The Interview

A warm welcome
A hearty smile
The day looked good
As he reached in style
The wishes all over
The firm hand shakes
It is the confidence
Which mars or makes.

The first question
The answer instantneous
With the look in his eyes
He looked spontaneous.
You look organized
Your communication good
The interviewer was happy
And the interviewee so should.

A few minutes wait
The next encounter came by
Conversation was so heartening
That the time flew by
She looked glad
And he was beaming
Through his spectacles
Hope was gleaming.

Standing Behind part 2

There he was again in those same green scrubs, with matching blue face mask and head and shoe covers, moving around finding his way to peek on the OR table just to have a glimpse of what was going on. One could almost see the big smile on the other side of the mask, see the gleaming eyes behind his spectacles, everyone could almost feel the energy. He kept struggling just like the surgeon for almost four hours trying to see as much as he can, trying to learn as much as he can.
He looked so happy today. He looked so alive.
He had been denied another interview today.

Standing Behind

There he was in his green scrubs,blue face mask
and a matching head and shoe covers,
standing and staring,
staring at the proceedings in the OR,
careful not to touch any thing, careful not to touch anyone.
You could see through his eyes the terrible feeling,
that feeling which some of us know very well,
that feeling of disgust that only those who know can feel and those of us who have never gone through it can only imagine but would never know how it feels.
How it feels to stand behind?
How it feels to stand behind.

Arrey Baba

So next time if a Brasilian beauty says to you "Bhagwan ke liye" don't get surprised. Brasilians know a lot about India and its culture, thanks to the famous soap "Caminho Das Indias" which as told by my Brasilian coleagues is very popular. The language used is Portugese and the title means 'path to India'.
It has also made bollywood quite popular and Brasilians are doing samba to bollywood beats. Here is Url to give you an idea what it is all about, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jziUn7JNCBc&NR=1

What a great way to introduce a new culture to your country! I guess Ekta Kapoor is coming up with the Indian version of it titled,"KBrasil KKa Kraastaa", since the letter'K' has to be there.
Imagine Indian girls running around in bikinis.
ARREY BABA!!!

Swine Flu Pandemic: Where does India Stand

Following facts were reported by the Times of India quoting Health ministry reports on 11th October 2009,

India’s total death toll: 389

Total people infected with Swine Flu: 11,874

Total samples tested till date: 50,049

Most badly affected state: Maharashtra

What does WHO has to say?

“As of 4/October/2009 there have been over 375,000 lab confirmed cases of Pandemic influenza H1N1 2009 and over 4500 deaths reported to WHO.”

So applying simple mathematics here, India has contributed to about 8.5% of the total reported deaths around the world.

Is Prevention Better Than Cure?

It always is stupid! So needless to say that a vaccine that could prevent from getting the Swine Flu, is the need of the hour.

Developed countries of the world have been using regular Influenza Vaccines during flu season to prevent people from getting flu and dying.

Does India has a Swine flu Vaccine?

If you Google Swine flu vaccine and India, it comes up with millions of pages claiming that India is developing it’s indigenous vaccine and it would be available soon. How soon? God only knows. Four agencies that are in forefront of developing the vaccine earlier claimed that the vaccine would be available in September/October 2009 but the latest news is that it would not be available till March/April 2010.

So what can India do?

India’s Options:

1) Let Swine flu rule and people die.

2)Develop a Vaccine faster.

3)Import from a foreign country.

1) Well the first option doesn’t need any explanation, our authorities are pretty good at that.

2) Vaccine developing agencies have sort of let us down on this and have failed to quickly develop a vaccine as is evident.

3)Although it looks an attractive option, here is what WHO has to say in it’s briefing note:11,

“24 SEPTEMBER 2009 GENEVA -- Regulatory authorities have licensed pandemic vaccines in Australia, China and the United States of America, soon to be followed by Japan and several countries in Europe. The length of the approval process depends on factors such as each country's regulatory pathway, the type of vaccine being licensed, and the stage of manufacturers' readiness to submit appropriate information to regulatory authorities.”

It also says,

“These supplies will still be inadequate to cover a world population of 6.8 billion people in which virtually everyone is susceptible to infection by a new and readily contagious virus. Global manufacturing capacity for influenza vaccines is limited, inadequate and not readily augmented.”

It also says,

“ Many affluent countries have previously contracted with manufacturers to obtain sufficient vaccine supplies to cover their entire populations. However, most low- and middle-income countries lack the financial resources to compete for an early share of limited supplies. Vaccine supplies in these countries will largely depend on donations from manufacturers and other countries.”

I sincerely hope that India is amongst those ‘affluent countries’ who have the money to book the vaccines in advance. One of the basis for this hope is the statement from the ICMR Director which was quoted in the Times of India saying that some of the foreign manufacturers have agreed to do bridging studies so as to find out how Vaccine works in the Indian population so I am guessing that Indian Government has made some kind of an arrangement with these vaccine providers, otherwise we are at the mercy of donations from the affluent countries.

Ministry of Health, India webpage dedicated to Swine Flu speaks nothing about the vaccine though.

Thanks to Quiplash for the photograph.

Technorati Tags: Swine flu,Swine flu vaccine,India,Swine flu facts,Swine flu myths,Swine flu update,physicians

Mian Miami

Mian Miami ek aisa shehar nikla
Jo US mein hokar India jaisa dikhla
Bus mein lambi katarein dikhi
Train mein thandi baharein dikhi
Goron se adhik dekhe Cuban
English se adhik suni latin
Gharon kay aur dikhi chaar diwari
Machhar aur makhi ki thi bharmari
Garmi aisi ki kardey behaal
Mehngai itni ki kardey halaal
Hello ki jagahan aa gaya ola
Thank you kay liye gracias bola
Bimar dekhe garib dekhe or dekhe pehalwan
Spanish bolnay waalon se sab doctor thay pareshaan
Bus mein kachra phelaati aunti nay kiya mujhe hairaan
US mein bhi rehte huay hua India ka sa gumaan

Glass Art Museum, Navy Pier, Chicago

The Physician

Intubate, extubate
Aspirate, respirate
Desperate

Cardiovert, circulate
Inject, resuscitate
Desperate

Articulate, disarticulate
Reduce, fixate
Desperate

Explore, ligate
NPO, ambulate
Desperate

Inspect, palpate
Percuss, auscultate
Desperate

Aghast, exasperate
Suffer, co operate
Desperate

Criticize, deprecate
Profess, educate
Desperate

Hopeless, tolerate
Hopeful, desolate
Desperate

Excited, passionate
Dreamy, ignorate
Desperate

Depressed, irritate
Endure, motivate
Desperate

Chicagoist

Here it is, my last day in Chicago and soon this place would be the part of my memories as others. I came here three months ago to have some “US” clinical experience as they say. Was I successful in getting what I came for? At this moment I am not sure about the success but if I break it into achieving my objectives, I definitely did.
Chicago is a beautiful city with the downtown area being the center of attraction. High rising buildings, parks, Chicago river, bridges that reminds of middle ages give a feeling of excitement and pleasure. I tried to think of any Indian city similar to this but nothing came to my mind.
Only thing that I could correlate to India was the number of people I would see on the streets and I felt so good. I realized that being an Indian we are used to see people around us so much so that if you don’t see much faces you tend to get depressed. Such is the human warmth.
I had my fair share of difficulties some of which were good learning opportunities and the others were just annoyances. Like the food, thanks to the stuff I had brought with me I endeavored to learn how to cook and I must say I came out victorious and now quite self sufficient. I expect my culinary skills to be a pleasant surprise for my wife.
As every thing was going well and my expertise with cooking was making progress, my gas and heat at the room was cut off since the home owner was irresponsible enough to not pay his gas bills and so I had to put up for a week without cooking food which was not that bad, thanks to the frozen stuff and microwave but what was hard was to take showers in really cold water. I would dread whole day the notion of taking shower each morning so I found a way to lessen my suffering by loudly cursing the responsible ‘irresponsible guy’ in Hindi with everything I knew. I felt a little relieved but more embarrassed for what I did was childish. So for the next few days I just put up with the cold water bravely. Not to mention sleeping on the floor and lack of a pillow but surprisingly I didn’t miss them much.
For my last month I had to woke up around five and sometimes even half past four to make it to the hospital on time, if you had known me you would have known that getting up early is one thing that is not on my list. So how did I do it this time? Actually it turned out to be very easy just a little resolution, an alarm clock, some will power and that’s it, here, I have given you the ingredients, the answer to the mystery which I along with all the other owls as Sir William Osler would say, were looking for, the key to that great door which we only dreamt of unlocking one day. Easier said than done though.
After catching the earliest trains and changing buses and walking I would reach my hospital but never too early to be considered on time and never too late to totally miss the rounds or case discussions except for once when I jumped onto a subway which took me in a totally opposite direction of where I was supposed to be going and I found myself in the China Town of Chicago and to tell you the truth was little scared of how the whole China Town appeared though it’s name is mentioned in the Chicago Site Seeing Guide available at some subway stations.
On days when nothing went wrong I would observe while getting down from the train at La Salle Metra Station the swarm of people getting down from the train, people who had jobs and offices in Chicago and who like me struggled every day to reach their destinations on time. Finding myself in the waves of people reminded me the Mumbai local train experience except for that the waves in Mumbai were much larger and stronger. Getting down from the train in Chicago is an art as much as it is labor in Mumbai. But even that labor is not without art and even this art is not without labor.
Some of the commuters (commute is a popular word in this part of the world) were more artful than others or at least they thought so and these artful ones would get up from their seats exactly ten minutes before the train halt and stand in queue eager to get down from the train as soon as the automatic doors would allow them to. Needless to say I found myself amongst the more artful ones. And as always there were others who were more laid back, who were comfortable in their seats as if finding an excuse to not to go to work , who were unmoved by the bustling people around, who were less artful or at least the people who were standing thought so. These less artful ones as we would call them kept sitting and waited for the people who were standing to get down the train before them. But such is the stroke of nature that one may find the diamonds in coal mines and one may find the geniuses in the less artful ones. And as always everyone wants to know about the geniuses, who gives a damn about the ‘average’. So these geniuses or the train artists as I would call them were the best of all and enjoyed the best of both the worlds just like an Indian who earns in America and spends in India. The train artists kept sitting until the train stopped , only adjustment they would make was to shift to the edge of the seat closer to the aisle,if available, as it would help them which we will see shortly.
So here is our train just stopped at its destination, the doors about to slide open, the more artful ones almost pushing and I say almost, the less artful ones still sitting comfortably and the train artists making the necessary adjustments. The doors slide open, people most close to the doors flung themselves out and the queue starts to move forward or so one would expect but suddenly the train artists flung themselves into action. They stand up with half of their body still in the seat and look at the more artful ones just standing next to their seat and would give a look which is not a request and which definitely is not a threat but is something subtle but very implying so much so that the more artful one have to wait till they get out of the seat onto the aisle and move ahead of the more artful ones who could do nothing but to wait and receive a Thank You. What a stroke of genius!