The Bihari

I first met the Bihari a month into my phaco fellowship at SN. In a strange place for a short time, I really hadn’t taken all that effort to make friends or establish an external routine. I had my books to catch up on, 4 years of learning about the eye didn’t leave much time for reading. The good thing about Chennai was the number of pirated book sellers. I would catch the bus to Chennai Central and walk to the side roads for those books. In a couple of weeks, I was welcomed as a regular. Established in my own private internal routine, I was loath to break it.
I welcomed the days the others went to Marina beach; I knew I was being aloof but I guess I knew whatever relationship I built during that time would be meteorically transient. There would be solemn declarations of forever friendship with the exchange of email ids and telephone numbers; I didn’t think it would last more than a maximum of 3 mail exchanges.
The Bihari was loud, lewd and obnoxious. There were times when he walked the corridors in his undies or worse and for crying out loud, it was a co-ed accommodation. Some years removed from the free-for-all of an undergraduate hostel, this was kind of hard to stomach. His room-mate was one of the phaco fellows who tried to bear it as stoically as possible. I guess I hated him most for when he interrupted my reading time, he would barge into my room and strike up a conversation or rather start a monologue on how he was this close to screwing the nurses.
But I liked Chennai, which was surprising because I had come all prepared to hate it and rant about it. It was hot and the pavements were liberally endowed with excrement but there is something about the city which is its own. Bangalore, is a bit plasticky and a faithful mimic of elsewheres. Chennai has its own unique identity, one which is vibrant and pulsing. Maybe it was my perception and I wasn’t in the right places at the right time. Maybe it was because I am always in Bangalore as a visitor for a few days, a guest who gets back to his life and routines. I was living in Chennai for a few months and maybe that just made the difference.
SN had this pretty strait-laced policy about non-veggie food and alcohol. Anything in the premises would invite a no-questions-can-be-asked termination. Every other Saturday, we would sneak in a couple of bottles of rum, get into one of the rooms, put some music and generally bitch about life. It was pretty relaxing.

A neurological basis for randomised non-logical thought generation: a speculative hypothesis

A neurological basis for randomised non-logical thought generation: a speculative hypothesis
Dr. Sebastian Mathew, DO, DNB, FRCS(GLASG)

Definition: A randomised non-logical thought generation (RNTG) refers to any conclusion or derivation arrived at without any objective or even subjective basis and in the absence of a conscious or deliberate thought process to arrive at the same.
What I mean by this are processes like ‘guesses’, ‘hunches’, ‘intuition’ and by a rather long extrapolation even phenomena like ‘extra-sensory perception’. What I find intriguing is the fact that these do turn out right at times and there may be even individuals who rather consistently get it right. I do believe that there is more than the laws of probability at work here. And I think I might even have a plausible explanation for this.
I am theorising that association fibres between different areas of the brain are the key here. My understanding of neurological development is that there are innumerable association fibres/pathways in the developing brain. The ones that get reinforced stay on while the rest undergo atrophy or do not undergo further development. Any sensory stimuli to be recognised needs to be picked up by the perceptive apparatus, transferred to the corresponding sensory area of the brain and ‘recognised’ by the relevant recognition area. If there is no association between these areas, there is perception without recognition. Here, I would like to digress into synesthesia where a particular sensory stimulus invokes not just the relevant perception but also one in a different modality of sensation. For e.g. A music note may bring on the perception of a colour. This is thought to be due to an aberrant association between these areas.
I think RNTGs also occur due to a similar aberrant association between different areas of the brain. The reasons may be congenital or acquired. Acquired aberrant association would be a kind of inadvertent ‘learning’ where repeated similar situations cause reinforcement of an aberrant association. Now this might be a ‘valid’ association where the perception is accurate in that the stimulus is a true association of the original situation and the process holds true every time it is repeated. Or it might be an ‘invalid’ association where the reinforcement takes place because of a coincidental association and the process does not hold true each time it is repeated. I believe it is because of these ‘invalid’ associations that RNTGs go ‘wrong’ at times.
As mentioned earlier, by a quantum extrapolation, perhaps even phenomena like extra sensory perception might be explained. It is quite possible that for every event there might be a number of valid associations which are perceived but not recognised due to an absence of the relevant association fibres. This non-development may have been due to confounding coincidental ‘invalid’ associations or due to some unknown reason. If the relevant association fibres have developed, the ‘aberrant’ connection can induce an extra perception. The subject ‘senses’ this. Take the example of an astrologer who seeing a person predicts illness for him. Perhaps he perceives a valid association which he is not aware of but at the same time recognises. It might be a pallor of the skin, or liver spots or something similar (the smell of rotten apples!??).
There seems to be some linguistic basis for this too. Phrases like ‘the smell of fear’, ‘green with envy’ I believe reflect valid associations. Rather than representing a valid association for the general population at large, it might have been a valid association for popular litterateurs which later due to socio-cultural factors got integrated in the language.
Would it be possible to prove this?
If a subject with a repeatable RNTG is identified can PET Scans identify the ‘aberrant’ association fibres? Or is there any other way it can be done?
Any suggestions about this?

Dr. Sebastian Mathew, DO, DNB, FRCS

Persepolis...

I really hadnt read that many graphic novels and Marjane Satrapi's 'Persepolis' did come as refreshing. I would recommend it since the genre itself stimulates. My previous experience was with the 'Griffin & Sabine' trilogy which I found out of this world, in terms of sheer creativity.

Satrapi's is more down to earth, political and contemporary.

While on literature, I really liked Jhumpa Lahiri's 2nd one 'The Namesake'. I think she is one writer to watch out for. 'The interpreter of maladies' was superb with shades of Raymond Carver, 'The Namesake' also delivers...

Tsunamis and short term memory

That's one cruel, callous fact, right? If it hasn't physically touched you and I mean really touched as in kicked you out of your comfort zone into ground zero - things get dumped into short term memory. The pathways just don't form or slickly create a bypass.

Remember how many died at Latur? Know even where Latur is? Or that school in Russia where hostages were killed? The families killed in landslides in Kerala? Remember them?Is it a defence mechanism or just the incredible power of the human mind to rally around? Its kind of comic right?, that incredible human optimism/naivety where things 'happen' to 'them' and not 'us'.Any thoughts on this?

The 33rd Batch 1996

Of nostalgia and absence…

The first rumblings came through e-mail from those far away from home. Not surprising that nostalgia would first tug the heartstrings of those miles distant. Its just not sentiment alone but curiosity too, I suppose. Some of us haven't met since the day we finally left with our MBBS degrees. Some we meet almost everyday. A lot of us have married, have children, some are busy consultants, priorities have changed, responsibilities have increased (as have waistlines!).
But seriously, it doesnt seem like 15 years!. I find that meeting everyone again, its easy to slip back into the roles that we first assumed. Sure thing, physically we have become older, but things cant really change all that much, can they? Prasad will always be Veerappan even if that original moustachioed bandit is long dead, Sam the gentleman doctor, Venky the magical voice, Fousiya the gentle friend....
There was a lot to be happy, the response was much better than we thought though Sivadas was optimistic right from the beginning. Another, reason, was that everyone seemed to be reasonably happy. I for one was really thrilled to see all those children running around! I guess, family has a lot to do with it, the happiness I mean. A life partner, a loved child, a reasonable job.. seems like a good recipe for contentment. Maybe, the unhappy ones didnt turn up. All the more reason to meet them somehow. Or does anyone feel differently about meeting old fellow travellers? I would hope not.
Lukhman, gave a brief message in the end. One which we all think of at some point or the other. Submission to the highest authority. Thoughts of the Almighty. Points to ponder, I guess. But for now, I think I will just live my life, try to touch those who are tangible, help spread a little light. Will save the abstract for later.
Stay tuned...Sebastian Mathew.