What is a blog there for,exactly? It is definately not for sharing your most deepest of thoughts or putting out your frustrations in text,and I certainly do not think that it is a forum where you can fully express,in clear and succint terms,what is wrong in our lives,the political system, or the world in general.
For starters we cannot say that the current crop of politician are corrupt,stupid, and mind numbingly naive to think that what they state in their agenda will be taken at face value by we,the people. But then,that was what we thought 20 years ago;that our elected representatives will not be as bad as they are at the present moment.
It is certainly not a forum where we can talk about our love lives,or lack thereof.
It is not a place where we can curse the people whom we work for,because should they come to know that we are,our ass is going to get fired in a jiffy.
I do not want it to be a place where I talk only about the movies that I've seen...I have come to realise that..thanks to Cheeki for the feedback.
Many of us use these blogs to say how screwed the world is,how things can be better,how the people who run the country don't know their ass from a hole in the wall,etc etc etc.
But have we tried to do anything about it ourselves? Have we tried undoing the wrongs that have been done due to short sightedness and narrow mindedness?
Have we consciously tried to change the world we live in,instead of only cribbing about it?
I honestly believe that not everybody enters politics to make money,although thats what eveybody ends up doing.Most of them would have entered it out of a desire to make their constituency a better place,with better roads,electricity and potable water. Alas one they're in the game,and money comes in from virtually all avenues,welfare of the masses takes a back seat.After all,and they're right about this,they cannot support a family based on a government salary.So they must choose other routes to survive.
But,in the end,that does not validate what they're doing. No way.
The solution? Dictatorship? It is a short term solution which will create more damage than control it. Look at Pakistan. Plus it is inherently against the principle of human freedom where a regime can jail you for no reason,take you away and lock you up in a hole in the wall 'cos you might have done something wrong,and you cannot fight for your innocence. You're guilty.period,and not guilty until proven innocent.
Whatever. We have more important things to think about,like living our lives,don't we?
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Saturday, November 17, 2007
I don't think the governing body of medicine in India,or anywhere else in the world has got it right.Instead of producing a Doctor who is truly caring and interested in the welfare of patients,as well as one who has a real zeal for the residency he is pursuing,residents come out at the end of their course cynical,battered and only interested in making money,and fucking soon at that.
Which is why people say that Doctors are money minded,which is why doctors may not be as good listeners as what they were previously,in the era when our parents were kids.
Because for a medical student to who wants a subject of his choice,say,Pediatrics or Surgery,getting it is a Herculian task.He will be told many times over "Better be willing to compromise". And he will eventually end up with a subject that is not of his immediate liking-say ENT. Because the system dictates that only the brightest/most hardworking/intelligent get in,as do people who have one crore of money to pay up the exhorbitant capitation fees demanded by most of the private institutes nowadays.People in the middle are fucked. And they end up pissed at their jobs,and wish they hadn't joined Medicine in the first place.
Why is it considered an unholy sin to actually get what you want? For an average student with some brains and intelligence and who will be willing to work hard at the field he is in,to get the subject of his choice and be in a much better position to be a better Doctor to his patients?
Because there are too many ungergraduate seats and hardly any post graduate ones.If that is the case then the number of seats for the MBBS course should be halved,so that the ratio of an MD seat for an MBBS one is about 1:3,and not like 1:30 like how it is now. Sadly,a lot of the money for a hospital's basic needs are supplied by the fees that the Undergraduate students pay. Which is why their number won't ever be reduced. Sad,but true.I'm speaking from the perspective of a college like the one I studied in.
The other alternative is to increase the number of MD seatds,but that also will prove an impossibility because the ratio of resident to faculty should be 1:1,and considering how shitty the pay for faculty in a teaching hospital is,it will be a much better,and more just world,if their numbers were to increase.
Thanks for listening.
Which is why people say that Doctors are money minded,which is why doctors may not be as good listeners as what they were previously,in the era when our parents were kids.
Because for a medical student to who wants a subject of his choice,say,Pediatrics or Surgery,getting it is a Herculian task.He will be told many times over "Better be willing to compromise". And he will eventually end up with a subject that is not of his immediate liking-say ENT. Because the system dictates that only the brightest/most hardworking/intelligent get in,as do people who have one crore of money to pay up the exhorbitant capitation fees demanded by most of the private institutes nowadays.People in the middle are fucked. And they end up pissed at their jobs,and wish they hadn't joined Medicine in the first place.
Why is it considered an unholy sin to actually get what you want? For an average student with some brains and intelligence and who will be willing to work hard at the field he is in,to get the subject of his choice and be in a much better position to be a better Doctor to his patients?
Because there are too many ungergraduate seats and hardly any post graduate ones.If that is the case then the number of seats for the MBBS course should be halved,so that the ratio of an MD seat for an MBBS one is about 1:3,and not like 1:30 like how it is now. Sadly,a lot of the money for a hospital's basic needs are supplied by the fees that the Undergraduate students pay. Which is why their number won't ever be reduced. Sad,but true.I'm speaking from the perspective of a college like the one I studied in.
The other alternative is to increase the number of MD seatds,but that also will prove an impossibility because the ratio of resident to faculty should be 1:1,and considering how shitty the pay for faculty in a teaching hospital is,it will be a much better,and more just world,if their numbers were to increase.
Thanks for listening.
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Delhi and updates.
It's been a while..(since i could say that I wasn't addicted-Staind.Hahahahah!!) But really I had been to Delhi and then was busy wasting time and not doing anything productive.
Now I have realised that I had to update my hardcore fan following of maybe 3 readers on goings-on.
Delhi was a nice place to visit.Although in India,in comparison to southern cities,it might as well be a totally different country..the way of life of it's residents,food habits, the very broad roads,traffic that moves quickly as well as a metro rail service that does not smell of Pan spittings or urine.
I had been there to write an entrance exam for admission into AIIMS,the premier medical institute of the country.Competition is cutthroat and the paper was such that the cream will definately be seperated from the rest of the students who write it. But I studied as much as I could and wrote the exam with presence of mind,something that I don't do very often.
I had also been on a plane for the first time in more than 15 years,and I was nervous as hell about it,because my paranoia has escalated post 9/11 and is still very high regarding hijacks and the like.Hence,I was quite on edge until I boarded.Then until take off it was excitement and anxiety,then post take off it was exhilarating!!The sight of a giant city looking like little squares during take off was really cool!
Now I am back in Bangalore,and have been chilling a bit post-AIIMS.I saw quite a few movies,Garden State being one of them.Zach Braff"s directorial debut is an uneven movie that is refreshing because it is different.The tale of a young man who is numb to feeling, going home for the first time in 6 years to attend his mother's funeral,to see the changes in the friends he grew up with and finding a love interest played to perfection by Natalie Portman is at times quirky,at times dark,and at times totally incomprehensible. It turns out the reason he is numb because he has been on Lithium and Anxiolytics since he was a kid!! Braff is good,but I feel he makes a better director and writer(he wrote the script too) than actor. Sadly it might be due to the fact that he has been stereotyped as John Dorian from Scrubs to such an extent that we can't imagine him in any other role.It's basically a coming-of-age tale told in a different way.
Then there was Zodiac,David Fincher's movie about the serial killer of San Francisco and the men who investigated the murders and how it got in the way of their lives. Well made,relentless,and it keeps on making you wonder what's coming up ahead,but as far as performances go it was mediocre.The story is the ultimate winner here.Mark Ruffalo is good,but Jake Gyllenhall is unconvincing as a cartoonist who is obsessed with solving the case. Robert Downey Jr. isn't given enough screen time to expand on his character.
And then finally.....(drum roll)...Om Shanti Om,or OSO. I was the victim of a family conspiracy that made me watch the movie. Let me just say that Akshay Kumar is the best thing of the movie,even though he appears for about a minute. SRK did the movie 'cos one of his best friends was directing it,and it tells you that he's a true friend!! Because the movie will roar at the Box Office just because SRK was in it,and it's sad to see a pathetic movie such as this do well,even though it had minimal substance. The only people who will go to this movie are the women to see SRK,and men to see Deepika Padukone(who is the second best thing of the movie.She is HOT!). Nobody will go to appreciate a movie well done.
I've been reading The Dilbert principle.And it is amazing.Scott Adams explains in detail why companies use complicated words to explain simple things,why people are promoted to management,and how to get ahead in the work place by doing no work and pretending as if you're doing lots of it!!It is worth a read for anybody,because it explains things as how they really happen,and not how it's supposed to happen.
Following is Chris Nolan's debut feature film and it is clever and crafty.In short,vintage Nolan.The non linear story telling and the complicated plot are all there,as is the superb cinematography,which was by Nolan himself.I only hope that Nolan does not let this become his formula,and that audiences should not be able to tell what the ending is after seeeing a couple of movies which he directed.Because this guy is the Alfred Hitchcock of our generation and he should remain so.
More later.
Now I have realised that I had to update my hardcore fan following of maybe 3 readers on goings-on.
Delhi was a nice place to visit.Although in India,in comparison to southern cities,it might as well be a totally different country..the way of life of it's residents,food habits, the very broad roads,traffic that moves quickly as well as a metro rail service that does not smell of Pan spittings or urine.
I had been there to write an entrance exam for admission into AIIMS,the premier medical institute of the country.Competition is cutthroat and the paper was such that the cream will definately be seperated from the rest of the students who write it. But I studied as much as I could and wrote the exam with presence of mind,something that I don't do very often.
I had also been on a plane for the first time in more than 15 years,and I was nervous as hell about it,because my paranoia has escalated post 9/11 and is still very high regarding hijacks and the like.Hence,I was quite on edge until I boarded.Then until take off it was excitement and anxiety,then post take off it was exhilarating!!The sight of a giant city looking like little squares during take off was really cool!
Now I am back in Bangalore,and have been chilling a bit post-AIIMS.I saw quite a few movies,Garden State being one of them.Zach Braff"s directorial debut is an uneven movie that is refreshing because it is different.The tale of a young man who is numb to feeling, going home for the first time in 6 years to attend his mother's funeral,to see the changes in the friends he grew up with and finding a love interest played to perfection by Natalie Portman is at times quirky,at times dark,and at times totally incomprehensible. It turns out the reason he is numb because he has been on Lithium and Anxiolytics since he was a kid!! Braff is good,but I feel he makes a better director and writer(he wrote the script too) than actor. Sadly it might be due to the fact that he has been stereotyped as John Dorian from Scrubs to such an extent that we can't imagine him in any other role.It's basically a coming-of-age tale told in a different way.
Then there was Zodiac,David Fincher's movie about the serial killer of San Francisco and the men who investigated the murders and how it got in the way of their lives. Well made,relentless,and it keeps on making you wonder what's coming up ahead,but as far as performances go it was mediocre.The story is the ultimate winner here.Mark Ruffalo is good,but Jake Gyllenhall is unconvincing as a cartoonist who is obsessed with solving the case. Robert Downey Jr. isn't given enough screen time to expand on his character.
And then finally.....(drum roll)...Om Shanti Om,or OSO. I was the victim of a family conspiracy that made me watch the movie. Let me just say that Akshay Kumar is the best thing of the movie,even though he appears for about a minute. SRK did the movie 'cos one of his best friends was directing it,and it tells you that he's a true friend!! Because the movie will roar at the Box Office just because SRK was in it,and it's sad to see a pathetic movie such as this do well,even though it had minimal substance. The only people who will go to this movie are the women to see SRK,and men to see Deepika Padukone(who is the second best thing of the movie.She is HOT!). Nobody will go to appreciate a movie well done.
I've been reading The Dilbert principle.And it is amazing.Scott Adams explains in detail why companies use complicated words to explain simple things,why people are promoted to management,and how to get ahead in the work place by doing no work and pretending as if you're doing lots of it!!It is worth a read for anybody,because it explains things as how they really happen,and not how it's supposed to happen.
Following is Chris Nolan's debut feature film and it is clever and crafty.In short,vintage Nolan.The non linear story telling and the complicated plot are all there,as is the superb cinematography,which was by Nolan himself.I only hope that Nolan does not let this become his formula,and that audiences should not be able to tell what the ending is after seeeing a couple of movies which he directed.Because this guy is the Alfred Hitchcock of our generation and he should remain so.
More later.
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