29th January, 2010

In everybody's lifetime there comes along a moment when your audience turns to look at you with rapt attention, waiting with bated breath for those significant words to come out of your mouth. I had that moment today.

"Janardhan Nayak!" I had declared. Confused? Today I was the head that peeks out of the doctor's cabin to announce which lucky contestant (I mean patient, if you're that particular) finally got called in. Sure, maybe it seems like no big deal to you. But to hear your own voice resonate in a packed hospital corridor, instead of the squeak it sounds like in your mind? I say it's a pretty big deal.!

Then: Me, standing idle in the cubicle, perfecting the art of playing "Statue!"

Now: Me, at the open cubicle door, getting pretty good at dignified yelling.

Within a week, I have upgraded from 'Silent Statue' to 'Shriek'. I finally feel professionally empowered.

A few Random Unbelievable Things(RUTs):

#1: At any given point of time, considering the lower limit of the number of people as ten, there is atleast one person who has a cold and/or cough.

Now, when the teacher wants to ask a question, there is an interval between the end of the question and the perilous "You! Tell me the answer!". And like everybody knows, those who cough/sneeze precisely in this interval are NEVER picked to answer the question. Considering RUT #1, life is extremely difficult for the fake sniffers, cough-ers and sneezers. So c'mon, people! Build up that immunity!

#2: Even though you might have a very poor history of geographical expertise, there will always be somebody who is confused about whether the Bay of Bengal lies to the right or left of the Indian peninsula.

You can gloat and tell them the right answer and on the whole feel pretty smart, even though you make a mental note to look up 'India map' on Google the next time you're alone.

#3: The view of the sea from St. Mary's island.

See it to believe it!

#4: The amount of advertising space hair products and fairness creams occupy on tv.

Here's a message to all the creative heads: Trying to convince us to buy your products by using different combinations of adjectives (long&strong, sleek&shiny, bounce&beauty, strong&soft, thick&long, shine&sleek, beautiful&black) is a lot tougher than wiping badly done make-up off the faces of extraordinarily fair models and proclaiming it was the miraculous fairness cream all along.

#5: How far your mind wanders when you're sitting in a surgery class on esophageal motility disorders.

Thoughts can range from the everyday musings about food, movies, weather, attendance, and sleep to bizarre ones like thinking about RUTs or how the sweat stain on the back of somebody's shirt looks like the map of Africa. Eww, I know.