The Better Half

Women, as they say, holds up half the sky. Stepping into the era of nanophysics and stem cell based medicine, it is not only important that we pause and look back at what the human race has achieved, but it is also important that we acknowledge the contribution of the other half of our society, the women. However, " a society that has great power, ambitions, ignores the rights and concerns of one half of its population to its own peril. India's women are undoubtedly breaking new ground, but we, as a society, have miles to go before we can claim to be truly gender egalitarian. Till such a happy day comes along, it is perhaps necessary to mark out a day for women, a day on which their agenda is in the spotlight." Hence the birth of the International Womens Day.

The miraculous phenomenon starts since a graffian follicle ruptures, releasing a healthy ovum into the fallopian tube, who choses the healthiest sperm out of a million, creating a wonder called life. Nine months inside her womb, each cell of our body doubles, multiplies and grows under the best nutritive condition, cushioned on all sides by amniotic fluid and in a temperature just perfect for the special being, the human life.

So we are born, and born to achieve greater things. The unsurmountable contribution of our mother in our lives are simply unparallel to anything in this world. A famous ex indian crickerter thus commented when Sachin Tendulkar scored the first double century, " We must thank Sachin's mother for giving birth to such a great child." No matter how many more words i keep scribbling here in this blog emphasising the efforts and role of our mothers in creating and shaping our lives, it would just not be enough. Most of their sacrifice and efforts, often it goes unnoticed because we are so busy enjoying our shaped up lives, but its never too late to acknowledge the lady who shaped us. The best way to make ourselves realise their role is just by placing our foot in their shoes for a day, from dishwashing and cooking dinner to doing everything just to make the family smile together before bed.

With the dawn of the modern era, women have stepped outside their home. Just as the old idiom says, their one step has been a giant leap for 'mankind' indeed ; or should it now be better called 'man and woman kind'? Equality, the eldest son of democracy deserves the utmost priority in any country, specially India. A country cannot move forward leaving half of its population (the women society) behind. Their representation in various sectors of the society today in the form Pratibha Patil, our president, or our lady speaker of the Lok sabha, or Barkha Dutt in the media and many others, have truly uplifted our nation. They are just few out of the many million women of this country who have succeeded in increasing womens representation in all the sectors, including the IITs, IIMs, and field of medicine. Yet our government takes 14years to approve a bill for reserving 33% of the seats for women in the Parliament. Just by mere self-belief, perseverence and will-power if the women society can attain such heights, perhaps it is beyond imagination where they will lead our country to, if they get some more support from our society in the required field.

Understanding a woman's mind is as complex as performind an open heart surgery of an ant! Their dynamic mind frames, potential talent and self-confidence, and kinetic 'never say die' energy are just unique. From daddy's little obedient girl, to a fashionable and trendy teen wearing a "i know everything" attitude, to an extrovert young adult shouting for "my space" all the time, to a self-dependent multitasking woman, to a caring wife and a sacrificing mother ; they are the versatile version of homo sapiens. They say, "practice makes a man perfect. So what about women? They are born perfect." Their habits, nature, zeal and charizma are always strong enough to attract the opposite sex like a strong magnet. They love attention, being noticed and praised all time by us men. And they always love to hear that they are preetier than our ex girlfriends. They love shopping, be it buying a hairpin or a wedding dress ; and they love gossips. They universally love pink to such an extend that even if u paint a buffalo pink for them, they will find it cute. And ofcourse they love saying "All men are dogs" and "all you men want is just sex". Now with so much shopping and makup, gossips and manicure to keep them busy, if they keep comparing their crave for sex with ours, they will obviously fall short, right guys?

But at the end of it all, its just these that make them women, its just these that we men love and admire about them. And yet after reading this blog half of you women out there, including my girlfriend, will still complain, " you wont understand, because you are not a girl! ". Yes, we men do not understand but we will never give up in trying to understand. Afterall, you women are our better half!

Books, Stethoscope and LUCK

The day i first stepped into the anatomy lecture hall of my medical school, how little i knew that step would be a gigantic leap into a micetrap. With almost every other eyeball scanning each new face as they entered the class, i quietly found a place next to a fellow wearing spectacles who presumably appeared friendly to me. Soon my eyes became a part of the mass eyeball exercise, where everybody was eye-scanning each other and hardly spoke little. The girls in the class ofcourse recieved the most glances, and a few preety faces amongst them ( which is the rarest sight in a medical college) appeared like someone had packed a few strawberries with a bunch of rotton potatoes. It didnt take me long to realise that most of the fellows wore thick spectacles, making their eyes look somewhat large, as if to proclaim that the power in my spectacle is directly proportional to the gray matter in my brain. So their i was, sitting like a geek amidst 149 other fellows who all fitted the defination of a "perfect geek" in their own way.

The principal soon entered and making his way to the podium, started his speech with, "My fellow students, this is a course where the entry is hard, journey is harder and the exit is the hardest..." I wondered if that sounded more like the movement of bowel in a constipated gut. I smiled at my imagination. Deep down i knew, my journey had begun..

The 5 year marathon rat race started. Soon we were burried 10feet under the graveyard of anatomy, floated aimlessly in the circulation of physiology, and burnt shamelessly in the bunsen flame of biochemistry. Some of the students initially freaked out and fainted at the sight of the ghastly looking dead bodies at anatomy dissection, but soon we became so friendly with the dead that we often offered to share our tiffin with them during the recess. Lucky for us that dead people dont eat. I realised it was all about geting yourself adapted to the circumstances, and this was only the first step.

Then came the blizzard of examinations. From class items, part completions, ward endings to semester exams, each were of its kind. Where the written exams were still of some reachable standards, the oral viva exams were mostly off the limits. The students were often morally molested and academically raped by the wanna-be great doctors (who ofcourse failed in achieving that and ended up being a professor) during the oral examinations. Their moto was "lets show these tiny mice how much we know and how little they know". So these hifunda.com geek doctors used to be in our nitemares most of the time.

But funny how quickly we learn to adapt and accept things around us. We soon got used to the ridiculous style of examination where answer scripts were never shown to the students ( i wonder if they were even corrected ), but the miserable marks were always brightly displayed on the notice board in due time. The mental molestations in the class or viva exams soon became a cantene joke or common room laugh. We thus became a part of the process, and soon learnt the three dictums of medical life :books, stethoscope and luck.

Books have always been a mans best friend. For a medico, books are his wives, soulmate. The equation is simple, the more hi-fi books u read, the more enlighted u get, and the bigger a frustrated geek u become. The ones who mastered this art well often ended up reading final year books on medicine and surgery in second year itself! Some even went upto the extend of solving post graduation mcq even before passing in the 2nd MB examination! But who can blame them? Such is the demand of this ridiculous education system of our country where you have to find a way to overtake the other to find your way to the top.

The next most important mantra is the stethoscope. Its an amazing tool without which life at a medical school is incomplete. In the early days of 3rd year, students (budding doctors afterall) often used to just hang it around their neck in the campus for mere show off! After all who doesnt dream of walking around in a white coat with a stethoscope, right? Stethoscope are a must in final year classes ofcourse. One can even get thrown out of the class if he doesnt bring his own stethoscope. Besides being an aid to listen to heart and lung sounds of a patient i wondered if the stethoscope helped us hear the mind talks of an examiner during exams. I wish it did.

And finally the most important mantra of all specially during the exams was our luck! We were lucky if the examiner was a goody type or was in good mood. Now if the same man is a frustrated geek (who got molested all his life, so he will take it out on us now) ; or say if he had a fight with his wife the night before our exam, then god save that candidate!

Those of us who does somehow finally find a way out of this 5 year marathon torture and misery by adapting quickly and following the dictum, are either often already half dead, or just waiting to get slaughtered again in the practical world!

The Right Start

Many times the difference between failure and success is doing something nearly right, or doing it exactly right. Its amazing when we sometime sit down and try to analise, what have we done in life so far and what we exactly want to do in the future, we are baffled with many surprising unanswered questions. Then we quizically mock ourselves by asking is this how i wanted my life to be? Is this the right direction i should be focussing my goals to? Is this where my unindentified talent should lead to? And the list goes on.


When we were a thinking embroyo in our childhood days, our minds often used to reach the zenith of unlimited ambitions and take us to the world of fantacies. The child often wants to become a sachin tendulkar, or an astronaut or a scientist or doctor or maybe a sharukh khan when he grows. Quiet obvious that his fantasy brain draws inspiration and dreams from almost anythng and everything exciting he sees around him. So the child grows, with a bag full of books on his back and a brain full of fantastic ambitions. Soon he starts maturing and each time a cell within his brain grows, he takes a step closer to reality. Most of the far stretched childhood dreams by then has eloped as he starts realising his strength and weaknessnes. He now starts chanellising his efforts towards one direction and goal which perhaps his reality struck brain thinks is either his real passion or is within his reach. Thus he toils day in and out to achieve his goals.


Now ofcourse there are exceptions to this usual pattern, like there may be some child who indulge so much into being a notorious kid or a brat that they dont think much of ambitions ; or like there maybe some or many who do not make it to the ambitious destition they dreamt of reaching in their budding age.


However, those few who does end up achieving what they always wanted to become ; this blog is dedicated to them.

Human mind is often a bag full of tricks. With every action potential generated i believe there comes a password to another trick. At times when we mould ourselves like a machine and just focus on achieving our goals, we often stop thinking. Then suddenly when one fine day we switch that thinking button on for a change, we wonder is my mind still thinking on the same wavelength it used to think before?
This ever changing dynamism of the human mind is perhaps beyond anybodys prediction.


That doesnt stop us from dreaming, desiring and focussing. But when this dynamic mind plays its cards, it often shifts our focus and desires. So the goals u wanted to achieve since childhood might now become not that exciting once you have actually achieved it. This phenomenon often reffered to as dilemma might affect us in various aspects of life, i am just mentioning one.

So what is the logic behind this mind puzzle. Is it the hunger that keeps the excitement going? And when the hunger is fed, either the excitement dies or another hunger bigger than the previous one appears. The more u feed your mind and dreams, the more hungry it gets.

A man who has not made it to his goals is unhappy because he thinks himself to be a failure ; whereas a man who has achieved his goals is also unhappy because he now wants to achieve more.

When i woke up this morning, my mind tickled me with a wierd question : does success really bring all the happiness and satisfaction?


In the end, i cannot conclude the answer to the question in a precise yes or no. However, i feel that its not how we end up with respect to achieving our goals, that determines our happiness. Its the start we make in that journey that makes us satisfied..

..so all we need , is the right start.