Lucky face
Its been a stressful three weeks since I last wrote.
I was a bit bummed out about the end of my mental health rotation two weeks ago. It had been a good one, with lots of interesting patients. I had really gotten to like our tutor, he's such a funny guy and his teaching is half decent too. For each rotation we have some sort of a formal assessment and for mental health, I basically had a chat with one of the psychiatrists about a patient and he then proceeded to (gently) grill me about my schizophrenic patient and all sorts of vaguely related things (e.g. "Name the three dopaminergic pathways in the brain" I mean, WTF!!). I did pretty well in the assessment but my mate Dan did slightly better and I'm still grinding my teeth over that.
One of the patients I had spoken to during the rotation had summed up mental health for me nicely: "Daniel," he said to me, "mental illness, any mental illness is like the mind screaming". I think that sort of demonstrates the psychological pain that mental illnesses can cause.
Meanwhile, we (Desi Society) started practising our dance routines (quite late) for the International Festival of Arts and Music (IFAM) this year. We're doing a good mix of classical Indian, Bollywood, bhangra and hip-hop this year, although for some reason people have started backing out of it. Those of us doing at are putting in quite a bit of effort into it (practising like 4 hours a week) and it seems to be more or less on track. I'm unreasonably happy/enthusiastic about the bhangra number because I've learnt all the steps in like 2 weeks which is an epic achievement both for me and our brilliant imported-from-Amreeka choreographer/student/filthy monkey.
I'm pretty excited about it because the choreography is great and we're going to do a brilliant job.
The new rotation, public health, was a bit of a bore. It was just lectures in a closed room and some project work. Oh and a senseless little essay to write. It was a slight drag and to be honest I would've preferred to have some hands-on experience with a public health consultant or something. Our project was good though, it was about domestic violence and we spoke to some women who'd been abused in their homes. One lady described being kicked in the tummy when she was pregnant. I was surprised by how inhumanely some husbands treat their wives.
Public health is over & done with though. Hopefully my essay will have made enough sense to let me pass this rotation safely.
While public health was nibbling on my life, we had the Desi Society's second gig last Tuesday. The theme was More Chocolate and Champagne, after last year's successful gig. After some minor snafus, we spent countless evenings (ok, about 3 or 4) putting up posters and flyering in places. Everyone was pretty sick of the sight of the flyers by the end of it! Since I have a few friends (surprsing, I know!), I sold a few tickets.
On Monday, the day before the gig, I had to meet a friend in town to give him a few tickets. I was waiting for him by the war memorial monument in town when I was approached by an uncertain-looking Sikh dude. "You have a very lucky face" he told me hestitantly.
"What?"
"You have a lucky face. But you don't get chances in life. But in three days you will have big opportunities."
Magical, I thought. Oye Lucky, Lucky Oye!
"आप है कौन?" I asked in Hindi. Who are you?
He was taken aback a little that I spoke to him in Hindi and pretended like he didn't know what I was saying. He tried to pick his conversation up from there but I held my hand up, said "I don't have the time" and went the other way. I wonder what he wanted.
On the afternoon before the gig I went out to buy strawberries to use as dips for the chocolate fountain. I got like a carton of them. Then in the evening, I made my housemate chop all of them up in exchange for a few bites (of strawberries, of course).
The gig itself went down pretty well. With a new, bigger location, people had a bit more room to sit/drink/dance. I had a good time, except for when someone made me down a glass of champagne.
In other news, I'm currently in love with the song Rehna Tu by A R Rahman from the film Delhi-6. Such a sweet, breezy expression of love with a slightly gay twist to it.
It's been a stressful three weeks since I last wrote. I'm pleased some of the stress has gone.
I was a bit bummed out about the end of my mental health rotation two weeks ago. It had been a good one, with lots of interesting patients. I had really gotten to like our tutor, he's such a funny guy and his teaching is half decent too. For each rotation we have some sort of a formal assessment and for mental health, I basically had a chat with one of the psychiatrists about a patient and he then proceeded to (gently) grill me about my schizophrenic patient and all sorts of vaguely related things (e.g. "Name the three dopaminergic pathways in the brain" I mean, WTF!!). I did pretty well in the assessment but my mate Dan did slightly better and I'm still grinding my teeth over that.
One of the patients I had spoken to during the rotation had summed up mental health for me nicely: "Daniel," he said to me, "mental illness, any mental illness is like the mind screaming". I think that sort of demonstrates the psychological pain that mental illnesses can cause.
Meanwhile, we (Desi Society) started practising our dance routines (quite late) for the International Festival of Arts and Music (IFAM) this year. We're doing a good mix of classical Indian, Bollywood, bhangra and hip-hop this year, although for some reason people have started backing out of it. Those of us doing at are putting in quite a bit of effort into it (practising like 4 hours a week) and it seems to be more or less on track. I'm unreasonably happy/enthusiastic about the bhangra number because I've learnt all the steps in like 2 weeks which is an epic achievement both for me and our brilliant imported-from-Amreeka choreographer/student/filthy monkey.
I'm pretty excited about it because the choreography is great and we're going to do a brilliant job.
The new rotation, public health, was a bit of a bore. It was just lectures in a closed room and some project work. Oh and a senseless little essay to write. It was a slight drag and to be honest I would've preferred to have some hands-on experience with a public health consultant or something. Our project was good though, it was about domestic violence and we spoke to some women who'd been abused in their homes. One lady described being kicked in the tummy when she was pregnant. I was surprised by how inhumanely some husbands treat their wives.
Public health is over & done with though. Hopefully my essay will have made enough sense to let me pass this rotation safely.
While public health was nibbling on my life, we had the Desi Society's second gig last Tuesday. The theme was More Chocolate and Champagne, after last year's successful gig. After some minor snafus, we spent countless evenings (ok, about 3 or 4) putting up posters and flyering in places. Everyone was pretty sick of the sight of the flyers by the end of it! Since I have a few friends (surprsing, I know!), I sold a few tickets.
On Monday, the day before the gig, I had to meet a friend in town to give him a few tickets. I was waiting for him by the war memorial monument in town when I was approached by an uncertain-looking Sikh dude. "You have a very lucky face" he told me hestitantly.
"What?"
"You have a lucky face. But you don't get chances in life. But in three days you will have big opportunities."
Magical, I thought. Oye Lucky, Lucky Oye!
"आप है कौन?" I asked in Hindi. Who are you?
He was taken aback a little that I spoke to him in Hindi and pretended like he didn't know what I was saying. He tried to pick his conversation up from there but I held my hand up, said "I don't have the time" and went the other way. I wonder what he wanted.
On the afternoon before the gig I went out to buy strawberries to use as dips for the chocolate fountain. I got like a carton of them. Then in the evening, I made my housemate chop all of them up in exchange for a few bites (of strawberries, of course).
The gig itself went down pretty well. With a new, bigger location, people had a bit more room to sit/drink/dance. I had a good time, except for when someone made me down a glass of champagne.
In other news, I'm currently in love with the song Rehna Tu by A R Rahman from the film Delhi-6. Such a sweet, breezy expression of love with a slightly gay twist to it.
It's been a stressful three weeks since I last wrote. I'm pleased some of the stress has gone.