Our bodies experience 'wear and tear' as we adjust to our continually changing environment;

it has physical and emotional effects on us and can create a positive or negative influence

on us. As a positive influence, it can help compel us to action. As a negative influence, it

results in feelings such as distrust, rejection, anger, and depression, which in turn can lead

to health problems.

It has been proven that medical students are comparatively under greater stress than their

counterparts in other sectors and Chrismeds are not any different.

A proper history, examination and timely management would help us to avoid causalities.

STRESS

Disclaimer: The images used in this coverstory are for illustrative purposes only and those featured have no relation with the content of the story

P LLSWhat are your priorities as a medical student?

What bothers you most in the college?

How much do these factors affect your daily life?

What is your most effective stress buster?

Fail proof methods to keep stress at bay - movies

and others... whatever may they be (the guys),

shopping & prayer groups (the girls).

The priority for first years is imbibing medical

knowledge and information, whereas final years

view peace of mind as their greatest priority.

Guess that's what four years of medical school

would do to you!!

First year student: "nothing in this world

bothers me... But I feel that affects

my daily life moderately."

Seems like stress among students is

something that we need to stress about !

tress among medical students has a myriad of causes, some man

made and the rest woman made (thanks to our mixed faculty and co-Seducational college). As our students try to make sense of the

wonderful creation of God that is the human body, they sometimes end up in

tangles with dollops of confusion. The faculty is still very supportive of them

with the noble thought ringing in their minds 'Tehda hai par mera hai'. This is a

snapshot of some stressors that CMCites in the making go through in their

sojourn.

The great crossing

Crossing the Grand Canyon on a tight rope with your eyes closed must be

easier than crossing the road in front of the College Chapel that leads to the

hospital. Standing by the side of the road, waiting for the good Samaritan to

slow down for you to cross, you suddenly realize why it is such a big bad world.

As you take hurried steps forward to crossover for the new adventures that lie

ahead, Neanderthals on scooters, bikes, autorickshaws and cars suddenly

transform to desi Schumachers and zoom past in a blur almost squashing

your toes into the crispy chips that you call your lunch on many a day. More so,

some mortified souls that manage to make it to the middle of the road are

then surrounded by unarmed gladiators on wheels trying hard to kill you from

both flanks. The thrill of saving your wretched life is great as you make a run

across or back to where you started for the great crossing to begin all over

again.

Can you walk this lane?

And then the walk from the college side towards the hospital with the live

snakes and ladders game as you maneuver yourself carefully to avoid tiny

warm hillocks of a myriad designs created fresh every morning by four legged

Specias Caninilis. They even wag their tails at you while you criss cross the

road to the hospital as if to say, “I just love the splotch sound when you tread

on my now decomposed post colonized dinner from the Frontier leftovers”.

Like it or not?

Many damsels have been in distress, have felt wretched, lowly and like the last

bit of dirt on the earth on having not been liked 34 times in 5 minutes after

posting their recent profile picture with a tuft of hair carelessly thrown in the

right position for the camera not to miss the rest of the façade (read face)

behind it. They will not tell you that they went to the beauty parlour 3 km away,

spent 3 hours and 3000 rupees to get that casual look. Now, I understand

people are uncaring and selfish in these times, but pray why would anyone

wake up at 3.30 AM to post a like for somebody who wrecks their own

face? Last I knew, our Cinderella was looking at auto alarm options for her

753 facebook friends that would ring on their phones as soon as she

posted a picture of her Highness.

The 3 monthly soulmate

A good boyfriend is a great stress reliever. The advantages are

manifold. Your worries for transport, a gourmet dinner at a five star

facility or eating out at rehris serving cream golgappas, the PVR

Stress…..you must be joking!

The thrill of saving

your wretched life

is great as you

make a run across

or back to where

you started for the

great crossing to

begin all over again.

cinematic experience, a jig at the discotheque, the balance in your mobile and

imbalance in your life is all taken care of. It goes without saying that all this

would put the boyfriend under great stress. But then who would complain

while having a bird in hand!

“Why did you smile at her? Since how long do you know her? So what if I spent

4 hours in 23 shops and did not buy a single piece of clothing? Why can't you

tell me honestly if I look fat or not? Why can't you tell me clearly if the striped

bandini dupatta goes well with the beige suit or the turquoise one? So what if I

cried myself hoarse in that mushy movie with an insensitive rest of the

audience who threw us out? So what if I have mood swings every other day

and don't want to talk to you?” Well, all a guy can say to this barrage of very

sensible and meaningful questions by his girlfriend is……………”You're brilliant,

I am speechless.”

The Stork owners

“Only 63% in the physiology test and failed in the anatomy stage again! What

happened to you, Sahil? You used to get 97.7% earlier. Are you in bad

company, ignoring studies, into drugs or girls?”, the parents would rant

endlessly. After Shylock in the Merchant of Venice, it is the next generation

parents who have inherited the franchise to demand their pound of flesh for

every morsel they fed you when you were still wetting and moistening nappies

in more ways than one and had no clue that you were the dream ladder to

better health for your arthritic joint family.

The great (un)awakening

“At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awaken to

light and freedom”. Pandit Nehru uttered these historic words 67 years ago.

Little did he know that many years later, let alone midnight, even waking up at

8 AM for a class will not be possible for the average Indian in an MBBS course.

After snoozing the alarm for the umpteenth time, finally, Jai managed to open

one eye partially and drag himself to the common wash room facility. He

sometimes wondered why people call it a wash room, not having used it for

the said purpose for ages. His eyes opened a wee bit more to see the time

which read 8.25 AM. “Well, I surely should not go to class today even if I am

desperate to. Surely that unkind, monstrous, tall giraffe in the garb of a

teacher will throw me out once I reach at 8.45AM. How insensitive can

teachers be! No respect at all for my weekly class visit.”

Weight and watch

“God, I am losing more hair than kilograms. By the time my online ordered

dress reached the hostel in 4 days, I could not get into it and nearly dislocated

my shoulder while trying to try it out. Finally after much heartburn, I had to gift it

to my roommate for free, that pompous self-absorbed 40 kilo bag of bones

who has guys from three batches drooling over her. Some people have all the

luck (???). I guess it is my binge eating the Mithai which is the problem. It is all

because of Samir. He just does not let me anywhere near the zero figures like

my marks in the class test. And about the zeroes, my weighing scale has a

zero error for sure.”

Attendance

Seemingly benign, this issue reaches metastatic proportions closer to the

“At the stroke of the

midnight hour, when

the world sleeps,

India will awaken to

light and freedom”.

Pandit Nehru uttered

these historic words

67 years ago. Little

did he know that

many years later,

let alone midnight,

even waking up at

8 AM for a class

will not be possible

for the average

Indian in an MBBS

course.

professional examinations as the decision to be (in the examination hall) or not

to be is made. The calculations go something like this: “If I attend all of the

regular classes from now onwards, also attend some with the junior batch and

drag myself to the extra classes, where we are the student and teacher rolled

in one, I will be able to hit 32% attendance. I can then try to plead to the

authorities for the rest of the 43% by reminding them of my responsibilities in

the annual musical (although he only ushered in his girlfriend and her equally

irritating cousins), the sick leave when I had PUO lasting for 2 days (needs

more medicine postings) and the pulse polio work (when our superman was

down with a pulsatile diarrhea and had to run into the bushes thrice).

The Tests

As is the tradition among the millennium generation, academics is the last

item on the list. Surprisingly, the tests during MBBS do not seem to bring in the

stress as much as teachers expect. Probably this is because they are sure

that only half of their class will be in the top 50%. The attempt at making

students aware that studying is required in the MBBS course is made in the

initial part of the first professional. Anatomy stages and grand stages are their

initiation to stress in the medical career. Following these, all other tests would

pale in comparison. They work like the first painful jab of a vaccine that

produces enough anti-test antibodies for future protection. As a student once

remarked (not in jest) “First year mein itna bhi na darao ki dar hi khatam ho

jaaye”.

Dr. Naveen Kakkar

Dept. of Pathology

Anatomy stages

and grand stages

are their initiation

to stress in the

medical career.

Following these,

all other tests

would pale in

comparison.

elationships are the cause of as much happiness as of distress. We

don't seem to be able to live with or without one another! Negotiating Rrelationships seem to be one of the major challenges of our growing

up process. Now, I'm no expert on this, though I could claim some

competency after 3 years of training in psychiatry. Relationships are as vast

and as varied as there are permutations of individuals. But it seems we do

have to make sense out of them somehow.

Now, as to why problems arise in relationships, I guess we are all quite

knowledgeable about several of those things such as unfulfilled expectations,

selfishness, misunderstanding, unfairness, uncontrolled passions and the

like. It would be rather laborious trying to deal with each and every instance

and find the reasons why relationships crumble or grumble. Instead, I think it is

better to derive some basic characteristics and principles on which

relationships seem to work and try and understand why and how things seem

to go wrong. Now this is no academic treatise on the philosophical and

neurobiological underpinnings of relationships. It is an attempt to bring into

some readable form my own personal understanding of things gleaned from

various books I have read and the various experiences that I have had while

counselling people, whether patients or students. If you find it useful, great!

Love is a many splendored thing! We all (normal people) want to be loved and

to love in return. And that is where the problem begins! Can we love before

being loved? Can we love when we are being hated? And that brings us to the

mother of all questions: What is love? I would think that if we are able answer

that question rightly or at least satisfactorily, much of our confusion in

relationships would end.

If you ask 10 different people the definition of love, we would probably get ten

different answers. There seems to be no baseline definition for this thing that

is the central ingredient in our relationships. We are so accustomed to the

various passions that represent love in our lives that we use the word love with

impunity. “I love you,” and eventually, “I don't love you anymore.” As though

everyone knows what everyone is talking about. And yet, we rarely can get

past the definition itself with any amount of clarity. In fact, one of the most

common hurdles is to decide whether love is a feeling or is an act of will.

In the name of love we claim various things and do various things. We write

poetry, we work tirelessly at a task, we set out to change ourselves, we set out

to change another, we won't let go of another, we do let go another and so on.

But in the name of the same love, we can betray a confidence, commit

murder, bad mouth the other when we do not get what we need or want, be

unfaithful to our partners, tell lies and so on. In fact, we can do almost anything

in the name of love as long as we 'feel' it is right.

Now, in English, there is only one word for love and it is supposed to describe

almost every kind of relationship between two people. But there are all kinds

of loves in our lives. It can be between two people who are 'in love', it can

describe the love between a parent and a child, between siblings, between a

Love & Relationships

In the name of love

we claim various

things and do various

things. We write

poetry, we work

tirelessly at a task,

we set out to change

ourselves, we set out

to change another,

we won't let go of

another, we do let go

another, and so on.

man and his work (or his car!), between two friends and so on. This sometimes

makes it embarrassing for us to talk of ourselves as 'loving' someone, and

having to correct ourselves by saying, “not in that way!” To go into describing

the subtleties of each kind of love is not the purpose of this essay. But there are

some things that become obvious as one looks at the similarities between

these loves. For one, they all work under some kind of agreed philosophy,

almost at a subconscious level. One lover must not cheat on the other. This is

seen and felt as an unwritten rule one ought to follow even before we make our

promises at marriage. So also, that friends must keep one another's secrets

and keep one another as priorities before others who are not friends, that we

must not lie to each other, that we must be fair to one another, that we must

sacrifice our good for the good of the beloved and so on.

Now, one can try and debate the origin of this 'ought to' phenomenon. Maybe

its roots lie in the evolutionary drive to ensure survival, maybe it is 'natural law'

or morality as Aristotle called it, maybe it comes from religion and spirituality,

or from cultural preferences or societal norms, or maybe even a combination

of all or some of these! Wherever the origins, nearly everyone seems to

believe that these rules are right. It is also seen that not following these rules

leads to subjective phenomena such as broken hearts, anger, depression,

suicidal tendencies, murderous tendencies and so on. It is not 'fair' or 'just' to

break these rules. We never seem to have to argue with anyone about why we

should be fair to another or why we should not harm one another. They are a

default setting. Even though it is nearly impossible to figure out the origins of

these passions, or their validity, we seemed to be wired to follow them. Some

(Many? Most?) of us have broken these rules. But when questioned, we do not

just say, “it's just an evolutionary accident just as everything else in life. Can't

you see?” We still feel we 'ought' to give an explanation for why we did so.

The interesting thing, however, is that even following these rules does not

always bring about anything very constructive in the end. One can 'fall in love'

with one person and soon after, find that they are 'in love' with yet another!

Then the confusion starts! We have to be faithful and true to each one

(according to the 'rules'), which usually means that we are neither to either!

Parents can love their children so much that they end up over-protecting them

and they end up misfits. Friends can be so closely knitted that they will steal,

hide and even kill, for the sake of a friend, even though he has done wrong and

deserves to be punished. Friends can form coteries that can swell with pride

and look down on others who are 'not up to their standard'. In a sense,

these loves seem to become tyrants of sorts, demanding our obedience

and loyalty and punishing us with guilt if they are not obeyed. Every love

or passion seems to have this problem, that I will love you only as

long as you are mine. If you claim independence, if you want to

leave me, then I hate you (enough to kill you)!

It would seem that there needs to be a 'higher standard' that

can keep all these 'loves' on track. A something is needed that

keeps an eye on the context and on higher principles and then

decides what to do with all these raging passions. Actually, we

do see this 'something' in action every once in a while. We have

seen many a friend 'betray' their friend and do what is good

for him. For example, someone who tells the friend's

In a sense, these

loves seem to

become tyrants of

sorts, demanding

our obedience

and loyalty and

punishing us with

guilt if they are

not obeyed.

Now if we look at

the characteristics

of true love, we see

a few things. It is

an act of will. A

decision based on

what is truly good

or better for the

beloved.

parents that their son has gotten hooked on drugs. The friend may

fume and say that he didn't honour their friendship by telling his

parents about him. But a good friend would understand that it is

better to lose a relationship than to lose a life. Mothers everywhere

go through the pain of separation from their children as they grow

up, though every fibre of motherhood in them would want their

children to continue to live with them forever. There are broken-

hearted lovers who, though betrayed and torn inside, would still

be kind to the one who left, respecting their right to choose and

continue to wish them well. Passion bleeds from wounds unseen.

Yet the lover chooses death and rises immortal from the ashes of

mere passion.

The thing that seems to choose against love's desire can't be that love itself. It

is something that can rule over it. Shall we call this 'true love'? The ancient

Greeks had a word for it. They called it 'agape'. Now if we look at the

characteristics of true love, we see a few things. It is an act of will. A decision

based on what is truly good or better for the beloved. It looks at the context,

reasons as to what is best and then does. And of course, one must be free to

make the decision. There may not be much passion motivating the choice. In

fact, the choice is often made in the very teeth of disinclination. Hmmmm ....

Can we evolve some kind of a 'working definition' here for this 'true love'? Allow

me to state one possible definition:

True love is my freely chosen rational commitment for the highest

good of my beloved.

Which then begs the question: How do we decide what is the 'highest good' of

my beloved? Well, I guess that is where we have to decide what value system

we are going to use. What is the worth of a man (or woman)? What is the

purpose of life? How do we decide right and wrong? Are we created/evolved

with a purpose or are we accidents that happened for no rhyme or reason? Is

there a meaning to things? Are there absolute truths or are there just

opinions? Are some things better than others or are they just points of view?

The answers to each of these questions shape our worldview. And that, in

turn, decides what we consider good or bad, better or worse. One popular

value statement is 'Do to others as you would have them do to you,' which is

also known popularly as 'The Golden Rule'. A general collection of these value

systems (The 'Tao') from various sources, both ancient and not so ancient,

both religious and philosophical, can be seen, neatly classified, at the website

www.scifiwright.com for anyone who is interested.

What is pretty obvious is that we have, as human beings, always had some

sort of morality and value system and there is a lot more similarity than

difference, between the various principles in every form of it.

Once some kind of baseline definition is established, then maybe one can see

whether it 'fits' into the grand scheme called life and love. Suppose we are

reading a story book and discover that several of its pages are missing.

Suppose someone tells you that he has found the missing pages. Now how do

we know for sure that these are the missing pages from this story book and

not from some other story? Well, an intelligent way to do this would be to put

those pages back where they are meant to be according to the page

numbers, and then reread the story. If the story now makes sense and 'holds

together then there is a very high likelihood that those were, in fact, the

missing pages.

So allow me to venture into making a few propositions that may be part of the

missing pages in the book called Life:

1. We are made to love. This is the highest good. So we are made for each

other.

2. People are of infinite value.

3. There is a meaning and purpose to life.

4. We are meant to be inter-dependent and not independent.

5. We are truly free to choose, ergo, we are truly responsible for our actions.

Now if we are agreed on these basic propositions, then we are able to suggest

some reasons for the problems we have in our relationships, and offer

possible solutions.

So why do relationships cause a lot of stress. In fact, a survey among our own

students revealed that relationships are the cause of the greatest amount of

stress. Why is this so? Well, if we are primarily meant to love, then

relationships are central to our being. We are wired to be most concerned

about one another and the way we relate. And since we have passions which

are reciprocal to the passions of others and since we cannot control the

passions of others with any amount of certainty, we feel trapped and stressed

as we try and negotiate a give and take relationship that is satisfying to both

parties. But since what is good for us may not be as good for the other, there is

always a need to compromise and control our passions. But this is a truly

painful process initially.

Then there is always the problem of who will give and who will take. We are all

paupers when it comes to love. We know how to reciprocate but have difficulty

giving love without receiving. When we get down to choosing a spouse, what

do we usually look for? Someone who is good for us, or for someone whom we

are good for? Who will be the source of goodness to which the beloved can

respond? Well, I guess that is the conundrum in which we find ourselves

most of the time. Why should I love someone who is not good for me? Why

should I love someone who causes me pain? And I guess relationships

always cause us some amount of pain.

If we are primarily focussed on ourselves, then it is impossible to answer

this question. But if we accept that we are primarily meant for each other,

then the reasons are adequate. Love seems to be the first reason and the

corollaries follow quite naturally. We love, not because we are loved but

because we have decided to make someone loveable. We trust another, not

because they are trustworthy, but because trust begets trustworthiness.

Love makes us vulnerable. But vulnerability is not a weakness but the

greatest of strengths. As a writer put it, 'To love at all is to be

vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly

broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it

to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies

Then there is always

the problem of who

will give and who

will take. We are

all paupers when

it comes to love.

We know how to

reciprocate but have

difficulty giving love

without receiving.

and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or

coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it

will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable

and irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.' A broken heart rightly mended

is probably the greatest of all teachers in life. Broken hearts heal. But we can

dress the wounds with regrets and anger, or we can dress it with courage and

acceptance and rebuild the walls, making it larger, maybe even get rid of the

walls altogether.

Love is completed when it is reciprocated. Trust is essential to love. Honesty is

essential for trust to develop. Love is not a pitiful doormat which is drowning in

self-pity. It is the strong, unresting, unhasting will of a lover ready to offer all for

the sake of the beloved, as Francis Thompson put it: “... strong feet that follow,

... with unhurrying chase, and unperturbed pace, deliberate speed, majestic

instancy...” And if you came to the lover, broken and bruised, expecting to see

regret and remorse, as someone put it, “Clad in such sordid garb, thy seat yon

step, where dogs brush by thee and express contempt?” One would rather

likely see him “raise a brow, once more luminous and imperial, from the rags”,

and stare at you with pity for your sordid lack of understanding.

Let me end here. Are we in trouble with our relationships? Then see the person

beyond the passion. See what is better for him/her. Leave the choice to them.

We cannot be everything for another. We are not their ultimate good or

destiny. We are here to help one another towards it. The beloved is far greater

than what he/she means to you or what they are with you. So are you. So be

patient with yourself too. There is mystery everywhere; people, relationships,

nature, the universe, time; all are mysterious in essence. So let us not judge

too harshly and let us be honest about what we do not know. Every man is a

grand mystery. Let us not concentrate on ourselves and our dignity. True

greatness is how good we are for others. Ultimately, the best foundational

phrase for us may just be 'God is Love'.

Dr. Rajesh Issac

Dept. of Social & Preventive Medicine

There is mystery

everywhere; people,

relationships, nature,

the universe, time,

all are mysterious

in essence.

tress makes us irritable, preoccupied, unproductive and unhappy and

if research is to be believed it is going to kill us a lot earlier too. I believe Sthis piece has been planned because medical students are prone to

stress during their MBBS course, much of which is related to academics,

expectations, peer pressure and competition.

It's not a pleasant experience to have stress rule your life here and looking

back I've had my fair share of it as a student here. Trust me I'm no expert on

this and have never attempted to become one, so most of what I share with

you probably has little scientific evidence other than my own randomness in

dealing with stress as a student here. But if you consider 'losing one's hair' as

the benchmark of experiencing stress, then you've got the world's most

qualified expert to write this piece!

Getting to the roots of stress it boils down to a few essentials…causes you can

modify and a few you just have to soak up. I would suggest targeting stress at

its roots and I will discuss doing this under a few sub headings.

Academic stress

The medical curriculum has many subjects, each of which is intimidating to

get started on but once you do so, there is a joy in discovering the unknown.

Understanding why it is important to do the subject and knowing that it will all

add up to something awesome in the end is the first step. Once this is done,

you need to know and understand the subject. Spend time understanding

what's going on rather than mugging random facts which don't make sense.

Knowing more about less is the biggest stress! Once you have an

understanding it makes sense in putting things together in the larger

perspective. It is like solving a jigsaw puzzle when you know the larger picture

you have to work towards and it gets interesting as the pieces fall into place.

There are certain essentials in India you cannot do without, namely

attendance and passing Profs. Take your classes seriously and make them

count. You could make the most insipid ones interesting by reading up before

attending them, based on the schedule provided. Not only will you be able to

get a clearer picture while the class is going on, it also clears the mental

cobwebs that allure classroom slumber. Ask questions constantly till you get

the answers that complete the jigsaw.

Profs

Professors and Professional Examinations were created for good reason.

They aim to get the adrenalin going and ensure there is quality control in the

medical system. While there may be debates on the methods used to do so,

the fact remains that they are in the zone you can do little about except

perform to their requirements. If you are on course with academics keeping

the larger picture and faithfully piecing the jigsaws as you go along, both

should be easy to please and overcome. Every subject has its important areas

that must be addressed in a focused manner during the study leave and take

time to do so. Having a study partner on a similar academic wavelength is

helpful to keep the momentum going. Lastly keep your nerves and preserve

your nails remembering that folks like me have survived to see better days

and it should be no different for you.

Professors &

P r o f e s s i o n a l

E xam i na t i o n s

were created

for good reason.

They aim to get

the adrenalin

going and ensure

there is quality

control in the

medical system.

Something That Rankles, Even Something Sane

Fitting Into CMC

Every society fits individuals into a similar identity trait over a period of time

and CMC is no different. Many would call this a form of branding and this can

be stressful, particularly while being initiated into it during the early years.

Expectations, personality, goals and even religion become a focus like never

before. The stress of wanting to or having to fit into the stereotype CMC'ite has

always been there. Choose to be yourself (especially if you are uncomfortable

with stereotypes) and over a period of time, people will learn to live with you.

Life is full of exciting choices and we are free to make them and live by them,

as long as we respect each other's opinions, rights and values. At the same

time there is a lot to discover and enjoy if you explore the CMC experience and

take the effort to involve yourself in activities here, which can be enjoyable and

life changing. Music, sports, dramatics and being a student council

representative are good extra-curricular activities that keep you interested

and connected with others. However, remember to avoid over indulgence and

keep attendance and grades in perspective to prevent stress related to

underperformance in core areas.

Peer Pressure and Competition

You always have the feeling that you are the average one who has walked into

a crowd of bright people in CMC. Give yourself credit and remember you are

as good as the others if not better! Aim to do your best with goals calibrated to

your potential and avoid unnecessary comparisons and unrealistic ambition.

Remember being a good doctor is not just about great scores but a judicious

mix of competence, sincerity, empathy, hard work, dedication and friendship.

Spend time to develop these by hanging around with teachers and peers who

understand your needs and can help you get there. Choose to be yourself

while making life style choices and be in a circle that lets you preserve your

individuality and style. You are special and unique the way God created you

and don't forget to enjoy and celebrate that daily. Stress multiplies the

moment you try to wear different skins!

Relationships

Relationships are intense roller coasters because of the time and proximity

CMC affords to developing and nurturing them. Aim to develop meaningful

and cherished relationships based on your core values as an individual and

personality. These will be the biggest treasure you carry from CMC for life! Not

all relationships will work out. Some may even be tempestuous and difficult...if

it's not working out, apologize and move on. Be kind to yourself as well as

others and take the effort to make friends and share your time with them. You

will look back with great fondness at this phase and sometimes even

recognize lost opportunities to have developed better relationships with

many when you look back. If you find that 'special' person, it is a bonus, but

don't stress if you haven't or things don't work out despite best

intentions…there's time and opportunities ahead for committed

relationships.

Lows

EVERYONE has their lows and it is perfectly normal to have them. But

remember it is a downward spiral and try to get out of it ASAP. If you are

in a low, get a friend or if you recognize a low in others be a friend.

Brooding will not get you anywhere and avoid the temptation of

getting an easy way out with an artificial 'high'. If it is an

academic low, you need to hit the books; if it is a

relationship low, discuss it; if it is a goals related low,

revise them and if it is an expectations related low, put

Choose to be

yourself while

making life style

choices and be

in a circle that

lets you preserve

your individuality

and style.

them in perspective. If you are finding this difficult to do yourself, seek

help from your friend, foster parent or faculty in charge of you. If you are

not comfortable approaching them, professional help with strictest

confidentiality is always available.

Far and Away

Being away from home is never easy especially for those living a 'hostel

life' for the first time. A sudden shift in food, culture, language and

climate can be overwhelming at times. Gadgets and telecommunication

have reduced the longing for 'home,' but at the same time these have

increased the distance between neighbors and friends. Having close

friends makes life a lot easier and fun, so be on the look out to connect

with those who can commune, counsel and guide you. Have a vibrant

foster family to take away the stress of being away from home and get

pampered with a meal the way you like it. For the reminder run your mess

(of the food sort!) innovatively to suit your palates and pockets. Taking the

effort to learn Hindi and Punjabi makes you more acceptable in clinics and

reduces dependence on others in your schedule. A word about

holidays…whenever you get a holiday spend it at home with your loved ones.

Your times at home hereafter are limited so get as much of it as possible while

you can.

Finances

Medical training is expensive and cost cutting is important to reduce financial

stress. It helps to cut costs by using ebooks and hand me down current edition

texts. Having innovative meals in the mess also helps to cut down the

cumulative expense of eating out. Remember you have a long way to go in

funding education beyond MBBS and every effort to reduce costs help. Good

grades also fetch scholarships that not only help to fund you, but also play an

important role in identifying you as a meritorious student for scholarly funding

later on. Work on this unrecognized aspect early to ensure you are not

stressed out later on in life.

Spirituality

God is a constant presence and the ultimate stress buster if you learn to lean

and cast your cares on Him. Give thanks for the good and ask help for the

difficult. Evolve a relationship with Him which is personal and real. Many find

the demands of fitting into stereotypes of faith in CMC stressful. Be yourself

and comfortable in your relationship with God and draw your sustenance from

it ...only you know the best way to do so for yourself! If you need help seek

peers and faculty who will walk with you in this journey to make it a more

meaningful one.

To conclude this piece … stress is not always bad and having mechanisms in

place to combat and overcome it not only makes life easier, but also makes us

stronger in the process. As Hans Selye puts it, “It's not stress that kills us, but

our reaction to it.” Recognize this and make student life in CMC better by

reducing stress for yourself and dealing with it proactively. If you are all 'blah'

after what I've put in, get someone better to write this piece for you next time! If

you're getting stressed out about something I've written, probably you're the

one to pen this piece next time!

Love you all … live life large!

Dr. Pratish George

Dept. of Nephrology

Having close

friends makes

life a lot easier

and fun, so be

on the look

out to connect

with those who

can commune,

counsel and

guide you.

ell so am I. Might as well be honest about it. As a matter of fact, a

lot of us are. It is no crime of course, but I think it is time to come to Wterms with the fact that we are in a profession in which stress is

that annoying person who lingers about whether you like it or not. So it is best

to shake hands, and carry on. I'm not an expert on stress rather far from it! But

it is interesting to witness how different people react to it; and I guess that is

the key. It is not so much about how much stress a person can take but rather

how we respond to it.

As a certain professor once told us: “nothing works well under stress.”

Therefore, there is a need to bust it. I believe the first step in doing this is to

identify that it is in fact, a source of stress. Many times it is easy to ignore it but

once it piles up, you will be that person shouting your head off in a hallway for

no apparent reason. Stress is one of the obstacles in solving a problem

efficiently. That is my own definition of course, but isn't it true? Stress arises

when there is a problem; we try to cool off by listening to music or anything

that gets us back to a state of emotional stability in which we know we would

be able to make a rational decision pertaining to the issue. Some people say

it's healthy; I have not experienced this myself but then again I have a long way

to go.

Now how shall we do this? In my childhood I was taught to count to ten every

time I get angry or stressed out. I think a similar concept is required for

immediate relief: take a breath. If you are reading this and are stressed out,

take a breath! A nice deep one! I think it stimulates the vagus or something but

more importantly you get to calm down.

After this it is totally up to you, and hence we come to what I have identified as

some stress busters in this campus. Now you may be fine by being alone in

your room to get some 'peace and quiet' (which is what I do most of the time).

But by experience this peace does not last very long, and nor does the quiet. I

will have to at this point include a very effective and reliable method: prayer. It

is by far the least exercised and often the last resort; but it really does work I

would encourage you to try and make it the first thing you remember when a

problem occurs cause most of the time we end up running around looking for

answers and peace that only God can give.

For those who express themselves better in words, writing often does the

trick.

In CMC, there are a number of things that ease stress. Just walk around

and you are bound to run into one that suits your liking. Stroll by the

chapel around six on weekdays, the hospital chapel and auditorium

around Christmas and there is nearly always some music for

display. A perfect taste of talent and creativity lurking around

seductively drawing in a keen musician's ear, no matter the

circumstance. If you are into trance or Punjabi music, Ross is the

place!

Stress is one of

the obstacles in

solving a problem

efficiently.

Stressed out??

If you are keen on sports there is always a group of guys playing basketball on

the court, or street football and cricket in Ross. Or the gym for that matter, if

you would like to take out some frustration.

The cafe is interestingly a very stress free place. It is a place (unlike any other)

where doctors and students of all levels of seniority can hang out, rest, and on

several occasions overhear how a stranger's day has been. CMC is a very

connected place, and though you may not agree I find it rather comforting to

be able to see a familiar face every 50 meters, even for just a smile. Still if the

campus does not suffice, go to a mall, see a movie and eat your favourite

food!!

However sometimes, we cannot handle stress on our own. Each one has his/

her own level of tolerance but in the end it will be foolish to deny that we all

need help. Confiding in a person even if a solution is not found is a stress

buster itself. Our campus is filled with full of people with stories to tell,

experiences to share, knowledge to feed. They might not look it at first, but our

very own teachers have quite a warm house and an even warmer personality

aching to get to know some of us.

The fellowship department is always open to offer advice, along with the long

line of fellowship groups that meet everyday at chapel. We often tend to take

these for granted oblivious to the fact that most colleges around the country

have no support system of this sort.

If nothing, always remember that it is friends and family that were given to us

precisely for times like these.

It is time we dealt with stress in the right way. We are going to be doctors and

there is a whole new dimension to this word waiting for us from what I have

seen. So take a deep breath, and carry on.

Eric Williams

Batch of 2011

Our campus is

filled with full

of people with

stories to tell,

experiences to

share, knowledge

to feed.

s anyone of us know, we are bound to CMC. It is many things, a little

India (as many say), a place of healing, a place of studying and for Amany of us, it is 'home'. But as I come back to my home from ‘home’ I

realize that we are sometimes too trapped in the atmosphere of CMC (it may

be good or bad) and it is sublimely refreshing to go home. Not that all of us do

but we bicker over little things like the North vs. South or dividing us based on

the churches we may come from. After a while it becomes tiring, annoying

and depressingly repetitive. Stepping out of CMC (however brief) made me

realize how little these problems really are and how stupid we can act

sometimes (believe me I'm no different). One thing I realize is that many

people will not understand what it is like to be a medical student and it is

something that all of us understand even that many of us feel that there is a

certain ‘brotherhood-ness’ in it. Yet we divide ourselves into many groups

anyway. It is something that all of us do, even in first year when almost the

entire class was friendly with each other we were told that this is the

‘honeymoon period’. It is called the ‘honeymoon period’ because we have yet

to divide each other in the typical groups we know and have seen. I have seen

it in my batch and in other batches as well and frankly it is a bit disturbing.

Eventually we make our group of friends and that is a given but the fact that we

hold small things like where we come from against each other is wrong and

backward. We are so few to begin with 75, earlier even less 50 and yet in such

a small number we still want to create divide.

Coming out of the CMC atmosphere and talking with other people made me

realize how petty most of us (including me of course) can be at times. There

are people with bigger problems than where we are from. In the end we are

MBBS students who want to pass (at least I do) so I beg please put things in

perspective for once. Sometimes I just wanna scream “CAN'T WE ALL GET

ALONG?” but that isn't going to work, so I write. I write all of this knowing that it

would not change anything, but the fact that it would not change needs to be

pointed out.

Adhar Kashyap

Batch of 2012

Sometimes I just

wanna scream

“CAN'T WE ALL

GET ALONG?”

but that isn't

going to work,

so I write

Can't We All Get Along?