Ganapati Bappa Moriya!!

               GANAPATI  BAPPA  MORIYA!!!!

Even though Ganesh Chaturti is on Sep 9, our preparations were on full swing for about a week before the “Pratisthapana”.  We are ready with our invitation cards and donation books.

       

            We split ourselves into organizers and batches. We invited all our teachers and staff in our hospital to participate in our event. 

Day 1 {9^th September, 2013}

After days of endless waiting and speculation, finally the day of shukla chaturti (fourth day of the waxing moon period) in the month of Bhaadrapada dawned.

            We made a beautiful Mandap with a raised platform in it in the Netaji Grounds. We decorated the Mandap with flowers and leaves. We bought a seven feet eco-friendly standing ganesh idol made of clay. The idol had Lord Shiva at the top. He had four hands in whick he carried a rope {to carry devotees to the truth}, an axe {to cut devotees attatchments}, a laddoo {to reward devotees for spiritual activity} and fourth hand’s palm is extended to bless people.  There was a tiny mouse at his left feet.

We had our batch’s inaugural pooja. Ganesh Utsav is a cultural extravaganza in the college where music, mantras, revelry and devotion all blend together. 

Day 2

           

Today we had pooja of gynecology department and 2k11 batch. . We packed Prasad for the pooja and distributed it to the various departments. With the advent of Ganesh Chaturti pomp and splendor would filled the air with a positive energy that is unbeatable.   

Day 3

Today we had pooja of our first year departments i.e. Anatomy, Biochemistry and Physiology.

We planned a blood donation camp. We thought it as a simple and easy way to impact the lives of others in a beneficial way. The event was organized under the guidance of our Blood Bank {NACO} and our General Medicine Post Graduates. . The camp began at around 11.00 am when various students had come forward to donate blood.  Our super indent Dr. Chandra Shekar {dept. of Plastic Surgery} started the event by donating his blood.

We collected about 77 units of blood that day. It was a grand success in the history of Gandhi Medical College. Our doctors were proud to receive such a good and vibrant crowd of young students who were so keen on donating the little they could.  Our teachers gave excellent compliments and encouragement. The student support was marvelous and way more than expected.  We gave apples and beverages to replenish the energy of the donors. The Blood Donation Camp winded up at 3 pm with cheerful doctors and nurses who were very proud of the crowd they had received.

This experience has helped me to realize the real secret of being rich: compassion towards humanity! My heart full thanks to all for making our Blood Donation Camp so memorable.

Day 4

Today we had pooja of our third year {ENT, OPTHAL and SPM} and fourth year departments {MEDICINE, SURGERY AND PEDIATRICS}.

            We planned to spend our day with orphans. We invited children from FRIENDS FOUNDATION, Narapally; Uppal.  At 2 pm, 25 children headed by their sir Ranjith came to our Ganesh Mandap.

            We had “ANNADANNAM” and we fed the children. We enjoyed talking to the children and spending time with them. Everyone was very open and friendly. Children were so sweet and affectionate.  We enhanced our communication with them through activities like drawing, singing, dancing and playing musical chairs so on.

          

            Hours rolled away as minutes when we are with them. We donated them Baskets, Tiffin Boxes, Water Bottles, Note Books, Pencils and Stationeries which they needed on behalf of our batch and our Utsav Committee.  We had a cute photo session with the children. They left at around 6.30 pm.

            I felt grateful for the experience and it has exposed to me many aspects of my character. It is certainly an experience that we always remember.

            At 7 pm we had bhajan organized by ISKCON temple, Hyderabad.  We chanted the “Hare Krishna Mantra” along with the ISKCON volunteers. A volunteer explained us that the Mantra can give peace, happiness, God realization, freedom from repeated birth and death and total self-fulfillment.

Day 5

            We all dressed in white today.  We had pooja of Gastroenterology dept.

At 11 am, we all gathered at Mandap for Ganapati Homam. We participated in the homam as batches. The homam ended doing poornahuthi. We were blessed with Lord Ganesha’s image in the fire of homam. It was a supernatural experience.

At 3 pm we had a final pooja and aarti of Ganesh. Then we started preparations for Ganesh visarjan.

At 6 pm, we had dahi handi ceremony {utti}.  A clay pot which had a coconut was positioned at a convenient height prior to the event.  People stood on top of one another attempting to break the pot by hitting with a blunt stick.  Their efforts were thwarted by splashing water on them by those gathered around.  There was a great competition between our medicos and it filled amusing enthusiasm as they go from one handi to another.

We had a crazy joyful battle with gulal.  The colors, the noise, the music, the beats of drums, the dances and the smiles filled the college surroundings. Our Ganesh’s nimarjan procession started. We bid farewell to our BAPPA with heavy hearts and with reassurance that he would come back soon in the next year.

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We enjoyed the group support and have benefited from sharing ideas and working them into activities. Ganesh Chaturti lifted our spirits and helped in binding stronger relationships among us.

           

SAY NO TO CONSANGUINITY!!

July 1, 2013. Monday

This is my first day in pediatrics in 4^th semester. Today I met a mom who is struggling for her twin daughters’ life.
This 28 yr old woman, from Guntur had a consanguineous marriage. Her husband is a government teacher. She had a twin pregnancy and gave birth to 2 premature female babies at 29 weeks. The babies were in intensive care unit for about 2 months.

            

Now, the children are about 2 yrs. But unfortunately, they are congenitally deaf and dumb {because of malformations in inner ear}. They are suffering from CIPA {congenital insensitivity to pain and anhydrosis}. As they are insensitive they used to bite their tongue and bleed a lot. They landed up in anemia. They don’t sweat. They don’t shed tears. They can’t stand. They can’t walk. They can’t do any activities on their own. They had repeated lung and urinary tract infections. 

Knowing that his children are crippled, their educated father abandoned them. She fought against her husband for her children’s life; she left him and came in search for a better treatment to Hyderabad.

            

As the children are suffering from Genetical disease, there is no treatment for them. The cause for their suffering is their parent’s consanguineous marriage.

             

Parents get attached to their children through dreams, fantasies, illusions, and projections into the future. Children are their second chance, their ultimate "life products” the reflection and extension of their very being. By bringing a child into the world, if they have a short life expectancy and will have to endure great physical pain and cannot be helped, the suffering of those parents will be so unbearable.

            

Facing the devastating and continuing loss of having an impaired child, many parents are dropping their disabled children and some have even ran away from their marriages because of this.

           
 I believe that prevention of such incidences is better than having to deal with them. The only way to prevent this is to make people know about consanguineous marriages. Awareness is one of the major weapons that will help in this field.

            

The most appropriate and convenient time to instill the importance of preventing close marriages is the adolescent period and therefore it will be useful for every school to be alive to this problem and take the necessary steps to advise them. Parents must be advised of the dangers of close associations of their children with the children of their brothers and sisters during their adolescence.

           

The need to forge a close and friendly relationship and rapport with one's children at this stage and giving them the right advice will play a crucial role in the reduction of the frequency of such close marriages.

            

By decreasing the proportion of consanguineous marriages in the society, the amount of suffering would decrease. We, as an Indian citizen need to stress upon the individual awareness. {Hope everyone who reads this, will support me in making people aware}.

My second year!!

Finally, after 16 months my MBBS second year is at the end. {Oct 2011- Jan 2013}

In this 16 months time changed a lot and life kept on moving without a pause… new people came… some went off… some really low moments… some extremely high… anyhow life was so beautiful in its own way!! 

 I was attached to many…. And worked and enjoyed with everybody I came across…. I discovered a different me…. More altruistic, good and self abnegating me…

I met many who contributed to my life in one or the other way…. I was encouraged, appreciated, criticized and discouraged time to time…. But it always added towards my learning and helped me to learn and become better with every step…

Starting with surgery postings in October, I still remember the day when I wore my OT dress for the first time the amusement I felt was ever lasting. The long standing lectures in the wards, the flirts with the P.Gs, denounces from the professors, the emotional bondage with the patients everything was eternal.

Our successful strike for the referred in November is our greatest triumph in second year. During OBG postings in March, every day was amazing. The enthusiasm to hear a fetal heart sound, the startling moment when I saw a moving fetus in the ultrasound scan, the goose bumps I got on seeing a natural delivery for the first time, the exhilaration on holding a newly born baby who is yet to open his eyes, the a lovely conflict with a housiee in the labor room, the exceedingly large birth register… hmm… every moment was most memorable. 

The next 4 months of Medicine Postings in unit 2 were outstanding. The Tom & Jerry fights with my unit mates, beautiful clinical experiences, some parkinsonian faces, some angry birds, the numerous case studies we discussed… all these engrossed me towards this defective physiology. 

The buzz of EEGA in July, the Fresher’s in August made us even closer. 

 

September is the month of ecstasy. During the college fest, every day was splendid. Our wonderful volley ball match, the hilarious hairstyling, our victory over seniors in dance and cricket, the buffoonery ball badminton, the wondrous love letter writing, the striking singing by our singers… the whole were fantastic.

Coming to Pulse, it is a pile of memories!! The fortnight I spent with my friends created bonds which often last forever.

In October, I was being jerked to and fro by some gigantic events; I was caught in an emotional clutter & had a series of changes in my life. I was pissed off with such an enigmatic life. Finally, I learnt that life is a string of hits and misses, hard moments are necessary to make us perfect and we have to choose a path of individual responsibility and maturity rather than letting grief take a different course. 

In the last three months, we are engaged with exams. Everyone was busy cramming… night outs, residing in reading rooms, discussions, altercations; hmm… time went off very slow and sluggish.

To conclude, my second year is remarkable. I thank everyone who made my journey such a beautiful one and I hope that it would be the same in our clinicals too.

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