Project Career Change
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It’s late and we’re exhausted. It has not been a good week (John was attacked by a horrid dog, & it has been really awful at the hospital). But one of the bright spots in our months is the day we make our student loan repayment. Today was no different!
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Clinic, weeks ago. A Doctor encouraging her patient to return to a life he enjoyed. (We will call him Michael). Face all lit up as the Doctor painted a beautiful alternative. It was a touching sight. A few days later I saw Michael on the ward for a routine procedure. I sat next to him to chat some more. He…
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“The great enemy of communication, we find, is the illusion of it.” –W.H. Whyte. My parents, happily married, dreamt of a future together. But after witnessing many heartbreaks I realised that they had very different ideas about the work-life balance needed to build that future. Decades later, I now hear my friends describing the same differences: “I didn’t know he would be gone this often”,…
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Dining table, cups of tea gone cold, and lots of financial calculations. We were checking through our budget. “You will hate this, but we can’t buy them anything. Just no room.” I heard John say as I started at the calculator. We have found ourselves managing a very different mature student life than the one planned…
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“Djuknow what we need to focus more on?” John asked. “Hmm?” I looked up from my book, quite curious. “Cook from scratch as many weekday evenings as possible”, said John thumbing through a thoughtful Xmas gift. (I hate housework, and this idea sounded like more housework to me!) But we do cook from scratch, I protested. We…
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“Have you ever cured anyone?” I was thumbing through medical notes with my Consultant Psychiatrist (CP) one afternoon, having seen a few too many patients who were perpetually in Mental Health Services. I felt I had no talent for it and out came the question. My CP replied in an affably egalitarian manner, asking me if I had ever seen an Endocrinologist cure diabetes. Psychiatrists,…
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Our corporate lives were hectic. You must be expecting me to say how wonderful it is to slow down as a medical student, eh? Ha! No sir. I hate it. I would take high productivity, being on the road, deadlines, multiple projects on the go, & long working hours any day. On the plus side though this slow life (and…
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I used to have this Sunday afternoon ritual, if at home- a piece of dark chocolate truffle, freshly brewed espresso & catching up with my favourite blogs. While John and I were planning our mature student life we didn’t think I would have to let go of stuff like this. In any case, I would have reiterated,…
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Our last post was more than a year ago! You must be expecting me to say, “Where did the time go?” I know exactly where it went! *makes a sour face* My life as a mature student was insufferable to begin with: slow, sans any skill, and with an overabundance of time. And I, the productivity fanatic wasted every…
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Meet Joy Jar: A tradition we kickstarted to cope with the extremes of 2013. By mid-year we had already experienced a couple of fantastic highs and an awful lot of terrifying lows. So, we started to fill up this old sweetie jar with mementos of whatever made us happy this year – from Suravi’s first…
The Chatterjee-Woolmans 