Vanilla Tan and Salmon

You might just call me a ranting-at-others-doing-it-herself hypocrite after reading this post. I know I'll get a few raised eyebrows, or probably some smirks, others might just accuse me of joining in with the neighbors in their house renovation mania but I object in my defense *pounds fist on her desk and then coughs on the dust storm it caused* the frenzy amongst my neighbors has long been over and my family's timing for this house maintenance/renovation/paint is a safe distance away from that frenzy era ( Read - Rooster in my lawn, for reference) And besides our house was in a desperate need for some touch up and care. The paint on the walls was chipping off, the shield part of the weather shield paint on the exteriors had apparently long dissolved away and what's left was the lurid effect of the weather on display, a window pane had gone loose and would leak every time it rained and should I mention how the main gate needed some extra effort on opening with that loose handle !? So you see my case is completely justified, hmmph ( Dont you dare raise your finger again ).

So anyways, I'm living like a nomad under my own roof. There's a parade of  painters,carpenters masons, electrician, plumber,etc in my home, And I just keep moving with my satchel of books from one free room to the other where ever there's peace. Now I know my readers in the west might just end up thinking I'm some richie rich for DIY is the norm in the West and getting someone to do the job would cost a looot. But in our part of the world, its completely the opposite. For you see we are a developing country and labour is very cheap here. So everyone just hires a painter, or carpenter etc to do the job which ends up being a more feasible and economic option than DIY.

My room got painted yesterday, and I'm back in it. The furniture is all out of place and covered with dust.I've only cleaned my desk so that I can atleast have some place to study, I'll do the rest of the cleaning later today. And btw dont you wanna know what colour my walls are now ? Well I had three of the walls painted Vanilla tan while the fourth one is Salmon ! I was a little apprehensive about the Salmon, but I'm glad I made the right decision, the direction of the sunlight that enters my room seems to be complementing it :).

All this chaos shall hopefully be over till Saturday and life shall return to its usual peacefulness. I'll be posting again soon, Chao

Intelligent patients, dumb medical students !

I mentioned I was posted in the surgery ward in my  last post. I must say its pretty interesting  and presents with all kind of learning experiences ! Yesterday something funny happened. It was the first time, we went to the surgery OPD. We had no prior idea on how to perform the various kind of examinations that need to be done on a patient (except the gynaecological examinations that we'd learned in the gynae ward) . There came a lady into the doctor's office with pain in the abdomen. The doctor in-charge was a llittle busy writing a prescription for the previous patient so he instructed me to take the lady into the cubicle and examine her abdomen. I smiled at the lady nervously and took her there.Trying to remember all I had learned theoretically about examination, I uncovered her abdomen, making sure my nervousness was not reflected in my demeanor  The first step of examination is inspection ( That I thankfully knew !). I observed her abdomen and saw a transverse mark on her abdomen. I asked her about it and she said it was a scar from a C-section she had three months back. I did the rest of the examination, wrote down my findings and called the doctor.I must say I was really proud of myself because I did the examination pretty tactfully and  better than my own expectations.

The doctor came into the cubicle and asked me about my findings. I promptly mentioned my entire examination and also showed him the C-section scar.. He smiled at that mention, and asked the lady what kind of a scar it was again. And this time, she looked at it and said "Oh, its a stretch mark", the doctor looked at me and said with a huge smile on his face , "Even she knows its a stretch mark !"  It was a relief that the doctor was pretty understanding and made me realise my mistake without making me feel embarassed !

( The cesarean section scar was there, quite below the stretch mark ( obviously ! ) and I had missed it on inspection.( that portion of the abdomen was draped)..That woman , on my question, thought I was referring to that scar, when I really was referring to the stretch mark !! I hope my readers understand the confusion !!!)

The adventure of his rooster life !!

It was a hot, humid afternoon with a sweltering heat and scorching sunshine. The neighbourhood was all silent since everyone prefers to remain locked up in the cooler confines of the house.My lazy cats were fast asleep under the shade in the backyard as Murad (he's been living and working with us for as long as I can remember) was washing his clothes and I was checking that my cats had enough water in their bowl ! And then all of a sudden all the divinely peace and silence was interrupted by a loud, clucking/screeching sound that either sounded like a lady with a rusted larynx or a dozen of musical instruments falling together. Confused at what it was, all my lazy cats, Murad and I raised our heads to see a rooster falling in a projectile manner from the third storey of my neighbor's house with its wings flailing and flinging helplessly and crash land with a thud in my backyard !

Now, what we had in the backyard was a terrified rooster who had just made what was possibly the highest flight of his life and landed in a territory which it thought could have never existed ! two confused humans, and four cats who looked like they had just spotted a martian !

I was still recovering from the shock when Murad spotted one of my cats, crouching towards the rooster and was quick enough to realize the sly intentions of the feline carnivorous..Faster than the cat, Murad leapt at the rooster who petrified as it already was didn't even try to escape and landed directly in Murad's arms who jumped at the ladder we have at our wall and shoved it across the neighbour's wall ! I'm sure the rooster closed its eyes and said his last prayers when Murad leapt at him..And I know it's narrow escape and the joy of making it back alive ungrazed was the reason it gave a long hoot soon after it landed back into its own territory..


This is kinda how my cats looked at that time

PS - Now I know where the rooster had been (The rooster in my lawn). Our neighbor chose to make a cozy apartment for the rooster and his three fellas on the roof , which is why I hadn't seen them around, well atleast till yesterday ! Seems like its turning into the star of my blog !

Finger Art

Uzma recently got bitten by a creativity bug. She's been contriving on a type of finger art trying to take our weird pics which depict a special trait we have and then making her finger, or rather, giving a make over to her finger to show our finger look alikes !

And so here's my finger look alike and the emphasis (as per what she says) is on the cuteness, even though I don't find anything cute about me in this pic !!


The bunny ears are supposed to show my cuteness I guess ! Uzma and her brain work !

The week - reflected

Life has been pretty busy since the last time I posted and yet I could n't think of anything worth mentioning in my post . So I'm just gonna list down some of the things that happened through out this week and the last

1- We discovered a traditional Sindhi Jhula ( a cot like swing) at Rita's home this weekend. She has a Sindhi background and the jhula was a childhood present from someone in her family. The ones I've seen in pictures are usually more colourful but we did n't mind the appearance as long as we could sit inside and have our pics taken..And I'm sure the number of pics we took and stuff we did on the jhula convinced her family that we were no more than a bunch of jerks all excited over nothing !

2 - Uzma's sister passed her final Chartered Accountancy exam ! And its not just the passing that I consider an achievement for her, but the fact that she did it at a very young age ( early 20's for crying out loud ! ). People spend ages trying to pass the CA exam ( I've seen people trying to pass the exam at 30 ) and she's already a full fledged Chartered Accountant ! She sure is an inspiration for CA students out there !

3 - We had our ward exam last week to test what we had learned in our month long posting in ENT ( Ear, nose and throat ward ) It was a relief to hear the teacher comment that he liked my history taking skills, especially since all those I know had remarked that he was a difficult examiner to please !

4 - Shirin is presently suffering from 'GSS' ...Guilty shopper syndrome ! She spent her entire pocket money and a bit of her savings on stuff that she is regretting having purchased. And , that, I tell you, is not something unexpected from Shirin ! She goes wild about something first, cries and whines to go get it, and once she does , she is filled with remorse of blowing off her money on something that was n't really important in the first place ! ( Passionate she is ! )

5 - I got locked out of the class twice this week . And no it wasn't my fault. I mean seriously ! Our lecture hall for this years classes is on the second floor ! And since our college was architected in the time when the subcontinent was under British rule, those two floors are actually like 5 floors (high ceilings) and it takes ages to walk up the stairs. Imagine the pain when you walk up those looong, tiring stairs , out of breath and stamina, and find out that you've been late and hence locked out !!

6 - The rooster that my neighbor had adopted is no where to be seen ! I 'm guessing they gave it to someone or the poor fella just made his escape ! And the bunnies have turned from adorable to scary ! They aren't the frightened little creatures I thought they were. They stare at me with their huge eyes and dont even stir when I walk past them. I'm the one scurrying away and they are the one's sitting and ogling the scene I put up for them ! Evil bunnies

The rooster in my lawn !

My cat Nina

I've been observing strange patterns in my neighborhood lately. First, my immediate neighbors got their house painted, and then as if by some strange inspiration suddenly three other neighbors decided it was high time to paint and fix their house.And so within a matter of days my peaceful locality has begun to look as if its been trying to reconstruct itself after a tycoon wreckage or an earthquake destruction..There are painters rubbing the house walls with sandpaper , workers cleaning the window tops, overactive neighbors hammering their fences as if their entire survival depended on it and carpenters drilling to the point that I seem to have developed tinnitis ! Imagine three houses around you going through the same process. I'm hoping they don't begin a competition to see whose walls are brighter or whose fence stronger ! Besides its definitely going to make my home look old next to theirs ! But no matter how old, wrecked, shattered or devastated my home looks like I'm not going to have it painted right now and be a part of the renovation mania ! I'd rather appear dull than an obsessed copy cat !

And its not just this renovation thing, I've also recently noted a change in a choice of pets..People have moved from the old fashioned dogs and cats to the uptown style ! ( And no ! I love my cats so no matter how old fashioned I look I'm not letting go of them ). Just a few days back, while on my evening walk, I saw not one but two middle aged ladies walking with a rope tied around a goats neck.It was funny to see the goat following them in the middle of the road ! I mean whats next ? A cow ? ( Keeping ungulates as pets may be seen in the Eid, Eid ul Azha season , but otherwise its pretty rare ).Then again, my neighbor across the road has two pet rabbits who roam around here and there freely , its often a pleasant surprise to see them sitting at my door they are just so adorable..But here's the shocker that happened this morning. I walk out of my front gate to go to college and find a ROOSTER strolling in my lawn !!!!

PS - The rooster is my neighbor's recent choice of pet and I'm assuming it was fed up of the renovation fiasco back at his place and decided to saunter along my old fashioned lawn for some peace..Well at least now there's someone who thinks the way I do !...lol