Random rambling

Disease – Useless Indian Person Syndrome (U.I.P.S), locally known as ‘The lukkhas’

 

Causative Organism – Common organism causing the disease is Bacteriae Unemploymentidis. May also be caused by the newly discovered virus Plainlazinis.

 

Aetiology –

Age – Usually affecting persons between the ages of 15-45 years. May be seen before and after that too

Sex – Commonly affecting Males. However females are not exempt.

Geographical Distribution – Commonly seen in India (Hence the name). The occurrence in other areas is not confirmed, however it is not ruled out.

Overcrowding – Commonly seen in crowded areas such as Railway stations, Busy roads etc.

 

Mode of Transmission  -

Usually the disease is transmitted on prolonged contact and conversation with an affected person. Transmission may be prevented by the administration of the 'JOB' vaccine, One unit, twice daily (9am to 5pm) for at least 300 days of the year.

 

Precipitating factors –

-Attacks of the disease are seen following certain key events. The commonest being fights on Railway stations, Road or Rail accidents, Movie/TV shootings etc

 

Clinical Features –

1. The disease starts with the symptoms of a vague interest in certain occurrences, which have no connection whatsoever with the person affected.
2. In terminal cases, the disease affects the eyes, where the person is unable to see anything but the sight-spot. The sight spot includes the area of an unusual activity. Also, the disease affects the motor system where the person is unable to move his limbs in a standing position. Also known as ‘glued to the spot stance’ 

Differential Diagnosis -

May be confused with the disease of ‘Frank concern’. Can be differentiated by the presence of the characteristic stance. In the disease of ‘Frank concern’ the affected person has full motor control and performs necessary actions.

 

Treatment –

No treatment has been developed as yet.

 

This is part of an ongoing series of 'Maladies affecting the Common man in India'. Issued in public interest.

So the wait is finally over. The end of all the pent up anger and frustration. And the best part is, everyone did quite well! As good as the moment was when I saw the 'pass' on my result page, the celebratory evening out was much better! The evening at mocha, puncuated by hugs, hi-fives and yells of 'congrats', laughing at the snow-white-wannabe-guy, and of course shoeb's antics, was fabulous. And we have the pictures to prove it too! check out the photos in the photo gallery and do leave as many comments as you can... i love reading those!

 

P.S. q....thanks for taking the cool snap of me... i Love it!

I remember when I was in school, we had these one-liners about ‘the height of…..’. The height of Frustration was one of these. I was trying very hard to remember what that one was, but I just couldn’t. Anyway, I think it was quite an obscene one, so I don’t think would have written it on the blog even if I did. But what got me thinking about this was the state of mind I am in right now.

 

Never ever in my life have I waited so impatiently for something. Never ever have I been so eager to know something. Never have I ever been so stressed out by the knowledge that there is something related to me that I do not know (and trust me when I say this, it kills me if I know someone has a secret they haven’t told me yet) It is in every single one of my thoughts… every minute, every hour, every day and yet it is something that totally terrifies me. It has been precisely 38 days that I have spent waiting for this and I have no idea how many more it would be. Anyone who knows me well enough would never believe that I was so eager to get my result….but there you have it. Medicine makes geeks out of all of us. The first 2 weeks or so were easy, I needed to get it off my mind, but lately it’s killing me. I watch the latest blockbuster hoping to take my mind off it, and it just doesn’t work... the minute the movie is over the discussion is back to the same thing. I feel my heart stop every time my phone rings…. And then it stops again if I see the call is from someone who I know is also in the same state as me.

 

Now I know what it feels like when someone says they just can’t take it anymore.

Now that the exam is over, I’m back! And back with another artwork…. My blog has started resembling an online art gallery! Hmmmm… maybe my brain responds better to a pencil than a pen (rather keyboard). Anyway, this time I went a step further with the graphite drawing and tried my hand at photorealistic graphite drawing. I had wanted to do this for quite some time now, but the stupid exams were in the way. This may sound a bit too filmi, but for my first attempt at this style I wanted to draw someone who has achieved a lot in their life. And I also didn’t want to draw anyone I knew personally because then I’d be really upset if I didn’t get the likeness right. And then just a few days later Sachin Tendulkar made that fantastic 35^th century we all had been waiting for and at that moment I knew that he had to be my next subject!

 

About the drawing, its done on a 60lb, 12x15.5 inch, ingres paper (doesn’t that sound very professional!!) Done almost entirely with a 2B mechanical pencil, with an 8B wooden pencil for some part of the hair, and a 2H wooden pencil for some fine detailing.

 

So here it is.. Hope everyone likes it! Forgive the poor photo; it looks better in real life (you are welcome to come to my home to see the real thing btw). This one is for my Dad, Manish, Gauri and all the other Sachin-crazy people I know!

A picture is worth a thousand words…

 

How many times have you looked at a photograph and been reminded of the wonderful vacation you had? Or the fun birthday party? Or just some wacky experimental photo you took of a sibling? My guess would be at least a thousand times.

 

I was looking for a certain photo today….  One that was taken a few months ago. Wondering where to begin looking for it, I remembered that it was taken by a digicam. Wonderful! It would be on my computer, safe in the neatly organized folders of ‘My Pictures’. Always a technology lover, I pulled up my chair and clicked away, happy about the time I would be saving. 5 mins later, I had the photo I was looking for, but I felt oddly unsatisfied. The process somehow seemed incomplete. I actually missed having to look through numerous heavy photo albums, leafing through pages of memories, stumbling upon another photo I hadn’t seen for years and reminiscing about the time when it was taken. 

My family (including me) loves photos; we have photos for each occasion in each year. So normally looking for a photo would take at least 20 mins, as apposed to the five I had just spent! That’s when I realized I wanted to waste those 15 extra minutes. I wanted to see old photos. I wanted to see the photos which were taken with great care and deliberation because you only had 36 magical clicks at a time! As I looked at the single photo on the screen, with its fine resolution, I remembered the hundred ones which were discarded during the very same event because someone didn’t like the way they looked in it, or because the lighting wasn’t perfect. I remembered the old photo of my parents… You can barely see them in the poor quality black and white print, yet you can see the beautiful young couple beaming at you through the picture. And the photo of my grandmother… Time has taken its toll on it, just as it has on the person in it. Yet you can feel the life she has been through.  How would my grandchildren react to my photo as a 21 yr old? Would they have the same feeing of nostalgia as they see a digital photo that looks like it was taken the day before? Would they guard a cd handed over to them with as much care as I guard my precious old albums? Maybe my questions will remain unanswered. Maybe there is a price you have to pay for technology….