iRADiX

He would have been hardly three years old - but, I used to (and still do) call him "Professor" - so to maintain anonymity - let's call him just that - "Professor"

One day, my son who was also three then and one other friend of his - also three - spent an intense half an hour making complicated contraptions out of "Leggo". Expectedly, at the end of the exercise, a fight broke out between them as to whose contraption was better.All this while, "Professor" was sitting by my side admiring a "model train" catalog.

It was one of those hot but cloudy October afternoons. As I stood sipping a hot cup of coffee outside the canteen , I saw two senior professors -both known for their hot-headedness - animatedly arguing outside the library. I thought a punch would soon follow - but then some one joined me and I lost touch of the "Two Professors Action"

Days later, sitting in the cool of the MLT waiting for the Dean to arrive for one of those, now familiar, HODs meeting - I found both those professors - lets call then Professor O and Professor F -(that's 128 bit encryption) - sitting a few seats away. Curious as to what they were fighting about, I asked -
"Hey! What was it that the two of you were fighting about the other day outside the library"?
"YOU". Pat came the reply from "Professor O"
Generally known for my peace making rather than peace breaking nature, I was aghast.
"Now, what have I done?"
As Professsor O rambled on, the realization slowly dawned on me that the fight was not about what I had done; but, rather about what I had not done.
The argument , it turned out, was about how the head of the department of radiology could say that he knew next to nothing of ultrasound and get way with it and ask one of his junior colleagues to do the ultrasound examination of a very close relative of Professor F.
At this time, Professor F joined in His face was smiling - but , inside him , he was dead serious as he said:
"YOU can get away with it because you are RR. If any of us say such a thing we would get a "memo".
I did not know whether feel good or bad about it; but I did feel sorry for ProfessorF - I had let him and his relative down - or had I really?

Mornings, for me, are an assembly line.

Nothing seems to change .. well, most of the time. With the most important event of the morning - packing my son off to school behind me, I turn my attention to the more mundane things in life and generally look forward to the day at work. And even as I climb down the three stairs of the AD Bungalow and take a long walk lasting all of three minutes to reach the department, I spend a few brief seconds trying to organize the six things that I would have to do - first thing - on reaching the department (I have long since forgotten how to remember any list longer than six - that was always the limit of my DD – now, even that is becoming difficult!)

The number one thing is - check my mail – without this, my engine refuses to start. Even as I do this, once in a while, often, on a Monday, - I hear a hesitant voice behind me –

While a resident you are well protected by an armour of your professor, other departmental consultants and your colleagues. You are doing every thing automatically, almost in a carefree manner unmindful of any untoward events which may startle you at times when you are totally unprepared. When you leave this environment, join some hospital or a private practice you are on your own. Totally vulnerable, you imagine contrast reactions occurring, getting sued for wrong reports and derogatory comments of your rivals in the profession.