The 80 percent man

Up to 60% of men pretend not to hear when they were asked to do chores. As part of the minority 40%, I don't understand how this is possible.

 My wife says I am a 80 percent man, ie, I take care of 80 % of the to do list. Initially this was a revelation to me and felt bad about not being 100%. But once I accepted this , it was of great help, especially  at work. Whenever a nurse or colleague asked me why I didn't do something, I revealed that I could do only 80% and that job was in the 20% unimportant category. 

There was new found respect from colleagues who admired the 80%, most of whom could barely manage 50%. Female nurses compared me with their husbands , again could not be close.

Boys of our class , be men and reveal your percentage of tasking. Maybe its time for Rasputin or Killio to comment on this so that we can at least know if you are  a male or female.

Prabhakar

In memory of the departed

As many of you may know, Dr Seethalakshmi and Sir Ramachandran (Anatomist) passed away due to illness, in the past few years. I wanted to mention this at our reunion but didn't. So I am dedicating this blog to both of them . May their souls rest in peace.

Dr VS Kumaran has come forward with an eulogy which follow and if others have thoughts about our friends, please share  with us. 

Eulogy 

Hi friends,

It is a great idea that after all these times we all get to meet again. Time has gone by and we have all changed..some for better...some for worse I guess :)(giggle)....I cant imagine it has been 25 years since we first set foot at KMCH. I for one cant imagine that I am on the wrong side of forty..:) now...

I have been moving around - no roaming around- the past 12 years of my life...Now for the past couple of weeks I am asking myself WHY? - I know- some of you think "mid life crisis" - very true. 

We are all trying to search for something - some of us know "what"- most of us (like myself)dont :)(giggle)- that is why we never get to find what we are searching for....(more giggles)

We get upset, we cry and moan and groan & curse and fight &.... all without really knowing the whys..whats and wheres of whatever it is...?........that we are searching...

But Seethalakshmi was the one who just breezed through it all...I never got to know her well or at all through our KMC days. I was a shy loner most of those days, I suppose. It was nearly 2-3 years out of KMC that I met her at CHILDS trust hospital Chennai. She was training to be an anaesthetist. I cant imagine a day that she didnt have a smile on her face.
She was the bubbly sort who can infuse life into anything that she came across. She had simple ambitions, easy to please and it looked as though she just loved "living"....

With my retrospectoscope I think we never got close but she never ever made me feel that I am out of the loop. She never told me she had cancer but not one day I felt ..looking back that she treated me as someone outside her inner circle...:)

How many of us can be with others making the other person the most important person all the time and still be happy and cheerful - She could-

no airs, no ego, no dramas...

She just went about her way laughing, smiling, feeling proud of friends, mothering them along... all the time having this deadly disease inside her and knowing it- 
I could see many times that she was proud of me (not that I was doing anything great) but she had this way about her - "Kumaran and I were batchmates" she would say whenever she wants to show her appreciation and now when I think of her I feel previlaged that Seethalakshmi and "I" were batchmates...that she was our class of '84

She was also searching I am sure but did it with a smile....

I just wanted you guys to know how she lived her life."

- VS Kumaran.

Important Issues

Here are the following important issues.

I have started a poll for the next reunion timing in the www.kmc1984reunion.blogspot.com, poll ends on 30/8/09.Please vote responsibly, you have only one vote. 

My recommendation would be to have reunion meets every  2 years with a one day event. We meet in KMC and then go to any Taj in Chennai and have a buffet party. For every significant event such as silver Jubilee, 30year , 40 year reunion or golden Jubilee we could have grand 3 day events. 

But I think we have to first agree whether we want to called 1984 or 1989 batch so that the calculations would work out.

Now that gives me  an idea for another poll. So that next poll will decide whether we are 1984 or 1989 batch[

I would suggest that people enroll as followers  in www.kmc1984reunion.blogspot.com, so that you will get reminders about updates. As time goes by I will blog infrequently , but will keep it alive. We can activate it as we get closer to the next reunion. 

As mentioned before we should have a rotating organising committee and share the work. 

Dr Patrick Yesudian Speech

Though Dr Yesudian could not attend our reunion his message was from the heart. It  was made even more relevant by Dr Krishnakumar. Thanks KK for speaking for your mentor. I will always remember the line- Be faithful to your daily tasks.

Prabhakar

Here is the speech unedited

Though you’ll all be in your 4^th decade, to me you are still young as I remember you in the 80s. I would have loved to have been amidst you this evening but unfortunately I have to travel to Erode for a Dermatology conference. I may not remember your names but I can certainly recognise your faces.

 

When I was transferred from ESI hospital and posted as Professor of dermatology at the K.M.C, I was first disappointed when I saw my department. You’ll recollect that the department of dermatology was housed in asbestos-roofed shed more suited to act as a war time shelter but I just did what my mentor Prof. Thambiah used to say “Be faithful to your daily task”. I did just that by being in the hospital at 8 A.M sharp and seeing the O.P patients along with my single assistant.

 

Soon, not only did the O.P attendance increase but students started requesting me for classes. I was of course delighted to have then and one day in a week I used to have slide sessions which attracted not only KMC students but also some from MMC. These slide projections were presumably very useful for those who went for their PLAB or USMLE. Dr. Pandian who is now a respiratory consultant in USA told me that he was shown a case of sporotrichosis for the spotters. He was the only candidate to have got it right, since he had seen a similar slide at my class. So my short stint at KMC was soul-satisfying and the happiest time in my service career of over 30 years.

 

The only blotch in my happy memories was the brief period when I was forcibly made warden of  the men’s hostel. Every day I’ll be flooded with complaints about non-supply of water, poor quality of food, troublesome neighbours and stuff like that over which I had little control except to pass it on to the Dean. But the nightmarish event that marred my wardenship was, when a student sent me a lawyer’s notice stating that I was jealous of his popularity as secretary of the college union! That was the last straw on the camel’s back and I promptly met the chief secretary who was my patient and on his orders I was immediately relieved of the warden’s post.

 

One of my faithful pupils was Krishna Kumar who never missed my clinic even after I went to MMC as Professor. sometimes I used to despair of him because he came to MMC at the expense of other subjects like pathology and Obstetrics much to the annoyance of the Professors of other departments. After his graduation I thought that he will take up to dermatology, but he branched off to pathology. I am happy to see that he still keeps in touch with dermatology though considered an authority in ocular pathology and stem cells.

 

During my recent visit to U.K, I visited a hospital in North Wales where my son is a consultant dermatologist. I was happy to see that nearly half a dozen consultants in that hospital were medicos from Madras. Two were from KMC. Ambalavanan who is a consultant in respiratory medicine and Hearton who is a consultant in haematology may be known to you. They insisted that I should give a talk at their clinical meeting. So I spoke on “Old is Gold” which was appreciated by the staff.

 

Finally, the enduring factors in medicine have always been compassion, pity, care and love which I am sure all of you are practising.

 

Have a great reunion before you reach the metallic age – silver in your hair, gold in your teeth and titanium in your hips.

 

God bless you all. 

Group Photo

This photo is just the beginning of the reunion photos release. Will create a new blog, for everyone to post their own pictures. The username and password will be sent via email. 

Thanks everyone for the great 2 days.

Saturday 8th, 2009

Hello Friends,

Thanks for coming to the friday event and looking forward to the party today. 

We have arranged 2 buses, The buses will leave at 11 AM and 11 30AM today, please be on time.

Also for people who are staying overnight at MGM;  you will have to make arrangements to return to Chennai on Sunday the 10th.

Thanks

 

INVITATION FOR AUGUST 7TH, 2009 EVENT

Hello everyone,

The day is near and we would like to invite all the KMCians 1984 -1989 batch to the reunion events on August 7th, 2009. Please note the time of assembly at KMC. 

Though not mentioned in the program we will have  group photos on both 7th, 8th of August. So please be on time.

We will be distributing the program schedule for August 8th on Friday. Thanks and looking forward to meeting everyone.