The last forage of the Glut-club

a.k.a. Golden moment #2

To be honest, it was the culmination of a long series of golden moments, gently spread over 6 years of Med-school. There was no official inaugaration... it was more of the brownian motion of life bringing together a bunch of serious food addicts, cookery experts and...well... gluttons. A mutual craving for salad took us to a certain fast-food joint down Union Place and with the tutorship of C we quickly developed salad-bar surfing into an art.

Birthdays heralded competitions (who has the tallest salad?) and this became more or less the ideal way for us perpetually broke undergrads to eat cheap. Cheap salad that is. There were stares from the staff... and sniggers from the other diners... but nothing dampened our enthusiasm. The management shut down the salad bar 3 times during the past 6 years. Each time it reopened (with much fanfare and progressively dilute mayo) the Glut-club made its presence gently felt.

The day after our final paper, we went there... for the last time as penniless undergrads, eight of us happy to share 2 salads and a garlic bread and split the 625 rupee bill.
Salad served by C, who once managed a 9" salad. mmmm...mmm look at all the chunky pineapple.

Angel with her (pitch)fork poised to attack the salad. Never can manage to get enough pineapple to stay on top.


We came, we ate and we conquered... :)

Hurrah!

Dr. Angel MB,BS (Col)

I am SO happy... :) What more can I say?

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.