Perfect timing !

Perfect timing ?? Optical illusion ?? or a double headed crow ?? :-) 

Visions of a Flower !

If you like my photographs, do visit my facebook page. Abialbon Paul | Photography

The Cover under the Wings

The photo here has a lot of emotions and is one of the best I've ever taken. 

We have few hens for pets in our house. The one in the pic laid eggs and after 3 weeks of incubation, 6 cute little chicks hatched out. We keep the mother and the little hens in a separate room outside in our backyard to protect them from stray dogs and eagles. It has been two weeks since the chicks were born when the photo was taken. The mother hen recognizes everyone in our family. It feels safe when we are around or when we feed them. 

The day this photo was taken, my cousins visited us. The moment they peeped into the room to have a look at the chicks, there was commotion in the room. The little ones were scared. They ran to their mother and hid themselves under their wings. You can see them popping their heads out for my photo-shoot ! The mother hen was scared as well. I could see that in her eyes. However she seemed ready for a fight to save her little ones. 

Seeing this, I took a picture and we left the place, leaving them alone.

If you like my picture, do leave a comment below. Thank you.

Is Life but a race?

Is life nothing more than a race?

I feel that life is nothing but a race on a serene roadway.
Many people have already swished past me at their high speeds.

I, on the other hand, am moving at my own sweet pace. I pull my car to a side-road and I escape into the beautiful green fields which the roadway interrupts.  I losen my tie, pull my camera out of my bag and I let myself loose in the green fields. I see mud pathways leading to distant cloud covered mountain peaks. The sun's about to set and the sky puts a display of various hues of the dusky beauty. Fresh breeze blowing on my face, I sit there on the grass waiting for the perfect moment for a perfect photograph.

I wonder where my peers are rushing so fast. To the finish line? So that they can relax after they finish the race?

Well, the finish line never exists. The roadway never ends. You'll be off the road when you're done.

I know that anyone who sits still is a loser. You need to have a sense of direction in your life. You need to have a purpose in your life. But to rush at maddening speed ! It doesn't make full sense to me. Even if I'm on my top speed, I'd enjoy the wind on my face.

Life is not a race. It's a journey. Every single day is as important and as beautiful as the end !
Enjoy it !

My overconfidence got busted ! - Doc confesses - 2

Not even 2 weeks into my internship, I was bubbling with confidence.
Overconfidence, actually.
I was posted in the dept. of Medicine and the residents were cool and they let me do many procedures. And I did them quite well for a first timer. I was already so much interested in medicine since my pre-final year and my confidence levels were sky-rocketing ! To help it all, I was free from migraine attacks.

I felt that Internal Medicine would be the area of my specialization. I actively involved myself in patient care. I tried to do more that what was required of me.

Now there was a 55 year old guy who had a 1.5 x 2 cm liver abscess. A diagnostic tap was required.
"I will get this one done", I declared. 
"This is not the first time I am doing one"

I took the patient to the procedure room and bored into his liver. I did everything correct. You can believe my word. I did do everything perfectly fine. Except for one little thing! The radiologist had surface-marked the abscess with the patient in the sitting position while I did the procedure in the lying position. I did read the radiologist's report but didn't notice this line ! And we know the liver moves significantly between the two positions and the abscess was small. My bad luck, I got 2 drops of thick pus in the aspirate and after that whatever came was dark red stuff.

Believe me, at the sight of blood, I was about to faint. My heart almost broke my rib cage. My useless double agent brain was frightening me more. "You've given your patient a hemoperitoneum, well done doc!", "I think you tore the IVC, your patient will be dead in minutes". Such thoughts came like a tornedo from nowhere and tossed my mind. 

Strangely, on the outside, I was calm. I abandoned the procedure and let the patient lie down. I kept checking his vitals every 5 minutes. The IV access was ready and fluids were all kept ready. I informed the residents.

Fortunately nothing happened to the patient. He was stable and fine. 
But me! I went through all the stages of shock and survived!

In a way, I was happy that this incident took place very early in my internship. My overconfidence got busted earlier and I maintained sanity.

The patient knew I had made a mistake. Being a terminally ill patient, he was already depressed and he didn't bother to make a big fuss out of this. Everyday I spent some time talking to him. We became friends. I came to know that he wasn't really afraid of dying. He and his wife lived alone after their children had left them long ago. His grief was in leaving his wife alone. 

Confessions of a Medico - I

I don't have anything 'interesting' to share on these 'confessions' or 'anonymous proposal' pages that have loomed over several social networking sites recently. But this is what happened to me during my medical undergraduate training.

The day I walked into JIPMER, my medical school, I absolutely had no sense of purpose. I had no great ambitions. I wasn't sure of my choice. I had cleared the eligibility tests for JIPMER, AIEEE and wasn't sure which one to choose. And I hadn't thought of other options ! (I had been selected for the National Biology Olympiad the previous year, which stimulated my interested in Biological sciences. I probably thought learning human physiology and pathology would be great.)

Just few days into my first year and I was sure I had made a wrong decision. I badly wanted to talk with someone. I wanted to throw a tantrum and somehow leave the course. Nothing materialized. I was not performing so well in the exams (Though, I never failed one!). As I was struggling through, something happened to me that changed me a lot ! Friends ! (Not the serial, I mean my real friends).

In the university exams that marked the end of the first year of MBBS, I topped all the three subjects. (Actually top marks in two subjects and 2 marks less than the topper in one). That motivated me to move forward. I moved to second year and loved the para-clinical subjects very well. But little did I realize that I had crossed the point of no return !

Second year went on well. But the third, the fourth and the internship were hell.

There was nothing wrong with the course. I simply did not like it. Further to make things worse, there was always a pain to torment me.

I had this problem of migraine for long. For many, migraine was just another headache. But for me, it was a brainquake that occurred once on a happy week, five to six days on a worse week ! The pain's worse, and the pre & post migraine phases were no better. They made me depressed many a time. They robbed me of every little joy in my heart and strength in my muscles.

I can't describe in full how much I suffered. I wanted to run away in between but was too tired to do so. Somehow, I passed every subject with distinction and got some gold medals too.

I don't say that I would have not suffered if I had chosen some other profession. Every profession has its own troubles. It's the passion for the profession that keeps people going. I found myself having none or too little passion towards this profession. However, in all these, I kept patient care a priority. You can read about some of my patient encounters in this blog.

Till now, I have no clear idea if I have made a wrong choice. But I have no regrets. Because, in the course of my MBBS, I have learnt the following: (and probably much more, I have failed to pen down here!)

1. "If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.", Sir  Isaac Newton said. If I have come this far, it's because I have stood on the shoulders of my friends.

2. If there's a God, I never understand why He won't intervene and change things for the better. But now, after crossing MBBS, I strangely feel so strong. I feel I can tackle anything that comes my way. I have seen the worst and have survived. Probably God has a purpose in everything of which we have little knowledge! Or that is how we should console ourselves!

3. I have learnt to live life. One day at a time. Trying my best to live life to the maximum.

4. What matters to me at the end of the day?
It's not the knowledge gained or the awards collected. It's not the Facebook likes or the no. of blogger page visits. Wisdom. Creativity and innovation. The positive impact I create on the life of people around me. The purity of love in my relationships. These are the things that matter most to me.

5. Happiness is what we create for ourselves. Respect & Trust are what we earn for ourselves. These are certain things that can never come by force or power.

That's all for now ! Happy week ahead !

Thank you, Google Reader, will miss you lots!

Shocked. Sad. Grieved. Disappointing. Frustrated. Angry. Helpless. Hopeless. I was all.

Ha, ha, I am not a drama queen, but I was indeed affected when I read the news. Yesterday, Google announced that it would shut down its Google Reader service from July 2013 as a part of their spring cleaning ritual. 

Now this comes as a big time disappointment for me. I've been using Google Reader to keep sync of all my RSS feeds across my devices. On my laptop, on the web and on my android mobile. I check out around 30-50 articles everyday on various topics: Photography, Android news, Technology, Inspiration, Science, etc. etc. (Now, If I read an article in my mobile, it will be marked read in my laptop also. So i don't have to go through it again. If I save an article for later reading in one device, it will be saved in all!)
Thankfully there are many other RSS readers out there. But where will I find one which will keep me synced across all the platforms I use and one which I will love? 

There has been a varied response in the internet media about this decision of Google. Some people just didn't bother. But most of them, who found it useful like me, got angry and frustrated. Some very disappointed. 
I am a little disappointed too. But still, it was a totally free service. So no one can complain, I feel. And I am so thankful to Google for giving us Google Reader till now. Will miss it a lot when it's gone.