Author: The Ikiguy

Why do Medical PG Residency in India?

| The Ikiguy

The Harsh reality of Medical PG Residency in India.
This how your Family doctor, Surgeon & Pediatrician are made.

I am 100% sure you have no idea what goes inside this place.

And I am sure, even if you do, you would look sideways as swiftly as when a six-year-old beggar kid selling roses comes to you on the signal, even if you could, you end up doing nothing for her.

You do what, we all do best, ignoring and moving ahead with our own work,

with our own life.

Period.
Everyone knows how much inhumane it is.
Everyone knows how demanding it is.
Everyone knows how cruel it can be.
Everyone knows how depressing it can be.
Everyone knows these.

Then why do they still do it?
Then why do they still chase it?
Then why do they still tail it?

They know they will be exhausted till they themselves drop dead on the bed.

They know they will be emotionally drained till they themselves find no satisfying reason for happiness.

They know they will be tired till the point they themselves feel lifeless.

And the saddest part is?
Nobody cares.

Nobody cares that they slog like slaves.
Nobody cares that they go to bed on an empty stomach.
Nobody cares that the sheer stress drives many to depression and worse, suicide.

Everyone shouts at them.
Everyone expects too much from them.
Everyone kicks them left and right, up and down.

Yet nobody raises a voice.
A voice saying something for them.
A voice expressing their pain.
A voice demanding a human way.

Well, this is the story of every Indian PG Resident doctor.

Did you know this?
Even if you did, surely turned to the left and let it pass.

My mind still wonders,
Why do people, MBBS doctors pursue PG?
Even after all these

Is it worth it?
Is it worth it?
Is it worth it?

Yours Only,
Dr Dinesh Raja,
The Doctor who feels.

How to be productive monthly?

| The Ikiguy

Are you doing it right?


Having a productive month!?

“Before anything else, preparation is the key to success.”

– Alexander Graham Bell

Since it is a new month, a new beginning,
Here I was sitting my tashreef down, planning the POA for the month.

It’s a sunny & breezy afternoon outside like the one in which you would love to play crazy Holi with your friends running around frantically, aiming for the back, but the water balloon misses, painting the soil Gulaal, Earth which in turn throws at you, the soft smell of Mitti di Khusboo, i.e Petrichor.
(Nostalgia much?)

Coming back to the task at hand, Planning!
Uff, such a dry word. When someone even thinks to say it, the entire water in your throat evaporates before you come up with a legitimate plan.

How to be more productive?
How to plan your month?
How to get more things done?

Well, it starts much before that.
If you look around you, (within you), you realize, that most people are simply too much short-sighted.

They tend to only look at the task which is the near future. Well, it is not bad to be, too much and only doing this, will strip you away from the perspective one gets while he/she looks at mid-term/long-term goals.

Everyone is so busy in their footsteps that they fail to realize it’s the entire path, the whole voyage which matters at the end of our times.
Often we get lost in autopilot mode. Surfing through life on a day-to-day basis.

One may argue that each step taken makes up the whole, agreed, but if one keeps the chin up, and looks ahead, he may choose to lift one footstep higher, the other longer, or not take a footstep at all, ultimately leading to take a completely different journey.

Now that’s why my friends, it matters.

….
Top 3 ways you can be more productive every month
1. Brain Dump
Make a note of all the things that you want to do be it in a notebook or apps like google keep.

2. Sort it in a Monthly Planner
Give dedicated time, place, and person to your tasks. Give them their own identity.

3. Review
Before planning review it and after the month ends do the same. Give yourself constant feedback.

Bonus tip:
Plan your month a week/days before, so when the new month comes, you can rock & roll.

I hope this has helped you in some way 🙂

What are your productivity hacks?
How do you manage your time?

Yours Only,
Dinesh Raja,
the one who hustles.

Were all those endless nights and early mornings worth it?

| The Ikiguy

Was it worth it?

Were all those endless nights and early mornings worth it?

Was shouldering all those expectations from patients, professors & parents worth it?

When I look at those smiles, of pure innocence and unadulterated love, my heart whispers gently into the ears of my soul,

Han ji. Yes.

I have to admit as much as taxing it is to be a doctor, it is equally fun to be one. Especially if you are an extrovert or a people person, it is just the right profession for you.

Looking back at my 12th standard days, when I was learning biology in the lanes of Old rustic Chembur church, I couldn’t have thought of what an exciting journey it would be.

Catching the Mumbai local trains heading towards the Munna Bhai hall then the dissection hall for practicals, followed by lunch at our katta with the gang, then again dragging our lazy, sleepy asses for the rest of academic tortures, finally getting relieving at twilight, having special chai at gate no 2, chilling with friends, or organising events and fests, or winning some, breathing sessions at Hostel terrace at night, then heading back towards the pavilion, half exhausted, fully enigmatic.

MBBS does change you as a person. I can bet you, one doesn’t remain the same. Be it intentionally or unintentionally, one’s aura becomes softer and gentler more like the puffs of cotton tree gliding through wintry evenings.

I thank all the people, before I was born, after, and whoever has touched me, consciously or unconsciously, for what I have become today.

Thank you so much.

I am very much grateful.

It is a new day, a new morning for newer beginnings.

May the force be with you. Take care.

Yours Only,
Dr. Raja,
The Doctor who cares.

Why you should always consult experts before you embark on something new?

| The Ikiguy

Why you should always consult experts before you embark on something new?

Why one should not indulge in hyper-independent vehemence.

… Storytime…

It’s almost been a decade since our home got a makeover.
So we started interviewing different contractors for the same.
And I have been meaning to call my dear friend, let’s name him PG, Parle G.

But while being productive and self-reliant and overtly hyper independent I didn’t call him at the right time.

After I signed the contract and the formalities, when I spoke to him with a wide smile and proud puffs of air, it soon faded into a poker face and a feeling of utter stupidity.
I was feeling like that kid who gallantly shows his Hot wheels car to another kid only to realise, the UK is not the United Kingdom, but the UlhasNagar Kingdom.

I came to know so many things were wrong with the contract!

….

Top 3 learnings
1. Consult your expert friends.

Call them up. Ping them. Listen to what they have to say.
You won’t even realise how much time, energy and money you will say.

2. Being independent is good but don’t let it smother you.

Often in the heat of being hyper-independent, we negate the idea of taking help from others.
We don’t like to be helped.
But it’s okay. Really.

3. Research
Be it home decor or finding your co-founder, do your homework right. Don’t stop until you get the gut feeling of you have done enough. And then delay no more and plunge into action.

P.S. There’s a difference between knowing to keep your eyes and ears open and doing that.

…

Has this happened to you as well!? What do you think?

That is why my friend, you shouldn’t wake up to reality

| The Ikiguy

Do you have a dream?
Then you must know about your desires.

A human being is lifeless without desires, without dreams

I realise through various forms of life experimentation,
Humans need desire, without which, they cannot live. period.

It is a crucial and critical part of existence, one that we rarely notice, let alone pause on thinking about our existence. For men many, it scares them. It makes brittle as if you wake up one morning at 9.27 am and it comes to you, that you thought you are living with your free will, and all the choices you made were by you, leading to the point in life that you are in, all these and much more… comes to standstill.

And it comes to you, you are nothing but a puppet in the vast world of certain uncertainties.

Your version of the world that you were living in, is just a result of certain unseen, unsaid rules of Mother Nature, the Cosmos and least, society.

Bring back on the topic – Desire! Is one such rule.
Don’t think so?

Let’s prove it in three steps in 2 mins.
1. Take your right hand. (Yeah shift the phone to the other one.)
2. Bring your Index finger and thumb at the ala of the nose.
3. Pinch it softly for just … 2 mins.

Without the primal desire to breathe, we all humans will be dead right after we land on this earth after 9 months of blissful ignorance.

One may argue that it is a need to breathe, just like eating and sleeping.
But let me point it out, the need is a noun and the desire is a verb.
Meaning without desires, even our needs will be meaningless.

Now delving deeper, we need to have that desire and need in us, much like Ying Yang one cannot exist without the other. Without the underlying need and the constant forthcoming desire we, for that matter any living matter, would not live.

Now, this goes as basic as it goes for our basic needs.
By the way, we never realise we function on the rules created by the cosmos all the time we exist within her.
Good that we foolish humans don’t pay attention, for one eternal saying, ignorance is surely bliss.
A bliss so much gratifying that it drives us enough not to kill ourselves and complete the cycle of life.
Life and Death.

Now coming to the subtler aspects of it.
Once we are done with our survival, our desires run out, they disappear since the need has been duly fulfilled. We have a need to be added upon by further needs over the basics ones that we already function on.
After food, clothing, and shelter, it is time for relationships.

Taking a detour one realises the life we live in is very much structured like a game on infinite pursuit unto death. Our pursuits never end, dear death conveniently puts the pursuiter at rest. Once and for all.
Or is it?

…..
I think these would do for the time being. A little nudge to our careless existence.
I would be talking about it in the upcoming nights.
Do you care to listen?
Rather do you want to listen?

Fin.

Yours Only,
Dinesh Raja,
The one who experiences.

As Appa drifts away…

| The Ikiguy

As the silhouette of Appa fades away, I ponder, will he be waiting for me in heaven?
…

It’s a fine evening at Trichy’s Central Railway Station, it is the type of winter climate where in you feel Lil chills but don’t put on thermals :P. I am here, standing on the railing of Madurai Express, towards Aamchi Mumbai.

My heart beats slow, as if even he yearns for the company of Appa, and already feels his absence somehow.
My breathing is shallow as my hand waves goodbye to him.
The Setting Sun is spewing the last of its melancholic light rays on the ever-ready Indian Railways train, the ever-tired platform and on us.

This time I will be gone for a long time, away from home, away from the place where you can feel the warmth of the womb, where you can be yourself in toto and you don’t have to wear any mask, play any role, just you and your crazy, hatke, loved ones.

As the train glides slowly, as if she understands goodbyes and purposefully gives us that extra time to part with our dear ones; his black outline starts to disappear, the platforms slip from the vision into pieces of the rectangular garden then just tracks, empty tracks, and I can’t help thinking, what if this is the last day, I am seeing him.

Metaphorically, speaking, in this train journey of life, there are stops, at which, unknowingly or knowingly, whether we like it or not, we have to bid adieu to people we care for. Though we all know this fact, we hardly give it a thought, and rarely accept it.


Do you know what the scariest part is, we shall never know when it is!

So the only power that rests with us, is to get our farewells right.

Leave things on a good note.
Complete that closure.
Say those words.
Hug them tight.

Express your love. Give that extra care. Share that warmth.

Harry Potter wiki.com

On another note, (for all the Harry Potter lovers out there), don’t you think our parents are going to be the first ones to receive us on that cold, white, heavenly platform, with arms wide open waiting to give us that big tight hug?



Yours Only,
Dinesh Raja,
the one who feels.

That funny guy

| The Ikiguy

Meet Imran, Guys like Imran often get labeled as ‘that funny guy, and rarely do people even consider the fact that there is a lot more to them than just wisecracks. Imran, much like Chandler Bing from Friends, uses humor as a defense mechanism. There is a lot of sadness buried within him (something that […]

That funny guy

Ocean

| The Ikiguy

Awie!
What a wonderful piece or write up!
I am pretty impressed that a young girl has penned such a a beautifully descriptive story!
Kudos to you!
You have immense potential in you.
You can do anything you set your mind to!
I believe in you Iniya 🙂

World of Iniya

My vision is blurred. All I can see is golden light. I try moving my hands, but I can’t feel them. Am I dead? Yeah probably. Maybe trying to run away- no sail away from the only home I’d known on a flimsy boat I’d made myself wasn’t such a great idea after all. But I feel a gentle rocking movement beneath me. One I lived with. The waves. Huh who knew? It seems like heaven has blue waters as well. Or they followed me here.

All my life, I had grown up on a coral pink sand island amidst a ring of others that looked the same.I wasn’t allowed to leave this space. It was a reliable system and my parents and grandparents had lived this way for decades. I could have too. But the stories, they lured me. Despite being on an Island, I never learnt to sail…

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