Niponwave

Add B.R. Ambedkar’s birthday to the Bengali New Year, throw in a Saturday and a Sunday and wow! you get a good enough excuse for a short break! As it turns out I made perfect use of this recipe for holiday and got back home in this scorching Kolkata heat. In all that heat and humidity, I stayed more at home and less outside, ate all the good foods mom made and took lots of sleep, trying my best to correct my sleep-wakefulness cycle.

I also read the 2 books I carried with me - Harrison for medicine and Manipal for surgery. Harrison is mostly to be read as a story book and not as a text book at this level, that is what johnda tells me and that’s what I do. Manipal is this very exam-oriented surgery book. I read the chapter IBS from Harrison with special attention as a friend is suffering from it. Irritable Bowel Syndrome typically appears before the age of 45, affecting females more. Its pathology is one of the least understood among all GI disorders. It essentially comprises a change in the form/appearance of stool, abdominal pain/discomfort with other associated features like bloating, etc. The list of differential diagnoses is huge and so a thorough investigation is before establishing IBS as the diagnosis. Clearly, there is considerable overlap between IBS and other GI disorders. Dyspepsia and IBS are thought to be two different manisfestations of a broader disease spectrum. Modification of diet remains the mainstay of treatment and there are various drugs of different pharmacological groups that can only relieve symptoms. IBS can be IBS-D (predominantly diarrheal), IBS-C (constipation dominates), IBS-M (mixed type). Some patients have been found to switch from one type to another type! Other than IBS, I read Diabetes which is a real threat these days. Diabetes can have dreaded complications - from cardiovascular diseases to even blindness. In US, diabetes is a major (non-traumatic) cause behind amputation of legs. From surgery, I went through the chapter hernia.

Studies apart, I spent a lot of energy to revamp the look of Bong Buzz. The new look is 70% complete. (Please check it out at http://www.bongbuzz.net) I need to make a logo for the site in the coming days. There is also a a lot of new posts there.

A visit to home could never be complete without a Lawrencians meet! Chadu, Nass & I had an evening full of adda (post on Bong Buzz)

During this holiday, I got a new phone. It’s a Sony Ericsson, no-frills 3g phone with focus on fast browsing. The model is T715 and I got it from Anandamela for 9.25k. I plan to take either GPRS or 3G very soon. It has to wait for sometime because I have a postpaid connection from BSNL and for activating 3G or GPRS I need to submit a form. Hope I’ll do that in my next visit. After I get internet on the phone, I’ll use my laptop less and the phone more for checking FB and Gmail - that is the plan! As for what number to take for my old phone, well I am considering Vodafone and Airtel. Let me see.

These days I am into a newfound play Collecting and circulating SMS riddles among friends. It’s really interesting I am having a gala time solving SMS puzzles and forwarding them. It all started with Tamali forwarding a riddle to me.

I have also corrected my sleep pattern in the past few days. I am going to bed by 1.30 a.m. latest and waking up before 7 Yesterday I slept at 12. The weather is also just too good. It is pleasantly cool and I don’t need the fan most of the nights! Really, after the sweltering Kolkata heat, North Bengal feels like a freezer!

Honestly, I must admit the fact that right now the Siliguri weather is heavenly and I take back my words I had said not long ago bashing the North Bengal weather… well for the time being, that is. Apart from enjoying this weatherly bliss, I am busy with the lectures and wards. Since almost all the students stay in the campus only, we have our classes in weird hours! Only last Saturday, I had Gynae evening wards from 9 to 11 in the night and morning lectures are at 8 or 8.30 on most weekdays.