crore seats

I have been wondering for a long time, about people doling out obscene money to buy the radio diagnosis and orthopedic seats in the private medical colleges. What has been more bewildering is the fact that quite a few of tem do not have a hospital or the choice of inheriting their parent’s practice. Are they doing it without realizing the fact that the radiology business does not provide a good return on investment as they would like? I think not. I don’t think it’s possible for people who have earned that much money, to just throw it away without thinking.

What I presume is that, a few of them join courses with the same attitude, people have towards material things. What comes to my mind immediately are the cars (especially with the ever mushrooming new posh show rooms of the luxury cars). Say for example, a guy with a crore or money for buying a new car would most probably buy a luxury car from the Bavarian land rather than cheaper Indian/ Japanese / Korean ones. I think some of them apply the same logic to the academics- have it, flaunt it. I don’t think the same people would pay that money to take radiology, once it loses its glamour and the supposed halo.

Plaster mouth

'Plaster mouth' is the name I have probably acquired in my line of work, for upholding the law of the land. My line of work being, diagnostic radiology and the law I upheld, being the PNDT (The Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Regulation and Prevention of Misuse) Act. I quite deserved that name, as I am yet to reveal the sex of a child antenatally, after practicing for close to 7 years (PG period included). The latest people with grouse against me are none other than my sister and mom and it is them who have called me that. She is a couple of weeks from her EDD and I am yet to reveal the sex of her kid, in spite of all kinds of threats from her. I think I would continue to hold on the info from her

Funny inquiries and encounters keep coming during day to day practice, especially from the moms of the pregnant ladies or from the ladies themselves. Most common being the pair of six decade old eyes trying to squeeze out any kind of picture from the ultrasound monitors, breathing behind your neck( literally); I , for one being a person, who hates being watched/ monitored or whatever. On most occasions, I have tried to be polite and as them what they were doing, only for them to tell me worriedly that they are not able to identify anything (I always wonder, if they expected the photographs of babies to come out!


A lot of inquiries come with a sheepish smile, regarding the sex of the baby.
And most of them, without fail say that they only want a female baby (which I most of the time, presume, is not true)

Another funny inquiry was when the pregnant lady asked me, if it was a "paappa". I hid my smile while scanning and then told her everyone has a paappa inside, she told me that she meant a baby girl ; I had to ask her what she would call a baby boy- she nonchalantly told it would be a thumb. She pleaded to know that if it was a paappa , so that she could get all the scolding from her mom in law, sooner than later( as she already has a "paapa". She was one lady, whom I wished I could answer her query; still I made sure I didn't break the law.


The irony of all this being the fact that, I am not in favor of the law in individual (non professional) capacity. When the couple have the right to decide to have a child, plan the time for a child, to know whether the baby is normal and responsibility to take care of the child both inside and outside the womb, I wonder why the hell , they are not entitled to know the sex of the baby. I am sure not everyone is going to go to a doctor, asking for an abortion. I have always thought that, if someone is not willing to have a female child, it's because they cannot afford to bring them up properly. And moreover, the reluctance, that is associated with bringing up a female kid, is that financial burden associated with the matrimony. The government instead of trying to slay the demon that dowry is, instead is trying to tackle the problem, with small steps, which don't exactly render a solution.


Bringing up of male and female kids cost the same; it’s only the marriage part that lets everyone see, girls as a liability. If government or the people themselves address that issue, there is no difference between a male and a female child. Hence it would matter little, if it's a girl / boy and the need for prohibition of prenatal sex determination will entirely go. But alas there will be a group of sonologists, who would be dead against this; as I hear they make a killing (pun intended), revealing the sex of the child. And also radiologists like me need not have to be "plaster mouths"

Funny cricket quotes of 2010 selected from Cricinfo

1.It's up for Boucher to start a relationship with de Villiers

Ramiz Raja probably meant partnership during commentary for the second Test between Pakistan and South Africa

Nov 22, 2010

2.We've got a little bit in common...I love golf

Shane Warne understates the traits he shares with Tiger Woods

Nov 13, 2010

3.He has been in form longer than some of our guys have been alive

Daniel Vettori on Sachin Tendulkar ahead of New Zealand's Test series in India

Nov 2, 2010

4.Test cricket is bloody hard work, especially when you've got Sachin batting with what looks like a three-metre-wide bat

Michael Hussey is another Australian sick of seeing Sachin Tendulkar rack up the runs

Oct 20, 2010

5.I am sick of seeing Sachin scoring so many runs

Michael Clarke is glad Sachin Tendulkar has been rested from the ODI series after he scored 403 in the two Tests

Oct 17, 2010

6.I never dared to break the glass of his house while playing cricket as I used to be extremely scared of him.

One man who could restrain Virender Sehwag's big-hitting was India's world champion wrestler, Sushil Kumar, who grew up in the same locality as Sehwag

Sep 15, 2010

7.The golden goose ain't got too many eggs now.

Dean Jones believes the ODI format is on its last legs

Jun 16, 2010

8.Everybody knows I can dance well and I can bowl fast too. There are only a few bowlers who can do that

Sreesanth knows he has a rare combination of talents

Jun 8, 2010

9.I have joked before that there is a good chance that I might retire before Tendulkar

MS Dhoni on Sachin Tendulkar going strong at 37

Apr 24, 2010

10.We got called the Avatars in the corner. But I reckon I'm a little bit wider than him, which I can't say about many people.

Stuart Broad compares himself to England's newbie Steve Finn, who's beaten him for height

Apr 14, 2010

11.I'm not sure what the problem is with Graeme, but he has suddenly developed poppadom fingers. They are breaking all the time!

Jacques Kallis on his South Africa captain Graeme Smith, who had to leave the IPL after breaking his finger

Mar 18, 2010

12.I will pay anything, even go to the theatre, to watch the innings 100 times. I have already reserved a CD to watch it any time I want.

Virender Sehwag is ready to stake everything for a replay of Sachin Tendulkar's epochal double ton

Feb 26, 2010

13.Ryder may have the longest lower abdominal strain in history - someone with a heart transplant would have been back quicker.

Adam Parore is mystified at why Jesse Ryder's being wrapped in cotton wool for so long

Great escape

Interesting and funny events occur during all the trips, no matter ,the nature of trip. Our honeymoon trip also did not fail on the account. The beginning was true to the Indian standards , train to Madurai arriving casually late by 2 hours, making us stand on the platform at 11 o clock , only to look amazingly at so many people who had caught their sleeps on the platforms. The travel was good as it was second AC, in which we were travelling . We had no chance to meet strangers ( co passengers ) with strange actions,as it was late night and most were in their slumber. I too tried to sleep o the upper birth, envying all those sleeping blissfully on a rocker. I was also afraid of going beyond Madurai, if at all I slept well . I never got more than a few winks and was totally alert from six in the morning , only for the train to reach our destination by 7.30. There we had the driver arranged by the resort, ready to pick us.

It was a nice Indica with a good driver, conversant in Tamil. I kept asking about the places I wanted to know, without distracting him from his primary job. we had our breakfast at a hotel on the highway. We kept passing the highway , looking at nothing but hills on either side. My wife was good at sleeping in a moving car , so she had no trouble, as the car seat made a good bed and i made a good human pillow. She was well till we negotiated the first few of the 17 hair pin bends we had to encounter, after which she started retching as i she had a germ laden roadside chicken biryani. Then she felt a little OK after we got down and took a breath of fresh air. we proceeded uphill to the resort thinking her ordeal was over. No sooner than we got down , my wife puked everything she had for breakfast, before rushing towards the restroom. Luckily for us and also the resort she vomited close to the lawn rather than the middle of the lobby( if that had happened , we would have been unforgettable guest in the most unpleasant way.

We got a nice room , changed and we thought we will try some local food. We got down from our room to find only a few shops and a north Indian Jain restaurant and a mixed menu Malayali hotel ( I mean including beef). Then we heard that there was a Saravana Bhavan in the town. We had even decided to go there; then we came to know that we had to travel 20 kms on a jeep on the hill roads taking one hour to get there. So we thought we would try out the vegetarian Jain hotel. We went in as we had no options

There was one north Indian family loading themselves all wheatish things. There was no one else other than them and a thin bespectacled guy serving them. The surprise was that there was no cashier . My surprise was gone later , when it became clear that the thin guy was doubling ,rather tripling as the waiter, server and cashier / manager. Further surprise was that the guy was not willing to take orders fro us till he finished billing the north Indian family. I wanted the most rapidly available item on their menu, but he was in no hurry , serving me only a good 30 minutes after we entered the place. I gobbled whatever was on my plate and my wife nibbled whatever was on hers and pushed the rest to me. And for the night we bought whatever was needed so the my wife would churn out a simple and nice meal.

And the biggest escape came to the front only the next day when we went for sightseeing. We had to have our lunch in the small town square before going the other way for further sightseeing. we were taken to the Saravana Bhavan , which was nothing more than the namesake of the famous , overcharging hotel chain HSB. And my goodness, the crowd there was maddening than at the real HSB. The driver had to use his local influence to get us in to the hotel for a meal;without which we would have had to stand in the queue for at least good part of an hour. The food was eatable and not complainable( which is always the case when you are hungry and have missed home food for a couple of days - but retrospectively , not a place where you would pay and eat ).We were just thanking our stars that we didn't venture out to eat at this place the day before and for escaping the ordeal.

FACE IS THE MIRROR OF THE MIND

This is a old proverb that , i came to hear during the primary school years. There have been moments when i have experienced the same , unable to hide my feelings to the people around me. My parents can obviously sense my moments of anguish/ frustration , so easily , even before, I thought I was showing them. The same held true for me with my parents.

Yesterday afternoon , I learnt the face could reveal a lot about the mind of even the strangers, while watching Arnaab Goswami's interview( screwing) of HONOURABLE Minister Suresh Kalmadi. The way he talked and gestured , even a kid could be sure that , our Hon'ble minister was trying to hide a couple of huge pumpkins under the plate. The face of our dishonorable minister revealed more than it could hide. The mild stammer and irritability to fend of the questions gave away the fact that he had a hand / leg or what not , in the CWG scam. I just wonder whether it's commonwealth games or Corrupt Wealth Gobbling!!

However one thing is sure; the TV channels will get new fodder,sooner than later and our Kalmadi can go relax and frolic with his heist . Just as the Pawars did or the king (is that what he is) Raja did. We can't do anything other than fret about the amount of tax we paid duly by 31st July as honorable citizens

Cute short stories

Fear

There was a lion who feared nothing except the crowing of cocks. A chill would go down his spine whenever he heard a cock crowing. One day he confessed his fear to the elephant, who was greatly amused. “How can the crowing of a cock hurt you?” he asked the lion. “Think about it!” Just then a mosquito began circling the elephant’s head, frightening him out of his wits. “If it gets into my ear I’m doomed!” he shrieked, flailing at the insect with his trunk. Now it was the lion’s turn to feel amused. Moral: If we could see our fears as others see them we would realise that most of our fears make no sense!

Nice short stories from the net

Growing Good Corn

There was a Nebraska farmer who grew award-winning corn. Each year he entered his corn in the state fair where it won a blue ribbon...

One year a newspaper reporter interviewed him and learned something interesting about how he grew it. The reporter discovered that the farmer shared his seed corn with his neighbors.

"How can you afford to share your best seed corn with your neighbors when they are entering corn in competition with yours each year?" the reporter asked.

"Why sir," said the farmer, "didn't you know? The wind picks up pollen from the ripening corn and swirls it from field to field. If my neighbors grow inferior corn, cross-pollination will steadily degrade the quality of my corn. If I am to grow good corn, I must help my neighbors grow good corn."

He is very much aware of the connectedness of life. His corn cannot improve unless his neighbor's corn also improves.

So it is in other dimensions. Those who choose to be at peace must help their neighbors to be at peace. Those who choose to live well must help others to live well, for the value of a life is measured by the lives it touches. And those who choose to be happy must help others to find happiness for the welfare of each is bound up with the welfare of all.

The lesson for each of us is this: if we are to grow good corn, we must help our neighbors grow good corn.