Thursday, May 27, 2010

Solving mysteries ! ( Reading about them actually !)

Woof ! I just spent the past hour gazing at the most ridiculously gross pictures while preparing for my Forensic medicine exam. All the way from pictures of burn victims to cases of self amputations, homicidal electrocutions and what not. If it wasn't for the intensity of their heart scratching content, I'd put them up here to prove my point.

We have forensic medicine as a subject in 3rd year of med school. Now this was a field that had always fascinated me, even as a child, I mean thats what I saw the cool cops doing on TV, and thats how the most intriguing of mysteries got solved on CSI. So I was kinda awe-inspired by the aspect of mystery solving. But now when I'm supposed to study it as a subject, I realise how its not as amazing as it seems on TV.

On of the major things I find horrible in this field are the dead bodies and the gruesome condition they are in sometimes. Thank God we're not made to take classes in the mortuary and have to study mostly by pictures and online visual aid. But nevertheless, studying about some fascinating criminal cases and how forensic medicine helps to solve them is surely fascinating. For instance there was this case where a man was accused of killing three of his wives ( one after the other) who all happened to be rich. During the criminal investigation traces of arsenic were found in the coffins of all three of the wives (on exhumation) and the man was pronounced guilty and hanged. But years later a medical student not satisfied with the verdict did an investigation on his own and found that the arsenic in the coffins had actually sept in from the soil around the graves which had high natural arsenic levels !!!

And another case of a car crash where the driver ( a woman) had died. It was a clear case of an accident but during investigation the police found the keys in the ignition in the off position, and the apparently innocent car accident turned into a case of murder !!

Fascinating eh ? I hope it wasn't too intense. Studying all this has made me a little tough hearted but I've tried to keep the content moderate..Please let me know if it isn't. I'm off to sleep now ( I hope I dont get nightmares !)

Monday, May 24, 2010

I'm back !

God, my eyes are burning ! But there's no way I'm stopping from staring at my little laptop. My poor little lap pet, that I just couldn't attend to for the past two weeks !... Exams, yes of course, what other reason can a medical student give for his/her miserable episodes in life. We had our 5th semester exams and I just back after taking the pathology exam. OSPE's ( Objective structured Practical exams) are due next week and then Insh'Allah ( God Willing) I'll be done with the 5th semester for good..!!

The exams were okay but I dont think I can describe them well. Pharmacology was something I'd dreaded a lot, and worked really hard for in the past four months and I did okay in it.Forensic Medicine bothered me the least, I worked the least for it and yet I think I did well in it. And the pathology,microbiology,immunology combination was something I'd really loved all this time but ended up hating it right before the day of exam. I think the sudden 11th hour shift was because all this time I'd been fretting over all the units of drugs we had in pharmacology ( Drugs for the Cardiovascular system, Respiratory system, Autonomic nervous system, smooth muscles,and  Antibacterials is a looot I tell you) and never noticed that General Pathology, General and Clinical bacteriology and Immunology is pretty extensive too ! But anyways, I worked hard and that's what counts. I'm sure Allah will give me a good result.

Other then the exam frenzy, facebook has been banned it Pakistan ! Just because a group of individuals thought of drawing up cartoons of my beloved Prophet and make fun of him on facebook. I'm not against any freedom of speech, thought or expression but I think others sentiments should not be hurt in the way. But any ways lets just hope things change and everyone learns to respect everyone else.

Friday, May 7, 2010

Bloggy week !

This week has brought me two pleasures related to my blog. First of all , my blog got showcased on the Pakistani Bloggers Showcase and secondly my article as a guest blogger appeared on The Blossoming brilliance blog. Blossoming Brilliance is a wonderful blog and is always filled with inspiration ! I'm really glad my post appeared there. Please do check out the blog and my post ! I hope you'll like it :)

Monday, May 3, 2010

So who's up for inviting me ?

Its exam time and I'm supposed to be studying with all my spirit and soul but, behold, my magazine rack is filled with numerous wedding invitation cards. My granny's cousin's daughter is getting married and I'm invited along with my granny ! My mom's second cousin is having a wedding and I'm supposed to attend it ! My mom's cousin's sister in law is getting married and they'd be 'delighted' if we became a part of the event ! Yeah, this is where having a closely knit family system gets you, finding your aunt's cousin's daughter-in- law's mother-in-law at a wedding should be of no surprise in Pakistan ! Our weddings are filled with all the possible people you could relate to. In case you're thinking why hasn't the possibilty of politely declining crossed my mind ! Bravo , Say Hello to my Super convincing and duper emotional blackmailing mom and heck those puppy dog looks too ! Because you see mom says and I quote " What is Aunt XYZ gonna say ? She'd be really sad if you wont go !" ( As if ! ) or  " Oh come on ! You'll like it there " ( I serioulsy dont ! ) and " Oh you can just make friends with Cousin ABC " ( as if my sullen face with everted lips would even bring anyone close to me !)

My exams start in two weeks and all of a sudden all my relatives decide to marry ! I mean seriously would it harm them if they waited for my exams to get over ! Or are they participating in some kind of 'who gets a baby first marathon !' speaking of which reminds me that our population is growing way too rapidly, but hey an  idea just clicked ! I'm just gonna go to a wedding and start talking about population control , family planning or the economic burden with the ever increasing population!  Lets see how it affects the weddings or rather the wedding invitations I get !

PS - I just got back from a friend's bro's reception which was really wonderful and actually the only wedding I was eagerly waiting for this month :) . And as long as my study schedule isn't affected I dont mind attending weddings at all ! So please keep rolling those invitation cards in . And dont worry I will not ruin it for you by talking about population control, or will I ?? :p