Flashes Of Joy

 

I first heard the term ‘Flashmob’ from my elder sister who explained the term as follows: “A group of people gather in the road or at any other public place and suddenly start dancing.” The concept struck me as weird, very weird in fact. I even thought, “Why don’t these people get run over by cars while dancing? And why don’t others protest, because surely enough, dancing in the middle of the road will cause trouble for both vehicles and pedestrians.”  So as one can easily tell, I had completely misunderstood the concept of Flashmob.

The first time I saw a real Flashmob was in 2k22. It was performed by our seniors and batchmates and I realized that flashmob is not about “suddenly dancing in the middle of the road ‘’. It is about weeks of practice and finally a power packed performance consisting of expert dancers taking one’s breath away by their graceful moves and some non-dancers forgetting steps, getting nervous and secretly hoping that no one saw them. Also, I realized that it is not so easily done on the road. One needs to book a proper location for a Flashmob.

I have always been an out-standing dancer. Meaning- when I went to learn Odissi in second grade I spent more time standing outside the classroom after messing up mudras and steps than I did dancing. Naturally I lost interest after 3 months or so and joined music classes instead where due to my teacher’s immense patience and perseverance I ended up learning something. When one of my friends convinced me for dancing in the Flashmob and I actually said “Yes” I could not believe my own self. Later, I was also invited to sing with the group in Rock-mob and I agreed to that as well after a long convincing session by my friends. At times I wonder whether I am pathologically incapable of saying “No” to friends!

Thus began a month of practice and hard work when classes, edufest meetings and practice sessions for both Flashmob and Rockmob were all scheduled at the same time. I remember an incident where I was busy doing Garba when one of the members of the Edufest committee stood in between two files of dancers trying to convince me to stop dancing and come for the Edufest meeting with the Flashmob organizers shouting at both of us in the background. I also remember always sitting in a corner with my kindle in between practices and keeping my ears open to hear my friend (one of the Flashmob organizers) shouting my name angrily at the top of her voice before my dance segment came up; following which I rushed to stand in the entry line.

Video courtesy: Dipankar Mondal

There were all kinds of people at the flashmob practice: the first category is that of the smiling late-comers. These people were always unabashedly, unregretfully late and took in the organizers’  scoldings with a smiling face. The second category consisted of the serious people, who were always on time and practiced with enthusiasm. The third category consisted of people with a moderate level of attendance but those who gossiped or trailed off into books between segments and were always confused about where to enter from or stand. In other words, this group consisted of people like me. The fourth category consisted of the forever complaining and perennially tired people, who utilized whatever time they got between dances to complain to their friends about how unfair life has been to them. In rock-mob this group did not exist though, because there is little chance to complain when one’s mouth and voice are busy singing. The final category consists of the cameo appearances. These people showed up whenever they felt like, practiced as long as they saw fit and then disappeared never to return again. Some of them did not even show up on the final day.

Many of our older faculty found this idea of medical students openly dancing to Bollywood songs scandalous to the reputation of medical field. While they said that it was outrageous that students did not attend ward postings and classes for inconsequential things like Flashmob, it was funny and ironical to see that the took out the anger of students not attending classes on those who actually showed up thus making them question their decisions. One of the departments even threatened to call our parents if the attendance continued to be low. Ridiculous as this sounds, this method actually worked because many people showed up in class the next day!

The final day performance looked awesome, as was the feedback given by the crowd, thus bringing the colors of success to all the efforts of the organizers and participants. This event taught us one very important thing, “Things are always more beautiful, successful and enjoyable, when done together as a team.”

Photo courtesy- Swapnanil Sen

Photo courtesy: Unknown

An Ode To The Departed

 

Sometimes bad news catches us unexpectedly. At other times it so happens that we know about the impending doom for months. We are scared initially but then begin to live with it, even practically forget about it until one fateful morning, when disaster strikes and we become dumbfounded even after knowing the inevitable for months. It seems as if, just because it got delayed and we were granted a few more months of peace, we had assumed that the disaster will never happen.

As the entire college prepares for ECSTASY 2k23, a grey shroud hangs over all of us. An unexpected, unwanted separation makes our hearts heavy. Today when I see “Embrace the explosion” written on the ECSTASY posters, I am reminded of that quiet, shy girl who disliked explosions or loud noises of any kind for that matter. She was the one who used to make diligent notes even in the most boring lectures while we softly bantered in the last bench oblivious of whatever was being taught in class. I remember being envious and asking her the secret to her long, black lustrous hair. I remember our peaceful conversations during breakfast at our hostel canteen, where we discussed our views on studies, music and the world even though they varied grossly between the two of us.

When I first heard of her illness, I remember stepping into the CCU for the first time in my life to visit her. She had asked us to pray for her speedy recovery. While most of us actually prayed for our beloved friend, all our prayers combined were not enough to thwart destiny. This leads us to wonder, why is destiny so cruel? The one who could have been an expert and compassionate doctor had to suffer so much and meet such an untimely death while many people whose demise would actually serve the society and mankind in general continue to thrive. The answer to this question is not easily determined by common people like us. Thus, we continue on our journey to meet our destiny while simultaneously cursing destiny itself throughout the way. It’s a weird paradox.

I do not know whether Heaven exists or not, but if it does and if my life is honest and fruitful enough then I surely hope to meet her there someday- my quiet, kind, unselfish friend. Till then it is essential that all of us, as future doctors, remember her life and death. So that, we are careful about the tests we perform, the diagnoses we make and the medicines we prescribe, because the test reports and prescriptions are not just sheets of paper with medical mumbo-jumbo scribbled on them. They are keys to correct diagnosis and treatment respectively. We must never lose empathy and compassion towards those helpless people lying in our ancient, foul-smelling wards, because their lives depend on our decisions. Delay or mistakes in our treatment can kill them, thus we must tread with caution.

Most importantly we must remember to be thankful for this life and this opportunity to fulfill our dreams. An extremely brilliant and deserving student among us was brutally robbed of the opportunity to fulfill her dreams, by her ill fate. On the days we feel desperate enough to end our lives or give up, we must remember that we are getting to live what one of us could not. We should try to make the most of this opportunity while it lasts.

Adieu my dear friend. May your soul rest in peace.

 

Queries of the medical mind

 

When one cracks NEET there are people who give him or her an extremely rosy view of what to expect from medical colleges while others come up with a more realistic view. But what no one really mentions is that med-school is not all about classes, ward postings, huge syllabus, or exams. It is also about a lot of other things like getting sponsors, sitting (or if you are unfortunate enough then, standing) in long meetings, preparing questions, dealing with difficult and strict HODs and welcoming guest speakers. In short, besides being about studies, it is also about organizing grand events like the Edufest or cultural fest of your college.

The day you step into the common room for the first fest-related meeting is the day you start questioning your life choices (if you were not doing so already). Thoughts like: “Was getting myself into this a bad idea?”; “Why are all these people not listening to me?” or “Why is this guy shutting us all up?” start crossing your brain. But by then of course for most people it is too late to reverse the decision and start afresh, except for some genius people who are so fed up after the first meeting that they decide not to come for any subsequent meetings and not do any fest-related work after that day. More power to them! However, some people remain true to their responsibilities and keep doing them till the last day of Fest. Kudos to them as well.

There are some events of the Edufest which attract a lot of participation from the crowd – like medical Pictionary, quiz, medical movie trivia quiz. But not all events are so lucky. There are some events for which the organizers need to keep extending the dates of registration hoping for at least five or six entries. Being an organizer of such an event I would say that it is a nightmare! If an event has too many participants and you feel crowd control is going to be a problem, then set those thoughts aside because the fear that there is going to be almost nil participation and there will be a greater number of judges and organizers than participants is a bigger problem.

It’s not that huge participation does not bring its own problems, especially in case of workshops where the number of participants exceed the limits specified by the departments and one has to go to the department every other day to talk things over with HOD Sir so that all those people can be accommodated. But one must admit that hosting workshops proved a tad bit easier than the events or guest lectures because in case of workshops, taking the participants to the departments on time and providing food packets to the professors and department staff pretty much sums up the job of the student organizers. The rest is taken care of by the departments. However, organizing a quiz event where there is huge participation and all the questions need to be framed by the organizers is totally something different. It leads to a different kind of depression when you can only frame about twenty questions sitting and toiling day-in and day-out in the library while your brilliant co-organizer seems to be conjuring up tens of never-heard-of God level questions right out of thin air; questions which even the other organizers can’t answer. Then on the final day you have no spectators and many of the participants give you defeated looks even before their turn comes up because apparently, they never heard of such questions!

Edufest is a grand event coming with its own grand problems- projectors not working, rain hampering your plans, a huge mob of medicos attacking the chief guest with cameras because they want to take photos with him, non-cooperating co-organizers and lack of bouquets and medals on time. But when the event ends one realizes that every effort they put in was worth it- because during these few days one experiences medicine with its own majestic grandeur, one listens to lectures which inspire and face questions which challenge their wits at every turn and builds memories worth remembering for a lifetime.

Many people might be wondering about the title of this blog. To them I will say, I initially planned to name this as “An aquarium of squalling medicos” but then thought better of it, because when we heard the banner name of our edufest, this is what most of could think of! Of course, the guy who came up with this name has stopped replying to people’s texts ever since.

Photo courtesy: Dip Mondal

Photo courtesy: Suchishubhra Roy