I am a final year student now !! It feels so good to say it, I could say it all day long. It feels mature, more senior, more respectful. 4th year finals were really the exams I was dreading badly, they were tiring and tough but hey they're over and I passed, all is well that end well, right ?

Talking about the latest buzz in Pakistan, ( no not politics, I really keep all that trash away from this space), is the latest offering from the entertainment industry - Humsafar. Thats the name for a drama that has gripped almost everyone. I'm really not that into it, but I have watched a few episodes. It all started when all the girls started talking about it, I thought it was just a girlish infatuation, but soon middle aged ladies were talking about it, and I thought oh heck ladies watch dramas all the time, but what came as a honest surprise was when I noticed guys talking about it on social networks so that proved my perception of it having a female appealing mushiness wrong.

The two lead characters, Fawad Afzal Khan and Mahira Khan

The drama is based on a novel and revolves around three characters who battle fate, conspiracies, love and hate which ties them together and breaks them apart. Its pretty addicting and the wonderful soundtrack, acting and screenplay give it that extra something which has taken to the top of the charts ! Here's the OST, 

I'm flying !

A looot of things have happened recently, From being chased down the street by a goose to sleeping 2.5 hours in 28hours !!... My exams ended yesterday, with the ophthalmology grand finale ! I dont exactly hate ophthalmology but I'm not a huge fan of it either. Its theoretical exam at the start of this month was okay but I was totally dreading the clinical exam, yesterday. The adrenaline in my system kept me awake all night before the exam day and thats how I ended with just 2.5 hours of sleep in 28 hours. But thank God the exam went fairly well and one of the examiners even mentioned that I would make a good ophthalmologist and I should really consider it as a field of speciality. For a second my reaction was " wow ! does he really mean me ?? Is he out of his mind !" :D

Today my friends and I went to watch Harry Potter.. It was epic ! It felt good and sad at the same time that something that was such a phenomenal part of my childhood/teens came to an end. It would've been cool if J.K Rowling continued the series again but I think that would just make the whole 'Harry Potter' thing lose its charm.

And as for me being chased down the street by a goose. Yes, that was hilarious, but I wont be giving you the opportunity to laugh over me this time.. So, that's me signing off :)

P.S - The goose story is yet to come. Keep visiting !

So so so ...

I rock climbed !!No not on a rocky mountain but a less adventurous artificial thing they have to make people like me get a feel of it :D I didnt reach upto the top but I did something I had always wanted to do, drop back to the ground hanging by suspensions, lame I know, but thats the part I like best about rock climbing :D I would have made it to the top had I not started with a drained off energy level. But anyways, I did make it more than half way through :)

2nd July is the big day !! The day the exams start ( Yeah exam days are the only days I call big in my life, thats what medical college has turned me into ) So anyway its less then a month, and for some reason I'm still not in the study gear. Its probably because I've gotten bored of the entire exam phenomena ! I mean seriously just how many frickin exams am I supposed to take in this life time ? So I've figured, for this semester I'll just play like a pro soccer player playing in his own backyard and save my energy and all those super duper skills for the boards and all :)

Left or right ? Up or down ?

You know what I'm stuck with ?? I'm stuck with 11 chapters of systemic pathology, a task that seems endless and then there's community medicine that I just cant get myself to read regularly because the enormity of pathology in my mind just seems to overshadow the importance of community medicine..Uggh

There's an endless list of friends, family, relatives and neighbours that I need to please and that leaves very little time to study, that's the problem with living in closely knit societies like ours, but hey it has its own advantages, like free food :D a shoulder to lean on and an ever abundant source of support, so basically its all about managing my time ( which I need to do more appropriately now, since we're fast approaching our finals date ).

One of the things worth mentioning that has happened lately is a major shift in my plans. I've decided to switch priorities, switch from making neurology my best choice to to IM ( Internal Medicine). And I'm very whimsical and scared of doing it, beacuse I've been in love with neurology for the past , I dont know, 7 years ! and now I realize I might not be as interested in it as I thought I'd be and the feeling sucks. It feels like stepping out of a failed relationship, a relationship that you thought was perfect until you simply lost interest but are still too clingy to let go of the idea of being in a relationship ( Yeah, too complicated) . So just to make things a little less simple I've decided to act like some divorcee to step into a bar and ' explore other options ' ( No I'm a practising muslim and I dont go to bars in real life, in case it got you wondering ). So, I've added more possibilities on my list , they're IM  ( difficult to get in and needs high scores ), Neurology ( I still see hope in it ) and paeds ( not exactly my thing but still a good choice).

Attending a seminar on ' The long road to residency' just made me question my determination and and ability to go through those lengthy application procedures. A point came when I thought I'd rather just go into R & D and do some probably underpaid but less hectic work and forego the hassle. But you see I just cant picture myself not attending to patients or not doing a hospital job. Being a doctor for me meant , interacting with patients and treating diseases ! Its just so difficult to change your own opinion about your own choices that you once so passionately made..

My mom says that I should take things one step at a time and focus on my efforts right now, I think thats what I should be doing

The ophthalmology scare !

So there I was studying about anterior blepharitis, chalazion and hordeolum 5 mins ago when I slammed the book shut and turned on a new tab with blogger to get my eyes off the images of stye on Google images ! Studying ophthalmology gives me the creeps, I'm ultra sensitive about the eye, observing it closely and the look of the fleshy interior lid margins set my heart on gallops and the mere discussion of cases on eye trauma paints such a horrid picture into my imagination that it makes my ears ring ! I bunked all the classes when we were supposed to attend and observe eye surgeries simply because I knew I wouldn't be able to stand it.

Everyone has their own share of phobias and weaknesses I guess, attending anatomy dissestions, surgeries and the sight of blood have never been a problem with me but the EYE drives me insane. I hope studying about it for four months will improve my tolerance !!

Of maayuns, birthdays, treats and surprises

I know most of you consider that I've really lost my touch at blogging or have simply lost interest but trust me , thats not it..It seems the past two weeks were the most heavily scheduled weeks of my life, commitments that need to be kept, promises that had to be fulfilled, tests that had to be taken and most importantly tonnes of parties that HAD to be attended...here's how my week passed...

Sunday - Rubab's birthday surprise
               Dido's sis maayun*
Monday - Shi's birthday and a trip to Sea View
Tuesday - Rub's and Shi's birthday treat at Arizona Grill
Wednesday - Dinner with family
Thursday -  Bake Sale
Friday - Dido's sister's wedding
Saturday - Azz's sister's engagement
Sunday - BBQ at at a family friends' home
Monday - Ward test
                 RD's cousin's wedding

and amidst all that I had to fit in my studies too. !!! .And wait did I tell you guys how deceptive Seniors can be ? Most of the people I know rely heavily on the senior's opinion's, pattern's and  choices for their own study planning but for some adamant reasons I've always made my own opinions and made choices that suited my own style. I never just take the senior's word for everything, they're not always right. For instance, there was this senior back when I was in third year who'd scare me by telling how tough Forensic medicine is, how you have to take down notes of everything the professor says and also that no matter how hard you study you will always get a mediocre score, well AAAAINN it never happened that way, I scored the highest in it and found that the easiest exam was of Forensic medicine !! I was also told by some people that the 4th year of medical college is the easiest, 'you could even get married if you want too, it wont be a problem to handle the wedding and studies at the same time' , was what I was told ! but heck no, I dont think its that easy. We have a whole lot of systemic pathology this semester along with Ophthalmology and Community Medicine/Public Health, doesnt look all that simple to me..And oh btw I'm also trying to form an opinion on Community medicine which I heard one senior say was the toughest subject she ever came across ( I so NOT think so )

MK's beautiful braid with a paranda and flowers at dido's sis's maayun

when we bunked to sea view

RD's cousin - the bride

*maayun - The event based on the theme color , yellow. It traditionally involves applying Ubtan ( a yellow coloured skin conditioner made by herbs and spices) to the bride, now merely a superficial ceremony. It is practiced in some families and is not a mandatory part of the wedding

Summer time is lawn time !

Iits almost the time of the year to wear Lawn again, and the city is filled with billboards and hoardings with advertisements of models in dresses made of flashy lawn prints tempting enough to actually visit their lawn exhibitions. So what is lawn ? its a very light cotton-ish fabric that is ideal for the summers, especially for the hot , humid and dreaded summers of Karachi. Just yesterday we planned of going to Nadya Hussain's ( a model ) lawn exhibit, so after college uj, rubber, shee and I went to the Pearl Continental Hotel, where the exhibition was supposed to be,  but it was only after we got there that Shee reminded us that the exhibit was at actually at Marriott ! but there was another exhibit at PC, Yasir Waheed's and since Yasir Waheed is a trusted name in lawn brands we decided we to go ahead and make our visit of use. It was the last day of exhibition and most of the good prints were already sold out but I bought a few for my mom and myself nevertheless..

Nomi Ansari

 Nomi Ansari is a famous dress designer but its the first time that he's introducing his own line of lawn prints, I'm really looking forward to his exhibition, its in the third week of March, I just hope the prices are affordable !

Nadya Hussain

Her line of lawn prints were the ones we wanted to see that day but instead ended up at the one below, but I'm glad we did because I later read and heard comments that the fabric wasn't very upto the mark and the designs weren't very adequate either.

The place where we landed !

 The next post would be a guest post ! The first in the history of this blog :) so stay tuned :)

Stroke stroke stroke stroke stroke stroke

Yeah okay I know I swore I wouldn't do an elective this time and I was pretty adamant about it the whole  past month but I was left with no better option last week when our vacations got extended for almost three weeks (unexpectedly) Woohoo !! but oh wait that news brought some alarming change of plans and uncertainities.

1 - If the vacations get extended our next exams might just get a little postponed too, so that means I would probably not get vacations in the right time of summer to meet my relatives and that meant urgent shift in travel plans. (sounds complicated right ?)

2 - Sitting at home for a month did not sound so bad but sitting back for around 2 months seemed like such a wastage of time.

3 - I automatically know I've had enough of domesticities when I start getting into disagreements with people at home. It means its time to step out.

So keeping reason number 2 and 3 in mind I decided it would do me good if I did something productive and made use of my time. And so with an entire team of friends I filled up a form, paid the fee and officially started the elective.Most of my friends opted for cardiology but Huz and I chose the neurology dept.Neurology has been like THE most fascinating subject for me since O'levels ( I was 15 then), I'd watch videos, google stuff and sneak into my dad's books for everything that would reveal a little more about the brain. I did an elective at Civil Hospital last year and the neuro patients there were really interesting and diverse, the doc was an overexcited individual too who'd teach with full passion and zeal but things at this hospital are different. This hospital caters to the middle and upper middle class unlike Civil hospital which caters mostly to the lower class ( Its a public sector hospital with no consultation fee etc) so obviously the kind of patients are different and and the presenting complaints are different too. 80% of the patients here are stroke patients and so that gets kind of monotonous and I've begun to lose interest it seems.

Its such a dilemma to be in love with something for over 6 years and then suddenly realise it might not be all what it seemed. I'm doubting my choice. I love neurology, I love reading about all its related diseases but the interesting cases are so far and few apart in clinical practice...The only good thing is that I'm not the only one feeling the same way. Huz who's also doing his elective with me in neuro has been complaining about the same thing lately. I hope this elective leaves me with opportunities and learning instead of doubts and dilemmas !

Image courtesy - Fooksie.com

La la la laaaa

Who just got over with the semester exams ? Who would nt have to study Forensic Medicine ever again ? Who is now a 4th year student ? Who has a month long vacation ?...Me ME mE me Meee

I just got my life back, it had been squashed in between the pages of my heavy text books just like a shriveled rose which serves as a reminder of the beauty, fragnance and life it once carried. It was one and a half month of pure and intense studies but Not anymore !! I wont be doing any elective rotations this vacation so that means one month of Total Bliss !! The last time I had a vacation was back in July 2009 , in Dec 2009 I did it an elective in Civil Hospital and in July this year , I did one at Tabba Heart Institute so this time I decided to drop the idea of doing any hospital stuff at all , sit back and enjoy the winters. Come on I deserve a break ! Dont I ?  But nevertheless I'll try and study for the board exams this December.

Here's a list of stuff I'm planning to do

1- Sleep
2- Read a few novels.
3 - Learn fabric painting
4 - Watch a few Korean dramas
5- Catch up with all the Pakistani dramas I had been missing.
6 - Watch atleast a dozen movies :)
7 - Do ibadat (worship)
8 - Try baking a few new cakes that I'm dying to try out.
9- Arrange my cupboard before it explodes and buries me underneath all my clothes.
10 - Design and set my room. I couldn't even put up the frames and blinds after the painting job got done last month.
11 - Groom my driving skills ! ( Yes, I embarssingly admit that I suck at driving ! )
12 - Help my parents with the daily chores, they did so much for me during the exams. Dad used to make me tea and dear mommy ironed my clothes. I acted like such a spoiled princess. They do so much for me , its high time I acted like a big girl. Love them <3
13 - Gardening !

and I'm sure I have lots of other things too, I just too excited to think of more right now..And oh, yes, since I'm back to blogging in full groove I'm sure you'll be hearing me blab more often  ;)

3 down 3 more to go !

I just got back from my last theory final ! It was supposed to be on Saturday but then all of a sudden, at around 9 pm on Friday night all universities of the province Sindh were declared off on account of Sindh Cultural day !! The government had this day planned for a long time but no one knew universities would be off.  But then again this is Pakistan and weirdities like this aren't very rare. But anyway , all my university mates went about dancing on the bed and air guitar-ing just as soon as the announcement was made, I mean hey who wouldn't like an extra day of revision ?! Well except the nerds who were in top form to give the exam already !

I still have my OSPEs ( Objective Structured Practical Examination) which start on the 9th. I have Pathology on 9th, Pharmacology on 11th and Forensic Medicine on 13th. I hope it goes just as good as the theory or better :)

Die Pharma die - ( The most common fb status update among my college fellows these days)

So I finally got some time to post in between ! weee ! Sitting on my laptop for the little while I spend eating my breakfast seems such a blessing after all the time I spend crammed up in my room with books all over. Books, books and books thats all life is right now. PHARMACOLOGY is a major pain right now. Memorizing the names of around 200 drugs, ( those used for their actions in the CNS, endocrine system, gastrointestinal system, anticancer drugs,NSAIDs and antiviral, anti fungal and anti heliminthic drugs !!!) along with their Side effects, mechanism of action, contra indications etc is just too much :(

Pathology is comparitively better.I keep mixing the life cycles of parasites in the microbiology section, but it still isnt that bad.( Dont forget P.Falciparum causes black water fever and L.Donovani causes black sickness)..

Forensic medicine is brutal and gruesome as ever, one of the things we're supposed to study about this semester is the postmortem examination of torture injuries ! I swear I havent felt as sick in any class before as I did in that class. The lecturer kept telling us of the various methods that are often used to torture people in prisons etc and all I kept doing the entire time was close my ears, think of other stuff, look to the ceiling or make faces. It was one majorly painful class, no wonder the attendance was low, I mean who'd sit in a class like that !

Bored ?? Yeah you better be, cuz I'm bored too , but here's something to lighten you up , a plate of delicious, sweet Gulab Jamun's !!!

Courtesy - google images

Exam woes and chores

picture courtesy -  fotolia.com

I have my final exams of this semester in less than a month. These exams would mean getting over with third year and moving on to fourth. We have five years of medical education in Pakistan so I'd be left with just two more years InshAllah ( God willing ). Please pray that I make it through these exams alive because right now I seem to be dangling from the edge of the cliff called sanity, I'm juggling with studies, house renovation ( extra work) and a sick mom (extra extra work) so that should also explain why I haven't been posting as much, replying to comments, or even commenting on your blog :(. This trend might continue till the mid of December but I assure you I will be back with a bang and make up for it ( I have a loooot of ideas on my evil head ) when I have a little more free time :)

The doc in the top gear !!

Something is seriously wrong with me. I havent slept properly in days. Its not like I dont feel sleepy, I feel sleepy to the point I have to slam my book shut and go slump in the bed, but then I lost control, its like an avalanche of thoughts comes tumbling down from all directions. I try to focus and concentrate on sleeping but I fail at blocking those utterly random, bizarre thoughts and imaginary converations out of my head. It drives me nuts, tossing and tumbling with the bedsheets all night tired and desperate to fall asleep. It takes me atleast 2 and a half to 3 hours before dear sleep finally sets in.

On a lighter note, we had our ward test today.Our ward tests are designed to evaluate our clinical skills that we learn through our monthly rotation in each ward. We're supposed to spend a fixed time (5-10mins) on each patient performing a task that we're told to do by a doctor who stands by observes us and grades us. There are usually 5 - 7 patients that we're supposed to deal with.The test we had today was for the Medical ward we had attended  in August under Dr.M. This test was scheduled to take place in the end of August but the doctors who had to take our test had left for medical camps in the flooded areas so the test had been postponed. But this is nt the end of story , another group pf medical students who attended this ward in June, couldnt take their test either, and then there was another group which is currently posted there and was taking the test too. So what we had in the medical ward today was a huge crowd of almost 60 medical students and a bunch of flabbergasted patients. The inviligators responsible for organizing our test seemed baffled and bewildred trying to work out a plan to test all of us at once on the limited number of patients within a limited time of 2 hours !!...

And so the result was a hopscotch of a test !! The time we were supposed to spend on one patient was reduced to around two minutes. As soon as the test began there were stethoscopes flying in the air, falling files, whining patients, amused attendants, and lab coats whizzing by as poor us medical students ran wildly from one patient to another bumping into each other and everything that came in our way.I had to fumble with the blood pressure apparatus as I tried to wrap it around a patient's arm with trembling hands (there was too little time for god sake !) The doctors who were examining us seemed distressed and perturbed too. There was a doctor with one of the patients today, who asked me to palpate the liver, and then answer his questions, when I was done palpating the liver, he began his question, the poor guy was just half way through his own question when the time got over,  I paused to look at the inviligator in the distance gesturing me to move and then turned to see the doctor who still had his mouth open but speechless, "should I go ?" I asked him and all he could utter was "thats the best thing to do". I was done with all 5 patients within 10 minutes and was standing outside the ward , still figuring out what had happened inside and whether I had just taken a test or had been in reality show like Top Chef, or Fear factor ! It sure would be amsuing to have reality show based on doctors and having them do stuff on cam in limited time !! (Gives me the shivers)

Whats it gonna be ?

The last ward we had was the Medical ward. And it was the ward I enjoyed the most at. There was so much to learn and see. The credit goes to Dr.M ( our incharge), she was such a considerate and soft spoken lady unlike Dr.Dragon in the gynae ward who kept us running around on our toes and searching for shelter whenever she appeared. Dr. M always made an extra effort to make us understand what she taught and I could sense the patients liked her too ( her timely smiles and simple kind gestures must have meant a lot to them).

So I think I'm gonna re-write my liking priority for specialisation

1 - Neurology ( This first hasn't changed in 5 years !)
2- Internal Medicine
3 - Radiology
4- Opthalmology ( even though I really like the theoretical part of Opthalmology, I dont think I'll be able to find the guts to operate on eye, so that renders it pretty much useless ).

and the last on the list shall be Gynaecology ! Its dirty business I tell ya !!

Thats Huzair and Hunain making the best pretense of being serious in the Opthalmology ward ! :p

Tabba times

TABBA !!! Yes the Tabba heart Institute has been giving me a good time this summer.There's so much to learn and so much to see, plus we get free lunch coupons everyday ! Now free food can take me anywhere,  anytime, but seriously Tabba is fun. Especially since my friends are there too and I tell you , getting the same summer internship as your friends is pure luck !

We're being posted in each dept for a week. This week I've been able to see Thallium scans, ECHOs etc but the most interesting one was watching an angiography. We had to wear Lead jackets and lead collars to protect our body and our dear old thyroid which keeps us running in a modest manner ( you dont wanna go obese, lethargic and sleepy all the time, do you ?)..The doctors there are co operative too, well not exactly as co operative as I'd want them too but they still make sure we understand whats going on..

The best part of being at Tabba is that the mall is just at a 5 min drive so we easily escape to that delightful zone of sales and sundaes whenever we're free :)...And oh yeah I've some new plans that I'm sure all of you will love. But you'll have to wait for about three more days..Till then ...Allah Hafiz :)

Its monsoon/vacations/internship time !

Thats us on the last day of college before vacations !

Since the time I opened my eyes to date, the month of  July has always been a vacation for me, but not this time ! Well, technically it is since we're off from college but I'm doing an internship at the Tabba Institute of Heart diseases, at about a 20 minutes drive from home so it isn't a vacation in the true sense. Gladly Shirin, Huzair and Hunain are interning too and so I can spend more time with them during the vacations. I'll be posting more details about the Cardiology experience after a few days.

As for now I'm relieved that I'm done with the rotation in the Opthalmology ward, eye isn't particularly my area of interest but I really liked the rotation experience because I seemed to know a lot about eye diseases without actually studying about them and was able to participate in the discussions in the ward and amaze myself with the stuff I'd come up with. I mean seriously, I picked up the book on Eye just a day before the ward test and yet I think I did well in it. I just got a little confused over the differential diagnosis of leukcoria (an abnormal white reflection from the eye) in the start but I was able to cover it swiftly with other stuff that supposedly impressed the examiner.

Other than that , life's good , its almost monsoon season so we have a thick cloud cover every now and then , it seems like it'd rain but it doesn't, we gave Huzair his birthday present in advance since we weren't sure we'd be able to meet up with him during the vactions, its an Mp3 player that we bought with a combined contribution from all his friends, he seemed to like it a lot :). I have a wedding to attend this Wednesday and I cant wait to wear the black dress I'm dying to put on, I just got it back from the tailor after getting it stitched today..And oh yeah ! How could I forget, we got our transcripts of the 5th semester and I scored a GPA 3.70, its lesser than my previous score but I'm happy and thankful to God that I passed ..So much for the random updates I'll be back with more...

Do you have a heart ?

I closed my eyes and turned my face as the teacher demonstrated the dissection of a frog for some yet another experimental procedure.This was n't the first time I was watching an animal being dissected,infact I have performed dissections on cadavers too, but the sight of the poor, living, frog kicking its legs in despair and writhing in agony as it is malhandled while being transferred from tank to tank before being anesthetized is just too much to watch. It once happened that a frog my friend was dissecting regained conciousness in mid dissection and started kicking its legs,splashing water from the dissection dish all over the place !!!!

Teachers and scientists argue that the dissections are for an educational purpose and that " the use of a few little animals provides us with the knowledge to save the lives of many" but I still feel that the act of using alive organisms for dissections is inhuman and cruel.What possible crime or sin have those poor 'lower class' of living organisms done to deserve being split open or experimented upon ? Does being born with far greater intellect and curiosity than those creatures give man the right to use them for its most inhuman desires ? They are the creations of God as equally as we are.

Flipping through the pages of any Textbook of Physiology,Kinesiology, toxicology etc you will find numerous examples and cases where dogs are given pain stimulants, a tachycardia is induced,viruses are injected or even kidneys are clamped !. Yes, I am a medical student and I know that these experiments have given us valuable treasures of information and knowledge that has helped in the progress of Science and sparked a plethora of ground breaking revelations and researches.But thats not it , over the centuries man has grown to be sadistic.The lust for superiority in knowledge has overshadowed and taken over his more compassionate side.What his 'experimental subjects',as scientists say, go through to satiate their appetite for knowledge is lesser of their concerns and they now dissect, operate,slash, electrocute,imprison and toxicate animals without even the slightest trace of remorse or compunction.

Today man is using animals, next it may start trading the poor, unprivileged cast of people to experiment upon!! for lust has no end, it just grows indefinitely !!

This post was originally posted on my other blog which I'm planning to close down ....

The gate opens, and out walks Najwa !

The world seemed like a changed place after I stepped out of the examination hall ! The winds felt cooler, the trees were greener, the birds were chirpier and even the naggy guard at the gate felt like such an angel !! My minding was whirling into the possibilities of  having a good eight hours sleep, looking at myself in the mirror , good food and talking to my mom to my hearts content ! Ummm no I havent been back from serving a sentence in prison, really no ! I just got back after taking my last exam of this semester :) And boy was it a tough semester, I had to put myself into self exile to study, could'nt even get enough sleep ! And I'm not exaggerating, during the viva today , the examiner actually asked me if I had a normal LFT ( Liver Function test) because my eyes looked yellow and jaundicised to him !!( Yikes , hey, wait, readers please dont run away , I assure you I'm not suffering from Hepatitis and am neither a source of any other contagious disease ! You can all come back now ! ) My eyes turn yellowish whenever I'm exhausted but it was the first time someone commented that way , I must have been fatigued for sure !  But anyways enough of the exam talk, there's a lot more to yak yak about.

The Cyclone ' Phet ' is on its way to strike Karachi, there've been warnings and alerts splashing across TV screens , newspapers and the radio for the past three days or so !  According to the latest news it might just strike sometime in the evening today or tomorrow morning. All the ships have been docked safe, the advertisements on the bill boards across Karachi have been brought down to make them stable to face the winds , mommy dearest has cleaned all the possible water outlets we have in the house and my nani (grandma) has her old energizer torch all set and functional !! And well all I've done is get my laptop fully charged !...Jokes apart , I hope the cyclone doesn't cause much damage and my fellow Karachites are all saved from all sorts of casualties !

 A picture as the cyclone takes aim at Oman before striking Karachi !

   

Solving mysteries ! ( Reading about them actually !)

Woof ! I just spent the past hour gazing at the most ridiculously gross pictures while preparing for my Forensic medicine exam. All the way from pictures of burn victims to cases of self amputations, homicidal electrocutions and what not. If it wasn't for the intensity of their heart scratching content, I'd put them up here to prove my point.

We have forensic medicine as a subject in 3rd year of med school. Now this was a field that had always fascinated me, even as a child, I mean thats what I saw the cool cops doing on TV, and thats how the most intriguing of mysteries got solved on CSI. So I was kinda awe-inspired by the aspect of mystery solving. But now when I'm supposed to study it as a subject, I realise how its not as amazing as it seems on TV.

On of the major things I find horrible in this field are the dead bodies and the gruesome condition they are in sometimes. Thank God we're not made to take classes in the mortuary and have to study mostly by pictures and online visual aid. But nevertheless, studying about some fascinating criminal cases and how forensic medicine helps to solve them is surely fascinating. For instance there was this case where a man was accused of killing three of his wives ( one after the other) who all happened to be rich. During the criminal investigation traces of arsenic were found in the coffins of all three of the wives (on exhumation) and the man was pronounced guilty and hanged. But years later a medical student not satisfied with the verdict did an investigation on his own and found that the arsenic in the coffins had actually sept in from the soil around the graves which had high natural arsenic levels !!!

And another case of a car crash where the driver ( a woman) had died. It was a clear case of an accident but during investigation the police found the keys in the ignition in the off position, and the apparently innocent car accident turned into a case of murder !!

Fascinating eh ? I hope it wasn't too intense. Studying all this has made me a little tough hearted but I've tried to keep the content moderate..Please let me know if it isn't. I'm off to sleep now ( I hope I dont get nightmares !)

I'm back !

God, my eyes are burning ! But there's no way I'm stopping from staring at my little laptop. My poor little lap pet, that I just couldn't attend to for the past two weeks !... Exams, yes of course, what other reason can a medical student give for his/her miserable episodes in life. We had our 5th semester exams and I just back after taking the pathology exam. OSPE's ( Objective structured Practical exams) are due next week and then Insh'Allah ( God Willing) I'll be done with the 5th semester for good..!!

The exams were okay but I dont think I can describe them well. Pharmacology was something I'd dreaded a lot, and worked really hard for in the past four months and I did okay in it.Forensic Medicine bothered me the least, I worked the least for it and yet I think I did well in it. And the pathology,microbiology,immunology combination was something I'd really loved all this time but ended up hating it right before the day of exam. I think the sudden 11th hour shift was because all this time I'd been fretting over all the units of drugs we had in pharmacology ( Drugs for the Cardiovascular system, Respiratory system, Autonomic nervous system, smooth muscles,and  Antibacterials is a looot I tell you) and never noticed that General Pathology, General and Clinical bacteriology and Immunology is pretty extensive too ! But anyways, I worked hard and that's what counts. I'm sure Allah will give me a good result.

Other then the exam frenzy, facebook has been banned it Pakistan ! Just because a group of individuals thought of drawing up cartoons of my beloved Prophet and make fun of him on facebook. I'm not against any freedom of speech, thought or expression but I think others sentiments should not be hurt in the way. But any ways lets just hope things change and everyone learns to respect everyone else.