I have borderline personality disorder.

Or at least that’s what I thought when I first studied psychiatry in my first year of medical school. In reality, all I had was medical student syndrome: the tendency of medial students to imagine that they have the disease they’re currently studyin… Read full post »

So simple it all seemed: if you suspect that a patient has a small bowel obstruction, you first try to relieve it by placing a tube down the patient’s nose and sucking out the gastrointestinal contents to relieve the pressure instead of being trigger happy with a scalpel (hmm…I’ve… Read full post »

At an ungodly hour in the dubiously furnished terminal 1 of Dubai’s dubiously overdecorated international airport, a simultaneously pained and irritated cry rang out: “Sir!”

Before I go any further, I must warn you that this post is merely the whim of a passing hour spent waiting f… Read full post »

My dear father, the earth has now completed 57 laps of the sun since you made your presence felt on earth. Being the impecunious medical student that I am, I’m going to attempt some linguistic gymnastics here to weasel my way out of getting you a gift today. 

 

Apparently, I… Read full post »

Ok, fine, I admit it: I’m constipated. What did you say? That’s too much information? No, no, I didn’t mean to begin the year with a scatological post. Who’d do that? What sort of sicko would bandy the state of their colonic motility on the internet? Hmm.. actually, I would an… Read full post »

I was aghast.

 We go through life taking many things for granted. If, for instance, you were told tomorrow that, despite all the contrary reports in the media, binge alcohol drinking was really the elixir of everlasting youth, your entire abstinent life would flash before your eyes and you&rsqu… Read full post »

We suck.

 I don’t think a member of my gender has ever proclaimed a more succinct self-indictment. Rumour has it that a male Martian once said “v sck,” which would certainly be more succinct, but I imagine the sentiment is the same.

Here’s why I’m indignant today:… Read full post »

Nestled deep in the laundry list of my vices is my tendency to judge people at the blink of an eye (and perhaps even at the blink of a high speed camera’s shutter). If you wish to be swiftly judged thus, you can do one of the abbreviated list that follows:… Read full post »

Cupcakes are a problem. 

I am constitutionally anti-cupcakes. I don’t particularly like how they taste-- even the ones people swear are gifts from heaven. In fact, I find that the harder confectioners try to make their cupcakes delectable, the more squalid they get, particularly those over… Read full post »

I have a not-so-secret shortcoming: I am not very good at showing excitement in person.

Over googlechat or facebook chat, I can hide behind exclamation marks and superlatives. Brilliant, terrific, good show, and excellent seem to be my go-tos in this regard. My online correspondent usually sees the ge… Read full post »

This post is written for and from the perspective of the not-very-physically-attractive members of the male gender who actually have to work assiduously with words and deeds to make women acknowledge their existence. I have resigned myself to the august membership of this ilk. George Bernard Shaw and
…

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This is a personal reflection about my work this summer and my last post on this blog. Please excuse the fluctuating volume; this is my first project of this sort. Thanks for following my blog this summer. I'm immensely grateful.

 

I failed to embed the video here… Read full post »

 

“Poor people are usually very uncivil in their behaviour...... they would have hazy scruples, usually resorting to base activities (theft, crime, rape) to get by....Indians seem to be so used to living in low quality surroundings, they have become low quality people..... poor kids have been all… Read full post »

The bus starts out empty.

 

 

 

This is a valuable lesson that my kith and kin learned on a drive down from New Delhi to Kumaon last month. The poor blokes hadn’t had much sleep the previous night and Morpheus quickly seduced them. As they gave in to the inescapable beckons of slumber, they… Read full post »

“Kavalai padadhinga, sari agidum.”

I noticed the streams of sweat run down his bare neck and chest as I was squashed between my brother and sister-in-law in the back of a small air-conditioned Hyundai. It was an oddly humid night in New Delhi and he was only wearing a loin cloth. He was younger than… Read full post »

I like good Indian good as much as the next man, but I wouldn’t dare lay claim to the mantle of “foodie”. My cousin, Tim (aka Mullah Omar), on the other hand is never sprightlier than when he’s inventing things in the kitchen and discovering new and frightening cuisines t… Read full post »

Many have extolled the virtues of brushing things under the carpet. Others have been partial to stuffing stuff into closets (skeletons, I hear, are a particular favourite). 

 

Today, I have a photographic take on this business of out of sight out of mind.

 

I call it....

 … Read full post »

 

“Pranay, you’re too verbose when talking to patients.” This was the feedback I received after my first formal patient interview a few months ago. Being a neurotic medical student (there is no such thing as a non-neurotic medical student, by the way), I was totally crushed and… Read full post »

 

Three of my colleagues from my class at the UVA School of Medicine and I are currently abuzz with seemingly endless activity. We’re trying to put together a free diabetes screening for the Charlottesville community. I’ll discuss the screening and put up pictures in a future blog po… Read full post »

               

                         I'm a velociraptor, apparently. 

 

I hate my name.

 

I’ve always hated my name. I think it’s because of the exp… Read full post »