Teaching and all that

"You teach well" the best compliment that you probably can get from your teacher. Straight from the horse's mouth! As post graduates we teach undergraduate students in med schools and our professors supervise our classes. Eight out of ten of  them are hard to please but today what he said kind of made my day. Sometimes these are the things that keeps us going :-)

-R.

Brownie Points

Mitch Albom writes " Life is a series of pulls back and forth. You want to do one thing, but you are bound to do something else. Something hurts you, you know it shouldn't. You take certain things for granted, even when you know you should never take anything for granted. A tension of opposites, like a pull on a rubber band. And most of us live somewhere in the middle", and  well die in the race of running behind Brownie points! 

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So finally where do all these points count ? Neither heaven nor hell, right here where we live. But monotony either eats us up or life demands something more.This is pretty strange for people for whom their work is more than their livelihood, goals more than dreams and love more than life, but it does happen. Where does the zeal go?  Its a hard thing to break your head thinking about, and I am pretty sure there are some out there like me who wake up with a not so conceivable roster for the day and sleep with another in the night. 

Mediocrity of living hits hard even though you know you have fared better than yesterday. It brings nightmares, a simple thought of not doing something different which you simply could have. Sometimes you really need something that subconsciously pushes you to do what you like and what you want to, something that really gives you a high. Or maybe its the right time for some Brownie, fudgey and chocolatey ;-) I am off for one!

PS: It looks like I wrote this after some overwork, it is more of a overthought. Post graduation and all you see :-p

-R

The Search

A seagull in the sky comes flying high

To ask the sun in the queerest of a cry

Found him yet O' dear brightness my !'

A lone sun dips in the sea in his search

To ask the tide if he hides in her lurch

While she lopes after his buoyant touch

I stand still, with her kisses on my feet

And look into your eyes so naively neat

To tell the rest ' God is here come, meet '

-R-

The Magic Spells

A very early morning, rusty old wheels and an older man driving them, I got into his rickshaw after a twenty minute wait on a deserted road. While I reached the hospital, handed him the fare and said "Thank you" he gave me one of the best smiles I have seen of late, enough to brighten up my day. The cherry on top was his compliment, he said that I reminded him of his daughter. I could not stop myself from asking him how and why. He told me its been long that someone told him a thank you with such genuineness and my voice was very much like hers.It touched me, and I realized that it is the little things like these that often always matter the most.

These are not mere words, these are magic spells and most of you will agree that they are either underused or overused. How often do we use them without really wanting to and how often do we let go ourselves without using them when there is a real need to? Manners and morals are something which we all have learnt since childhood, but somewhere in all the growing up we forget to carry them. We fail to draw the line between the dos and the donts or to make that little extra effort to show some congeniality when it is most necessary. 

Saying a sorry or a thank you is more than about being well mannered and courteous. These are words to be said only if we mean it. These are words that can make a difference to someone. Like Cecila Ahern writes in 'The Gift'- We're all made up of the same stuff. When something happens, it triggers something inside us that connects us to a situation, connects us to other people, lighting us up and linking us like lights on a Christmas tree, twisted and turned but still connected on a wire. Some go out, others flicker, others burn strong and bright, yet we' re all on the same line". For all we know these words are like this wire with enough power to keep us connected and our tree in splendid light all through life. 

Use them wise, use them with care and use them with your heart.

-R.

A Deal For A Lifetime

An interesting way to put across some sense of health. How often do we remember and pay attention to the stress and strain our organs face all day? I found this poster on the way up the stairs to my laboratory in the hospital. I never fail to smile when I see this.Quite a deal for a lifetime right? :-)

For A Change

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Mad torrents of the river sweep off my every root

While I make some silent prayer for my every fruit

Mad winds of the sky shame my branches to nude

While I wish for a change, I suffer to live this feud

I stand still for one fine day they shall calm down

And I shall dance like a princess in a green gown

Sigh! What if I can spring and sprint like them too

Only to see and sense the world in its colours true

I then ask them “Does blithe of life forever flow?”

But they say “Oh pretty, like we know, so we go”

How strangely relative are our dreams and quests

The ones who wait make the change gain the bests
I so shall seep the waters and blow with the breeze
For living is worth if every change is under our seize

Nothing better than nature to teach what and how a change should be like and yet everything stay suave and subtle. If there is anything wanting change, it is the way we look at and live life. I wish we had the power to do that, I wish we were but natural, in accepting challenges, in living more than for ourselves, in believing faith, in working for the good and in loving this world :-)

-R.

PS: 

This post is written as a part of
 Indiblogger- Time To Change- Stayfree contest.

 Stayfree India-Facebook Page

'The Wall' Stands Tall

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"I have failed at times, but I will never stop trying...I leave with sadness but also with pride"

"Come watch, Dravid is playing" is what my folks told me all these years and today I realize I shall not be hearing this anymore. It is all the more difficult for people like me who are used to watching this game only because of him. Someone has rightly said “It is always sad when someone leaves home, unless they are simply going around the corner and will return in a few minutes with ice-cream sandwiches.” That is exactly what I am feeling.

As a matter of fact he is all that I know about cricket and I wouldn't be wrong if I say that in my dictionary he is synonymous to the game, and shall always stay so. I do not know much of his catches, centuries or any other records. Cricket to me is as alien as desert to penguins. But whatever cricket that I know today I owe it to this one dependable, and after today I have scary second thoughts about my interest in cricket.

If cricket was really a gentleman's game, we do not have to look up to anyone else but this man. He is among those few men who have always played and lived cricket with dignity. For many genuine reasons other than the game I have always ‘admired’ Dravid. One simple and sensible reason is ’for the person he naturally is’ His persistence and his patience was always evident on the field and scoreboard. We always knew the match shall not be lost if not won, for Rahul was there at the crease which meant the match shall not end any sooner!

The wall always stood tall, and continues to if not on the field but as a living legend of the game. As I type these lines here I see an old visual of him on the television saying "You mess with India, you mess with me" with a wink. Respect.

-R.

Time for Life

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Summer is arriving and it is best felt in the dawn. The coldness is not cold anymore and today was a fairly warm day. It was one of those days when I do not plan anything in particular but spend it doing things I like doing the most. I jogged for almost two hours today in the wee hours of morning even before the sun decided to wake up, the morning walk and jog people in the neighbourhood park who are no more strangers to me could not stop themselves from being inquisitive about that extra hour that I put in. A very concerned uncle asked me "Why are you tiring yourself Doctor?"and all I did was smile and say "Because its a Sunday". I am pretty sure that he walked two extra rounds in the park after that.

Sometimes, well most of the times we blame the lack of time for not being able to do things what we like. And how wrong we are! Nobody and nothing can take away our time without we having a say. Often we let go off our likings, hobbies, habits, ideas, thoughts, wishes and dreams in the process of passing the day and accepting come what may. And all that happens meanwhile is we just grow old, from the twenties to the forties.Of course there are some 'snuggle under the quilt' moments, think about this friends, if living was all about this where is the time for life?

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-R.