The Record

“You never know what you’re going to find in your house”

-Franz Kafka in ‘A Country Doctor’-

“So what are you going to do with these?” she asked” Keep them of course!” I replied. It was one of those situations when the mother wants to do away with the clutter in the house the daughter wants to keep the treasure box. It did not take me long to convince her, she gave me a smile like the family was related to Pablo Picasso somehow when I showed her what was in the box.

Around a good ten years ago in my first year of medicine when I had the pleasure of learning human anatomy with a scalpel, the Cunningham's Manual Of Human Anatomy, the nicest teachers and the best bunch of friends at the dissection table there was a GROSS ANATOMY record to be made at the end of the term. Here are a few pictures from mine:

 Anatomy is all about science and art, and the human body is nothing less than a master piece. Every muscle, bone, artery, vein or nerve is there for a reason and they work as a team. Drawing them is as meticulous as they are at work. Each picture had taken me hours back then, and when I look at them now besides making me happy it reminds me how much we take what is inside us for granted. It is only when we are ill we end up wondering what could have gone wrong where. 

The structure and function of every part of our body is nothing short of a marvel. And it is often assumed that everything under the skin is fine until there is PAIN, which is just one of the hundred signs and symptoms. How wrong are we, only if we did introspect more often! Think of the various organs we see here, how much they work day in and out for us. The innumerable cells that make them, the genes that code, the nutrients that they consume, the products they synthesize, the way they grow, sustain and die.

I am glad I did all this learning and drawing. I understand they are a little complicated, I have a hard time remembering the terms even now. But it is a nice thing to know what we are actually made of, isn't it? There are so many questions to ponder, like why is the heart beating in one particular rhythm and why is the brain thinking this way, there is no end to my list.

What are you thinking? :-)

-R.