vowing to return as heartstrings tug</span></p> <p style="text-align: left; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">For yes, I am a TravelBug!</span></p> <p style=" text-align: left;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span></p> <p style=" text-align: left;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span></p>CandidSrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15739705785011650500noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646672929002453746.post-65646478595722861322012-02-19T01:24:00.003-05:002015-12-31T06:08:00.788-05:00WHEN MURPHY’S LAW RULED A DAY!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXn_viDaQWPhMixrjf5EQ8bb19atjYgtmcPi472mlW3Ctf-X8ilcpinTHl7JX89PHUtiP5SOGJbs5qYywBg6w3Zn2XJA-HXt4HAnyPRxwpI0LToCd5Z41AOy5D59gZQCKk9azcg2GOoXvO/s1600/blog2.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5710729319289958978" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXn_viDaQWPhMixrjf5EQ8bb19atjYgtmcPi472mlW3Ctf-X8ilcpinTHl7JX89PHUtiP5SOGJbs5qYywBg6w3Zn2XJA-HXt4HAnyPRxwpI0LToCd5Z41AOy5D59gZQCKk9azcg2GOoXvO/s320/blog2.jpg" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 162px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 250px;" /></a><br />
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mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} </style> <![endif]--><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 100%;">I’m willing to bet a grand of bucks on the fact that everyone might have had atleast <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">one</i> day in their lives when things just didn’t go to plan. And that’s what the infamous Murphy Law is all about. For those as yet unacquainted with Murphy’s Law, it goes like ‘<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.</i></b>’ It does seem a simple innocuous sentence doesn’t it? Not so much I can assure you, when you become the hapless victim! </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 100%;"><u>25<sup>th</sup> January 2008, Friday</u></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>It was our final year in school. Twelfth grade. Our board exam going batch had just been to school to collect the marks of the final Model examination conducted. An announcement had been sent out in school just after lunch that a dignitary is going to pay our school a whirlwind visit and that last two hours were suspended so that all classes can listen to his address. With the pangs of leaving behind a blissful school life already haunting us, we decided to hang around to hear the talk although we had been exempted (with the intention that we would go back and start studying of course!). If only I had gone home…</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 100%;"><u>1500 hours</u>: We gathered in our school Auditorium and displayed military precision in our assembly lines as the Chief Guest was ushered in by the Principal and other dignitaries to the loud heralding by the school band. He was promptly introduced to us as Mr. Prasad Agarwal (name slightly changed), a high-ranking IAS official who had been to visit our nearby Refinery and was consequently invited to speak to us too.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 100%;"><u>1510 hours</u>: Mr. Agarwal took over the lectern with a flourish and engaged us in an interactive talk about how enticing the life of an IAS officer was and how they could influence decisions made by the top brass that would alter the way we lived. The whole school was all ears at his dynamic speech and we were feeling glad that we had stayed back to hear this speech…</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 100%;"><u>1545 hours</u>: A junior came sneaking up to me in the half-lit last row and poked me urgently, ‘The Principal wants you to go to the backstage. Right now!’ I was startled out of my wits. What could the Principal possibly want out of me now? My best friend nudged me and whispered, ‘You idiot! Don’t lurk around here. Just go and see what she wants!’ With a sinking heart I made my way through the side aisles to the backstage where the Principal was pacing up and down. ‘Ah thank God you were present today. I have to take care of some arrangements. You are to deliver the Vote of Thanks after this.’ It was not a request or even a question. Just a plain direct order. And I could not protest as I was the Student Prefect and it was one of the duties we had to carry out. But this was asking too much! Being told just five minutes before that you have to deliver a VoT was unprecedented. Not to mention unnerving!! As a last resort I begged and coaxed my male counterpart Prefect to take over. Flashing me an evil grin and citing the excuse of having to head the band he rushed off mouthing ‘Good luck!’</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 100%;"><u>1550 hours</u>: The main stage was applauding the chief guest as he made his final pointers much to everyone’s appreciation. I was sweating out like anything trying to go through the order in which I would thank each VIP on the dais while willing myself to keep a cool head and telling nothing would go wrong…</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 100%;"><u>1600 hours</u>: The comperer called my name telling the crowd that I would be presenting the vote of thanks. I walked onto the lectern and lowered the mike and started off, ‘Good evening to everyone present here…’ Thanking my lucky stars for a smooth take off, the heady tension began to ebb away slowly as I eased into the rehearsed pattern. And suddenly, Disaster struck! I went ‘I’d like to thank our esteemed chief guest <i style="font-weight: bold;">Mrs</i>. Prasad Agarwal for finding time amidst his busy schedule…’!! The instant it left my mouth, I was horrified!! What in the world made me say that?? The crowd in front broke into peals of laughter as I realized that the microphone had amplified that extra syllable that slipped out of my tongue! It was a mini mayhem out there as teachers tried to hush the kids who were clutching their aching sides and laughing and telling the unfortunate ones who’d missed hearing the tongue-slip. On stage, I dared to take a sneak-peek from the corner of my eye at my unintended target but he seemed oblivious to the uproar as he was immersed in an apparently interesting talk with the PTA Executive. Momentarily comforted by that sight, I did some damage control by marshalling my courage from rock bottom and the rest of the speech went uneventfully. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 100%;"><u>1605 hours</u>: Beating a hasty retreat from the main stage, I ran into the Principal who suppressed a smile and assumed a stern countenance before clearing her throat and said, ‘You have to apologize to him you know, he’s sure to have heard it.’ ‘But ma’am…’, I protested weakly but she’d already pushed me right in front of Mr. Agarwal. Get over with it, I told myself. Worst come, he’ll be offended and walk away. ‘Err... Excuse me... Sir?’ He looked at me smiling benignly, ‘Yes my child, can I help you?’ ‘I came to apologize sir’, I said. ‘What on earth for?’ he asked looking genuinely puzzled. ‘Well, I... accidentally, referred to you as ‘Mrs.’ Instead of ‘Mr.’ during my vote of thanks. The speech was all last moment’s notice and (I shamefully hung my head) it just slipped out of my tongue’, I said. He took me aside and said in a whisper, ‘My child, looks like Murphy got the better of you today!’ ‘Who sir?’, I asked, not having the faintest idea what he was talking about. ‘There’s something called Murphy’s Law which goes like ‘Whatever that can go wrong, will go wrong’. Don’t worry about it. In fact, you know what? I never even heard your little slip-of-tongue until you told me just now!’ Seething inside at the Principal for forcing me into this corner while feeling eternally grateful to him for making light of the issue, I thanked him and was about to turn away when he said, ‘You do know what Lord Krishna counsels in the Bhagwat Gita right? He doesn’t at all advocate lying, but he does imply that one can delay the breaking of bad news to people for the greater good, if the occasion justifies. Get it?’ Saying that he winked and rejoined his group and they made their exit. I saw the Principal smiling at me and hurrying out along with them.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 100%;"><u>1610 hours</u>:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The great man walked out to a standing ovation in which I joined heartily, still pondering about the final pearls of wisdom he had imparted… </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>So that’s it folks. The day when Murphy’s Law hit me in front of a thousand plus strong crowd. But I’m ever so grateful about it because that was the reason why I learnt about this ‘law’ in the first place and also how to tactfully break unpalatable news to people, the Krishna way!</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 100%;">P.S: To the dear friend who challenged me to write about this embarrassing incident in a public platform, checkmate dude!</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 100%;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"></span></b></span></div>
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CandidSrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15739705785011650500noreply@blogger.com0Ambalamugal, Ernakulam, Kerala, India9.9714745999999987 76.3695166999999639.9401970999999989 76.329176199999964 10.002752099999999 76.409857199999962tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646672929002453746.post-18906609969186106152012-02-19T00:53:00.001-05:002015-12-31T06:12:08.050-05:00A SNORKELING SPLENDOR!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: 100%;">“<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Beti, yeh darne wali koi baat nahi...Bas apna haath mere haath se bandh lo aur paani mein sirf float karo...Is duniya ki jaadoo main dikhaongi aapko!</i>” These were the last words I heard from my guide before fastening the clasp of the snorkeling equipment on my head. His assurance of our safety during the next hour and the promise to show me the magical world of underwater life sent waves of excitement coursing through me. I glanced back at the shore and saw my mom with a grim smile on her face, dad with an encouraging smile and my brother, still dripping wet from his trip, grinning from ear to ear and mouthing, ‘Its awesome!’ I took in that vital deep breath as instructed, grasped my guide’s hand firmly and sank below the surface of the waves, eager to start upon the exploration of the seabed…</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>It was the winter of 2009 and our family was on a vacation to the Andaman & Nicobar Islands. This captivating archipelago sitting snugly at the merging point of the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean is a mélange of exotic terrestrial and marine flora and fauna, not to mention the queer tribal colonies that have inhabited these islands from time immemorial and to this day, remain unacquainted and hostile with the modern world still wearing only clothes handmade from animal skins! We were currently at one of the most beautiful islands in the group, Havelock Island, which is world renowned for its exquisite coral reef formation around the island that has made it the one-stop destination for activities like SCUBA diving and Snorkeling. Of course, SCUBA diving just for 3 hours would cost you a King’s ransom worth of bucks so like the vast majority of tourists we opted for Snorkeling as our means to experience the beauty of the famed coral reefs.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>As I sank below the surface of the water, a world I had hitherto not known to exist in reality unfolded before my eyes. Peering through the goggles of the diving mask, one could see schools of variegated fish darting around playfully undisturbed by the presence of two beings from the above world observing them. Crabs and shellfish adorned the seafloor and seaweeds spread out their abundant foliage which bent obediently everytime a current of water passed by. Shafts of sunlight pierced its way through the aquamarine water, falling on the seabed and illuminating the coral reefs that thrived at the bottom making it all look exactly like the numerous programmes we see in the NatGeo channel in our living rooms! </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 100%;">An eerie quiet descended upon us, the only sounds being the steady paddling made by our feet and the bubbling of our exhaled air making it serpentine way towards the surface. The deliciously warm water flowed gently past one’s face and tugged at the weird diving fins one is forced to wear during this swim. A riot of colours hit the eye from time to time when we glide over the reefs that take up exquisite shapes like the WindPipe coral, SeaFan coral, Mushroom coral, Lettuce coral and many more. The most fascinating shape of them all was the Brain coral – named so for the obvious reason of its uncanny resemblance to the human brain with its grooves and ridges. The long slender tentacles of some corals floated lazily in the water looking like deer’s antlers, waiting patiently to ambush its prey when it passes within its reach. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>My guide gave my hand a gentle pressure indicating me to wait and left me floating static above a particularly breathtaking reef. He dived down, did some poking around and came up with something in his hand which he handed over to me. It was a tiny sea anemone with translucent covering, slimy to the touch. He left it back where he had found it and we resumed our float around the island.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 100%;">Many a brightly coloured fish flitted in and out of the field of vision. Any attempt to touch them was foiled by their superior sense of approaching danger and they scurried out of the way leaving just my extended hands groping about in vain. Towards deeper waters we encountered some large fish that regarded us with a bored glance and swam past, still remaining evasive to touch. At times, I fancied seeing some macabre shadows that instantly drove in the insane thought of predator beings like sharks through my mind. But of course my fears turned out to be baseless as they were merely some innocuous fish themselves or large clumps of seaweeds! The underwater sceneries drifting past gave me a surrealistic feel of being in a trance I never wished to wake up from!</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 100%;">I noticed the reefs thinning out and the populations of fish gradually dwindling in number and with a bittersweet feeling, realized that my glorious one hour was drawing to a sure end. Soon we were back at the shoreline where I saw my family basking in the equatorial sun waiting for my return. Returning all the snorkeling equipment I had borrowed, I thanked my guide profusely in whatever Hindi I could muster at that moment for delivering his promise of showing me the ‘<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">jaadoo</i>’ of the Seas! </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 100%;">Indeed, the experience of snorkeling through the warm waters of the Andaman was exhilarating to the very word. The abundance of life Nature has endowed our planet with is mind-blowing and one develops a newfound respect towards every living being around us. The enticing world of Nimo’s still lies in wait for the next traveler, ready to showcase its exotic flora and fauna luring him to discover its innumerable enigmas. So good fellas, what are you waiting for???</span></div>
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CandidSrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15739705785011650500noreply@blogger.com0Port Blair, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India11.6233774 92.72648279999998511.3745244 92.40375929999999 11.872230400000001 93.04920629999998tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646672929002453746.post-11317689739894205342012-02-17T10:15:00.002-05:002015-12-31T06:12:38.912-05:00AN ELEVATOR ESCAPADE!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh90NJnAenXyNw34Nu9A1B5x-FSz85SvLDZN5Le-PUqbqUoRaBuzUr-4s3ClJ2pb2RT2u81lGfnusAXW0Rt-uLAOJnGa9nLYha6kQNzAnKskW6mMWsHZOWZSevdfj0-H-HBhSrn0T_aYw4d/s1600/trapped-elevator-prog.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5710123874179198082" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh90NJnAenXyNw34Nu9A1B5x-FSz85SvLDZN5Le-PUqbqUoRaBuzUr-4s3ClJ2pb2RT2u81lGfnusAXW0Rt-uLAOJnGa9nLYha6kQNzAnKskW6mMWsHZOWZSevdfj0-H-HBhSrn0T_aYw4d/s320/trapped-elevator-prog.jpg" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 180px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 320px;" /></a><br />
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<span style="font-size: 100%;">(Warning: the characters and incidents are not coincidental but an actual experience!)</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 100%;">“Sis, we are <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">done</i> for!”, my brother breathed into my ears fearfully. I looked at him to find his pupils all dilated and his face white to his nosetip. To be sure, I had goosebumps all over my hands too but I wasn’t going to admit it to my brother. Not yet. After all, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">he</i> was the one to look after me, not vice versa! I’m younger! Okay, before going on with my story, let me get you to the instance we were in…</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 100%;">It was Onam break in September 2008. I had just joined Medical college and my brother, who’ was his final year in Engineering had his vacation slot the same as mine. Our parents had sprung a bombshell surprise on us one month back. “Kids, guess what? We are going for a tour to Malaysia and Singapore for a week!”, they said. Oh my! Felt like i could dance on Cloud nine! On hearing the news, my brother broke into a ridiculous war-dance clutching me and tracing circles on the floor till we were dizzy. Vacations came and the much-anticipated tour day arrived. It was our first tour overseas so we both were overjoyed and there was a bounce in every step. The first destination was Malaysia and we were staying in Hotel Grand Continental in Kuala Lumpur. And that’s exactly where this story begins..</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 100%;">It was the final day in Malaysia and we were due to fly to Singapore that morning by the 11am flight. We were having breakfast in the dining arena when our tour guide came in smiling and told, “All packed? We’ll leave and hour early than required that we don’t run into any last minute rush at Customs.” Dad delegated me and brother to fetch our luggage from our rooms above and bring it to the lobby while they checked out. We got up and I whispered, “What’s the need to go this early to the airport? All we can do is die of boredom waiting there!” My brother shot me a warning glance and headed off to one of the many elevators in the lobby. I duly followed him in. He pressed the lighted button showing 6<sup>th</sup> floor and the lift began its ascent. We were lazily enjoying the soft background music when suddenly the lift gave a shudder and a strange swaying set in. I could feel that it had stopped moving. The music played on merrily as if nothing was wrong but the panel showed us we were stuck in the middle of 3<sup>rd</sup> and 4<sup>th</sup> floor!</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 100%;">He was composed initially, telling me, “Could be a minor problem, it’ll move soon.””Yeah”, I said uneasily, not feeling assured at all. The lights now began to flicker in a pattern. Heart hammering, he pushed the Alarm button down hard. Immediately a loud screeching bell shattered the music and began tolling on endlessly.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 100%;">A male voice responded from the microphone over the bell, “This is the Concierge. May I know the situation?”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 100%;">“Help!! We are in Lift no 4 stuck I think between the 3<sup>rd</sup> and 4<sup>th</sup> floor!” yelled back my brother.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 100%;">“We will be assisting you shortly”, said the male voice and went off the hook. Huh? Shortly?? How <span style="font-style: italic;">long</span> was short?? I was amused by the irony of the situation. Here we were, stuck in an elevator, in the so-called grandest hotel in KL city! And, our parents might not have known about our plight and our whole tour group will be stalling for time because of our dilemma!</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 100%;">“Atleast I’m not alone!”, said. I was feeling glad that I was a comfort to him when he slyly said, “If I’m going down, you’re going down too.. Haha!” Whew!! He was positively grinning at a situation like this! I gave him a shove and turned away. Time certainly wasn’t genial that day; twenty minutes ticked on and worry began to gnaw at my insides. I could see that he was worked up too. We were about to press down that bell again when the lift gave a sudden jerk and a lot of metal-on-metal mechanical sounds were heard accompanied by voices shouting instructions in English and some other gibberish language. The electricity supply suddenly went off plunging us in darkness. I was reeling back to similar scenes I’d seen in English movies of being trapped in elevators! Claustrophobia began to grip me with its icy<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>fingers. We was surprised how a tense situation made us forget the omnipresent brother-sister war and knit us close together.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 100%;">Finally, lights flickered on and the music began playing softly. The wretched elevator glided down smoothly as if it was the finest in the world and came to a gradual stop at the Ground floor. The multiple doors slid open and we stared out at a sea of people with anxious faces, the most obvious of course, our Mother who had literally fingermarks on her face. She darted forward and gave us a bear hug. My brother was fast being his usual self now. He demanded that we should take this issue up with the Concierge seriously. “Dad, think about what we went through!”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 100%;">“Well, you guys deserved it for not using you eyes”, said my Father sternly and pointed to something above the lift double doors. Following his finger with our gaze, we both stared in horror at a big sign in red saying : <span style="color: red; font-weight: bold;">OUT OF ORDER – DO NOT ENTER!</span></span></div>
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CandidSrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15739705785011650500noreply@blogger.com0Kuala Lumpur, Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia3.139003 101.686854999999922.885326 101.36413149999993 3.3926800000000004 102.00957849999992tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646672929002453746.post-20945519330568224102010-03-19T01:46:00.002-04:002014-08-25T13:49:16.364-04:00MUSINGS AT THE SEA SHORE!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-Zrpp8ZriNfBZgYovHzZuEhJIg7-L-aPXV62agp6Z1tL22ujT3GDJcxa8a9p-lwicaUREJV3-oCVultxXhxT_FmQJbMhx5WTCO8DS99ogEO6P2GV2tY3VMxt7eg7Az2XJlUm2daZMcHU5/s1600-h/3.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-Zrpp8ZriNfBZgYovHzZuEhJIg7-L-aPXV62agp6Z1tL22ujT3GDJcxa8a9p-lwicaUREJV3-oCVultxXhxT_FmQJbMhx5WTCO8DS99ogEO6P2GV2tY3VMxt7eg7Az2XJlUm2daZMcHU5/s320/3.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5450218073365016738" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Inspired by the Andaman & Nicobar islands tour Dec 2009</span><br /></div><br />A whiff of salty sea bound breeze<br />Does wonders on a Soul unrest,<br />Her ever so gentle caress sweeps<br />Tumultuous thoughts with sagacious ease!<br /><br />Thus awakened, the Soul perceives<br />Mighty hands of Nature moving dexterously,<br />For the World is her canvas<br />And the vista changes endlessly!<br /><br />Verdant palms and mangroves thrive<br />Luxuriant with Sun and nectar of Life,<br />They curve towards their life giving elements<br />With upturned images in the turbulent sea!<br /><br />The horizon is but a cerulean haze<br />Hard to make out in a mind numbing maze,<br />Of the azure sky merging seamless<br />With the distant blue of the mighty oceans!<br /><br />Snowy clouds scud fast past<br />Led by leviathan winds high in the sky,<br />Some bear semblance to flocks of sheep<br />And some mere wisps of fine cotton trail!<br /><br />Leviathan does more than lead<br />The surface film of the mighty sea,<br />Waves thus formed crash with earnest force<br />A mere knuckle of Nature’s potent powers!<br /><br />Deep blue to a turquoise sheen<br />To emerald hue with a foamy crest,<br />Diaphanous surfs surge infinitely<br />And vanish as ripples at the feet!<br /><br />Receding waters bring to light<br />Talc like sand in its pallid tint,<br />From bronze to ivory the tones emerge<br />At the tryst of elements in the shores!<br /><br />Creatures of the sea scuttle by<br />With tiny legs that belie size,<br />Cetaceans to crustaceans coexist<br />In perfect harmony in this canvas!<br /><br />The Soul feels refreshed, buoyant<br />It soars afar in boundless joy!<br />Every breath is like a cleansing ritual<br />Divesting the gore and grime of selfish thoughts!<br /><br />Thus beholding Nature at her best<br />Her creations that by far shadow any of Man’s,<br />Epiphanies strike the open Soul<br />Stark insights of universal truths!<br /><br />Impunity of Man ne’er was so evident<br />As He kneels before Her vast expanse,<br />A faint voice whispers soft in one’s ears<br />“Why can’t you embrace Peace like the rest of my creations?”!CandidSrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15739705785011650500noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646672929002453746.post-45973189288550557082010-03-19T01:42:00.001-04:002014-08-25T13:49:16.374-04:00LOVE, LUST & BROKEN PROMISES<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrWsCzYo1W5sc-x7Gu_o0q_kcCIf-8VBsEb_BY2-zVZ7Tkwb9tSmvDoBxWjjFNfL6ffmS9Qdh8rfk3PCOZCJFAzKkUPBIib_To2mNYjcwxMsSVJy9SYWSi_6tQiv3-OATqEVOy-EE2sfMZ/s1600-h/Betrayed+in+Love.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 272px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrWsCzYo1W5sc-x7Gu_o0q_kcCIf-8VBsEb_BY2-zVZ7Tkwb9tSmvDoBxWjjFNfL6ffmS9Qdh8rfk3PCOZCJFAzKkUPBIib_To2mNYjcwxMsSVJy9SYWSi_6tQiv3-OATqEVOy-EE2sfMZ/s320/Betrayed+in+Love.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5450216717855301394" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Second position in English poetry at the 4th Intermedicos Arts Fest held at CSI Medical College, Karakkonam in November 2008</span><br /><br /><br />'Twas my dream, my soul<br />'As I love, loved to be'!<br />Yet the sands of time it took from me<br />My Love that made Life worth living!<br /><br />My bonny bird, she was ever so fair<br />I felt my heart do drumrolls!<br />It beat against my breast demanding<br />That we were ever together!<br /><br />Stolen glances, fleeting smiles<br />'Twas all I ever got!<br />To soothe my heart that went glorious mad<br />Whenever my eyes beheld her!<br /><br />Her coming was my hope each day<br />Her parting was my anguish!<br />Any delay in her coming<br />Was like Ice in every vein!<br /><br />On midsummer's eve, at the county ball<br />The floodgates of my heart burst forth open!<br />Down went I on my knees, gallant<br />And asked for her hand in mine!<br /><br />Doe-eyes batted their lashes softly<br />Bashed smiles played over her face!<br />Down stooped she and her tresses hid<br />Our faces and our kiss!<br /><br />My bonny bird swore with her sealing kiss<br />'To be mine eternally'!<br />'Come what may, we'll endure the same<br />Our natures shall entwine'!<br /><br />Oh! The taste of Bliss for mortal man<br />Entices through and through!<br />To let go of the sublime feeling?<br />Death would've been more welcome!<br /><br />I horrors scorned, dangers ignored<br />I passed impetuous by!<br />My love, my lust for my bonny bird<br />Glowed like embers in Heart's hearth!<br /><br />My bliss soon crossed its meridian<br />Storm clouds approached fast!<br />Yet delirious in my lust I was, alas!<br />Oblivious to treachery!<br /><br />My bonny lass, she was all this time<br />In ardent love with another!<br />Stumbled I upon this truth<br />In my home, in my room!<br /><br />There she was, wrapped in another's embrace<br />They broke apart when I stepped in!<br />Doe-eyes looked bloodshot at me<br />In silent plea for Forgiveness!<br /><br />The snake of Jealousy stirred in my heart<br />It reared its ugly head!<br />Frenzy made me strangle to death<br />Both she and her lover!<br /><br />My world spinned! My heart heaved!<br />Breath came out in bursts!<br />And not one whit of Regret passed<br />In my Stone Heart then!<br /><br />For 'twas she, she who broke her promise<br />'To be mine eternally'!<br />Now Loyalty was dashed on the rocks<br />As I was left abandoned!<br /><br />Life's lost its meaning now<br />Sun at noon darkens in an eclipse!<br />My heartstrings shred to pieces by her<br />Oh, passionate reader! Was it so wrong to have loved so truly??CandidSrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15739705785011650500noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646672929002453746.post-77842071852475493642010-03-19T01:41:00.002-04:002014-08-25T13:49:16.377-04:00CALL OF THE WILD<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYddLjn3nj6plkSNBlvsN7uTEAComyvQ-6z6uxg8oauzg8GJ-I17yDYXHQR0vc4n7OL-NDCxzQZK9Q8R60H2EWuliL3u1qfA3eGiYT_wGIGONNutkTpZLvGC-R_FHrUrZRZmuJQeJDrUOA/s1600-h/rainforest.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYddLjn3nj6plkSNBlvsN7uTEAComyvQ-6z6uxg8oauzg8GJ-I17yDYXHQR0vc4n7OL-NDCxzQZK9Q8R60H2EWuliL3u1qfA3eGiYT_wGIGONNutkTpZLvGC-R_FHrUrZRZmuJQeJDrUOA/s320/rainforest.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5450216059545782834" border="0" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-style: italic;">1st prize English Versification in 2007</span><br /><br /></div><br />A step into the deep dense forest<br />Drowns me in a myriad of voices!<br />Scampering padded feet of the hunted<br />In desperate flight from stalking enemies!<br /><br />The cautious footsteps of the beasts<br />Whose fiery eyes spot the dawdler in a herd<br />Let out growls and snarls of anticipation<br />Filling the air with an unnerving echo!<br /><br />The valiant gurgle of a bubbly stream<br />That gushes past from mountains afar<br />With water clearer than the finest crystal<br />Adds its charm to the wilderness!<br /><br />Sunlight finds it hard to penetrate<br />Heavy foliage that lends a green glow<br />For only the arboreal dwellers enjoy its warmth<br />The burrows live in eternal night!<br /><br />And in the undergrowth sits and screams<br />The noisiest lot of ‘em all – the crickets!<br />Up and down their crescendo goes<br />Trapping me as if in a time warp!<br /><br />The calls of the feline, canine, vulpine and equine<br />Thrills along every nerve I have!<br />It sinks me into a serenity hitherto unknown<br />For that is sure the very voice<br />Of our Mother Nature!CandidSrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15739705785011650500noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646672929002453746.post-3169812500510825262010-03-19T01:35:00.002-04:002014-08-25T13:49:16.368-04:00THE CRIES OF THE HAPLESS<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdcHnBCF77lAd3D_hBIP3VEKjafdFcRW3Xo4oBOFz3KtbgdjGxQtS_6fpvq6rH65RoHAIvBAyd0ohZ0ucvfK0RMIJHoytc1wPzQLoRC0lWy8nf9IsqmAJ_f_z2sg38-JLekEE-GruK3fjp/s1600-h/hapless.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 217px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdcHnBCF77lAd3D_hBIP3VEKjafdFcRW3Xo4oBOFz3KtbgdjGxQtS_6fpvq6rH65RoHAIvBAyd0ohZ0ucvfK0RMIJHoytc1wPzQLoRC0lWy8nf9IsqmAJ_f_z2sg38-JLekEE-GruK3fjp/s320/hapless.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5450215536209116194" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">My very 1st poem. Written for English Versification at school in 2005. Won 1st prize.</span><br /><br />In the depth of my heart I wonder<br />If we are all humans!<br />For if we were, we would have heard<br />The cries of the hapless!<br /><br />O’ wretched mortals!<br />Spurn away that veil of ignorance!<br />See, hear and feel for yourself<br />The cries of the hapless!<br /><br />Some’d built themselves castles<br />And seen themselves reign in dreams<br />Only to wake up from that blissful dream<br />To find themselves sans castles sans dreams sans anything!<br /><br />T’is said that opportunity ne’er comes<br />And knocks at thy door,<br />‘True’, ‘True’, echoes those<br />For whom opportunity is alien!<br /><br />There are then people for whom<br />One wrong decision has cost<br />Their money their family and their life!<br />O’ just hear how they weep!<br /><br />Wouldn’t it be nice<br />If you could revive their lives with Hope<br />And help rebuild their dilapidated dreams?<br />If I were thee, I would!CandidSrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15739705785011650500noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646672929002453746.post-81563177422160117782010-03-14T23:06:00.001-04:002015-12-31T06:13:06.370-05:00Travel Map - Facebook Application<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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CandidSrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15739705785011650500noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646672929002453746.post-72450208299994054272010-03-14T22:45:00.000-04:002010-03-14T22:49:52.131-04:00Getting started!It has always been a darling wish of mine to start a blog. Loads of my good friends have really awesome blogs and they have been egging me on to put my thoughts down on Blogger too. After all, every thought is refreshingly different to the reader. Thats why even monozygotic (identical) twins have different train of thoughts! The marvel of the hitherto greatest mystery to Mankind - his own Brain!<br /><br />So will hopefully keep this blog filled with some of my thoughts, observations, at times raging emotions and a li'l hand i've been trying at poetry since school days! Do be a constructive critique and help me out in this venture of mine!<br /><br />Cheers!CandidSrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15739705785011650500noreply@blogger.com0