My first job interview

Last week self was once more demurely draped in 6 yards of cotton and waiting to to face a panel. This time however, they were not to cross-question mercilessly on disease states and their management... they were to go through my CV and find out if I, Angel, was the kind of person they could trust in a temporary post at the Faculty.

I had to wait in a side room with the rest of the hopefuls and despite the balmy weather, makeup was getting slightly oozy and nervousness was mounting. I repeatedly asked why I was voluntarily submitting myself to this type of agony... do I get some kind of cheap thrill out of it? I dunno - before I had figured out the answer, I was called in.

Many questions, some predictable and some not. And then I was shown out. My rather slim file of certificates wasn't even glanced at. Shame, I was looking forward to boasting that I had won the relay race in grade 5. :)

So anyway, I got a call yesterday. The whole thing is very hush-hush as nothing can be "official" until our results are known.

Results are due on Monday... eeek!

Cupcake frenzy

I think I mentioned before that the post-exam blahs left me in no mood to celebrate... but I did have a number of golden moments...

Golden moment number one

Inspired by Darwin (actually, reduced to helpless slobbering by the luscious photos) I trawled the net for egg-free cupcake recipies. I came across a really good one here. I made a thick chocolate icing and decorated with chocolate crispies.


The pic is very fuzzy because I couldn't find a camera and all I had was Darling's camera phone.

I was really thrilled they came out so well 'cos although I'm ok in the kitchen (never poisoned anyone, yet!), I suck at making cakes. The look of ecstasy on darling's face was pure gold in itself. :) Hurrah! Am turning into domestic goddess in manner of Martha Stewart and Darwin!

The cupcakes were delicious but a little on the heavy side. I think I have to add more X or reduce a little Y. A whipped cream topping would have done much better on a banana cupcake. Mmmmmmmm.... I foresee another golden moment in the near future!

Random thought...

There's a wierd sort of satisfaction in having made it to the top of the food-chain in campus. We are "super seniors" to almost every other medical student. Memo to self : enjoy the feeling while possible... in a fortnight said self will be at the bottom rung of the professional ladder... with a long, long climb ahead!

A closure of sorts

This post is over three weeks late... it has been 22 days since I(officially) completed my final MBBS exams. In the deep dark armpit of the night whilst I was battling sleep and headaches and cramming obscure facts, I used to wonder what it would be like "afterwards". I dreamt of parties and celebrations, shiny new shoes and trendy hairstyles,I laid elaborate plans... yet the end came, not with a bang but with a fizzle.

So here I am, still waiting for the "kick" to set in. Results are due in 2 weeks and till then I am stuck in the no-mans land between being an undergraduate and a graduate. If I pass... well... then I join the rekiya virahitha upaadhidaari club. You may even see me protesting at the Lipton circus/Fort railway station, a flowery umbrella carefully shading my face from the sun. It will be close to a year untill the Government allows me to practice as a doctor and make use of the degree that I spent 6 years struggling for.

So right now, I'm job hunting, looking for a non-clinical post within the Faculty itself. I figured that since I'll be doing clinical work for the rest of my life, better experience the other side of the coin when I have the chance.

I can't help wondering how much I would have forgotten by the time I start my internship. Right now, I'm at my peak... I know stuff about various diseases... even obscure ones. I can prescribe rationally. Yet for about a year, I will not be able to (legally)write a prescription. Well... I guess I'll find out, eventually.

Mums says to accept that which we cannot change... She is SO zen!

OMG... minihek!

Ok... so some guy managed to creep into our hostel at around 12.30am, Sunday night. This is a definite step forward. Usually the dudes just drive up in their 3 wheelers/mo-bikes/BMWs/4 wheel drives, play with themselves while gazing at the bras fluttering on the balcony washing lines... calmly wipe themselves with a bit of rag and drive off.

However, I don't think anyone has actually gotten in since Dr. JP (in her student days... many years ago) famously grappled with one of the "showmen" who made a misguided decision to walk into her room while she was studying for an important exam.

So anyway, last Sunday, this guy had gone into a room on the 3rd floor, where the occupant was sleeping but the door was unlocked as her room mate was studying downstairs. He had been rummaging around when the girl woke up... and he had then clamped her mouth shut with his hand (eeeek!) and threatened her and asked for money. After getting a few hundred rupees, he then calmly walked out and down the stairs. Another girl coming upstairs had met him and immediately started shrieking "budu ammo! minihek!! minihek!!!" etc. At which the guy had shouldered past her downstairs, run past the dumbfounded and bleary eyed security guards and straight into the arms of the policeman from the police post opposite the hostel!

So the policeman growls "mokada mokada kalabaley??" To which this thief/perv/druggie dude calmly replies "ne Ralahaami, prashnayak ne!" and the stupid policeman frikkin LETS HIM GO!!!! By this time the husband of our subwarden has come out and he sprints past the (still motionless and slackjawed) security guards and chases after the thief/druggie/perv but loses him among the tiny twisting lanes of Maradana.

Half the hostelers are now up and running around the place... much shouting, screaming and general excitement. The dazed (and drunk) security guards were sharply questioned by a bunch of irate girls in frilly nighties. Do you know what the idiot guard had said? (only one had been awake.) He had SEEN this dude calmly open the gate and walk into one of the hostel buildings and had asked what he was doing... and, in the guards own words "eya mukuth kiyuve nethi nisa, mamath ganan gaththe ne!!!" (The guy didn't reply, so I didn't take any notice).

Honestly!

I am speechless. I am horrified. I am so glad that I am now at home and the only guy likely to walk in is Brother in search of my stash of chocolate.

Of picketings and protests...

There was a big udgoshanaya outside the UGC yesterday, protesting the "politicizing" of appointments of the new graduate doctors. When I got to campus, the union was all active with members running around stencilling posters etc.

I like our students' union. They regularly piss off the maha shishya bala mandalaya of the University. Protests are limited to the lunch hour (nobody wants to miss classes). Our posters are notoriously tame... instead of the usual denu, karanu etc, it is denna, karanna - occaionally with a "please" or a "if it's not too much of a bother" thrown in. Yet we get great publicity 'cos of carefully cultivated media contacts. :)

I asked around and found out that this was because of the government decision to fill in the vacancies in the East with graduates from Jaffna University. I had a bit of time to think about it as I sat trembling in the Surgery Department, awaiting to be called for the "Long and Short Cases" of my final exam. Why was I here, decked up in a saree dry mouthed and petrified? Why were we doing these frickin exams in the first place? Examiners were coming from universities all over the Island, in order that the marks are standardised, because it's on these results that the common order of merit (the notorious "merit list") is set.

How fair is it to have to sit for all the standard exams, to get good marks and then be shoved off to the East for internship just because you studied at a particular university? Note, I have nothing against working there... if I am appointed to Trinco or Batti, I'd grit my teeth and go there determined to do a good job for the duration of my appointment. I'd just like to get that appointment on merit and not on a political whim.

I have the greatest respect for graduates of the Jaffna University and have been privileged to work with a few of them as my seniors (house officers, registrars etc.)They don't have half the facilities (to learn) as we have here in Colombo, some of them have been arrested by the SLA on various charges (this was about a decade ago), they have experienced dodging motars and scrambling into bunkers on the way to campus. They are friendly, hardworking and fun to work with. They are no less than any of the rest of us, and deserve to be treated equaly.

So these were the thoughts that ran through my mind as I listened to the faint sounds of the slogans in the distance. Then I was called in, screwed up the short cases, did reasonably well in the long case and will hopefully pass. Well, 13 down and 5 more to go... phew!

Fiddling away while the ship sinks...

There's a squeak of pure delight from a matey little mite
As it tortuously tunnels in the skin,
Singing "furrow, folly furrow, come join me in my burrow,
And we'll view the epidermis from within."
(Guy's Acarus)

Ok, I know that seems a little displaced, but I came across this little gem tucked in a corner of my dermatology text book... right next to the section on scabicides and how to squash the matey little guy out of existence.

I can't believe that after nearly a month of silence I'm blogging now, with only four more days to go for my final exams... shouldn't I be sitting somewhere with my feet in a tub of hot water, poring over textbooks? I guess I should... but I think I've reached the "lah-de-dah" stage of pre-exam panic where I no longer care if I get good marks or end up looking like a blithering idiot during a viva.

Of course my sang-froid is strongest during the daytime... cometh the evening panic rises up (along with gastritis) and I hear the voices of miscellaneous professors echoing in my head... "the results of this exam will mark you for LIFE!" Oh well... we'll see how it goes. Keep your fingers crossed for me people!