I finally finished my fourth Dan Brown read – Deception Point.
Like the other three, this one too is a surefire page turner and an out and out thriller. If you like his style of writing, you will know that this is just like the other three, full of chills and thrills, exotic locations, scientific overload, a dash of relationship drama, and a narration that travels at breakneck speed.

The order in which I like his books?
1) Angels and Demons
2) The Da Vinci Code
3) Digital Fortress
4) Deception Point

Although his narration is a page turner and all his chapters end like the Kyunki Saans Bhi Kabhi Bahu thi episodes, there are instances of scientific background that can easily be skimmed over. Also, there are places where you just want to move on and not read the details so that you can jump on to the juicy stuff. Another common trait in all his books is the numerous fights and escapes that the heroes and heroines of his books have! The hero and the heroine seem to get into trouble everytime and whether they are being hunted by the bulkiest of man in a desolate land or they are left to be frozen on a rock in the Arctic circle, they manage to escape alive. The climax, is always a shower of firearms or something magnanimous and leaves you in awe! Much like our typical hindi movie climaxes. Lots of drama and action!

What is most interesting though, is that his books are a kind of satire, I feel! There are so many open implications about discontent with religion and government and the books truly make you think if what he wrote is really true? Even though common sense tells you that it is fiction, the books urge you to check some things out and raise your curiosity! Besides, there is so much information in there that I did not know about and was like oh! I didnt know that!

I had picked up Digital Fortress on my way to India, especially since everyone I knew was raving about Da Vinci Code. So I figured before jumping on to the biggest, I start with something not so big! Loved it and went on to read the other three. I cant wait for a fifth one if it is coming out and also the movie!

A story in blogsville that is very much Dan Brown style is our very own Deepak Jeswal’s Independence Day! It could definitely be your prelude to break-neck thrilling DB style.

Whether it be the brain-whacking codes in Digital Fortress, the perils of Vatican City, the glaciers and ice storms of the Arctic Circle, or the signs and symbols of Leonardo Da Vinci, if you enjoy fast paced, intelligent fiction with some satire and drama mixed in, Dan Brown is your man.

Okay so finally here I am. Back again. I said I was not going to be back until January coz of exams! But turns out that I postponed that January exam to June. I realized I just wasn’t prepared to take it. Its a huge deal and I wanted to make sure I am well prepared before I take it. So now, I only have one huge exam in March – the one for my licensure.

The past few weeks have been crazy and super busy! I have been busy studying for these finals that happened last week. I have been up all night, high on caffeine – drinking coke, tea, coffee or whatever that would keep me awake all night! I guess thats what happens when one procrastinates and does not study till the very end! I really need to change these habits if I want to pass through the four years of professional school.

And now, finally the winter holidays have begun and I am enjoying every minute of it. Not that I am resting all day, because I will be working five days each week till college re-opens. Everything and everyone around is in festive spirits, with christmas presents being bought, houses being decorated and malls being jammed! Festivals are always such a wonderful time because everyone is relaxed and with family. But I must say, it has been freezing lately! That is the only downside of winter – its cold!

Now to the template, where did I get it? It was the day before my last final and you know how that is. One never wants to study for that last one because one is about done with boooks! Procrastination seeps in and then you think up all new and improvised way of procrastination. One result of that procrastination was this template! I was so tired of studying that I thought “chalo lets just check the blog for a second” and that second turned into two hours and ended only when I published this new template! Got it from Blogskins and made a few changes here and there and voila!

The most useful thing I did this past week was to come up with new ways to procrastinate during exams:

1) Sign in to ALL your different email accounts and start reading old emails and reflecting on why you wrote what you wrote then.

2) Delete all those emails you have been rotting in your inbox for the past thousand years or so.

3) Search for new templates on the web and take your sweet time doing it. And then CREATE a new template

4) Watch re-runs of your favourite sitcom.

5) Write emails to friends you have not written to in eons – does not matter if they don’t remember you.

6) Go to online shopping sites and dream about buying those items – does not matter if they are too expensive for you!

7) Download songs?
Take online surveys because you have nothing better to do.

9) Write a new book. Come up with the first and last lines “Once upon a time” and “happily ever-after”

10) Make a list of people you would like to invite to your wedding.

11) The room that you have been trashing things in due to lack of time suddenly is ready to be cleaned up when you actually need to be studying.

12) Internet is the remedy to all woes. it needs to be avoided like the plague during exams!

13)Change your desktop wall paper from those frilly flowers and mountain scenery to the hot guy you have always wanted on your desktop. My current desktop – Arjun Rampal

14)Check your email every zillionth of a second.

15) Hit the gym – for the first and last time of the semester!

16) Take the longest way home in hopes of finding a shortcut or that scenic road you always dreamt about

17) Read blogs and make a mental note to comment on each one, then read blogs you have never read before and then go to all your old posts and re-read them. Very insightful exercise.

18) Imagine you are the CEO of a huge corporation and give a speech to the newbies…

hehehe okay that last one I did not do, but worth a try eh?

Anyways that was it for the past few weeks. I feel like I have lost all of my writing skills – whatever little I had. I shall try to come up with a decent post soon. Need to get in that right mood to write. Till then, ciao!

Yes yes, this is one of those hiatuses I am taking yet AGAIN from blogsville….and this time it is not because I lost interest, or I have nothing more to say, but because I am about to be buried under preparations for TWO big exams! One in January and one in March, not to mention the finals in December. I won’t be blogging atleast till January now. Shall try to be around your blogs and comment and be on yahoo messenger, but shall not be posting anything. Hope I shall come back and see you all still here! Dont lose the love for Utterances….I will be back yearning for your comments Hugs!

Adieu, till the next time.

Sorrie sorrie sorrie..this is sooo late! I had written almost 3/4ths of this the very next day but then did not get time to finish it! Life has been very busy dont ask! So here it is the remaining part…hope you all are still inspired enough to read it. WARNING: long post ahead!

Continued from before…The nurse anesthetist put a mask on his face to start the sedation while the anesthesiologist put in the IV. Soon, he calmed down and slowly very slowly his eyes shut. We released him and pretty soon he was on his way to some land that I have never known.

and now….

The mother wished us good luck and was rolled out of the room. DrH, the oh-so-laid-back soul that he is, rubbed his hands and said, “hmm lets get some music going on here before we start.” Out came the pod, speakers and all, and we were jamming to latest ummrican pop.
We took x-rays on the patient and I got the honorable duty of hitting the button when they said “ready to expose”(yes yes…thats the terminology! DJ back off!) . All of us were weighed down by these super-heavy lead covers to protect us from radiation.
After that, DrH said, okay girl, lets get scrubbed up.
Me: “Huh, whats that?”
DrH: “this is when you get your hands sterile or try the best you can and put on the sterile gown.”
Me: “Do I need to do this too?”
DrH: “well yea, you and I are gonna be working…… you thought you were just observing? you are gonna be working on this boy”
Me: all freaked out “whoa! I have to clean his teeth? i umm well…”

Giving me no time to talk any further he walked out of the room and I scrambled to catch up.

DrH took me outside the OR and we put some uber sterile lotion on our hands scrubbing our nails in first. We had to get some lotion in our palms, dig nails of the other hand in there and scrub it all over the hand. Mind you though, once we scrubbed down till the elbow, we were not allowed to scrub back up. Also, once both hands were scrubbed up, we were not allowed to let those hands go below waist level. Don’t ask me why! but then it was me and him entering the OR with hands in the air, looked like we were getting ready for a fight with our fists in the air. The assistant came forward and put the gown on DrH, and put one on me. Now, there is also a special way to tie the gown to yourself. here, sterile on sterile is the rule! We got special sterile gloves and I was getting ready to put them on and……”whoa whoa whoa..wait..you need to make sure now that everything you touch is sterile and you touch with a sterile GLOVE ON! AND… there is a special technique to put these gloves on”

–”wokay!” I learnt the special technique which entailed me not touching ANY part on the outside of the gloves (that were half folded) and putting them on. How did I do it? I dont know! Miracle maybe.

Pretty soon, I was covered from head to toe, hand to shoulder with some sort of covering. oh wait sterile covering mind you! DrH is extremely tall, I am guessing around 6″5 so he raised the patients bed pretty high. I, on the other hand had to get a step stool to get to that level so that I could see something or ANYTHING! With DrH on one side and me on the other, we were ready to roll! It was showtime!

It was only then that I actually took in the picture before me. Here was a fourteen year old boy covered up in protective barriers from head to toe. His eyes were taped on with cotton rolls and a catheter was connected to him, not to mention the multitude of IVs going in and out connecting the huge machine monitoring all of his vital signs. He was COMPLETELY (and that is no exaggeration) covered in some kind of protective barrier. The only part of his body that was visible to me was the oral cavity.I shrugged for a second and for the first time thought, this is it! I am here with this patient who doesnt know me, who has been put to sleep and will wake up not knowing or remembering anything we did to him. With a deep breath, I took the ultrasonicc instrumentt that DrH handed over and was thinking how to start. I tried to open the patients jaw but it was as hard as a rock!

I could not move ti and get his mouth open. DrH laughed and took a pair of pliers and put its rubber edges inside his mouth and literally yanked it open. I could see the amount of force he used to do that! We were greeted by a huge tongue that would make working on his teeth impossible. We took a handle-like instrument, pushed the tongue underneath it and tied it to the pliers with a cloth! Now we had oneside of his mouth free to work on. Allright K, this is not your one hour cleaning appointment, I give you three minutes per quad to do this cleaning. Get inside the gums to remove soft and hard deposits and remember this might be the ONLY cleaning this person might get in five years or so. Okay I got that….but three minutes per quad?!?!??! A quad is a set of eight teeth. Suppose you divide the mouth in four equal parts then each part is a quad. “Allright go to town, K”
“Ummm umm okay okay..am starting….” I turned the instrument on, it whirred to life and zoom zoom zoom…true to the orders, I took three minutes per quad. many a gingiva (gums for the uninitiated might have been ripped during that..okay just kidding) The adrenaline rush was so high that I did not realize I was going so fast!

Once that was done, we did a comprhensive exam and found that he needed some 18 feelings on a total of 16 teeth. We took half side of the mouth and DrH, with his burr(drill for a simple word) went in and scooped out all the decay on that half. Then with the help of the attending surgeon, restorationss – amalgamms, and resin were put in to fill the cavities.

Then all of a sudden the nurse anesthetist calls out: “is he moving?”
DrH and I were so engrossed in our work that we didnt realize and saw that the patients was flinching a little!!! He started vibrating and trying to move his strapped body. The nurse was up, instruments were put away, and all attention was again in putting him back to sleep!
“Vitals?”
“Okay”
“Whats wrong?”
“Am not sure…lemme figure it out”
And I am waiting for him to pounce up from his sleep and scream!
“okay we are going back down”
Phew! Back to work!
Amazingly, I did not realize where time was going by, until DrH said, we are half an hour out! A glance at the clock in the room made me realize that I had been in there for 2 hours now! Half an hour later, the wrap was as interesting as the set up.

When we were ready to wake him up. Again;). A quick call for the anesthesiologist and two assistants (BIG hefty men for sure!) he was unstrapped and all the coverings taken off. His catheter was taken out and cleaned out, he face was cleaned and it seemed like the team was slowly putting life back in him. We could sense him moving and then all of a sudden…
He was up! He raised his head and all of us were working at keeping him calm. Soon he realized he was helpless and relented. A mobile bed was called for and aligned next to his bed. “Okay everyone ready? ” “Yup!’ “Okay 1, 2, 3!” and he was in the mobile bed.

The anesthetists, DrH, the attending surgeon, and myself…all of us wheeled the cart to an area where patients’ coming out of anesthesia were monitored until stable. We left him there with the nurse and went to talk to his parents! The mom was really really nice, almost as if she was used to this being done to her son. “So was this first time interesting and exciting for you?”
I was beaming: ” OH YEA!”

Lunchtime! and then another patient. Day in the OR was too good. Besides the fact that I felt important walking around the hospital in surgery scrubs, I had the most amazing experience that only very few people get close to i.e. being on the giving end in a surgery room, not to mention the sight of your name on the OR as attending clinicians!

Leaving all that aside, at the end of the day..the most rewarding thing is the feeling that you were able to help someone. You were able to do something for someone using your skills and education. Ofcourse, I cannot wait to get paid for doing it….I am, however, content and satisfied in knowing that I made a difference in my own little way.