Niponwave

Recently on the occasion of Noboborsho, the Bengali New Year, I gifted myself an array of books. Most of these are modern classics, books that I must have read but never ended up doing so. In fact, I am rather ashamed at having not read these life changing books. But it’s never too late I suppose.

Here is the list of books. It will take me quite long to read them all. Let the good times roll!

1. Three Men In A Boat
2. The God Of Small Things
3. Siddhartha
4. The Great Gatsby
5. The Myth Of Sisyphus
6. Poor Economics: Rethinking Poverty & the Ways to End it
7. To Kill A Mockingbird
8. Love In The Time Of Cholera
9. Gone With The Wind
10. Catch-22
11. A Suitable Boy
12. Midnight’s Children
13. The Catcher in the Rye
14. The Last Lecture
15. The Little Prince
16. Have A Little Faith
17. Hitchiker’s Guide To The Galaxy

“Intelligence is enormously sexy.”

Photo collected from Facebook.

A doctor writes about an unfortunate incident which is not only depressing but really alarming. It is sad that such incidents have become quite common in Bengal, if not the entire country. In my brief medical career so far, I have seen that in every such incident of harassment of medical staff, there has been little or no legal action against the perpetrators of the crime and blatant distortion of facts by the local media. The following note is yet another example that will further discourage bright students to embrace the noble profession.

I want to share something very unfortunate happening to my family the day before yesterday. By profession my husband is an anaesthesiologist posted in midnapore medical college. But due to acute crisis of anaesthesiologist in other places he was posted in kharagpur sub divisional hospital on detailment temporarily. On 6th of may a young unmarried, handicapped girl had been admitted in Kharagpur hospital with 99% burn. Doctors tried to refer the case as there was no burn unit but the party refuse to take her. Within 10 to 12 hours the girl died. The authority asked my husband to do the post mortem. Being an anaesthesiologist for the past few months he is doing the postmortem of many cases and referring many serious cases to midnapore medical college for expert opinion. For this particular case first he has asked for the dying declaration , which was unavailable. After that he went through the inquest report and had a lot of doubt regarding the case . That is why he refer this case to MMC. After this incidence when he was out for his lunch he was mobbed by some local yuva congress people. He took shelter in a local nursing home where some local known doctors help him to take shelter. at this time when he called up the super, he said it is beyond his jurisdiction. a group of 25-30 people have pulled him out of that place and beaten him badly and taken him to the local police station. The police have taken a prompt action by arresting them for assaulting an on duty medical officer.

The unfortunate day was not yet over. Media have represented this case as “doctor beaten on negligence”.

My family and friends who really cares about me, i want to ask u a few questions through FB.

1. Can an anaesthesiologist be beaten and assaulted for not doing post mortem?
2. Can it be called negligence when he assessed and refer the case for expert opinion?
3. Can it be called a case of negligence when the girl is already dead? Where was these guys when the girl was alive and being referred to mmc for better treatment as there was no such unit in kharagpur?
4. Does the authority have any role to play to save their staff when they are in danger. (My husband is the junior most staff. Only 2.5 yrs of experience)
5. Does audiovisual media have got any commitment to the society to show and tell the true story?
6. Does print media have any role to play to write the genuine things? (It has been written that my husband was not beaten, but in the video taken by those guys only it has been clearly shown the fact. In ABP link every common people can see this).
7. He is disturbed, traumatized and mentally fatigued. We need genuine support and advice at this moment.

As a Bond fan, I could not miss it. And it was a very good watch. The first half was a tad slow, but the second half was rivetting. I liked how the movie ended. Looks like old school Bond flavor is back Call me an old timer, but I can’t help comparing new Bond movies with the older ones, those of Sean Connery and Roger Moore era! For example, the villain’s maxillary prosthesis was truly in bond style. Very reminiscent of some old school bond villains who had disfigured faces and had to go for plastic surgery The humor element was missing though; we hardly laughed. May be because Bond has suddenly grown old, as pointed out by a friend who also thinks that the movie was part Bond and part Home Alone. Haha! You will get the pun when you watch the movie. And oh yes, there’s surprise in who is the Bond girl (though in a platonic way) in this movie!

The functional, half-functional and now-defunct gadgets accumulated over the years has given rise to a tangle of wires that is getting impossible to control. It’s as if the overwhelming wire mess has got a life of its own and its entire dust-hogging, cobweb-gathering being is only aimed at making life difficult for me. Plugging in the external hard drive or feeling up the scanner usb cable to see if it is plugged is well nigh impossible. Even pulling the mouse is a tug of war these days! The printer is not working anymore and I need to print some admit cards. I have set my eyes on wireless printers, no prizes for guessing! Suggestions on wifi printers are hereby sought from one and all.

All of a sudden we get to hear that the AIPGMEE will be preponed by nearly 2 months! The test will be conducted online and taken over a span of several days and that candidates can choose their own date. This we learn only when the exam is 2 months away. According to the news, that has appeared in dailies like the Deccan Chronicle, we will write our AIPGMEE in November this year instead of January 2013. This totally unsettles all my study plans. Losing nearly 2 months is a huge setback.

Different sets for different folks is also not cool IMHO. If they are trying to emulate CAT, CAT is a test which tests your aptitude. But how can a medical entrance that tests knowledge (rote learning of an endless syllabus to be precise) have different sets? Does USMLE have different sets too?

Conventional healthcare system has taken a bikini approach to women’s health giving emphasis on the breast and the reproductive system. A greater awareness among women regarding heart disease is the need of the hour. Heart disease is not only the leading cause of death in US women but more women are dying of heart disease every year than men [1]! In fact, research regarding heart disease has mostly considered it as a male disease, with poor participation rates of women. It is important to understand that heart disease in women is not a man’s disease; heart disease in women acts quite different than in men[2]. Only recently heart disease in women is being looked at seriously and gender-specific research is being carried out.