News Archive

NEWS - ARCHIVES
BATCH OF 95 SWEEPS CMC PG SEATS!!!
FEB 7
Proud and extremely happy are we to belong to this batch of 1995 who made
a real sweep of the cmc pg seats in this years entrance.
To start of we have
4 in medicine - Anoop, Binila, Chrispal and Harikishan.
2 in Surgery - Ajay Raju, Nirmal
1 in Neurosurgery M.Ch - Tony
1 in Radiodiagnosis - Elsa in M.D.
1in Path - Priya in M.D.
3 in opthal - Jeyanth in M.S. , Synthia and James in D.Opthal
2 in anesthesia - Georgene in MD, and Anita in D.A.
1 in D.Ortho- Abhay
1 in DGO-Karuna
That leaves CMC with few subjects we have not touched on –
Let us remeber the rest of our classmates in our prayers for their forthcoming
success.
MESHACH WEDS SHEEBA, ABHAY WEDS BINILA
Dec 26
That sure was a bright day to be in Chennai to witness Meshach's wedding. 26th morning was the engagement between Meshach Peter BalaSingam and Sheeba Magdalene Thangamani. Sheeba has just finished her MBBS and internship from Chennai. The wedding was in the evening 5pm at The St.Paul Church, Choolai. There again was a good 14 people from our batch - well this time i am specifically NOT writing their names in alphabetical order since last time i did that i did get into a little trouble- Rose, Anita, Gopi, Hari, Synthia, Aparanjit, Tony, Priya, Rama, Basu, Rashmi, Satheesh,Deepak, Vinod, Muthu - did I count wrongly?!
Well There wewre a lot of interesting happenings in the wedding that is wroth relishing. Like for example, Meshachs lips were noticably more pink than Sheeba during the engagement - but were alright for the marraige! After the actual mangalyam ceremony, Meshach and Sheeba had to sign in the Register. This took quite sometime and we were wondering if Meshach were drawing his ever so famous stars in the register! And to crown it all was the Bride grroms reply to the toast , When the Silent meshach had his punchline by saying that he has never thanked his parents before and so now he takes his opportunity to thank his parents for all things beginning from their decision to have a second kid (meshach has a elder sis) till finding a girl for him. The reception was enjoyable and the food was very good. Only poor Rashmi was so tense during the rest of the time not having got her due call from Sachin on the mobile. Ten of us started back to vellore via train. Aparanjit once again was lost(!!) in the station - hope he reached Nellore safely. Somehow we managed to catch a cubicle in the Unreserved compartment of Mysore mail as even Vinod who wanted to leave by the Banglaore mail earlier could not find an inch to stand, leave alone Muthu who apparently wanted to accompany him. Finally we all reached Vellore. That was another memorable day.
Abhay - Binila wedding was on the 30th of Decmeber in Pune. Apart from Anugrah, Elsa, Renjith and Pankaj, there was also Arpit , Shiji, Satheesh and Rama at the wedding. Incidentally 31st is Binila's birthday! They are coming to vellore soon in view of the forthcoming entrance exams.
SHOCKS AND SURPRISES - FINALLY ALLS WELL THAT ENDS WELL!!
Feb 20
What a lot of Shocks and surprises this month brought to us! Few days before the entrance exam Vinodh had visited Ortho with complains of backache. Investigations including a CT , MRI and bone scan revealed a lytic leasion on the iliac bone which had soft tissue density and it was noticed infiltrating the surrounding soft tissue and also had some bone spicules in it. The Shock was that the first differential put down by the radiologist was Reticulum cell sarcoma. A CT guided biopsy of the lesion was reported to consist of necrotic tissue. So he went in for a Open biopsy under GA - to rule out a malignancy. The surprise was that it turned out to be TB and he is fine now, back to work. The second shock was even worser.
Unsuspectingly, Abhay, while waiting for Binila to finish her preemployment CXR after his turn, Came to look at his own pre-employment CXR and found something abnormal about the mediastinal contour, that was obviously not there in the last CXR he had taken about an year ago. The next day he had a CT of the Thorax and was found to have what was described as a large anterior mediastinal mass extending all the way from the left upper lobe to pericardium with loss of plane with the great vessels and the pericardium with cystic and solid areas in it. The radiologist again had put down a differential of it being most likely malignant. In his case due to the proximity of the great vessels a CT guided biopsy was not attempted. Last monday he was poasted for a median sternotomy, biopsy-> frozen section-> with lateral thoracotomy excision of the anterior mediastinal mass. The surprise was that the frozen section showed TB. He is convalescing from the surgery in CMCH.
Thank God for the LORD works in Mysterious ways to let us know He is there for us!
KOTAMMA ANNOUNCES HER WEDDING
Feb 10
Kotamma invites Batch of 95 for her wedding with Vittal on 21st Feb, 2003 at Chirala 10.00am, followed by a reception on the 26th Feb at the P.M.P.Dhanalakshmi Mahal, Sathuvachari, Vellore - 632009.
A NEW YEAR 2003
Dec 31
2002 - a year of mixed feelings for us as a batch and individually too. Most of us away from home and friends working in remote areas struggling with work, administration patients and ofcourse books too. For a few this proved a year of success and fresh beginnings like PG courses, getting married, etc. For many it was a year of longing, for the end of bond, to meet old(!?) friends, to make a new beginning... Whatever it may be, yet another year has passed, and here we are entering a new year - a year that begins with new ray of hope.
Wishing all of you a great new year 2003 full of happiness and success in all that u do
luv, Basu
MANISH DUGAR RETURNS TO INDIA
DEC 01
Manish Dugar returned to India on the 1st of December after a 6-week exchange program at the Maastricht University of The Netherlands. More details soon!
THE TADPOLE TALKS OF MARRIAGES...
Hey looks like Decemeber and Jan are the marriage seasons for our class...not only that Abhay and Binila are getting married or for that matter, Meshach and Sheeba, but a whole lot of others are sure planning to ... happy to note that Rashmi Jesudas did get engaged to someone sometime ago in November...and nobody here knew about it, and so did Pankaj get engaged to someone...or is it plain rumour I have no clue!! For sure Smitha will get engaged sometime next month to someone familiar and of course Abhay and Binila did get engaged awhile ago. And if u know more ...do lemme know friends!!
VELLORE VISITED
Vellore seems to be brimming with visitors from our batch this time. To start of Abhay did visit about 2-3 times. We even had a class party at China Town. So did Synthia Rachel ,( who was ofcourse called by the LIQ watchman as Synthia Ration!) land up to apply for entrance . Abhay did inform all officially about the wedding but the cards are yet to out. Then comes the unexpected Suman Paul, cheerful and happy and ofcourse a few kilos heavier than when she left (people gain weight when they are really happy or really lazy!!), paying a short visit. The even more unheard of Lady of our batch...landed up ever so silently but did get caught on the roadside was Suceena, the above mentoned description fits in, only to add onto it , "a lil bit confused". Quite the contrary was another unexpected visitor, Ajay; did anyone knew he came and went?? He sure was cheerful and happy but looked like lost a lil bit of weight, a seem to have regained his old charm , especially having shaven of that frenchie or something like that, that he had. And ofcourse after a long time the ever so Kadi Priya came to Vellore, not a bit changed i should say. So guess who was the last one on the list, Kiran moses...i havent seen him to say how he was but a/c to sources from our class that spotted him did tell us he has become "UNCLE BUN". (Well all the humour -that is if u did find any - is borrowed and nothing original from the authour!!) That is it for time being...waiting eagerly for the homecoming of the Great Bong and ofcourse the weddings and New Year to see u all.
CLASS PARTY AGAIN & ABHAY ANNOUNCES HIS WEDDING
Sep 29
Abhay had landed up in vellore for yet another short visit (Kolar is only 41/2 hours from vellore by bus through a beautiful scenic route). There was a get together of nine of us in Darling Residency Hotel Roof Top for a dinner. Once again I got to know that Abhay was there almost by anaccident ...u see it is hardly ever that Gopinath contacts me in my phone...that sure is an accident! Well there was apparently a plan already made to go to CT for a dinner, this time was an elaborate group of nine of us. The places were all booked in CT- atleast that is what we thought. Only when we wnet there we saw a huge crowd..it was so claustrophobic and sweaty first of all and to add on came the stupid reply of the manager that "sir, u had booke dthe tables but they got filled!!" How stupid...infact it was good we finally decided to go to Darling with Deepak and Vinodh helping us with their cars. Abhay, Abha, Basu, Deepak, Gopi, Manish, Premila, Muthu&Vinodh (strictly in alphabetical order!!!) Harikishan had gone of to Mahabs with the juniors!! (is something working out harry??) and Jeyanth was busy with some work with the -in-laws. And abrar as usual nobody knew. As for Chitra, she has the habit of choosing the right weekends to go home! Jeeva---ooops she wasnt coming! So did we manage to squeeze in two cars and reached the Roof top. Only to realsie that we sure had to wait for some more time to get a seat. What to say with a whole lot of CMCites there, some in their families, some in their just made families, some in their going to be made families and some in their yet to be made extended families with BILs and SILs(only those who were there would understand i guess!!). Wed idd get to the grub only by 10.30pm, But as the gassing went on nobody did feel so hungry (ofocurse the great divide in our class still exisited all through the whole thing) That was when Abhay announced that he will be marrying Binila on the 30th of December at Pune. There were some sweets from Manish's home too. All through the whole thing wonder why Gopi was dull and looking ?*?*sick. Well then we were so irritated with the service that Bong decide not to give any tip to the fellow. Finally we did have a nice desert at the end in Maharani's inspite of threats of Hepatitis spreading through thier icecreams -not that the HICC officer bothered about it...what can u sau if his own pager grew Enterococci!!! Well that was how the party was...so when u guys do come out here we ll all have one more guys! Till then hold on to ur books!
MESHACH WEDS SHEEBA, ABHAY WEDS BINILA
Dec 26
That sure was a bright day to be in Chennai to witness Meshach's wedding. 26th morning was the engagement between Meshach Peter BalaSingam and Sheeba Magdalene Thangamani. Sheeba has just finished her MBBS and internship from Chennai. The wedding was in the evening 5pm at The St.Paul Church, Choolai. There again was a good 14 people from our batch - well this time i am specifically NOT writing their names in alphabetical order since last time i did that i did get into a little trouble- Rose, Anita, Gopi, Hari, Synthia, Aparanjit, Tony, Priya, Rama, Basu, Rashmi, Satheesh,Deepak, Vinod, Muthu - did I count wrongly?!
Well There wewre a lot of interesting happenings in the wedding that is wroth relishing. Like for example, Meshachs lips were noticably more pink than Sheeba during the engagement - but were alright for the marraige! After the actual mangalyam ceremony, Meshach and Sheeba had to sign in the Register. This took quite sometime and we were wondering if Meshach were drawing his ever so famous stars in the register! And to crown it all was the Bride grroms reply to the toast , When the Silent meshach had his punchline by saying that he has never thanked his parents before and so now he takes his opportunity to thank his parents for all things beginning from their decision to have a second kid (meshach has a elder sis) till finding a girl for him. The reception was enjoyable and the food was very good. Only poor Rashmi was so tense during the rest of the time not having got her due call from Sachin on the mobile. Ten of us started back to vellore via train. Aparanjit once again was lost(!!) in the station - hope he reached Nellore safely. Somehow we managed to catch a cubicle in the Unreserved compartment of Mysore mail as even Vinod who wanted to leave by the Banglaore mail earlier could not find an inch to stand, leave alone Muthu who apparently wanted to accompany him. Finally we all reached Vellore. That was another memorable day.
Abhay - Binila wedding was on the 30th of Decmeber in Pune. Apart from Anugrah, Elsa, Renjith and Pankaj, there was also Arpit , Shiji, Satheesh and Rama at the wedding. Incidentally 31st is Binila's birthday! They are coming to vellore soon in view of the forthcoming entrance exams
RASHMI, RENJITH AND GEETHA SANGEETHA PREPARE TO GET MARRIED!
Nov 28
So did finally Rashmi had to come out in open to say that she is gonna get maaried to Sachin, her own third cousin , who is a software engineer from Hyderabad, currently in US. There was a get together (which Rashmi denies to be an engagement as that would take place only the day before the wedding.) The wedding itself is in Jan 24th or 26th. Date will be confirmed later, said the cheerful and happy Rashmi.
And there came the news of Renjith's wedding - from the unlikely source Kiran Moses (who currenlty is doing Non-PG in Radiology Dept in CMCH). Ofcourse it is true that he is getting married to a girl from Ottapalam, who has done BA lit, and the marriage is on Feb 3rd at Ottapalam, about 8 hrs from Vellore. (To note that CMC entrance is unfortunately on the Feb 4th and so atleast whoever is not writing should surely make it to the wedding).
Geetha Sangeetha's wedding was an incidental finding considering the fact that we got to know of it from a wedding invitation for the batch of 96 put up in the MIQ notice board - she is getting married to Dr. Giridharan , an anesthesiologist in Tamilnadu Govt Service. The wedding is in Chennai on the 15th of December.
THE LITTLE BIRDIE COOS...
As I sat one morning in my corner of the world, a little bird landed on my doorstep. I asked the bird, Where are you coming from? Said the bird in reply, I have been roaming the country from the north to the south, the east to the west, the northeast to the southwest, the northwest to the southeast, (OK, OK, I wont bore you). So I asked the bird, Have you seen any of my classmates? The bird said, Yes, I have. Obviously my next question was, Tell me what is happening! Here follows an account given by the bird.
In Vellore, So much is happening. There is a new building that you cannot miss (That is stale news, I thought). I almost banged into it!! Dr George Chandy has taken over as Director of CMC. The wards are as busy as ever. And I did hear that Cupid made a recent trip to two of your classmates in Vellore (To my disappointment, the bird said that as it was short- sighted and had broken its glasses and forgotten its contact lenses, it couldnt give me their names!! Well, Cupid has shot his arrow again and the arrow has pierced the target!! Good luck to both of you!!). All your class is busy learning hard for their entrance exams. Manish is in Holland, Basu is terrorizing the interns, Muthu is having a difficult and bloody time in blood bank, Jeeva is respiring in respiratory medicine, Premy and Vinodh are working intensively and extensively in the intensive care unit, Gopi controlling Hospital infection control, Deepak in LCECU, Jeyanth is frightening students to death in Anat, hari petrifying them in Biochem, Chitra casual in casualty, Abha kidding the kids in paeds.
What about the other parts of the world (Being in a corner and shortsighted, my world is small indeed!)?
Near by, the phone lines are busy between Ranipet and Hyderabad! And did I see somebody at eye level as I flew through cloud nine! (Congrats!!) And of course there was love flying between Kerala and Vellore too, Being short sighted I almost banged into it before I saw it. May be I need brain surgery!!(God bless you!). The trains between Tenkasi and Chennai are always booked and I dont even get place to perch on the top (waiting for the card. All the best.) In the north, recently were two engagements one Dr Pankaj with an architect and Drs. Abhay and Binila. (Building new bridges!! All the very best!) It was nice chatting with you! I have to go back to my wandering again. Will be back with more news soon!
So that is what a little bird said in my ear this morning!! Bye till the bird is back again!!
- from The Little Flower
RASHMI, RENJITH AND GEETHA SANGEETHA PREPARE TO GET MARRIED!
Nov 28
So did finally Rashmi had to come out in open to say that she is gonna get maaried to Sachin, her own third cousin , who is a software engineer from Hyderabad, currently in US. There was a get together (which Rashmi denies to be an engagement as that would take place only the day before the wedding.) The wedding itself is in Jan 24th or 26th. Date will be confirmed later, said the cheerful and happy Rashmi.
And there came the news of Renjith's wedding - from the unlikely source Kiran Moses (who currenlty is doing Non-PG in Radiology Dept in CMCH). Ofcourse it is true that he is getting married to a girl from Ottapalam, who has done BA lit, and the marriage is on Feb 3rd at Ottapalam, about 8 hrs from Vellore. (To note that CMC entrance is unfortunately on the Feb 4th and so atleast whoever is not writing should surely make it to the wedding).
Geetha Sangeetha's wedding was an incidental finding considering the fact that we got to know of it from a wedding invitation for the batch of 96 put up in the MIQ notice board - she is getting married to Dr. Giridharan , an anesthesiologist in Tamilnadu Govt Service. The wedding is in Chennai on the 15th of December.
THE LITTLE BIRDIE COOS...
As I sat one morning in my corner of the world, a little bird landed on my doorstep. I asked the bird, Where are you coming from? Said the bird in reply, I have been roaming the country from the north to the south, the east to the west, the northeast to the southwest, the northwest to the southeast, (OK, OK, I wont bore you). So I asked the bird, Have you seen any of my classmates? The bird said, Yes, I have. Obviously my next question was, Tell me what is happening! Here follows an account given by the bird.
In Vellore, So much is happening. There is a new building that you cannot miss (That is stale news, I thought). I almost banged into it!! Dr George Chandy has taken over as Director of CMC. The wards are as busy as ever. And I did hear that Cupid made a recent trip to two of your classmates in Vellore (To my disappointment, the bird said that as it was short- sighted and had broken its glasses and forgotten its contact lenses, it couldnt give me their names!! Well, Cupid has shot his arrow again and the arrow has pierced the target!! Good luck to both of you!!). All your class is busy learning hard for their entrance exams. Manish is in Holland, Basu is terrorizing the interns, Muthu is having a difficult and bloody time in blood bank, Jeeva is respiring in respiratory medicine, Premy and Vinodh are working intensively and extensively in the intensive care unit, Gopi controlling Hospital infection control, Deepak in LCECU, Jeyanth is frightening students to death in Anat, hari petrifying them in Biochem, Chitra casual in casualty, Abha kidding the kids in paeds.
What about the other parts of the world (Being in a corner and shortsighted, my world is small indeed!)?
Near by, the phone lines are busy between Ranipet and Hyderabad! And did I see somebody at eye level as I flew through cloud nine! (Congrats!!) And of course there was love flying between Kerala and Vellore too, Being short sighted I almost banged into it before I saw it. May be I need brain surgery!!(God bless you!). The trains between Tenkasi and Chennai are always booked and I dont even get place to perch on the top (waiting for the card. All the best.) In the north, recently were two engagements one Dr Pankaj with an architect and Drs. Abhay and Binila. (Building new bridges!! All the very best!) It was nice chatting with you! I have to go back to my wandering again. Will be back with more news soon!
So that is what a little bird said in my ear this morning!! Bye till the bird is back again!!
- from The Little Flower
MANISH DUGAR RETURNS TO INDIA
DEC 01
Manish Dugar returned to India on the 1st of December after a 6-week exchange program at the Maastricht University of The Netherlands. More details soon!
THE TADPOLE TALKS OF MARRIAGES...
Hey looks like Decemeber and Jan are the marriage seasons for our class...not only that Abhay and Binila are getting married or for that matter, Meshach and Sheeba, but a whole lot of others are sure planning to ... happy to note that Rashmi Jesudas did get engaged to someone sometime ago in November...and nobody here knew about it, and so did Pankaj get engaged to someone...or is it plain rumour I have no clue!! For sure Smitha will get engaged sometime next month to someone familiar and of course Abhay and Binila did get engaged awhile ago. And if u know more ...do lemme know friends!!
MANISH LEAVES TO HOLLAND
Oct13
Manish, who has been allowed to go to Holland Universtiy of Maastricht for an exchange program has finally caught the flight from Chennai to Amsterdam via London today morning. Kumar N. of batch of 96, has gone along with Manish to the Dutch country. (Prakash Oommen has also been selected for the same and is going by his own plans!!??). Manish will be staying in Europe for a period of 6 weeks, with classes only twice a week they hope to tour as many of the 13 european countries the chengen visa permits and also United Kingdom. There hopefully will be a time to time update on the holland trip (with photos if possible) in the special news section. Have a safe and successful journey Bongaa!!
VELLORE VISITED
Vellore seems to be brimming with visitors from our batch this time. To start of Abhay did visit about 2-3 times. We even had a class party at China Town. So did Synthia Rachel ,( who was ofcourse called by the LIQ watchman as Synthia Ration!) land up to apply for entrance . Abhay did inform all officially about the wedding but the cards are yet to out. Then comes the unexpected Suman Paul, cheerful and happy and ofcourse a few kilos heavier than when she left (people gain weight when they are really happy or really lazy!!), paying a short visit. The even more unheard of Lady of our batch...landed up ever so silently but did get caught on the roadside was Suceena, the above mentoned description fits in, only to add onto it , "a lil bit confused". Quite the contrary was another unexpected visitor, Ajay; did anyone knew he came and went?? He sure was cheerful and happy but looked like lost a lil bit of weight, a seem to have regained his old charm , especially having shaven of that frenchie or something like that, that he had. And ofcourse after a long time the ever so Kadi Priya came to Vellore, not a bit changed i should say. So guess who was the last one on the list, Kiran moses...i havent seen him to say how he was but a/c to sources from our class that spotted him did tell us he has become "UNCLE BUN". (Well all the humour -that is if u did find any - is borrowed and nothing original from the authour!!) That is it for time being...waiting eagerly for the homecoming of the Great Bong and ofcourse the weddings and New Year to see u all.
CLASS PARTY AGAIN & ABHAY ANNOUNCES HIS WEDDING
Sep 29
Abhay had landed up in vellore for yet another short visit (Kolar is only 41/2 hours from vellore by bus through a beautiful scenic route). There was a get together of nine of us in Darling Residency Hotel Roof Top for a dinner. Once again I got to know that Abhay was there almost by anaccident ...u see it is hardly ever that Gopinath contacts me in my phone...that sure is an accident! Well there was apparently a plan already made to go to CT for a dinner, this time was an elaborate group of nine of us. The places were all booked in CT- atleast that is what we thought. Only when we wnet there we saw a huge crowd..it was so claustrophobic and sweaty first of all and to add on came the stupid reply of the manager that "sir, u had booke dthe tables but they got filled!!" How stupid...infact it was good we finally decided to go to Darling with Deepak and Vinodh helping us with their cars. Abhay, Abha, Basu, Deepak, Gopi, Manish, Premila, Muthu&Vinodh (strictly in alphabetical order!!!) Harikishan had gone of to Mahabs with the juniors!! (is something working out harry??) and Jeyanth was busy with some work with the -in-laws. And abrar as usual nobody knew. As for Chitra, she has the habit of choosing the right weekends to go home! Jeeva---ooops she wasnt coming! So did we manage to squeeze in two cars and reached the Roof top. Only to realsie that we sure had to wait for some more time to get a seat. What to say with a whole lot of CMCites there, some in their families, some in their just made families, some in their going to be made families and some in their yet to be made extended families with BILs and SILs(only those who were there would understand i guess!!). Wed idd get to the grub only by 10.30pm, But as the gassing went on nobody did feel so hungry (ofocurse the great divide in our class still exisited all through the whole thing) That was when Abhay announced that he will be marrying Binila on the 30th of December at Pune. There were some sweets from Manish's home too. All through the whole thing wonder why Gopi was dull and looking ?*?*sick. Well then we were so irritated with the service that Bong decide not to give any tip to the fellow. Finally we did have a nice desert at the end in Maharani's inspite of threats of Hepatitis spreading through thier icecreams -not that the HICC officer bothered about it...what can u sau if his own pager grew Enterococci!!! Well that was how the party was...so when u guys do come out here we ll all have one more guys! Till then hold on to ur books!
ARPIT FROM STOCKHOLM
Sep24
Arpit who had bben to Stockholm, to attend the EUROPEAN RESPIRATORY SOCIETY CONFERENCE ANDSYMPOSIUM for a presentation about the DOTS programme of his hospital had returned this week home and was in Vellore for 2 days. His presenataion was excellent and widely appreciated (did I hear that he got a consultation call from some hospital out there) He had been all over stockholm and then to liverpool and London, wherehe happened to meet Sameer for a short while. Arpit was also being approached by a lot many people for collaborating international studies and he has done proud to all of us! Kepp it up Arpit!!!
MESHACH ENGAGED!
Meshach is getting ready to get married the end of this year fiancée is Ms.Sheeba doing her internship in Chennai. Will no fo more details as they comekeep watching!
NEW CONTACT NUMBERS AT VELLORE
All Vellore numbers have been upgraded from 6 digits to 7 digits..all u need to do is to add on a 2 in front of the individual numbers. So call cmc at 0416 2222102 or 0416 2262603. Call Manish at 0416 2216211 or Basu at 0416 2226426 (for those who didnt know this is my phone number in my room.. call anytime..if u r lucky u will catch me), and so on
ARPIT AT STOCKHOLM INTERNATIONAL TB CONFERENCE
SEP17
Arpit, working in Tumbagara, had the opportunity to present his research on how the Tb programme in their hospital, called DOST, fared better than the DOTS scheme developed by the WHO in an International TB Conference at STOCKHOLM this month. He was selected few of the people to represent India in the conference. He had left to Stockholm earlier this month. In a personal mail he had informed that the presentation infact went on very well and that now he is being approached by many to collaborate a lot more studies in the same topic at an interantional level. He will be coming back by the last week of this month and will leave to Tumbagara immediately. Great going Arpit from all of us here!!
SUJOY CHATS FROM WALES
SEP16
Sujoy had reached UK long back after he cleared the PLAB. Many didnt have a clue to his whereabouts, though quite a few here had contacts with him that were not openly revealed for reasons unclear to me. Any way i happen to catch him on the net through the messenger and here is some info for all of us! He is currently doing his medicine residency in the Department of Internal Medicine of Withybush General Hospital of Haverfordhsire in Wales, UK. In his own words about the place, "It is a very nice set up out hereeverything is free for the patientsso there is no need to deal with money matters and waste your head over it. NHS is free for everybody. For eg., I got my varicella vacine soon as they found out I had no titres, in the routine check up. We have fax machines between wards for quick communication of written instructions and information to the staff and other doctors. But I never get to go out, life is busy and duties are difficult. The Networking and time factor are excellent out here, for eg., some days ago, a lady came with paracetamol overdose at 12mn within 6am she was in Burmingham for a liver transplant. We have Helipad services for emergency. We got a helipad beside my room - very noisy when the thing brings in patients This is a freaky place but equally demanding. Also ther are a lot of policies and litigations. Imagine I have got my own lawyers, £52/year, just to continue registration!!!"...in gist of what he said about his work place.
Sameer is there in Wales with Sujoy having joined the Advanced Life Support Course.
Heard that Anila had come over to London to write her PLAB part 2.
That is about what he said during the chat...(ofcourse it was heavily censored and edited to make it all presentable for us ....:-))
MARY'S WEDDING - A DOUBLE ACCOUNT
SEP13
This article is a bit late as it comes well after the event and most of you would have heard it from somebody who was there. The place was Kirk church in Chennai. The date, the 27th of June, 2002.Amd the event, the solemnisation of the marriage vows of Dr. Mary Jessie Sumithra with Mr. Jonathan Dawson (who, thanks to our webmaster had a christening too).
The guests entered the church on the appointed date at the appointed time to find a game of cricket going on in earnest in the area in front of the church. after a moment of hesitation to ascertain if they were in the right place, they entered the
church. We will stick to the group of 95ites who attended.They met inside
the church while awaiting a slightly late but beautiful and radiant bride.The ceremony went on in the traditional manner. A point to note is that a few from Vellore made it just in time (for the Amen)!
After the wedding our target group made its way, albeit after much coaxing and very slowly indeed to the reception hall only to find that though the hall was big the crowd was even bigger! As there appeared to be no signs of the start of the function the girls decided to go for a drink but were brought up short at the door by the sight of the couple coming in. A second attempt towards the end of the function was more successful and they managed to get in some fluid but only at the cost of Arpit losing his cool as he thought he was about to miss his train, which by the way was about 3hrs later and sending a bevy of guys to hunt for the girls and bring them back. After meeting the couple and giving gifts (Mary was flying so high she probably did not know who we were), the group managed as usual to find comfortable seats and have a wonderful dinner after which it was indeed time to split which we did -at the same time earning Jeyanth his second penalty of the day when he tried to do his good deed for the day by dropping the girls off but managed to either misunderstand the directions or had a sudden
illusion that his car was a bus and entered the entryway meant only for buses! His earlier one was for driving through a red light! And the worst part was that he had left his license at home!! Everybody double check if you've made all your confessions before you hitch a ride Ha, Ha, Ha!!
Anita's parents who had come for the wedding too joined this group. Thanks, Uncle and aunty, for all your help. We had a nice time!!
To Sumithra and Jonathan Dawson, here's wishing you all thevery best in life now and always. Do keep in touch.Love, 95.
HERE IS THE SECOND ACCOUNT:
It was yet another memorable day in the annals of the batch of '95. A day were a joyful union of two hearts was made. A day which will forever change the lives of two wonderful people. I landed up in Chennai greeted by a pleasant morning, with he sun slowly but effectively clearing the darkness, jump starting the day. I was in for a good share of fun for the day. It started with a mix up with myself landing up in YMCA instead of the Salvation Army creating a bit of confusion before getting things right (good ol' me I suppose).
It was nearing noon before i got news about the others guy's arrival. Gops, Vinod, Deepak, Peter, Jeyanth, Arpit, Hari, Rama, Anita, Anila, Synthia, Muthu, Priya, Rashmi, fourteen in all. The morning session witnessed less than half of the crowd but the Vellore gang made it in time for the event of the day. The days event also included Jeyanth peeling off 50Rs to wave away a traffic cop for jumping a red light. But for the record i must add that it wasnt his fault, he just happened to pass the line when the light changed its colour. Couple of hours at Spencers, a bit of shopping found most of us hopping towards the Church, not to miss the wedding. There was Mary Jessie all smiles, beaming, the star of the show, cynosure of all the eyes in the vicinity. The bridegroom was no less a star. Looking at the photos, as I am writing this, I must add they do make a wonderful couple. I can also see a few wannabes in the background in our class too.
When the time for the families to speak about the couple came, there was no lack in both the sides trying to pull the couple's legs. But for Mary it was all praise. Quite a few things I learnt about the other facet of Mary. It was a proud day for the parents.
Arpit was running late for his train up north, most of us going to Vellore, it was soon time to bade farewell. Saying bye was always hard but everyone there were no ordinary people. We had our responsibilities and life to build. God bless us all and especially Mary and Jonathan.
THE HOLLAND TRIP IS ON THIS TIME AND MANISH CATCHES THE BOEING THIS TIME!
SEP 11
Dear guys. This is to share the happy news that this time Manish from our Batch will indeed go to Holland ( as a part of the honour of the Best Outgoing Student award from our batch) If u did remeber last year Abhay and Manish
were selected for the trip but could not make it because of the visa restrictions in the wake of the September 11 incident. This time however the Maastricht University agreed to take in three instead of the ususal two candidates from CMC, Vellore. And so along with Kumar N., and Prakash Oommen, Manish Dugar from BATCH OF 95 will be going to Holland as an Exchange student for a 6 week course. I just got the news from Manish who had gone to Mumbai to attend the live interview for visa approval from the Dutch Counsulate at Mumbai, that his visa has indeed been approved. He will be back in Vellore by 13th night. Wish him all the very best for a safe and wonderful journey to Holland and back.
ABHAY - BINILA WEDDING MAY BE IN DECEMEBER 2002
SEP10
Just got to hear from very reliable sources that Abhay and Binila may get married in December most probably. The marriage will be in Pune , I guess. The official news is not yet out but this is for u guys!
SUMAN WEDS ANU AN ACCOUNT!
Here is an account of one who visited Kerala, to be specific, Kozhencherry, one day in August to witness the wedding of one Miss. Suman to a Mr. Anu! It was a bit cloudy on the 19th of August, 2002, but considering the fact that it had been raining cats and dogs (not to mention plenty of water) the previous day, we were very lucky! We met on the station and after a quick breakfast at the station (we decided not to risk Smitha's culinary efforts though we are sure they are great) we were driven in style in a car to change and make ourselves presentable. By the time we decided we looked passable, at least enough that they would not chuck us out of the wedding hall, we were late and arrived in the true CMC style - just in time for the tying of the Thaali (mangal sutra). Here we met Surya and Ani! After the service we were just making our break for the reception hall hoping for food when Suman caught Smitha and we were posing for snaps after which Suman embarrassed us with-Now you can go eat!! We did get to the banquet hall only to find it closed (we were to wait for the couple!). To pass the time we had some juice (of course there was a competition as to who had more glasses - Shiji having joined us by then!) Everyone being as impatient as we were - the doors were opened early whereupon we were carried by the tide of people (Suman and Anu - you do have many relatives and well wishers) into the hall where we found place to sit. There our hearts were gladdened to find at least a few people even more impatient than us who began attacking the food with gusto before the couple made their entrance. (Needless to say, we followed their lead and so did half the crowd present!). The food was excellent. After much licking of lips and fingers we reluctantly got up to go congratulate and wish Suman and Anu the very best in life. We found them posing for a lot of snaps most of which to our confusion were being taken from the back! After intelligently and gently pointing this out to Suman (who for the most part was up in the numerous clouds that sailed by in the Kerala sky) we got front views of ourselves taken after which it was time to break up the party. We said our goodbyes with the usual promises of writing to each other. It was wonderful to be together again.
To Suman and Anu - thanks for inviting us to be a part of your wedding and patiently tolerating all that we did. Here's wishing you the very best that life has to offer - love joy, happiness, peace, dreams that come true and of course any thing that you wish for (sounds a bit like the genie in Alladin's lamp, doesn't it?). Take care and keep in touch!
VELLORE VISITED
SEP1
Well the list grows bigger by the momentof course I did tell u of anita and Pankaj visiting on account of class anniversary and 2002 MBBS selections. Well then Dinakar does keep coming and the surprise visitor this time was Tonywho just dropped in for a few hours on his way to Chennai just to say hi to all. And Arpit made two trips one for a short period of few hours that nobody knew about and the other one for quite a few days before he reaches Stockholm to present a paper on How the Tb programme they practiced in their hospital at Tumbagara fared better than the DOTS programme as a part of a large symposium on Tuberculosis. Kudos to you Arpit!! Abhay came and went and came and went and came and wentI did happen to see him once but I keep hearing more from his brother(Ajay Gahukamble is working in casualty as CMO) that he came and went so many times (I guess I am too busy nowadays!). Of course Georgene came silently and went..nobody except Chnadra singh would know! How can in miss the newly married (atleast only 7 month old ) Anugrah and Elsa who dropped on their way to bangalore and back to Pune from Narsapur. And then comes Kiran, for some special reasons - (keep guessing) - with lot of sweetswhich apparently never reached my mouth from gopinaths room did anybody here in cmc get the sweets da or was it all Gopis feast?!! Well let me just take a breath and wait for the list to grow..
SAMEER REACHES UK CLEARS PLAB
AUG28
Sameer - until sometime ago the ignorant me thought he was still in Vellore Surprised was I - when I heard from someone that he had left to UK long back and that he had already cleared the PLAB examguys am I really being ignorant or that u too never knew?!! And Sameer if u happen to read this please do mail me about your whereabouts and whatabouts
MARY WEDS JONATHAN DAWSON
JUL 27
I AM EXTREMELY SORRY FOR THE FATAL ERROR THAT HAPPENED BECAUSE OF MY FAILING MEMORY WHEN I CONFUSED JONATHAN DAWSON TO JOHNSON. PARDON ME MARY AND JONATHAN AND THE REST OF MY PEOPLE HERE.
I am still waiting to hear from one good soul that went to the marriage to give us an account of what happened therestill waiting hopefull!
By the way.. Mary, or should I call her SUMITHRA DAWSON (that is what she called herself and I had to pull my hair off before I could realize as to who that was!),infuriated by the above mentioned fatal error did send me two emails from her new email address(look up the address page). She has sent one of her wedding snapsOnly ONE! So here it is guys.
Mary, A whole lot of us werent there but we all wish u a happy and prosperous married life. And hey how r u doing out there in USA!...do keep in touch and tell us what u r upto!
BROTHERS IN THE NEW BATCH...
Jul 14
Yet another batch of people from a wide range of surroundings have some together to be a part of the CMC family...and ofcourse it is like a family...what to say with so many relatives of previous CMCites in this batch...we do have our share with Anandit, arpits brother and also Pankaj Vanjare's brother having got through the interview successfully. A special welcome to both of them and a big ALL THE BEST from all of us.
SUJOY REACHES UK
Apr
Sujoy Khan has reached United Kingdom safely for the purpose of PLAB part 2 exams. The exams are around the first week of may and the results are expected soon. All the best Sujoy!!
MADHAVI WEDS NIRMAL
Apr19
Garnepudi Madhavi married Mr.Nirmal, an entrepreneur from Bombay who owns a software firm along with five others. The marriage was in her hometown on 18th April. Wish you a happy married life Madhu!
MARY SHIFTS TO AMBUR
Apr
Mary Jessie had shifted her Bond place to Ambur Bethesda Hospital from the last week of March. She is now much more comfortable with the place and the work atmosphere. She keeps visiting CMC with patients from Ambur every now and then.and did the cuckoo bird tell me that she is getting married soon?!!
VELLORE VISITED
Apr
What to say of a list that never stops...with Dinakar making the regular visits to vellore - now Abhay had come more than once and did anybody know?...well then add on Mary and the ever so silently visiting Georgene. So did finally someone unexpected and unmissable like Anoop lands up it definitely is time for another classparty...you missed it !!
SUJOY CLEARS PLAB PART 2
May 18
Sujoy Khan who had reached UK had successfully cleared PLAB part 2 exam and will shortly be joining work...other details are awaitied!
ALL THE BEST SUJOY!
CLASS ANNIVERSARY
Jul 14
The Batch of 1995 celebrated it class anniversary this year with a simple get together at the China Town for dinner. Manish , Basu, Deepak, Gopinath with his leg sprain and sinusitis, Harikishan with his sunny, Jeyanth rose and FAMILY (read as Anita), Dinakar who was at vellore for the weekend, And later came Vinodh, Muthu and a long time no see Rashmi Jesudas. Ofcourse Premila, Chitra, Abha and Abrar had not been able to attend for several reasons including some confusion regarding invitation....and ofcourse Pankaj Vanjare who came all the way to vellore with his brother for the MBBS entrance interviews, could not attend because he was not feeling well!
It was a nice dinner time we had...remebering all of u while we celebrated the day we all came together...
hope u all had time to remeber us too...HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!
JESSIE WEDS PAUL
May 2002
Here is an account from Anton, who attended Jessie's Wedding.."The day didnt start as i planned. By the time I caught the bus it was well past 10am. The excitement of meeting old pals was a real feel good factor. Courtesy indian roads I made it out in 3 hours flat. Of course I failed to add that the summer was doing no good to the mood. I was trying to replace fluids orally to compete with the active drain from my skin. Trichy wasnt any better than
Madurai, it still was hot as hell.
Reaching the place was a piece of cake, just a stone throw away from the bus stand. Mary, synthia, Meshach and of course Sateesh in his Maruti 800 were summoned to the rendezvous point courtesy portable communicator ( read-cell phone). It sure felt good to get in amidst familiar company. Everyone looked the same just as I remembered them. Sateesh in his no nonsense attitude, synthia in her usual controlled smile and the 'cool dude' Meshach and Mary looked brighter in her looks which was a little intriguing, as for the cause, which was revealed a little later. I missed out the fun the folks had in the morning. They had gone a short tour of Trichy. No sign of the bride to be, "Was getting ready for the marriage" said Mary, of course broking the news that she was in the same boat, tying the knot the next month. So that was the reason for all the brightness.
Lunch wasnt ready yet so we had some tme to kill. Me and Meshach set on an expedition to get a gift for the wedding. Having a cell phone was useful, all of us had so SMS flying around was burning the wire. Me and Meshach made it in time before the lunch was closed. It was past 3pm and the wedding was scheduled in 2 hours.
On our way to the room we picked up the bouquet and dropped it with bride. A short nap, a little freshening up and we were back at the church. There was Jessie all smiles, glowing with happiness. Walks in Jeyanth and Anita just in time.Jeyanth, I must add, has been well looked after by Anita. With his belly showing out i wondered if the was a real Arnold's 'junior' repeat
with reversal of parent role. Sanjay & Rajadoss, and Catherine(96) also made it there.
After the wedding all the gang left to the hall. It was a huge turn out. The highlight of the evening was when he medical superintendent decided to pull the legs of the couple. He expressed surprise over the little romance these two pulled right under his nose, when he prided himself of knowing all the happening in the hospital. Jonas was the M.C. All eyes was on him wondering if he would pull off the same thing his sister has done, in his college. I have heard rumours to support the doubt.
Before we knew it was soon goodbye time with all of us running out of time and duty calling. It was a day well spent. A day to remember and cherish. As Jessie and Paul embark on writing a new chapter in their lives, wishing them Best of Luck we parted on over own journies back home."
RAMA GETS INTO MD GENERAL MEDICINE IN JAM NAGAR
Mar15
Ramakrishnakumar had got into MD general Medicine in Jam nagar, Gujarat. He had got allotment into this college according to his All India PG entrance ranks just days before the counselling was stayed by the court. He has joined in Jam Nagar now and is working there. Work is considerable during the first six months of duration only after which a new batch of students would join. And duty days that come probably once in a week are quite tough to manage. But after six months there is enough time to study and relax for the next two years.
CMC RESULTS OUT - BASU GETS INTO MD GENERAL MEDICINE
The CMC PG entrance exam was conducted on the 5th Feb at Vellore. The Interviews were held on the 7th Feb at the hospital campus. The final results were out at 7.30pm on the 8th Feb. From Batch of 1995 Basu has got in to MD General Medicine Course. The others who got into MD Gen.Med are Kumar N., Kishore Pichamuthu, *Ige Abraham George, *Rajiv Karthik, *Anulekha Mary John. (* refers to sponsored candidates).
Agnihotri Biswas and *Nisha George got in MD Pediatrics.
MS Gen Surgery was bagged by John Banerjea('94), Arun Wesley('93), Vijayakumar (Outside candidate), *Abraham Vincent('93), *Pradeep Ninan ('94), *Rajadoss ('94). MD OG was taken by *Aleyamma, *Priscilla and Miriam. MD radiodiagnosis was taken by *Vinu Moses and Aparna. From 96 batch, apart from Kumar, only Prakash Oommen got into to MD Pathology. Biwas biswas from '93 got in DGO. DMRD went to *Sunithi Mani, *Divyan Paul('93) and George Koshy ('93) . Maria Sajini ('93) got into MS opthalmology. More relevant results will be up soon.
MONSOON WEDDINGS!
DEC 31
From Our special correspondent!:-)
The twin Monsoon weddings at Bangalore and Chennai on the 27th and 28th of December afforded a time for the batch of 95 to get together. In this account of the weddings let us follow a group of girls who attended them!
People started arriving early on dec. 27th. The group arrived at 5:00 am and were welcomed to Bangalore with cards that bore their names. They then had a chocolate drink and mistook the straw-cum-stirrer for a bar of chocolate that was to melt!! Anyway they did get to the frontier management centre in one piece and after refreshments decided to set out to Renols house only to find that they had misplaced the key and were locked out of their room. After a lot of waiting and reading horoscopes and bizarre interpretations the misplaced key was found in safe in the secret compartment of a purse and the group continued on its trip thru Blore. After a tempo ride in a packed to (and more than) capacity tempo they reached Renols house.
At Koshys house a group of people seeing each other after a long time listened to each others stories Antons important posts, Sujiths experiences with treating a cow and treating malaria with lignocaine being among them over and over. Interest, which in the beginning was on getting Abhay to shave off his goatee disappeared when everybody saw Sujiths new look. Comments included he looks like a movie star, a priest, Is there so much drought that you cant afford to spend water to shave?. Anyway after a time of teasing and talking and catching up on old times and a wonderful lunch thanks to koshys parents, the group got back in time to change and attend the wedding. At the wedding they were joined by another group which had had an equally good time at Ajays house.
The wedding was at the frontier management centre and started very much on time and was a very solemn occasion when a lot of advice was given. Elsa as always looked exceptionally lovely!! It was wonderful that nearly half the batch of 95 was there to share in their joy. After this was the reception at which among the speeches was Arpits three minutes where he had everyone laughing to their hearts content and Anugrah going redder by the minute. Elena sang You say it best when you say nothing at all from Elsa to Anugrah which tugged at many a heart! And sure enough Anu had a few words for Elsa in his response which were equally touching! Were sure Elsa heard the rest of it in private! It was a mad rush after this with giving the gifts and dinner and the fight for the changing room between the guys and the girls with a few getting locked up in the bathroom!! After all this they did managed to catch the train (though not with a net).
This afforded another time of fun and laughter playing dumb charades with movies and authors like who flung dung (forgive the intentional spelling error!). Unfortunately everyone crashed out after a few hours waking up only as the train rolled into Chennai central station! After this the compartment was a beehive of activity with each grabbing for their cases and bags finally managing to get out with their luggage. We follow the group, which went to Marys house! (The others went to Basus house and a few to Tambaram.)
At Marys house after refreshments they watched TV topgun and as good as it gets- And then started on their way to Tambaram. They stopped on the way for a pizza and then ended up sleeping all the way to Anitas house which they arrived at after a few wrong turns thanks to expert navigation by those who were awake!! They met the bride, had lunch and then met the bridegroom during the last few hours of his bachelorship. They then reached the church where they met a few more of their batch from Vellore and after listening to the same stories (without getting bored) they settled in for the service in a church decorated with gold paper and angels Jeyanth would probably have called the decorations freaky had he been able to take his eyes off Anita for a moment.
After this was the reception where practically the whole of CMC and Tambaram was present. The couple walked in to the strains of congratulations and celebrations when I tell everyone that youre in love with me... After a wonderful dinner and a few moments on stage with more than half the class present giving gifts, the group took a van to Vellore.
At Vellore was a further time of meeting old friends. There was also a get-together dinner at CT where there was more fun and teasing. The group also had a eat-all-you-can breakfast at Darling residency the next day after which most went without lunch. They attended college chapel service and later in the night took trains to their respective destinations!
At the weddings were announced a few more weddings Karuna with Happy on 14th Jan, Surya on the 16th Jan, Jessie with Paul (batch of 94) on the 17th May.
On the whole the weddings were a wonderful blessed time for all those who attended. Wed like to thank Elsa and her family, Anugrah and his family, Renol and his family, Ajay and his family, Gopi (for the tickets) , Mary and her family, Basu and his family, Anita and her family, Jeyanth and his family for making this time possible and so wonderful. We on behalf of the batch of MCMXCV would also wish Elsa and Anugrah , Jeyanth and Anita a happy, dreamy, wonderful and blessed wedded life. May God shower his choicest blessings on you! Also batch of 95, it was a wonderful time seeing you all again. Yeah 95!!
ARCHANA IN USA
Archana, who left to the US after her wedding (is currently put up at San Francisco) has scored 91 percentile in the Step 2 exam of USMLE. She has informed us that she is currently attending interviews for residency at various medical universities
ALL INDIA RESULTS OUT!!
Feb 19
The All India PG Entrance results were out on 16/2/2002 evening on the net. the results are available at the official aiims website for which link is available from our 95 weblinks page. This time yet another record of sorts from our batch (recollect that amit had secured 11th rank in aiims and got into md gen med there)- Basu secured a 70th rank in all india and the fifth candidate from the chennai centre...one of the highest from cmc candiates for quite some time. Rama secured 575th rank. The other details of how other classmates have done is yet to be known.
CHANGE OF BOND PLACES
Some of our classmates doing their bond have now changed their bond places. Hari is now going to Biochemistry, Abrar to physiology, Jeyanth to Anatomy, Gopi to HICC, Muthulakshmi to Clinical Pathology, Chitra to Casualty, Premila to Medical ICU, and Jeeva has joined Respiratory Medicine. Abhay has shifted his bond to Kolar, Anoop shifted over closer to home at Trichur and Mary will soon be doing her bond at Ambur. Anugrah will be doing his first six months of bond this year in Narsapur with Elsa and the next 6 months both of then will shift over to Pune.
SHISHU BHAVAN MEDICINE FUND HOSTEL AND WATCHMAN FUND FROM BATCH OF 95 BECOMES OPERATIONAL
From the amount collected from a majority of the 95ites internship salary with their consent has now been used to set up a Shishu Bhavan medicine fund (to provide free medicines to the children of Shishu Bhavan using the part of the interest on the endowment fund). The account will be jointly operated by one of our classmates and the Medical superintendent. The details will be put up once available. On the 17th of Feb the Money collected in the same manner from the men interns of batch of 95 for the hostel watchmen and thambis' was distributed. This function was held in the Men's Hostel Union during the Lunch time. Dr. P.J.Kuruvilla, Dr. Thomas John, Dr. Rajesh Jacob(the new resident warden) was there at the function. From our class, Sameer, Gopi, Manish, Rama, Basu, Hari (new Hostel Doc), Deepak, Vinodh, were at the ceremony. The fund was distributed by Dr. P.J.Kuruvilla. There was a special lunch following this.
WEDDING BELLS KEEP RINGING
A series of weddings seem to be the special news for this year, beginning with Karunas and Suryas weddings in January, now follows, Madhavi weds Nirmal (a tall fair entrepreneur who owns a software firm in Bombay) in April, Jessie weds Paul Vedhanayagam (batch of 1994 CMC Vellore) on 27th May, Abrar weds Huda (a MBBS graduate from the Middle East) during the later months of the year, and other rumours talk about the possibility of Meshach getting married by the end of the year. Abhay and Binila have decided on getting married next year only.
ALL INDIA PG ENTRANCE - A NEW TREND?!
JAN 6
This years AIPGEE just concluded. Howazzit? generally there was a mixed response from people who wrote the exam. There is a new trend of asking more clinical scenarios (that are sometimes a little too complicated) than in the previous years. Also the paper figured less number of repitions from previous papers, unlike before. The only problem was that many felt that the new clinical questions needed more time to read them and assimilate the information to provide a correct answer, and thus many found the time inadequate. And ofcourse this is going to be a less scoring paper than previous years, unless somebody got the questions solved before the exam began!!
AIPGEE PAPER LEAK?
JAN 6
Just a day before the AIPGEE the New Delhi police had caught a few people who were actively involved in leaking allindia question papers (fully solved), for a sum of nearly 10-15lakhs, just few days before the actual examination date. There is no clear news as to whether this years paper was leaked out, before the culprits were caught. Details available in the Special Feature Section.
AMIT JOINS FOR GEN. MEDICINE IN AIIMS
DEC 31
Amit, after getting 11th rank in the AIIMS entrance had joined for MD Gen. Medicine in AIIMS on the Dec 19th. He will begin the course from Jan 1st 2002. (Kishore Chandra, who got 13th rank was denied a seat due to non availability of all necessary certificates sisnce he had already joined MD GEN MED in NIMS. He was last heard saying that he will join MD Pharm in PGI CHANDIGARH.)
SUJOY CLEARS PLAB PART 1
DEC 31
Sujoy Khan cleared PLAB part 1 successfully. He had come down to Vellore to receive the result letter. He will be staying on for a while in Vellore and will be taking Part 2 in May 2002. Sameer will be writing his part1 PLAB in March 2002. Anila has just cleared her IELTS test..or atleast that is what the rumours say!!
AIIMS RESULTS OUT! AMIT GETS IN AIIMS!!
Nov 28, Vellore.
The Results of the AIIMS entrance Exam for MD/MS held on the 18th of November 2001 was declared on 28/11/2001 in the official website of AIIMS. Amit Kumar Dutta, (breaking all the records previously known to us), got a whooping 11th rank in the exam and has been called for counselling (seat allotment) on the 14th of December at Delhi. Closely following Amit, is Kishore Chandra from Batch of 1994 who got 13th rank in this exam. Other people who wrote the exam - Basu, Rama, and other seniors did not get selected for the counselling. A happy and relieved man, Amit is now planning to take the PGI exam also (which is held before the counselling date for AIIMS)on Dec 8th. He wants to do either M.D. General Medicine or M.D. Pediatrics and is almost sure of getting in.
This time, following the Supreme court ruling on cancellation of subjectwise reservation for AIIMSonians in AIIMS PG seats and cancellation of the complicated marking system which had previously ensured a 100% reservation for the AIIMSoninans in their PG seats, only 7 previous AIIMS
candidates have been selected for the counselling.
Let us together give a big hand for Amit and also pray for the Basu and Rama who are going to write the PGI entrance exam on the Dec 8th at Chandigarh.
ARCHANA WEDS PRAVEEN
Archana married Praveen, a 29 years old Software engineer, at Hyderabad, on the 23rd of November 2001. Here is a short report from one of our special correspondents who was at the marriage.
"The marriage was a grand ceremony at the TTD kalyana mandapam. We were their on the 22nd itself for the reception. The muhurtam was at 5.48 am the next morning. The marriage itself was attended by Renol, Elsa, Anila. Madhavi, Kiran, Dinakar, Harikishan, and from among our seniors, Magdalene Wesley (better known as Maggie, Batch of 91) and Indira G.(batch of 92). Archie was looking fine in a beautiful red sari and hubby was looking smart in a suit . The marriage was graced by Mr.Nageshwara Rao,veteran Telugu actor and also the father of actor Nagarjuna. The food was really great. The ceremony was quite interesting to watch. After the wedding, we visited moses' in-laws' place in Jubilee Hills, then had lunch at Anila's place. We then did some window shopping in shopper's stop bfore heading to the bus stand and station to leave for our respective destinations."
Photographs will be up soon!
AIIMS PG ENTRANCE AT DELHI
After Sujoy's PLAB in Chennai on the 8th of Nov., it was AIIMS exam for Amit, Basu and Rama. The exam was held on Nov 18th at various schools at Delhi. The estimated number of people who wrote the exam may be nearly 10,000! As usual it was a 200 MCQs paper for a duration of 3 hours. According to many it was a relatively easy and high scoring paper, which is both an advantage and a disadvantage!! They travelled to delhi by the tamilnadu express on the 15th...guess what the whole train was almost filled with doctors only...all spiring to get into some pg course or the other...and that was only the population from tamilnadu and nagpur station!! you can imagine the competition. Well, to their surprise, Amit and Basu found T.J.Nirmal at their exam centre writing the exam "just trying to get the feel of the exams". (for a while there had been no news about him...actually since he had left for bond). The results may be out on 28th of this month. The next exam on the list is PGI Chandigarh, at chandigarh on the 8th December. Let us pray for our classmates' exam!
BANGALORE - CHENNAI TRAIN TICKETS BOOKED!!
OCT 25
Gopinath has booked the tickets for about 20 of us (i.e, those of us who had sent him the money on time) in the Bangalore mail for the travel from Chrispal's wedding (Banglaore) on the 27th December to attend Jeyanth Rose's Wedding at Chennai. The details of the train are given below:
train name: Bangalore Chennai mail
train number:6008
date of journey:27/12/2001
time of departure from Bangalore: 22.30hrs
tentative time of arrival at Chennai: 05.20hrs
(28/12/2001)
Actual fare per head: 165/-
Coach : S12
Birth numbers: 1-20
kindly check whether your ticket has been booked, by contacting Gopi at
Dr. Gopinath K.G.,
RUHSA HOSPITAL
KAVANOOR,
VIA K.V.KUPPAM,
VELLORE DISTRICT
TAMIL NADU- 632209
PHONE-04171-46253 (HOSPITAL)
NOTE THAT THE ACTUAL FARE IS 165 RUPEES. THOSE OF YOU WHO PAID A LESSER AMOUNT (almost everybody had paid either 135/- or 150/- Rs. only) KINDLY MAKE SURE THAT THE EXTRA MONEY BE SENT TO GOPINATH. (Gopi may or may not be coming with us in the train).
PS: The change in the fare is due to the addition of the new "safety surcharge" by the Ministry of railways, Govt. of India
SUJOY BACK IN ASANSOL
Sujoy Khan after finishing his PLAB exam on Nov 8th, left to Asansol and is now residing at his home. The results of the PLAB exam are expected soon. All communications to him be directed to his home (Asansol) address.
EXAMS COME IN A FLURRY!
sujoys plab on nov 8th
AIIMS on nov 18th
PGI on dec 8th
All India on jan 6th
CMC on feb 6th
......goes on till july.
NOV 3
VELLORE VISITED - part V
Well the list keeps coninuing. The latest have been Amarjit Jiwanmal, who had come on a one month trip to train in Blood banking (he is already feeling bored). Closely followed by Anugrah Chrispal, who just came to say HI. And ofcourse, it was a surprise that finally Jeyanth could find some time to come to MIQ after all. Well There were some outings, movies, etc, etc..we had lots of fun here!!. Who is next? Well Archana is coming on 7th and will be here till 10th, to distribute the marriage invitation, as well as to get the recommendation letters for USMLE. Renol who was supposed to come on 10th will not be making it though, Kiran and Dinakar are sure to land up in the second week of Novemebr. And Amit and Basu will be leaving to Delhi for AIIMS pg entrance exam by train on the 15th of November. Are you next to visit vellore? let the webmaster know!
CMC ENTRANCE IN FEB. 2002
CMC forms for the PG entrance were out on the 8th Oct. The exam is scheduled to be held on Feb 5th and not in March as said before. This is because of the fact that the final exams of 97 batch will be in Jan 2002, and the results will be expected in Feb. For the same reason the internship and the bond are all extended in the respective units for one more month.This time there are two new courses - M.D. RADIODIAGNOSIS (1seat) and MD. PMR (1seat). There is no increase in the medicine or peds seats as was expected...apparently due to the fact that any increase in seats needs more prfoessors and creation of additional units. The forms are available at the Carman block on payment of Rs 150 for the main form and Rs 50 for every additional form. The last date of submission of completed forms is on the 30th of November.
HOLLAND TRIP POSTPONED
Manish and Abhay, who were chosen to be sent for the exchange program at MAASTRICHT UNIVERSITY, Holland have had previously left to Mumbai to sort out some problems in the VISA. Manish returned to vellore on 19/10/2001. The latest news is that the VISA is held up in the Netherlands Foreign ministry. It is not known as to how long it might take to get the visa approved. Apparently the proceedings of issuing visa has been made complicated after the US WTC attacks. If they do not get the visa issued within the next few days, Manish and Abhay are planning to cancel this schedule to Holland and take the next schedule which will be either in November 2001 or January 2002. Hopefully everything would workout properly and they will have a nice time at Holland. Let us pray for them.
Oct 8
GRADUATION OF BATCH OF 1996
Graduation day for batch of 96. After a lot of confusion due to some mistakes in the calculation of marks, finally the Best outgoing student award was decided to be given to Kumar N. and not to Prakash Oommen as announced earlier. The Graduation day was on the 8th of October. Manish Dugar was again honoured with the P.Koshy award which too was announced after nearly 8 months after the exam after a lot of confuion as to whether the prize was scraped and things like that.
OCT 13
DECEMBER WEDDINGS - TRAVEL ARRANGEMENTS.
We all are well aware of the twin weddings (anugrah-elsa on dec 27th at bangalore and rose-anita on dec 28th at Chennai). Lot of us are planning to make it to these weddings. we all will be at bangalore on the 27th of december. It will be great to travel from Bangalore to Chennai by train as a big gumbal, catching up with all that we have to,gassing and having fun (some of you might remember the roaring fun we had during the travel from chennai to vellore by train after rose-anita engagement.)
In order to do this Gopinath will be organising to book the tickets enmasse from bangalore to chennai by the train. the booking will be most probably done in the night train from bangalore to chennai inorder to avoid night stay in bangalore. arragments are being made by Rose for a suitable place of stay in chennai ..so that is not a problem, even if we reach chennai at early morning. the details of the train are:
train name: Mysore chennai express
train number:6221
date of journey:27/12/2001
time of departure from bangalore: 21.30hrs
tentative time of arrival at chennai: 04.40hrs
(28/12/2001)
tentative fare per head:
II sleeper - 135/-
II Seater - 87/-
train name: Bangalore Chennai mail
train number:6008
date of journey:27/12/2001
time of departure from bangalore: 22.30hrs
tentative time of arrival at chennai: 05.20hrs
(28/12/2001)
tentative fare per head:
II sleeper - 135/-
II Seater - 87/-
another train is
train name: Bangalore Guwahati express
train number:5625
date of journey:27/12/2001
time of departure from bangalore:23.30 hrs
tentative time of arrival at chennai:07.05hrs
tentative fare per head:
II Sleeper - 135/-
II seater - 87/-
Most probably the booking will be done in the Bangalore chennai mail train (second one)., provided the timing does not change in the due course. If you are coming for the wedding and would like to travel as a group in train, and would like to have bookings made for you along with all of us, kindly contact Gopi at the belowsaid address with a letter and money order of Rupees One hundred and thirty five
only for the II sleeper booking.MAKE SURE THIS REACHES WELL BEFORE NOV 2OTH IN ORDER TO GET SUCH A BULK BOOKING POSSIBLE! MAKE SURE YOU COMMUNICATE WITH GOPI AND FIND OUT WHETHER YOUR TICKET HAS BEEN BOOKED. Those who are coming to vellore before nov 15th can give the money to Gopinath in person at Ruhsa if possible.
Dr. Gopinath K.G.,
RUHSA HOSPITAL
KAVANOOR,
VIA K.V.KUPPAM,
VELLORE DISTRICT
TAMIL NADU- 632209
PHONE-04171-46253 (HOSPITAL)
FARES ARE TENTATIVE...ACTUAL FARES MUST BE ENQUIRED AT
THE STATION NEARBY AND APPROPRIATE AMOUNT SHOULD BE
SENT AS M.O. (money order) TO GOPINATH SO AS TO REACH BEFORE 20TH NOVEMBER 2001.
OCT 20
HOLLAND TRIP POSTPONED DUE TO VISA PROBLEMS
Manish and Abhay, who were chosen to be sent for the exchange program at MAASTRICHT UNIVERSITY, Holland have had previously left to Mumbai to sort out some problems in the VISA. Manish returned to vellore on 19/10/2001. The latest news is that the VISA is held up in the Netherlands Foreign ministry. It is not known as to how long it might take to get the visa approved. Apparently the proceedings of issuing visa has been made complicated after the US WTC attacks. If they do not get the visa issued within the next few days, Manish and Abhay are planning to cancel this schedule to Holland and take the next schedule which will be either in November 2001 or January 2002. Hopefully everything would workout properly and they will have a nice time at Holland. Let us pray for them.
CMC ENTRANCE IN FEB. 2002
CMC forms for the PG entrance were out on the 8th Oct. The exam is scheduled to be held on Feb 5th and not in March as said before. This is because of the fact that the final exams of 97 batch will be in Jan 2002, and the results will be expected in Feb. For the same reason the internship and the bond are all extended in the respective units for one more month.This time there are two new courses - M.D. RADIODIAGNOSIS (1seat) and MD. PMR (1seat). There is no increase in the medicine or peds seats as was expected...apparently due to the fact that any increase in seats needs more prfoessors and creation of additional units. The forms are available at the Carman block on payment of Rs 150 for the main form and Rs 50 for every additional form. The last date of submission of completed forms is on the 30th of November.
VELLORE VISITED -IV
This long list keeps growing on and on...well this time there wewre a lot of people in a short period of time. First was the totally unexpected Arpita's visit. She just came to say hi to a few and also to see the graduation day. Next was the turn of the cousins of the golt land. Kiran came first for getting some certifivatyes for his application form for MPH after his GRE. Dinakar landed up on the next day and only the third cousin Aparanjit was missing. Then another unexpected visitor was Tony, who came in early morning and left in the evening. Whom to expect next?...wellheard that Anugrah might drop in the beginning of November, Archana will be coming in the second week of November to invite people for her marriage. And Amarjeet will be at vellore for a period of three weeks starting from November for a course in Blood banking
SEP15
CLASS PARTY AT VELLORE
The first class party after the cl;ass departed from vellore for their bond, took place in the MINIPRIYA hall of Hotel Darling Residency on the Sep 15th. Along with good grub and gossip, there were also a session at the Mharani icecream shop. The party was Organised by Manish and Sameer, attended by Amit, Deepak, Vinodh, Basu, Hari, Abha, Abrar, Sujoy, Muthu, Premila from vellore. Two surprise visitors were Rama and Dinakar. Gopi and Jeyanth couldnt make it to the Party. It was a nice time we had here, but we missed all the rest of us.
SEP6
ARPIT'S BOND IN JHARKHAND
Seems like packing up and journey are in Arpit's stars in the recent times. Soon after he reached Herbertpur for his bond, he fell ill with hepatits and came over to vellore for a month...and now soon after he reached Herbertpur from vellore, he has to pack up and reach Jharkhand for his bond-place. The Address and Phone number will be up in a short while.
All the best Arpit!
ARCHANA GETS 97TH PERCENTILE IN USMLE STEP1
Archana's stars seems to be full of success and good luck. Apart from the fact that she is so happy with her fiancee and expectations of a sweet married life at US, she found more reason to feel at the top of the world when she got 97th percentile in USMLE STEP1 Exam. She is quite happy and lucky to have managed both studies and romance at her best. All the best!!
VELLORE VISITED - III
As the list keeps growing, closely before Arpit had left from Vellore, Els ahad come down for a shrt visit to meet a few people. Now Synthia will be here for nearly 2 weeks learning about Ventilators, as their hospital is going to get a new ventilator. She will be here most probably from the 9th of September till the 22nd.
ARCHANA FALLS IN LOVE, GOT ENGAGED AND ANNOUNCES MARRIAGE!!!
Archana had finished the USMLE STEP 1 ON 18TH JULY and got engaged on the 26th of July at Hyderabad and announced her marriage on the 23rd November...in a mail she had written -
"His name is Praveen,telugu brahmin,software engeneer
from Sanfrancisco.His family is from Hyderabad.
It is love cum arranged marriage.The engagement was on
july 26 in hyderabad.The marriage is on november 22 &
23 in Hyderabad.I will call you all again for the
wedding."
ALL THE BEST ARCHIE
Aug 3
KIRAN'S WEDDING!
Kiran married Kaveeta Vinay Kumar on the 2nd of August at St.John's Church, Secunderabad. Following that was a reception at The Crystal Gardens at Hyderabad. From our class, Renol, Dinakar, Aparanjit, Vinodh, Renjith, Gopi, Anila & Archana attended the marriage. Renol was the Best Man for Kiran. It was a simple-grand affair! Among the others who were at the marriage were Dr Esther Ariathurai(1969)from Los Angeles, Dr Madana Kumar(1970), ophthalmologist at Nagercoil, Dr.Swarnalatha Gowrishankar(1976), best outgoing student, and presently senior pathologist at Apollo Hyderabad, our very own D MATS, Vijay
Ariathurai, Dr Colin John(1969) senior paediatric cardio thoracic surgeon at Manipal, the two of us, Dr.Ariathurai(1969)senior oncologist at Los Angeles, Dr.Saboo Devaprasad from Nagercoil, Mr.Anbi from U.S.A (son of Anatomy dept's
Dr.Harsha), Dr.Gowri Shankar(1972 best out going student), head of Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology,Hyd and his son (as seen in the group snap). Anila picked up all the classmates and played hostess for two days. She showed them all around Hyderabad on the next day. Archana was busy telling her engagement stor to everybody. Dr.Dilip Mathai also attended the marriage. The photographs will be out soon.
CMC GETS A FIVE STAR FROM NAAC!
Only recently an article in the INDIA TODAY rating our college as Number 7 among the medical colleges in India. last year it was in the second position...this raised a lot of controversial issues...now the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) has assessed our college and given us a five star rating. The maximum rating is 5 stars. The important highlights of the report are available in the 95's NEWSLETTER SPECIAL FEATURE SECTION, as revealed by Dr.Joyce Ponnaiya to the alumni in a letter.
Now we can lift our collars guys!!!
CMC PG-ENTRANCE POSTPONED TO MARCH?!
CMC post graduate entrance exams are likely to get postponed to the month of march. This is because of the fact that the present batch of final year medical students will be writing their final exams only in the month of January and the results will be out in February, and consequently the 96 batch have to work an extra month (Feb) as interns. The official announcement is expected by the end of next month.
SUJOY's RESEARCH ARITCLE PUBLISHED ...
Sujoy's Research Aritcle on "Neuroparalysis and oxime efficacy in organophosphate poisoning: a study of butyrylcholinesterase" was published in the Human Experimental Toxicology journal dated 2001 Apr;20(4):(pages)169-74. This happens to be the first research article to be published from our batch .Congratulations Sujoy! The abstract of the article is available in the Specialfeature section.
HOLLAND TRIP!
AUG 13
Well after quite a confusion, finally Abhay is being chosen to be sent with Manish for the Holland trip. They will be attending a short 6 weeks course at the Maastricht University. They will be starting around the middle of October to Amsterdam.This is actually an Exchange Program, where every year four students from Maastricht University come over here under the scholarchip and Two students get sent from here to Maastricht University. Until last year , the University has been providing Scholarchip for the stay fo two students...but recently they declared that they can provide the scholarship only for one student. But somehow CMC wrote back to them to get the scholarship for both the students atleast this time. Finally they agreed to allocate the scholarship for both the students. GOOD LUCK GUYS...WE ARE PROUD OF YOU!!
VELLORE VISITED!!
Aug 19
Well the list of our batchmates who visit Vellore is ever increasing. Leaving out Rose, Gpoi and Rashmi, who drop in often,the list is still impressive. Kiran had come in the end of July to invite all of us for his marriage, stayed for 2 days. Arpit had come home for a brief period because of his illness. Sathees, who is now working in tirupathur had come down to vellore for Dr.Ranjan Jesudas's marriage on the 3rd Aug, and left the next day. Well dinakar had come over the weekend and left on the 12th. Abhay had come all the way from Mathura to Vellore, mainly for some official work regarding his Holland trip with Manish. Elsa is expected to land up by the End of this month!
WEDDING DATES!
I heard that there is a big confusion over the wedding dates of our classmates. In oreder to clarify the lates wedding dates are put up below.
NOV 23 ARCHANA WEDS PRAVEEN
DEC 27 ELSA WEDS ANUGRAH
DEC 28 ANITA WEDS JEYANTH
Hope this is clear!
ARCHANA FALLS IN LOVE, GOT ENGAGED AND ANNOUNCES MARRIAGE!!!
Archana had finished the USMLE STEP 1 ON 18TH JULY and got engaged on the 26th of July at Hyderabad and announced her marriage on the 23rd November...in a mail she had written -
`His name is Praveen, telugu niyogi brahmin, 29 years old, 5 feet 11 inches,fair, handsome software engineer in Sanfransisco, did his BTECH from Osmania, MS in computer science from USA. The most important thing is that we are truly madly & deeply in love with each other.
It started as an arranged marriage proposal on April 22. Now it is all love & chemistry like in the books & movies. His parents are from Hyderabad. They are lovely people...not asking any dowry etc. He has an elder brother who is an engeneer in USA who is also getting married in November,& he has a younger sister who is married & is in USA. His father is Chief Engineer in APSEB, mother is house wife. They are also from hyderabad...he first called up home after seeing my photo . My mom had approached their parents initially...then we started emailing & chatting for 4 hours almost every day..God knows how I managed to study for usmle step 1 (had a lot of distraction).
Our views matched perfectly in everything..he is very nice, smart, understanding, caring, romantic, has a good sense of humour,...well basically we are in love. His hobbies are cricket, cycling, travelling, gym (he's got a great physique;-), he likes music... basically he is a fun-loving guy....he has been doing a lot of outdoor activities like skiing, trecking, etc etc. Surprisingly even in music, movie, religious ideas, views on life, etc., our tastes matched. It is so surprising how two people from different parts of globe can be so similar & fall in love... He earns around 100,000$ a year, he has been in USA for 7 years, has H1 B visa, is very modern & broadminded & encouraging in my career pursuits...& even willing to shift to where i get my residency.
I finished my USMLE STEP 1 on 18 july...he booked his ticket to India on 20 july, came to hyderabad on 22 july; we met on 22 evening (we had fallen in love & decided to get married even before seeing each other )thanks to internet dating...
We went to Kakatiya Sheraton for dinner for our first date. There was no official "pelli choopulu" ceremony. He had come to India only to see me (unlike most guys from USA who come to india to see 8- 10 girls & decide on one girl after seeing all of them). He gave me chocolates & lot of gifts & on 23rd we went & bought each other diamond deBeers engagement rings. We got engaged on 26 july afternoon between 1-5 pm, Hotel Deccan Continental, hyderabad. The engagement went on well. He is leaving hyderabad on the 2nd of August. I have been busy all these days. There are no restaurants left in hyd where we did not go to till now.
Our marriage is on 23rd November. I will finish my USMLE STEP 2 by then & give CSA & STEP 3 in USA in December & then honey moon till july till I join residency. This all sounds like a dream come true, never thought I'll meet my ideal guy like this and neither did he think he'll meet his ideal girl like this...well there is some body made for every body & when the time comes everything works out right...
I am SO GLAD I did not join DMRD & got stuck up in vellore or compromise for anything less & wait for the right guy..that is why I feel GOD has plans for everybody & I would like to thank God for all that he's done so far...
Please, all of you do come for the marriage..i will invite you all again for the wedding. Keep your leave ready..'
All the best Archie!
SAMEER IS BACK TO VELLORE AND ARPIT TOO IS HERE...
Sameer had fallen ill almost 10 days ago with sever vomitting, fever and anorexia. He was admiited for about a week in CMC and investigated and was found to have a peculiar mix of viral hepatitis and Typhoid fever. He had gone on sick leave to Kerala to his home. He has now come back to vellore and is a litlle better but still feeling very tired.he has joined work on the 30th of july.
And what a coincidence that Arpit who had just recently left to Herbertpur (near Dehradun) for his bond, had also come down with Hepatitis. He had come to vellore to get checked and also to take some rest. he will most probably be leaving in another two weeks time.
CMC GOES "OFF"LINE
In the rare rainfall that occurred a few days back at vellore, due to a lightening accident, the computer network of cmc has crashed...now none of the results are available on the computer, and even the OPD registration computers, billing computers...etc are also not working...everything is now being done in the good old way - with paper and pen. The Radiology network however is functioning well. Afew of the modemd and phone connections in the staff houses are also down in this mishap. Pray it recovers soon!
SIRCAM : THE NEW VIRUS
This is a new virus...thankfully just a computer virus, but do not underestimate it...for it destroys everything on its way. quite a few computers in CMC are down with this virus. this virus comes to your email as a mail from someone ...the names of the sender sound very familiar...i myself received three such mails from addresses whose names sounded like our seniors. the virus is hidden in the mail - attachment. if you have a yahoo mail id, it is possible to scan any attachment with norton antivirus scan before opening it...the virus will then be identified...then you can delete the email. incase you do not have a yahoo mail id, then do not open any attachments at allbefore asking the computer guy to scan the attachments...for more info go to www.antivirus.com.
KIRAN INVITES YOU FOR HIS WEDDING
Kiran moses is getting married to Ms.Kavitha, on the 2nd of August at Hyderabad. He invites you all for the marriage through this website. looking back at the fun we had at Jeyanth's engagement at chennai, this wil sure be more fun and ofcourse we will get to meet a lot of US, THE BATCH OF 1995. So get ready to head to hyderabad.
USA.NET BECOMES PAY-MAIL!!
Recently the Internet free email portal USA.NET (www.netaddress.com) had changed over from free email to pay-mail, only for its subscribers, due to lack of funds to support a free e-mail facility. Some of our classmates emails have been changed because of this
ANTON - ajrprasad@yahoo.co.uk
SUJOY drsujoykhan@yahoo.co.in
SMITHA smithaels@rediffmail.com
At this rate we might all end up paying for our mails sometime if all the email firms decide to go pay-mail.
POSTINGS AT CMC
Deepak who was initially posted in Neonatology is now working in the Hematology dept. Vinodh is working in Developmental Pediatrics along with Muthulakshmi. Abrar who was initially in Endocrinology is now posted in Respiratory medicine.
SUJOY KHAN TAKES CLINICS FOR MEDICAL STUDENTS!
Sujoy khan who joined as Non-PG registrar in the Dept. of Resp.Med. (Headed by Dr. D.J.Christopher), was soon promoted to become second call. Not only does he see various consults that come to Resp.med., but also I heard that he has taken Clinics to medical students who are posted in Respiratory Medicine. H e is right now writing the NIMHANS entrance for postgraduation in neurology. The exam is on the 29th of July. Big studall the best.
PGI RESULTS - SOMETHING TO FEEL GOOD ABOUT!
PGI, Chandigarh, one of the premier postgraduate institutions in the country held entrance examination for various postgraduate courses this year on the 9th june 2001. Amit, Basu and Rama were the three souls from our class to write this exam.This is one of the toughest entrances in India, containing multiple choice questions, with multiple corret answers for each question (5 choices), and 250 questions to be answered within a short span of 180 minutes and ofocurse, you will be competing against a whole lot of best candiates in India. This time nearly four thousand candidates wrote the exam. The results were out on the 10th of june,2001 and counselling was held on the 11th june, 2001 at Chandigarh. Though nobody got into any PG course this time, Amit came very close to doing so. He created some history by getting 54th rank, shattering the myth that CMCites do not do well in other indian entrances. Such a high rank from a CMCite has been a rarity in the recent past. Rama came close with 162nd rank. Basu had got 782nd rank. This result should be viewed in a postive manner and people should no more indulge in saying things like cmcites getin only at cmc and elsewhere they do not do well...and all that.The AIIMS exam ranks are still awaited. Let us wish them ALL THE BEST and remember that HARD WORK ALWAYS REWARDS!

SPECIAL FEATURE - ARCHIVES
HE IS ME" FROM NEPAL
Hi,
Merry Christmas & Happy New year 2003.
May our good God give you happiness, joy & peace of mind as you continue to trust in Him.
Now am working in a very remote & the isolated mission hospital in a place called Okhaldhunga about a 35 min flight plus 3-4 hour walk from Kathmandu. Here the electricity, telephone and other Infrastructure has been destroyed by Maoist.
I arrived in Kathmandu on Friday from Okhaldhunga, the flight was delayed for 6 hours and I am glad that it was not cancelled! , praise be to God ; its nice to be back home.
The situation in Okhaldhunga is still difficult. After about 7 weeks of no electricity , weve got a new generator & things are slightly easier.
Did you hear about the attack in Okhaldhunga by the
Maoist?
I was there that time , the whole night was disturbed with multiple bombardments & the continuous firing from the night vision helicopter .It was an unbelievable situation, could not sleep the whole night.But by the grace of God , nothing happened to us & the hospital and the airport which the Maoists aimed to destroy .About 47 people were reported dead. The rumour is that the Maoists are planning to attack again.
I hope & pray that God is continueing to bless you in your work & in your spiritual life. My flight to Okhaldhunga is on 29th of Dec. Please
remember to pray for me and the people of Okhaldhunga Hospital.
Love,
Simon
SUPREME COURT JUDGEMENT IN FAVOUR OF CMC
OCT 31
The Supreme Court of India had passed its judgement on the case regarding the question of allowing minority institutions to conduct their own selection program for candidates for various courses, especially MBBS. The judgment was in favour of Chrsitian Medical College Vellore and other Unaided, Non-capitation fee Minority Institutions and we will be allowed by the law of the land to continue the autonomous selection process!
MISSION KALAHANDI REVIVIAL - Sujith Varghese Thomas
Dear friends ,
Its been a some time since I have reported to the website of the latest happenings on this side of the globe . The last time I reported I had mentioned about the uncertainty of my continuation in this land of Kalahandi . But finally I decided to continue on . At a very lonely juncture when I was so confused of what to decide , God sent Arpit along who helped me in coming to a decision not that he told me to stay on but his visit at the right time helped me to think properly and come to a decision . Thanx Arpit .
Staying on had a lot of surprises for me . The patient load
suddenly shot up from August end . Suddenly I became a famous doc . Doctors from other far away places started referring patients to this hospital not really knowing about the fact that it is only a puny MBBS fellow who is sitting as doc in this hospital . But that was just a good part . Today I see upto around 70- 120 patients / day . Seeing 75 patients has become an easy affair for me but when it crosses 85 , it is maddening . On top of it all our facilities are so bad . Our X-ray machine has been out of order for the past 5 months . My continuous pleas to get it repaired has gone into deaf ears . My lab has facilities to do a lot of tests but the only reliable test is pregnancy test . All the others are subject to the clinical skills of my lab tech ( who is also an RMP ) who conducts a separate OPD in his lab , takes a history and gives me a result according to his clinical diagnosis Mind you his clinical skills are quite good .
I have started admitting patients even though we still have
not got IP registration . I have given up on trying for it because all those people from top to bottom need their quota of the black cash . So I have decided to take the risk because there are so many patients who require that . Admissions are solely for the sake of treatment and never for evaluations . After all what evaluation can you do with a conked X-ray machine and a cooked up lab . We have less beds but the beds are always full . We are also doing many normal deliveries now .
Surprisingly there are a good number of patients who are coming all the way from town to do deliveries here . Even on telling them of our lack of operation facilities they are very insistent on doing the delivery here , these being quite well off patients . It is actually a risky affair . We do get the relative to sign but if something wrong happens I do not know how they will react . Till now by Gods grace everything has gone on well . So the work load for me has gone up tremendously . The OPD that starts at 8.00 a.m. goes on continuous till around 7.30 p.m. with just around 5 minutes break that I take at 3.30 p.m. for my lunch .The official timing is supposed to be 8.00am 12.30 pm and 3.30 pm 5.30 pm . IP patients and delivery patients take up the rest of the time . By the end of the day , I am so tired and I just drop off hoping that there wont
be any emergencies at night but inevitably there will be some emergency on most nights . But I really thank God for the amazing strength that He has given me to go on . Please do pray . I have put in a request to the CMC management to send one more doc . I desperately need somebody else here . By gods grace till now we have had only one death in this hospital . There are a lot of discouragements but I know I am never alone .
I have somehow developed a lot of political enemies . I once
had a conflict with one of the ex- railway union minister , Bhaktha Das ( Narasimha Rao s cabinet ). During one of the late night calls to one of the interior villages , this man , drunk came to the village as a part of election campaign and tried to act smart . He ordered me to stay through the night with the patient monitoring the patient . I refused in an equally stern manner and told him to just mind his own business . He felt very offended and he has threatened me that he will see me later on . Again , one of the Ex Sarpanch of this panchayat who presently runs a local paper wrote a lot of rot about the hospital BMP hospital looting poor people 7 months back . That same person came snooping again one night taking interviews of our admit patients . I caught him red handed and told him straight that if such people like him are there in Kalahandi , this land is doomed . He came to hit me but by Gods
grace I could keep my cool . When he kept asking me Who do you think you are talking to , I told him that he was just an ordinary man and after that a lot of things happened and I finally told him to get lost . He continued firing me with a lot of our 4 letter words in Oriya and at the end he threatened me that within one month , I will be properly dealt with . Now nobody allows me to come late in the nights as they are all worried for me . > I know I dont have any thing to worry because I have the strongest protection . I f anything has to happen it will only happen if He has permitted it . I am never alone . This is a long better but I have related my problems in detail that you will keep praying for me . It is the prayers of various people that is pulling me along . I am stopping here .
With lots of love and prayers ,
Sujith
MADURAI CALIFORNIA ONCE AGAIN!!
It isnt any fun anymore. I am fighting off the feeling of 'why work hard when everyone is having a nice time'. Yuvaraj isnt coming anymore. Though there is no official communication to that effect it is sought of understood that 'he is out'. A lot of whining I must say, when I am sure some of you guyz can call this heaven when compared to the conditions you have to put through. Nobody cares and the heavyweights in the Diocese office are more worried about the forth coming elections and nothing more when it comes to the Hospital. Lets not go any further into these matters. I remember what Dr.Sara Bhattacharji told me just before I left, that there may be a lot going around but our responsibility rests with the patients and that should be our main concern. That is what is keeping me going. Anyway back at home I am 'HomeAlone' fending all the matters of the house alone. Its fun but at the same time a lot of headache as well. Got a chance to have a get-together with old schoolmates. It was a great feeling to see the lot. It also put me on an embarassing situation with me forgetting the names of a few. Well, all is well that ends well.
-Anton
GEORGE CHANDY COMMISSIONED AS DIRECTOR OF CMC
Sep23
Dr.George Chandy was comiisioned officially as the director of the Christian Medical College and Hospital Vellore on the 23rd of September. There was a Commissioning Service in the Ida Scudder Building Foyer at 4.30pmon the 23rd Sep. The following day there was a farewell to Dr.Joyce Ponnaiya, the former director.
CMC, ALL INDIA PG ENTRANCE FORMS ARE OUT
All India PG entrance forms were out since last week of September. This October 2nd onwards CMC forms were also Out. Now there is a common form for all pg degee and diploma courses with 300 Rs/- per candidate, which need be sent as a D/D in the name of the Registrar, CMC Vellore and sent to the Registrar's office at Bagayam address, with self addressed stamped envelope...details will be put up soon.
Dr.Booshnam V Moses Passes away
Dr. Booshanam V. Moses who retired from CMCH in July 2002, passed away in Pondicherry on 12 September 2002. He was an alumnus of both the MBBS and MS General Surgery courses. He was Professor and Head of the Department of General Surgery and of Surgery Unit III. He was Vice Principal for a term from 1985, and was Principal of the Medical College from 1987 to 1994.
Dr. Booshanam was an excellent teacher and during his tenure as Principal developed Pedagogy and Teaching Methodology for the faculty. He introduced the peripheral mission hospital postings for undergraduates, as well as the postings in Emergency. Many new courses in the allied health sciences were introduced during his tenure.
Dr. Booshanam had special training in Hepatobillary and Vascular Surgery and was acompassionate and caring doctor who won the affection and respect of patients, colleagues, and students. He took keen interest in the extracurricular activities of the students, especially in sports and games. He was a hospitable foster parent.
Dr. Booshanam served on the senate of the Dr. M.G.R. Medical University and was a member of the Governing Council of the PSG Medical College, Coimbatore, and was Chairman of the Christian Academy of Medical Sciences of the CMAI. He will be remembered and missed by his many friends and colleagues. We extend our sincere condolences to the bereaved family and his foster children. He will always be remembered as a cheerful man and a good teacher! Let us all observe a minute's silence from wherever we are, in prayer!
CMC VELLORE IS AMONG THE TOP FIVE HOSPITALS IN INDIA - OUTLOOK July 2002
Outlook Magazine, India's leading weekly newsmagazine , carried out a survey to rank India's best hospitals ( 1 July 2002 cover) . This survey ranked the country's best health centres in the areas of cardiology, gastroenterology, infertility, oncology, ophthalmology and mental health.
The Outlook-Cfore survey of Indias Best Hospitals was an effort to help the consumer find the best medical care . The findings were the result of a rigorous five-month-long exercise undertaken by a dozen researchers after quizzing 679 doctors around the country on parameters that a quality hospital must meet to qualify.
These were Competence of Doctors, Infrastructure and Facilities, Cleanliness, Value for Money and Attention to Patients.
The outcome is an exhaustive list of Indias best hospitals in six disciplines: cardiology, gastroenterology, infertility, mental health, ophthalmology and oncology. We also profile the top hospitals in these categories around the country. The nationwide top list is even-handed: an equal number of Indias six top hospitals are in the private and government sector, giving quality treatment at affordable prices. Otherwise, government hospitals scored low mainly due to mismanagement, lack of cleanliness and an apathetic attitude towards patients.
The result: Indias first ever comprehensive quality listing involving some 200 Indian hospitals. We hope it offers critical clues to our readers in choosing their best healthcare destination
HERE IS THE TABLE WITH THE COLUMNS AS
1. RANK
2. HOSPITAL
3. Competence of Doctors;
4. Infrastructure and Facilities;
5. Cleanliness;
6. Value for Money;
7. and Attention to Patients.
8. TOTAL WEIGHTED SCORE IS PUT IN THE LAST COLUMN.
CARDIOLOGY









1
Escorts Heart Institute,
New Delhi
9.70

9.50

9.10
9.00
9.30
9.41
2
Christian Medical College &
Hospital, Vellore
9.50

9.20

8.70
8.90
8.60
9.10
3
Madras Medical Mission,
Chennai
9.40

9.00

8.50
8.85
8.80
8.99
4
B.M. Birla Heart Institute,
Calcutta
8.80

9.10

9.50
8.50
8.50
8.97
5
Apollo Hospital, Chennai
8.90

8.90

9.50
8.50
8.50
8.94
CANCER TREATMENT









1
Tata Memorial Hospital,
Mumbai
9.30
9.50

9.00

8.80
8.20
9.14
2
Cancer Institute Adyar,
Chennai
9.60
9.20

8.80

8.80
8.20
9.10
3
Christian Medical College
& Hospital, Vellore
9.20
9.25

8.50

8.70
8.30
8.94
4
AIIMS, New Delhi
8.90
9.00

9.10

8.70
7.90
8.85
5
PGIMER, Chandigarh
8.90
9.40

8.90

7.90
7.80
8.84
SHALL WE SAY THREE CHEERS FOR CMC NOW!
HIP HIP HURRAY HIP HIP HURRAY HIP HIP HIP HURRRRAAAAYYYYYY
CHRISTIAN MEDICAL COLLEGE IS THE NUMBER ONE MEDICAL COLLEGE IN INDIA - INDIA TODAY May 6, 2002
Dr. GEORGE CHANDY WILL BE THE NEW DIRECTOR OF CMC
Dr. George Chandy has been selected to be the new director of CMC Vellore. He will be replacing Dr. Joyce Ponnaiya in September 2002 as Director of the prestigious institution. Dr. Varughese Mathai will be the new Medical Superintendent.
ALL INDIA PAPER LEAK??!
JAN 6
New Delhi From TIMES OF INDIA JAN 6TH EDITION
The crime branch, on Friday, claimed to have busted a gang who amassed Rs 1.48 crore from doctors on the promise of getting them admissions in specialised courses.
The kingpin of the cheating racket was identified as Pawan Thakur, head of a consultant firm in Kalkaji. His three associates, Shrikant, Nikesh and Mukesh, were arrested from a hotel in Paharganj.
Thakur, who had collected cash from at least 18 doctors, apparently planned to leak the question paper of the all-India examination scheduled for Sunday.
Thakur had collected about Rs 10 lakh from each of the doctors on the promise of providing them solved papers of the exam being conducted by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences.
DCP crime branch, Dinesh Bhatt, said there were traces of the racket linked to people in Bihar. "The gang was busted before they could leak the paper," he said.
The name of a man identified as Rajiv has also figured during investigation. Rajiv, who is still absconding, is suspected to have played a key role in to leak the exam paper.
Thakur had inserted advertisements in newspapers on December 28 and 29, assuring candidates a guaranteed admission in MBBS, MD and MS courses.
AIIMS authorities noticed the advertisement and contacted the economic offences wing of the crime branch.
Bhatt said a decoy customer was sent to Thakur's consultants firm in Kalkaji. The decoy was told to show his admit card for Sunday's exam and produce post-dated cheques worth Rs 10.5 lakh to get the solved paper.
The decoy was provided with a dummy admit card by AIIMS authorities. He used the admit card for delivering cheques to Thakur, who was apprehended soon after the transaction.
Bhatt said a search of Thakur's office led to the recovery of post-dated cheques worth Rs 1.48 crore.
A FAIR AFFAIR part 2
Well here is some more hot news from the anonymous classmate of ours who is having a fair affair!
"It's been a long time since I wrote you, and that's because things have been moving really fast out here. While the work is as relaxed as ever, persoinally my life has taken a huge leap. If you remember , the last time I had told you of a really interesting person, I had met ,who had come for 6 months, to my hospital WITH WHOM I HAD REALLY HIT IT OFF! Well, things have progressed quite a bit from there. We have not made any long term decisions yet, but suffice to say we are on very "intimate" terms at present. Her name is Susan , Episcopalian Christian, fair beautiful and did her schooling in Houston.( as I am not very sure how to phrase this as it is all a bit embarassing}. The most important thing is that we are truly, madly and deeply in love with each other! As I told you last time it started off as mere friendship, but now its all love and chemistry like in the books and movies! YOU know about her parents, and she's an only child, so I'll get alll the money - of which there's pots! We started off spending just an hour or so together, but now we do everything together, the whole evening. This place is really beautiful, so we take long walks enjoying nature and each other. She's a real beauty. Hence studies are out of the question, except when we study together {as, I told you, she's a brain} Our views on life and love and everything match each other so perfectly, it's amazing! I can't believe how people from different parts of the globe can be so similar and fall so madly in love.Our tastes in music, movies, religion ,life etc. are so similar its unbelievable. And add to that ,she's loving , caring, supportive, friendly, romantic, understanding....., I could go on - suffice to say weare in love. Her hobbies are stamp-collecting, drawing, aerobics(she has a great physique) and music. Not only does she excel at her studies, she also represented her state at the national athletics championship 2 years ago (5000mts) but had to stop running after she tore a ligament. Basically I COULD GO ON AND ON about this picture of perfection - can anyone be so perfect- but shall stop, for fear of becoming imbecilic. Even this much seems to me to be a bit overboard, but I guess it is not new to this page. If you laugh when you read this it means you are just jealous of me and my good fortune. I want to keep this anonymous, because we havent made the final decision yet, but things are well on the way, as both her parents and mine are really happy with the match.Will keep you up-to-date on furthur progress, but the wedding might be in the states, so you guys might not be able to come.(Yes, we have talked about it!)
MISSION KALAHANDI - III
Hi everybody !
I am back with more news from the land of Kalahandi. Thanks to all those who are writing to me. Those who have not written please do write because it will be such a great relief and encouragement in this lonely corner. By Gods grace I am going ahead and one of the greatest things that I am learning is dependence on Him especially in hours of absolute confusion when I have nobody but Him alone.
I have started getting more patients. The rate has been steadily increasing. Initially it was only 5-10. By Aug it increased to 10-15 and this month it is risen to 15-30. There are some days in which I am just too tied up. Now I am getting a lot of patients from the nearby town , some even from 90 km into the interior. Now there are more varieties of cases but still malaria, APD, sickle cell anemia and RTI dominate. Last month I have had a sudden increase in Gynae cases.
Initially , because of poor memory of this subject I used to be extremely anxious when such patients came . So every time such cases came, I used to send them straight for Hb test , run to my hiroom and read up. It was a strange sight to the other workers in the mission to see me running quite often to my room . I have also been getting quite a few CCF cases with valvular heart diseases .
I have managed to get an X-ray tech but when he finally arrived, we realized that the whole machine was spoilt by rats which had chewed of the wires. Then we had to find someone to repair it. Now we have a X-ray service. Nurses have not yet joined but I have selected 2 from the 9 people who had applied. They had come here for an interview and they will be joining by Oct 1st week. Once they join it will be a great relief for me because they are capable of managing most of the cases by themselves especially the emergency ones.
I have made a plan for the Community Project and I presented it to the Director of this hospital who is one of the bishops, when he had come here. The plan has been accepted and I have started the initial work on it . I have already visited some of the interior villages and now I am glad that I am doing something like this because these villages have absolutely no health facilities. One of these villages, I selected because I was getting quite a lot of patients with massive spleen . When I went to the village I realized that almost all the people there had enlarged spleens tropical splenomegaly syndrome.
These people have had recurrent episodes of malaria with no adequate treatment. My trips to these villages were quite exciting. I took the hospital bike (Rajdoot) and the roads were extremely bad. In fact at many places there was no road at all . I had to just go over dry fields. It felt more like horse riding rather than bike riding . Some of them I was forced to keep my bike at a certain place and walk the rest . Presently, I am mobilizing staff Health workers, both at the village level and the base hospital level. These will be mainly involved in health education and the village level staff like our good old PTCHWs . I have selected the base hospital workers but the village staff is yet to be selected. Initially lot of emphasis will be on training these people. These will be mainly done by the nurses. I have also ordered for low cost drugs and we will be starting this as soon as it comes. I am just hoping and praying that every thing will go on well . By the way I want a desperate help from the Vellorites . I could not find a satisfactory treatment schedule for TSS and I am getting a lot of patients who come with just feeling of weakness, occasional low grade fevers, anemia, splenomegaly ( massive ) and mild hepatomegaly . Please do send me by mail some good material on treatment .
I am planning to start IP services only next Jan after I get IP registration for this hospital. But I am admitting patients for 1-2 days. Last week I had my longest admission 8th month pregnant lady with severe diarrhea and dehydration in ARF- diagnosed as cholera. 5 days was a real nightmare with the patient refusing to be
referred due to financial reasons and at the same time the villagers grumbling about my treatment regimen of just rehydrayion and not stopping the loose stools. On top of that FHR was not localized at admission. I conveyed this news to the relatives and then the whole village was after me to take out the baby when I was trying to get the input output in the right rate. They believed that the baby would swell up inside the mother. I just ignored their accusations . 3 nights and days I had to sit near the patient to monitor the input output as there was no sister .
That time I desperately wished that I had somebody with me to whom I could discuss the case. Finally when the loose stools got controlled and I decided to deliver the fetus, I realize d that she had an absolutely unfavorable cervix not responding to uterine stimulation . Finally I managed to get cerviprime from town and as soon as I inserted it at night the patient started having severe contractions that lead into another sleepless night. By Gods grace , she delivered the next morning. When the placenta came out , I was not sure whether it was complete but before I could check it the cervix had closed but seeing the this quick
closure I decided that the placenta was indeed complete. I felt totally relieved and all the villagers were very happy with my work. But by evening, the patient complained of fever, abdominal pain and bleeding PV. Suddenly I felt sick. I thought I would faint. Retained placenta. I did not know what to do. I felt like running away. I just went and
cried and prayed and God did a miracle. The patient was absolutely fine by morning. She went home today. Please do pray for me. I hope I wont get weeks like this anymore. I can keep writing more about life here but no more time. Shall write later on. Till then, bye.
Sujith
CMC THEATRE CAUGHT FIRE!!
OCT 9
Fire broke out in the CMCH operating theatre on the 9th of october. One of the witnesses reports about the fire at CMC Hospital:
There seem to have been two fires of electrical origin yesterday - we think no one hurt BUT one was in the main theatres so no surgery today, one in clinical pharmacology. The theatre fire was at 3.10pm and all theatres were in use - everyone had to be evacuated as the place was "full of smoke" - including all anaesthetised and "in the middle of surgery" patients! Most of them were shifted to the casualty and a few were still intubated and were being bagged. Then places had to be found to finish what needed finishing and wake patients - can you imagine!!
The clinical pharmacology was effected by a fire in a cable outside their rooms. They smelt burning and asked the electricians to check but nothing was found - inside the pharm rooms..The end result the new, delicate, expensive HPLC machine was quickly dismantled by staff from a nearby department who understood the delicacy of the machine (in dense smoke) before people threw water over it. It is now
covered in soot and the re-usable expensive test tubes are melted, the pharmacology wall is cracked, the whole room black etc etc.
By the grace of God, there has been no major damage and no injury or loss of life. The Clinical Pharmacology lab has been damaged by the smoke but we hope to have it cleaned up and restored in the next couple of days. We are waiting for the engineers from the company to come and assess the damage to the HPLC equipment and hope that it will not be serious.
Theatre functioning has been restored. The accident was a freak - a short circuit in the maintenance-free batteries of the uninterrupted power supply (UPS) system. Apparently this is something unheard of. We will be introducing a smoke alarm system in the UPS room.
MADURAI CALIFORNIA PART II
SEP12
Anton updates on his situation at madurai...
"To all those out ther reading this, this is anton live and direct once again with hot news from this part of the world. We were successful in reopening the pharmacy which was closed for the past 3 years with a shoestring of 1.5 lacs. The salary increase proposal has been finally accepted and is now at 9000 p.m. Plans for remodification of certain key areas are under way. By the Grace of God we are able to give salary every month in the first week by the mmoney entirely generated only by the hospital.
We had organised a retreat for the key personnel involved in the functioning of the hospital including the ward sisters followed by an all staff retreat. It was truly a week of blessing and joy. Being in the dept of surgery i also get to do several procedures
which i hope, would be useful in my future.
Work involves more of administrative job, more than taking care of patients. Of course the patient load has doubled over the past 3 months with a constant 60
i.p anyday. Remember this hospital in your prayers, it is hope that is keeping us going." our prayers with you Anton
Dr.JOYCE PONNAIYA RECEIVES NATIONAL CITIZENS AWARD
Dr.Joyce Ponnaiya, was awrded the prestigious NATIONAL CITIZENS AWARD 2001 for Christian Medical College, Vellore for its contribution to the poor and the needy in the country. The detail news will be available in a short while.
SUPREME COURT QUASHES PG QUOTA FOR AIIMS GRADUATES - The Hindu 26/8/2001
NEW DELHI, AUG. 25. The Supreme Court has quashed the reservation for the graduates of All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) for post-graduation courses throwing open almost 100 seats for meritorious students from across the country.
Asking the institution to adopt a uniform 50 per cent marks in the entrance test as eligibility criteria, a bench comprising the Chief Justice, Mr. A.S. Anand, Mr. Justice R.C. Lahoti and Mr. Justice Shivaraj V. Patil said 33 per cent reservation for students of AIIMS backed by a complex marking method worked out to be a cent per cent reservation for these students.
``We have no hesitation in holding that reserving 33 per cent seats for institutional candidates was in effect 100 per cent reservation for subjects,'' the bench said.
Mr. Justice Lahoti, writing for the bench, said ``this is a conceited gimmick and accentuated politics of pampering students, weak in merit but mighty in strength.
``Such a reservation based on institutional continuity in the absence of any relevant evidence in justification thereof is unconstitutional and violative of Article 14 of the Constitution and has therefore to be struck down,'' he said. The court said despite holding of a common entrance test, the reservation given to the institution students even when they did not do well could not be upheld by any court.
``Any over-generous approach to a section of the beneficiaries if it has the effect of destroying another's right to education, more so by pushing a mediocre over a meritorious belies the hope of the founding fathers on which they structured the great document of constitution and so must fall to the ground,'' Mr. Justice Lahoti said.
The academic committee of AIIMS admitted that some anomalies had crept into the selection procedure due to the quota being implemented without insistence on any minimum qualifying marks.
After striking down the quota for institutional students, the court said a preference system could be put in place till AIIMS devices a new impartial system.
``By way of institutional preference, those who have graduated from the institution shall be preferred for admission against 25 per cent seats available to open category candidates and not 25 per cent seats discipline-wise out of the total PG seats for AIIMS undergraduates as suggested by the academic committee,'' the court said.
The bench said a uniform minimum cut-off of 50 per cent marks in the competitive entrance test as a condition of eligibility for all candidates may be adopted.
``The preference for institute candidates to the extent of 25 per cent as above said shall remain confined to admission in PG course of study. There shall be no further reservation in the matter of allotment of seats discipline-wise which shall be made solely on the basis of merit... On the basis of a common entrance examination,'' it said.
- PTI
SEP1,2001
REVIEW FAULTS AIIMS - YAHOO NEWS 24/8/2001
Friday August 24 7:31 PM ET
Review Faults Prestigious India Medical Institute
By Subhadra Menon, PhD
NEW DEHLI (Reuters) - India's most prestigious medical institute has been strongly criticized for its irregular and irresponsible functioning.
In a scathing review of facilities, quality of research and patient care, India's official watchdog on public expenditure, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), has highlighted what many ordinary citizens already know--that the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi is in serious decline.
The CAG, which annually analyzes autonomous institutions, government bodies and programs for their performance as well as the money spent by them, is looked upon as a fair critic.
Millions of patients from almost every state in the country come to AIIMS each year for low-cost quality treatment. Thirty-six departments of the autonomous institute allow a wide range of healthcare facilities and the institute is well known for its competitive faculty of doctors.
Set up 45 years ago as India's own center of world-class medical research and education, AIIMS has become little more than just another hospital, according to the CAG.
The government report has found that of 339 research projects ongoing over a decade (1991-2000), only 153 had submitted their final reports, and of allocated funds, only a meager 1% to 2% goes into research.
Taking this further, the report concludes, ``Since there is no evidence of the utilization or dissemination of research findings, it has to be concluded that even the small efforts at promoting innovation have gone to waste due to a lack of will and application.''
The CAG reviewers also report that almost half the medics who train and become doctors at AIIMS leave the country to work abroad.
Considering that medical education in India is highly subsidized, the institute hardly gets any returns on what it invests in each student, the report states. Compounding this problem is a serious shortage of full-time doctors and nurses, compensated for by hundreds of temporary appointments. The shortage is affecting quality of teaching, research and patient care.
Patients suffer as a result. According to the CAG report, short-staffed and crowded, AIIMS currently allows an individual patient only 4 to 9 minutes of a doctor's attention, on average. And waiting times for surgery stretch between 10 weeks and 34 months--not including time taken for diagnostic tests.
There are other irregularities, as well, according to the report. Over the years, registration fees in the out-patient department have remained uncollected from 64% of the patients--leading to a loss of potential revenue of about US$50 million.
On the other hand, patients are often asked to purchase surgical items already available with the institute and the concerned department.
New construction at AIIMS continues at a snail's pace. For example, an 8-floor specialized cancer center was scheduled for completion by 1995, but today only two floors have been constructed. Meanwhile at least three to four terminally ill cancer patients are turned away each day for want of space and facility.
Renuka Chowdhury, a member of Parliament who was Minister for Health and Family Welfare in 1997-1998, believes that ''political interference has brought all this upon AIIMS.'' She points to governmental interference in the running of AIIMS, and the travails of having a constant stream of political heavyweights as patients, as root causes of the institute's decline.
The AIIMS spokesperson was not available for comment.
CMC GETS A FIVE STAR FROM NAAC!
- Dr.Joyce P.
Only recently an article in the INDIA TODAY rating our college as Number 7 among the medical colleges in India. last year it was in the second position...this raised a lot of controversial issues...now the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) has assessed our college and given us a five star rating.NAAC is an autonomous organisation, established by the University Grants Commission (UGC), with its headquarters in Bangalore.NAAC functions through its General Council (GC), and the Executive Committee(EC). The membership of these bodies is drawn, in addition to ex-officio members from organisations shch as University Grants Commission (UGC), All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), Association of Indian Universities (AIU), Distance Education Council (DEC) and Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD), from Vice-chancellors, Principals, Teachers, Scientists, Technocrats and Professional bodies. The honorary head of these bodies is a senior academic.
Dr.Joyce Ponnaiya in a letter to the alumni had written...
"Dear Friends,
I am happy to let you know that our institution has secured a five star rating following the visit of the Peer Team from the 23rd to 25th July this year.Professor B. M. Hegde, Vice Chancellor of the Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), Deemed University, Manipal led the Peer Team.
The other members of the Team were:
>Professor Indira Nath, INSA SN Bose Research Professor and
Founderof the Department of Biotechnology at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences
>Professor S. Sriramachari, Founder-Director of the Institute of Pathology (ICMR)
>Professor B.Rajan, Additional Director, Regional Cancer Centre, Trivandrum.
The members of the peer Team are eminent scientists and teachers and all of them are highly respected in the Academic and research fields in medicine both in India and abroad.
The complete report of the Peer Team will be published on the NAAC Website www.naac-india.com.
However, I would like to share a few highlights of the report:
MEDICAL COLLEGE:
While there are some departments of international standards all departments do excellent clinical work.The presence of multidisciplinary excellent departments makes this institution unique.Possibly one of the rare institutions that has 100% fulltime resident staff and 100% resident students.Institution gets a large amount of research funding from multiple sources both in India and abroad.The institution has an enviable record of alumni occupying
distinguished places in medical education and research both in India and abroad.
OVERALL ASSESSMENT:
Broad based, motivated and committed governing council.
Very highly committed, dedicated and research-oriented teaching staff
Compassionate and loyal non-teaching staff
Effective leadership of the institutions by wise and committed leaders
Good discipline maintained on campus
The foster parent system
A very healthy atmosphere created for research, inculcating a scientific temper among the new entrants to the profession
Financial assistance to the underprivileged students.
Regular change of guard at the top in every institution is a healthy sign.
A realistic approach to allow teaching staff to take study and sabbatical leave.
The notable feature of the institution is the overall
development of the student.
However a few management improvements such as institution of a research management cell, resource mobilisation committee and infrastructure to enable learning through computers and the web would be welcome.
COLLEGE OF NURSING:
It is the largest nursing college with the highest number of postgraduate teaching staff.The first institute to fully integrate teaching and patient care in nursing education. Rotation among the Deans would be one of the highlights of the institution. The college has innovative departments like the Diabetic Nurse Educator, Palliative Care Nursing. The college is recognised as a centre of excellence by the
Government of India. The college has produced a book for English language for Nurses, which is now the recommended text book.
Joyce Ponnaiya
Director
Christian Medical College
Vellore"
Now we can lift our collars guys!!!
SEP1, 2001
SUJOY's RESEARCH ARTICLE PUBLISHED...ABSTRACT:
Sujoy's research article was published in the Human Experimental Toxicology journal dated 2001 Apr. the brief abstract is given here:
"SOURCE:Hum Exp Toxicol 2001 Apr;20(4):169-74
TITLE: Neuroparalysis and oxime efficacy in organophosphate poisoning: a study of butyrylcholinesterase.
AUTHOURS: Khan S, Hemalatha R, Jeyaseelan L, Oommen A, Zachariah A.
Department of Medicine, Christian Medical College and Hospital, Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India.
ABSTRACT: The temporal profile of butyrylcholinesterase (BuChE) and in vitro pralidoxime-reactivated BuChE was studied in a cohort of 25 organophosphate-poisoned patients to examine their relationship to the development of intermediate syndrome and to understand reasons for lack of efficacy of oxime treatment. The clinical severity of poisoning (assessed by the Namba Scale) correlated significantly with the severity of intermediate syndrome. BuChE activity increased significantly over time and showed significant relationship to muscle power. The temporal profile of the enzyme was correlated to the clinical severity of poisoning. Reactivation potentials of BuChE (the difference between oxime-reactivated and -unreactivated enzyme activity) declined significantly with time after organophosphate ingestion. The reactivation potential of the enzyme at admission decreased significantly with increasing severity of poisoning and was lower in patients who developed intermediate syndrome. Patients who received oxime prior to hospitalization had a higher rate of intermediate syndrome and lower levels of BuChE at admission than those who had not. The study suggests that (i) BuChE reflects the clinical course of poisoning, confirming earlier studies; (ii) intermediate syndrome may be associated with a persistent inhibition of BuChE; and (iii) the lack of oxime efficacy in our patients maybe due to their severity of poisoning and the timing of oxime treatment."
AUG 20,2001
A FAIR AFFAIR!!!
One of our classmates, who prefers to remain strictly anonymous, inspired by the website , has sent a mail to us sharing his new life and.... at his bond place...here is what he wrote to the webmaster...well this one is HIGHLY EDITED, for otherwise things would have got really mushy mushy. Well here goes...
" The hospital is running well; the workload is quite a lot but if you are not on duty you are free by 5. So the question is - what do you do after 5! Fortunately the answer has been provided in the form of some med students doing their elective posting here. In my last mail, I told you there was only one, but now another has joined her and if I may say so, is even more interesting than the first! I wont tell you her name yet, but suffice to say that she is really goodlooking(she was the prom queen of her high school) and more importantly, is real good company. You know I am sorta shy when it comes to new people especially phirangs (who I balieve generally look down on us) but a lot of circumstances have helped me to get to know this one quite well.
First of all, she is really sweet and not one of these stuck up females you would expect. Also, she is in the same department as I and so we started of on purely work based topics. As I was already slightly friendly with her friend (who is leaving in a few days) it was easier than I expected to get things going. At first it was mainly work or studies (by the way she is a top student - valedictorian of her school, who has already read Harrisons first vol.and is on the second) that we discussed, but soon we moved on to more interesting stuff - which is where I have got all my info. Her dad is a neurosurgeon and her mom works with A.A.(so money flows!). She is an only child and.....hey! THIS IS SOUNDING A BIT CORNY!!! But then I have seen similar
stuff on our page - in fact, that was worse! So anyway, right now we're just good friends and lets take it from there. I'm not expecting anything (though she does'nt have a boyfriend) and I know my parents would throw a blue fit if they ever knew, but what the heck! She's here for at least 6 months (she wants to go to Africa for the other 6 - she's taken a year off) so let's make the most of it!
I really had'nt planned to tell you so much or get so mushy (like some people we both know!), but now that it's down I guess I'll just leave it there!"
Well let us wait for the next mail from him!!
JULY 18, 2001
MISSION KALAHANDI - I!
From the flooded state of Orissa, Sujith who is doing his bond at BMP mission hospital at Kalahandi, wrote to the Webmaster about the hospital and his job
This hospital is about half an hours journey from the nearest town, Bhavanipatna (which itself looks like a village). The campus is an isolated 39-acre land with the hospital in one corner and the rest of the area filled with trees and fields. The scenery here is beautiful, with mountains, valleys, forests and fields, but no sign of mankind in the vicinity. The villages are all in the jungle and the foothills, with a pure tribal community. Lat year all the crops here were destroyed due to sever drought. For the past 25 years in this place, rain was a scarce commodity. But from the time I have landed here all I am seeing is rain and floods. All bridges here are collapsed and the villages are surrounded by vast expanses of water. So patient inflow into the hospital is on the lower side presently.
The hospital is well equipped. There is an IP facility (40 beds but never used before), a decent pharmacy, a lab (with a technician, autoclave, colorimeter, centrifuge and facility to do most of the basic investigations), X-Ray, ECG, resuscitation apparatus and even a ventilator.
I am the only doctor here and therefore the MS of the hospital. There are no nursing staffs. I have been writing to various places for a nurse. Only after we get a nurse can we apply for registration for IP facility. I am hoping to start community work by September and IP facility by October-November. The main cases here are malaria (especially falciparum malaria) and sickle cell anemia.
I have a quarter here but the rainwater seeps in through the roof and the walls, soaking all my books and clothes in the cupboard. Electricity is a scarce commodity, visiting you once in a week or so.
The website is a great ideaI saw it only recently (before I came here). I was so fascinated that made me search for an Internet facility around here. I did find a small Internet place in the nearby town but getting through here is very difficult but I will keep in touch.
Please do remember us and the hospital in your prayers
Sujith, our prayers are always with you. ALL THE BEST
JULY 5,2001
MADURAI CALIFORNIA JIGS...
Hi to those out there ,this is anton reporting live and direct from madurai. The hospital is fine so are the nursing services but others suck. The others are out to rip the hospital off and suck out every thing they could. People just wanna come and spend some time and loiter around and go back home, loot the hospital by doctoring the accounts, and do side business totally ignoring the hospital work. Well the good news is Yuvaraj Davidson,
surgeon, is here and will be the next med supdt. So me and him and a few good men are going to clean up this mess. Please remember to remember us in your prayers for it can be like banging my head against a wall. Will keep you posted as the story breaks.
-Anton
MAY, 2001
ERODE KADI BITES....
If you want to know about the working conditions,there is so much that an inland letter isn't enough to describe them. It's so busy here (BUSY as in sarcastic), that if I see 3 patients in a day that's an exceptionally busy day.All we do is sit and swat flies (when I told Sameer this he called me a fly exterminator). What wisecrack are you going to make?
The place is exceptionally well placed. Easy accesibility to the busstand, railway station, the post office, telephone exchange, networking centres, courier, etc. It is in the heart of the city of Erode (notice...it is a city !!!).
The duty timings are also light. If I am on day duty, I work in OPD either from 8:30am to 1:00pm and then 4:00pm to 7:00pm or from 8:30am to 12:00noon and 1:00pm to 4:00pm. Night duties are for a week once every three weeks including half of saturday and the whole of sunday. So on day duties I get sunday off. This makes it easy for me to go home every weekend. If I have done a week's night duty I get the Monday off. Cool. It's so cool that I think I'll catcha a cold. OK...OK no more kadis. Believe it or nor I have huge two bedroom house for me to live in all by myself.
- Priya
APRIL,2001
THE DOG BARKED ATLAST (to be read as TONY WRITES ATLAST)...
Hi there to all 95ites,
This is Tony reporting from Thrissur.Work here is so hot I am swimming in sweat without having to move a muscle,because if I did , it would be a a minor miracle .
Let me make a comparison between the pace of work in CMC and here . If the lightest of our internship postings , CHAD posting ,was like a sprinting cheetah with its tail on fire, the work here is like that of a geriatric tortoise with polyarthritis. Cree..eeak.....yawn!Sorry, if I was too noisy while turning over(have to make sure I dont get bed sores...just kidding).
This is a great website Mr.Spiderman , sorry , Mr.Webmaster.Keep the spirit going .And please tell me who you are.I dont have easy internet access here and so I have`nt made an address for myself. The KIT effort by Rose is greatly appreciated especially by guys strranded like me.
Here are my vital statistics :
Address :
Mar Timotheus Charitable Hospital
Nellankara
P.O. Nettissery
Thrissur - 680657
Phone : 0487 _ 371520
0487 _ 371771
The phone no. at my home is changed to 3742261 , and is not the no. given in the list.
Please include stuff from written letters and e-mails.These are going to be some of the only things that are going to keep me sane.
Goodbye,
luv,
Tony.