Speaking doctors

The venue is cafetaria again. I'm having the usual cheese omelette. (Cheese omelette! Yes because Beenish says that it has lesser calories than croissants.) . "It has been a long time since you've posted something Maam", says Rizwan (Our intern). "He is your fan as well?!", beams Beenish. "I'm probably the only one who actually reads her blog", Rizwan replies. "Well, these exams are keeping me busy, maybe I ll have more time to write when I reach UK", I end. Busy and the bug The whole day is busy. Almost everyone is caught by the flu bug. I am done with the runny voice and this has followed by the very husky voice. It will only improve if I give myself some voice rest. There is also some neck pain. I bend my neck till my chin touches my sternum. No meningitis yet. Day before while I was doing clinics with Dr Atta Khan, one patient jokingly said, "you look sicker than me!". I tried to smile amid the runny nose, sn...

Seems like ages before I had a day off. But finally it comes. Sunday as a funday.  The morning starts at about nine. The rest of the house still sleeping. I leave eggs to boil. Time to kick start day with a healthy breakfast. One banana, followed by the boiled egg. Thats the plan. Junaid (my brother) wakes up and agrees to fix tea. I offer him the boiled eggs and he reluctantly accepts.(Junaid says that boiling an egg is equivalent to wasting one!). I head for the little park with my books in one hand and the nashta in the other. No signs of the newspaper yet. Ok. Its a beautiful morning, just the right amount of cool breeze. Partly cloudy. Tazadum... I stick the headphones in my ears and turn on the radio. Its FM 107s birthday. They sound excited and rightly so. I peel my egg as the music continues to blare. The egg has never tasted better. Zabardast, my heart goes. Junaid brings in the tea. I sip away......... The newspaper arrives. Two huge bundles. The express tribu...

Start of a brand new day. I am starting my call with three patients. Another patient has bounced back. Still another has arrived. Pager beeps. Another 'over' given. That makes it six so far. Good morning Karachi! As the weather takes a turn . . . . . . . It started to rain during the rounds. At two in the afternoon it looked so beautiful! The students looked happy, and so did everyone else. One of the students just stood there in front of me staring at the window, raindrops trickling. " Move on kid", I said. (We are rounding, serious stuff it is). "Maam, look at the weather!". I give him a whatever look.

Its that time of the year again. Its the 29th fast and everybody is almost hundred percent sure that its Eid tomorrow. Chand raat and fate decides that we should be oncall.... Hajra stays till iftari. Beenish (rotating in pulmonology), pages me to order food for iftari. After much brain storming, and a lot of phoning here and there we order the McDonald's iftari deal. Eventually the time comes. Maghrib Azaan. The food is there. Chicken wings, chicken burger, and drink. We also order Sundaes. During the course of the meal Beenish continues to say, "this is too good, I'm lovin it!" We then go outside for moon sighting, but its cloudy outside. We leave the job for Mufti Sahab and offer prayers. Later its the usual stuff in hospitals. Patients and more patients. But its festive. The doctors look happy, the staff excited. The staff in private wing collect money and decorate the private wing with frills and it looks amazing. Mehndi and me At three am...

For all those people not related to the medical profession, skip this post. For all the people related to the medical profession who have just had enough of medical stuff, also skip this post.  I found this video extremely helpful. Yes, it can get a bit too boring, so I would recommend  that watch it in bits and pieces. For all those who didnot enjoy the above video, my question is 'kis nay kaha tha kay pepsi painsath kee kar do!' As we smile away.... And in the end I'd leave you with this video. My nana used to sing it with us almost every morning. It was such fun! I dedicate this to my brothers Arif (of arificialintelligence fame) and Junaid,  as we frequently sing this and smile away. 

A phrase which is so familiar. A phrase I heard a few minutes back. But life goes on in Karachi. People are killed around like ants. Its ironic. Sad, disgusting. Traumatic, yes. Just yesterday I was talking to my brother that I would like to talk about these terrible halaat, but then I don't have a solution. I don't like to talk about things that I don't have a solution to. As you scroll through the various channels, everyone is talking. There are people crying. Someone's brother, father, son, husband has been killed. This is media kee azadi. Thanks to the media, we now know about (almost) every single person who has died. You feel sorry that they have, but couldn't do much. Its funny that all those who can, do seem unable to do anything either. So what right, another poor man died. The power remains with us..........