Hi Everyone! Apologies for the long silence. From my previous blog, some of you may have thought I was once again incapacitated by gastrointestinal trouble! Nothing like that! I've been well, but just have been very busy over the last week. Yup, I've finally managed to catch the contagious enthusiasm and workaholic traits of the doctors here- to the point of even renouncing my plans to go to Pondicherry this weekend- yes once again! So I won;t be able to satisfy requests to write about it until a little later! I'm enjoying work very much, but it does mean that I'm getting back home at around 11 pm every night after an 8am start. Once you start taking over the care of some patients, it's very hard indeed to just leave the work and go travelling. But the experience is worth it. There's a large number of aplastic anaemia patients here and it's inerersting to learn about their management. In clinic I saw some rarities this week- a case of congenital dyskeratosis and one of Kasabach-Merritt syndrome.
My registrar colleague on the ward is Rayaz. He's from Chattigarh originally and has been here for a year. He's one of the few single doctors around here- yes, most doctors get married very early just after they finish their medicine degree- He' good company!
I'm definitely going away next weekend- to Kodaikanal- a hill station not far from the city of Madurai, which has a huge temple complex. More about this later.
The Monsoon is slowly and shyly unveiling it's full face over here. There were a few nights last week when rumbles of thunder accompanied nature's display of her full electrical might - a stroboscopic display of lightning bolts like I've never experienced before. The vast parched state of Tamil Nadu seems certainly thirsty for the impending rains. The temperatures have thankfully cooled down a little lately.
There seems to have been a string of birthdays recently. Just wanted to wish Juanita a belated Happy birthday! Same to Dolan, Ali and Nish- Happy birthday guys!
I'm currently reading VS Naipaul's India: A wounded Civilisation. An eye-opener to some of the problems of Indian society and culture. His opening line is 'India is a difficult country for me. It isn;t my home and cannot be my home; and yet I cannot reject it or be indiffferent to it; I cannot travel only for the sights. I am at once too close and too far.' No other sentence can echo my feelings any better yet!
Hopefully, i'll have more interesting adventures to tell you about next time. It's evening ward round time!