Alrighty then. It is the last week of the year and time to sit down to look back, see what I’ve done wrong, what I’ve done right and what might be expected in the days ahead. And its also time to sit down and make some resolutions. I always end up procrastinating the resolution making so much that I end up in the middle of January even before I manage to decide what my resolutions are. Then, by the time I manage to enforce them, most of January has gone by, and I figure that since my resolutions started so late, I have no practical reasoning to stick to them (excuses, I am good at them!). Anyways, so the first resolution to make this year is to make the resolutions on time so that I can get down to the business of following them from day 1 itself.

Resolution 2: Crack The Dratted PGMEEs:

Well, right now, my life seems to have been put on hold until I manage to crack the PGMEE code. It is one of the most difficult stages in the life of a doctor: we are trained well enough to make a decent living out there, but we do not have the endorsement of a post graduate degree, so we cannot move into a more focused field of Medicine.

I wanted to move into Medicine, and honestly, it seems like a very difficult proposition at present. However, I shall have several shots at the PG levels this coming year, starting as early as 9th January (AIPGMEE). The state entrance exam is on 23rd January. However, I must say I am not too confident of anything great happening at these two examinations myself. I am still far short of the level of competence that is needed to crack these highly unpredictable exams. Then there will be the JIPMER entrance in February, the COMED-K in March sometime. There will be the summer AIIMS and PGI Chandigarh examinations in May. That is where the real deal will begin. The best shot, I guess, will be in November, for the Winter AIIMS and PGI Chandigarh examinations.

I especially need to crack the PGMEEs this year, because, on account of not having made it through these, there seems to be so many things in life that seem to have got caught. I have a long list of stuff to do lined up once I crack the PGMEEs. More on that AFTER I ditch the bitch called PGMEE!

Resolution 3: Weight Control:

I stand 173 cm tall and weigh in at 89 Kgs as of today (of late I have really let myself go, and combined with the series of festivities knocking at my door, invitations, parties, dates, and all that, I have been REALLY guzzling calorie enriching food and drinks) and have a BMI of 29.7 kg/sq.m. That is flirting with the level of obese. 30 is the cut off for that, and I am sure if I continue at the rate I am going, I am going to crash through that deadline in 2 weeks, tops!

So, first thing, I need to lose weight. Big time.

Another problem occurs with me, especially when I am advising my patients to lose weight. They don’t take weight related criticisms from a fat doctor himself too well. And of course, it gets harder and harder to just depend on my mesmerizing charm to get those dates. No one likes a fat geek. Even if he is as ravishingly handsome as me (single ladies reading this: HINT)…

So, the first thing I am going to do is LOSE a lot of weight. I figured that at my height, reaching a weight of 75 kg would put me back into the normal range for BMI and I would love that to happen. So, I have set my sights on losing 18 kg (so that I hit 71 kg and a BMI of around 23.7 kg/sq.m) and I am sure that is going to take some doing. Since I have been on this route before, I know the first 10 kgs are easy to lose. Things start to get a bit difficult after that.

Resolution 4: Make This Blog Count

I am happy to be writing this blog and although it is wishful thinking, I would love to make this blog count for something more substantial in the long run. I would love for there to be more academically oriented posts, and make this blog more fun and educating. I know, I will never be as hilarious as Dr. Grumpy or as infotaining as Life in the Fast Lane or as objective as Dr. Shock MD. They were the people whose blogging I have enjoyed and revered long before I started writing here. What I want to do is identify some areas where I can exploit my expertise and make the blog content more appealing. They may include:

• Medical Student Research and opportunities for the same in India
• Medical topics for rapid revision
• Medical Student Organizations and the update on what they are doing for us now
• Conference news and how to make it there

Resolution 5: Stop Procrastinating:

I have this syndrome whereby I selectively procrastinate some jobs so much that I end up forgetting that I was even supposed to do that (often happens with reviewing articles for the journals I am involved with!). From this year onwards, I will have to quit the habit and stick with the deadlines for whatever work I have set my eyes on.

The corollary to this is that I must stop getting distracted and must quit running off on a tangent while I was supposed to be doing something entirely different. It also follows that if I have to make resolution 1 come true, then I have to abide by thus resolution VERY strongly.

Resolution 6: Resurrect a Dying Project:

So, there are some stuff which are very close to my heart, but owing to personal and other problems, I had failed to give much time towards them. Now, the result is that they are dying on me. If I have to stay clear to my conscience, I need to act more proactively in resuscitating them and making them work out in the long term.

Now obviously, that does not make much sense, but I am sorry, giving more details will incontrovertibly affect the semi-anonymous nature of this narrative. So, just suffice to say that there are 3 projects that I have to resurrect this year.

Resolution 7: Publish 2 Original Research Papers in Peer Reviewed Journals:

Although I had received several student research support grants in the last couple of years, the problem is that it is kinda difficult to get the work done in these projects published (long post on that in the near future). So, this year, I have resolved that out of the other 5-6 projects that I had either worked on or collaborated on, I must complete writing up and publishing two. It is indeed a bad thing that all the raw data is lying around, waiting for time to be analyzed and written down.

I know, publishing two original research papers in International journals is HUGE deal. But if I aim for the huge thing only then I can manage to get some portion of that right. So, I would like to see 2 papers go through…

Resolution 8: NO MORE Messed Up Relationships:

Ok, I am the King of the messed up relationships. Somehow, I manage to get into very complicated relationships. Or, I manage to complicate things up really badly. Now maybe that is just the nature of things with me, but I have never, till date, been in a stable, mature and meaningful relationship. Maybe I will talk of those in later posts. Maybe I will not, but seriously, I need to sort this issue out.

Resolution 9: Plan the Work. Work the Plan.

In order to bring some order into life, I have tried, time and again, to devise fool proof methods to aid in sticking to my plans, but somehow or the other I have managed to mess them up. I guess medical school is a bit like that. Med student proposes, Med God disposes!

Resolution 10: Stick to These Resolutions.

Well. Those are mine. What are yours?