In an academic institution, a large part of progressing through a career is having enough publications to get to the next rung. It’s a battle I was aware of when I joined, but have not been motivated enough to fight well. Maybe I’m not equipped, maybe I’m not a battler, maybe I’m just plain lazy. “Not enough publications” is a yearly ordeal I hear every June as I settle into a stagnant life in my C grade quarters and I find myself unable to remove the Asst. in my designation. This is also an easy excuse for not being allotted a car park at work. But it hasn’t impacted on the joy factor in life thankfully. Only my overall impact…

My presentation on Migraine almost caused me a major headache. Everything fell apart in the last minute and then miraculously came back together in the last second!I had finished preparing the presentation about an hour early and was ready to go. Unfortunately the CD burner was giving errors and my USB drive was in the car. As B was just finishing her presentation preparation too and was about to burn it on a CD I called her up and said I would email it to her so she could add mine also.The email reached her in 5 minutes.Blackout – total power cut!Luckily B had a laptop and the battery would last 1 hour. She could burn the CD. I got…

Finally at around 4 PM we managed to get the charts and the addresses! Yippee!!I quickly scanned through the charts and pulled up the data I needed. I’d already printed the letters and the data entry questionaire and once I was done with the charts, I started writing the names and sticking addresses. In the back of my mind I was scheming as to whether I could go off to Chennai early tomorrow and surprise Becky and also join the dinner S and J had planned for both our families.Ideas, lotsa work and some scheming…. exciting way to finish the day!

I managed to meet up with colleagues, friends, my professors etc and also had to wait a lot and discussed some thesis stuff with Dr. Anil and Dr. Jana. Made some progress, but still a lot of work to do.I have to get about 75 charts, get addresses, review the charts and enter some data. I hope I can finish off quickly as that would give me time to gom to Chennai before I go off to Trichy.Praying hard…….

After a loooong all-night chat with Becky on the phone, I left in the morning to Vellore to try and finish off some work on my thesis. After reaching Vellore I found that Dr. Anils daughter had had an appendicectomy the previous night and so I couldnt really meet him. I started working on getting the charts out and there was just a looooong wait once the letter was given. I felt frustrated, but just had to hold on…. I hope in the next couple of days I can work out what I need to get done. Everything is going slowly and it’s taking me some patience – need an extra dose of it.

I’ve been waiting for my results for quite some time ago and tonite when I rechecked the university website The update showed that the results had come in.I checked in and got a rude shock. It said “Result withheld (in view of thesis)”.There was a flood of thoughts racing through my mind and threw it into turmoil. Did I have to repeat my exams again? Was my thesis rejected? Did this mean quitting my job and getting back to Vellore to sort out things? How disappointed would my parents be? What would Becky think?Somehow the doubts settled and I realised that it would take patience, a few phonecalls and a trip to Vellore to sort out stuff. There were several…

I wasnt graduating today withn the rest of the PG students as my official results hadnt yet come. I however won the Dr. Beatrice Chinniah Medal for Best outgoing Student in MD Pediatrics which was purely by the grace of God.I managed to catch up with a lot of friends at Vellore and spent the night at Manish’s house.

Friday the 13th: D-day!!After getting ready, checking, rechecking I finally got dropped at ICH by Appa and Amma and went to the exam hall early.To put in the experiences and details of today is impossible.To sum it up I was shown exactly where I stand academically. I did my neonate case quite well – reflecting the 6 months extra I spent in nursery.The rest of the exams were a mixture of answering questions I knew, stumbling on questions I didnt, being shown areas I lacked, receiving credit for things I knew.I felt the examiners were jumping questions and seemed to be in a hurry to finish off. There were moments of mutual humor, moments of uncomfartable silences, moments of appreciative…

Well… today was the last exam and I was least nervous about it.The questions were definitely tougher today and I was not too pleased with the way I structured a few answers. But at the end of it all, I just felt so relieved that the written part of the exams were all over and largely uneventful.Now the wait for the practical exam begins. The dates havent yet been announced. They’re definitely a lot tougher than the theory exams. Infact noone has flunked a theory exams recently. Lots of people have failed the practical exams. Thinking about this fact is not useful. I’ll spend the next few days gearing up as much as I can.For today – I’ll catch a…