The Medical Residency Interview: Part I

It has been months preparing and passing the licensing step examinations (USMLE), volunteering as an observer/extern, completing your research projects, trying to get them published and applying to as many programs. But, the hard work isn't done yet.  There's one important penultimate hurdle to pass through. The Medical Residency Interview. This story remains, more or less the same, for all international medical graduates applying to US residency programs every year.

You know it has started as Mr. Ben White (a medical blogger) mentioned in his blog about residency interviews as ' Your heart almost skips a beat when you hear the nudge of every e-mail on your smartphone' and halts for a while when the e-mail is from noreply@aamc.org. No matter how pleasant the outside weather is during the fall, you aren't much thrilled. You wake up every morning expecting mails from aamc.org and your excitement knows no bounds when it's an invite from your applied program. It's equally depressing when you receive rejections. You develop an obsession and compulsion to check in to your amc account every now and then. And you hate it on weekends as, you won't be receiving any e-mails for the next 2 days.

You  hook yourself on to the popular forums on the internet to see how your contemporaries are doing, multiple times throughout the day. And as the famous old saying goes; 'It's bad when you fail but it's worse when you fail and your colleagues succeed'. You tend to compare your credentials with them and wonder why you were selected/rejected and the vice versa. Not to mention, the multiple times you open up your aamc account and check in the message box to see for any occult messages. I feel, even the keypads on your laptops know when they are going to get pressed and for how often.

So, finally you get some invites. Now starts the real movie. You search about the program online, read every details about it, how it's doing and how do residents feel about the program. You prepare for interviews with all the available resources, with your friends, family members or even alone, speaking out loud to yourself, if no one's available. You try making your handshake stronger. You improvise your american english communication skills. You buy a new suit, maybe a tie or shoe or whatever, personal belonging that you feel need to optimise. You try to cluster your interviews geographically, though they may cause you to schedule them days in a row. You call your friend living in the City, whom you have/haven't met for years, or their friends or long distant relatives just to save some valuable dollars. Your research on google map is so extensive, you might even recollect the directions even without the smartphone or with your eyes closed. You find the cheapest or most affordable means to reach your destination city and finally reach there. Tomorrow is your 'the' day. You set up multiple alarms, ask your every relative or close friends to call and make sure you wake up on time. In my case, i'd ask my wife to call me and wake me up from thousands of miles away. I just don't trust my smartphone or clock alarms. I don't trust myself on waking up in the morning, ever.

'End of Part -I' 

Who's the doctor here? Eva Carneiro Vs Managerial monopoly!!

(Image Source: www.telegraph.co.uk)

Common sense first.
If a player gets injured in the ground and calls for help, what would be the most appropriate response?
Who'd be the most appropriate person to go for help?
And how long should the help and consultation continued?

The answers seem pretty obvious.

Unless, you are the manager of a defending champion, who's lagging behind by a goal against a middle tier club in the elite Barclays premier league, in the stoppage time.

Even if that were the case, 9 in 10 managers, wouldn't have complained. After all, the more important and appropriate issue would be to address and physical injury. No goal, no points and no titles are more important than health, well-being or at extremes, life. That's why there's been growing concerns about the injuries incurred during very physical game like football.

When Eden Hazzard (the messiah of Chelsea, perhaps) got injured in a premier league game, Dr. Carneiro and her team rightfully addressed the issue by approaching the player and providing symptomatic treatment. She did not care about what the scoreline was or how that'd affect the game, which is how every team doctor should have done or expects to do. The issue was rightfully resolved, until after the manager of the loosing team started witch-hunting and blamed the physio doctor and her team for wasting time and their ultimate defeat.

What can be more ironical than that?

To make matters worse, the physio team were barred from attending any of the first team's training sessions etc.. Frustration after defeat is a naturally explainable phenomena however, the reactions to failure must have limits.

If, even in the 21st century, in a country like England, where educated professional women in such elite clubs face such horrible aftermaths, there is something very grossly wrong.

Unfortunately, the FA remained silent on this issue. Whether or not, to intervene was within FA's jurisdiction is a separate question, but we, as global citizens, who constantly chatter and advocate about human rights and gender equalities, how can we remain tight lipped about this gross injustice?

I'm with you Dr. Carneiro and i hope, all of global soccer fans are as well.

Wandering around Harvard

As a first time visitor to Boston, there were only a couple of things i had heard of prior:

1. The Boston Tea Party

2. Harvard University

Situated on the uber north east of the United States on the margins of the Atlantic ocean, Boston is a beautiful city, more like an old european town: still thriving on its cultural inheritance from its old european ancestry.

I started my tour of Boston from the historic 'Freedom Trail'; the beginning of the revolution of 1773 in defiance of the Tea act. Not particularly being much of a historian, didn't walk the whole trail though.

My next step would be definitely Cambridge, the street where Harvard University is located. Located on the Harvard Square, with old historic campus and occasional lush green spaces between buildings, it's more of an 'Old School' rather than some fancy place you might imagine.

What to do in Harvard if you are not a graduate or an alumni? The simplest and most effective means would be to pay homage to the lord #JohnHarvard, who laid the foundation of one of the most pioneering academic and research oriented institute around the globe. Besides, you never know the aura might just rub on you.

Ve-ri-tas, or the source of knowledge or truth, derived from an ancient greek goddess, is on the logo of their flag.

Your roaming around wouldn't be complete unless you walk around the busy Harvard Square and the many restaurants, book shops and tea and coffee shops around. If you're a lover of music, you'd find a lot of financially broke artists playing some good music in here.

And, thus i ended my pilgrimage paying a visit to one of the book shops around! For connoisseurs of academics and research, one of the highly recommended pilgrimage sites, i'd say.

Saint Louis: The Beautiful City of Cardinals!!!

There's something about this place, that'll make you a cardinal !!! 

Get into a small space-shuttle  climb up on the arch. Reach the top of  the tallest monument in the United States and look at the mortal beings below.

It's not bad even when you are down to earth.

The idea of one man's brain is now an icon of design.

Imagine being on the top of the tallest monument in the United States and watch the home team play in their own stadium amidst all the roar. St. Louis Cardinals Vs Chicago Cubs, at the Busch Stadium. View from the Gateway Arch, St. Louis.

Ballpark village: one of the must go , must be places in Downtown, the atmosphere, the supporters and a chilled Budweiser.

For the connoisseur of arts and spirituality, the Cathedral Basilica is one that sparkles with gold like glitter.

Thank me for this one, the amazing skyline view from across the Missisipi. The darker it is, the better it gets.

Chicago Diaries

First things first. 

Apply a thick layer of moisturizer on all your exposed body parts, wear a windcheater, show-off your best sunglasses and grab some water: This is Chicago, folks - 'The Windy City': dries and dehydrates you before you realize. 

Trust me, no other place lives up-to the expectations of its name as this one. 

So, what's the first thing people will tell you to do when you're here?

Go to the top of the once world's once tallest building and enjoy the view. 

Ask me and i'll tell you, don't follow the cliche. It's not just worth it. 

After spending almost 3-4 hours on queue before reaching the top in 40 damn seconds, allowed only a couple of minutes on the glass floor on the top, it's not worth 20$ and 5 hours of your precious holiday time. Having said that, i however committed it and that's the view from the top. 

 The more better options would rather be to stroll along the river-walk or on the beach overlying lake michigan. For the outdoor lovers, nothing could beat the warm sunshine, blue waters and cool breeze on the banks of lake Michigan.

Lake Michigan is the Windy City's eternal lover, always besides.

To take even better views of the windy city, i'd also recommend visiting the Adler planetarium and having a fine dining at  the restaurant on the topmost floor of Hancock tower in downtown Chicago.

It'd be an injustice if i ended this blog here because there's much more to this beautiful city than what i've just shared and i'd be adding more in the times to come. 

King's Speech

(Image Source: www.imdb.com)

 A temperate monsoon evening, with 'load shedding holiday' must have brought some delights to much of Kathmanduities. An unrelated but yet anticipated event was the interview with our former King that was to be broadcasted at nine. Having myself watched the sixty minutes interview, i wondered what could a layman audience, like me, with extremely liberal political views make out of the royal interview?

(Image Source: www.ekantipur.com)

The impression of a King, although dethroned, was expected to be a heroic figure, with clarity and command of speech, a clinging royal aura and to make a point, without being unduly controversial. It did not turn out completely as per the expectations, probably some part due to poor versed nepali spoken language of our former King. The ambiguity of answers by the King and the incompetence on the interviewer's part to extract the much awaited, occult scoops made the program, but a dull one. Analysts would definitely make a lot of verdicts and extrapolations about the dialogue, but personally for me, it probably was a dull and anticlimatic phenomenon.Sometimes , i wonder if our country are at scarce of good speaking men who have the capacity to spellbound the listener. Laymen, like us remained unchanted and  unthrilled!!!

Confessions of a Seeker

And when things have begun to make sense slowly, with each passing moment I wonder if it is the right time (destiny; karma) or the incessant perserverance, that is the key to unlock the eternal truth of existence , to discover the light to self-awareness, to unravel the mysteries of divinity and to connect to our personal and supreme self.

Having lived almost about half the life expectancy of an average person, it sometimes fills me with utter despair, deep restlessness and helplessness to find myself in the middle of nowhere. It is like, my conscience is oscillating like a pendulum, my soul is trapped in the state of limbo in the pool of eternity, in between the worlds of materialism and spirituality.

whatever you may call it, my delusion or a strong conviction developed through time, out of myriad of life experiences of myself and other influential figures of the world, I hold this firm belief that the most wonderful and the most beautiful things in this universe which includes the blissful self awareness are or rather should be omnipresent, within an easy and effortless reach of all men. God, who I  refer to, as the highest force governing and sustaining the world, I believe, has or must have made these fruits of nature within easy access for all of its beings to taste, enjoy and to nurture themselves with.

Experts of the hindu mythology claim, as they’ve done with numerous examples dating back to the Satya-yuga,  the need of a guru, the learned one in guiding a disciple to learn the right method and travel these paths of self discovery to attain the ultimate state of self awareness, in which they are finally able to dissolve themselves into the universal space, being in full harmony and being one with the supreme self.

Is  the presence of a Guru a must, a prerequisite or is it the right time that matures the disciple to  reap the fruits of his efforts on the paths of self-discovery?