Behind the White Coat

Night Off

I am proud of myself.  For the first time in maybe 2 months I stayed home on a Friday night!  That's right.  I took a day off.  My other friends who were not working went out, but a few of us just chilled, played some poker and Xbox, and sipped some Blue Label we have hidden in the apartment.  The way I see it, I made myself about 150$ by avoiding another night out club hopping cristal poppin in NYC.  Of course tonight I'll have to go out--It is the grand reopening of Kush, which used to be one of my favorite lounge in NYC, and now has relocated a little more downtown to a bigger venue.  Definitely excited about that.

As for my apartment hunt.... I called the realtor I used 4 years ago when I lived in the city for a year prior to medical school, and learned that my exact same old apartment is up for rent.  Unfortunately someone has put in an application.  All I can hope is that their credit sucks and somehow I'll get dibs on it, but we'll see.  That would be funny though, living in the same exact apartment as 4 years ago!  So lets see.

Monday I turn 27.  This is very sad and depressing.  After 25 there are no more positive landmarks.  Now I am one step closer to freakin 30!!  Though I feel like I am still 22 or 23, the numbers just won't stop going up.  I am an old man now.  Especially since everyone around us is getting hitched left and right!  Dropping like flies.  Well they aint gettin me I tell ya... Not in the near future at least....  The party is next Friday in the LES, combined with my friend Vinny.  Let us pray for my liver....

Fundraisers Galore

Doing nothing for 2 months can be fun.  But when you actually had stuff to do, but left it for the last week of your time-off, it hurts.  Alas, I am here in the finaly week of my freedom until I start an actual rotation (Neurology at Long Island Jewish).  So this week, I have to study for my Neurology shelf exam which is Friday, I have to complete the computer assignments for this stupid computers in health care elective, and at the same time work on this research project in EP cardiology at Montefiore.  Oh, and I still haven't found an apartment.  Oodles of Fun!!  Though I am excited I will become normal once again, waking up, going to work, and actually contributing something to society.

This past week was a week of giving back to the homeland.  There were two fundraiser events relating to Pakistan.  Thursday was the YOUR Dil event (Youth Outreach Dil).  Dil (www.dil.org) is an organization for illiteracy in Pakistan, and they have an annual fundraiser event.  YOUR Dil is run by the "younger" people.  I guess its sort of like Georgio Armani and A/X.  Anywa, It was held at The Door, this hookah bar on the westside, and was pretty packed.  A measley 20$ would get you in (with option to donate more), and they had a fashion show from a Pakistani designer (Saadia Zafar), which was also quite entertaining.  I also got myself a t-shirt that said "I love Islamabad" (with a heart instead of the actual world "love").  My favorite t-shirt though had to be "Pathan, the other white meat"

So Saturday was the real big event that my mom and her committee have been organizing for months and months, and that was the annual LRBT Gala. (www.lrbt.org.pk).  LRBT is an organization that raises money for eye hospitals in Pakistan.  They have an annual fundraiser (which my mom is the co-chair of) and rake in lots of loot.  The minimum table this year was $215, and went up to $1000 I believe.  So you can imagine its the big bankers and lawyers and CEO Pakis of the tri-state area and beyond.  It was held at Capitale, which was an amazing venue. Huge place, high ceilings, very elegant.  Cocktail hour, open bar, dinner, art auction (paintings went well into the 5 digits), and dj/dance floor at the end.  Quite a fun event.  Kamila Shamsie (author of Salt and Saffron) was the MC, and the official spokseman, Salman from Junoon (hot rock band in Pakistan) also spoke.  All in all quite a success I must say, and everyone had fun from the many rich uncles and aunties, to us youngins as well. 

I had to skip poker night at gleasons to study tonight. What a bummer.  Well now that my life is normalizing, hopefully I can resume posting. So many great stories that I haven't written about, I'll have to recap them soon!

Russell Peters at the Apollo

Russell Peters doesn’t sound like the name of a famous Indian comedian, but it indeed it is. Yesterday a group of us  took ourselves to the famous Apollo Theatre in Harlem for the comedy show headlining Russell Peters, an Indian-Canadian who is one of few desi comedians out there. Daniel Nainan (See his clip at http://www.danielnainan.com/) was also performing, a half Japanese half Indian guy (I don’t think I’ve ever seen that mix, nor do I think I ever will again), who was also quite hysterical.  You can see a Russell clip on this guy’s website: http://www.hahaha.com/comedy_tour/artists.aspx?l=en-ca&id=2, and Daniel’s clip on his own website, So for the first time in history I think the Apollo was packed with South Asians. I don’t think that many desis have ever even been in  Harlem at the same time! Even the line outside was chaotic, disorganized, and slow just like any other south asian hosted event—I guess they were going for authenticity. We ran into so many people you would think it was some indian party at Metronome.  Anyway, the show was damn funny. I was also quite impressed with his improv at the end of his routine, though the poor guys sitting in the front of the crowd were probably less happy about it!  Rarely do you hear desi comedians, and they can make a lot more jokes and get away with it. Good stuff. There was even an afterparty, where we later saw Russell, hitting on all the ladies (shit so would I). Sleazy as any other guy, but seemed pretty cool nonetheless. (I even took it upon myself to take some drinks from his bottle). I let my roommate Anuj drive us home since I kicked back one too many, but somehow he took the Queensboro bridge to Queens (we live in the Bronx) and drove through the garage in reverse. Makes me wonder who really was the sober one. Good job Anuj.

Now I sit here realizing that my last month or so of doing jack shit is going to catch up with me. I have to take the Neuro shelf exam on the 29^th, I have to start doing these stupid computer assignments for my “Computers in Health Care” elective I am signed up for (there are freakin 18 and take a while!), I have to work on this research project doing countless chart reviews which can only be done in the evenings or weekends (and have my ISP written by May), and I have yet to find an apartment. So I have my freakin work cut out for me! I think the days of being a bum are forcefully (thankfully in reality) coming to an end!

Still Living It Up

Netflix.  What a great invention.  I just joined last week, looking for something to keep me occupied and feed my boredom (when I'm not out partying my ass off) without having to haul my ass to blockbuster.  The answer was netflix.  I joined on a Sunday night, that same Wednesday I had my first 2 movies. They even give you stamped envelopes you slip the disc into and drop into the mailbox, and in a few days, your next films arrive.  Amazing. The first arrivlas were Garden State (a great flick), and Super Size Me.  If you haven't seen the latter, you should pick it up.  Did you know that one hamburger pattie has meat from something like 1000 different cows? Now that is some nasty shit.  So this guy eats Mckie D's for a month and you see what happens to him.  He pretty much gets a hepatitis from the food.  Anyway, after watching it, I think I'm going to avoid fast food as much as I can.. (Well for the time being at least... We all break down sometime).  But definitely something to watch. 

A couple of weeks ago I got into a car accident.  Some hematology fellow rear ended me, and I hit the guy in front of me.  She wanted to go outside insurance so her auto body guy fixed it up for me, and man the car looks brand new!!  Fantastic.  The accident was the best thing that happened to my car!  So now I'm rolling in a nice clean shiny civic.  So the other day I am on the bruckner coming home from seeing some apts, tired off my ass, in bumper to bumper traffic.  In fact I was so tired, my foot slipped off the break as I dozed off, and I banged into the minivan in front of me.  Are you kidding me?!  His car was fine, and my brand new front bumper now has a fresh little crack in it. Son of a bitch.  This shit could only happen to me.

Now I sit here, trying to recover from another weekend of birthday infused weekend partying.  Fri night was crazy enough, then me and Anuj had to wake up at 10am to go to our friend Anita's engagement party in Edison, NJ.  Despite being severely hungover, and reeking of booze, we made it and we had a good time. Saturday night, after gettin home, lying sleepless on the couch, and 2 episodes of Law and Order, I was ready to stay in.  It  was supposed to be a night off, but I ended up at Taj hangin with the Deepti, Mona, and the UPenn chicks (who were as drunk as I've ever seen em), and my plan of 3 beers and home by 2am turned into another fun-filled 5am night infused with 6 ketel one redbulls, a few surfer on acid shots, and one unfortunate Long Island.  I sure will miss this lifestyle.

Loving Fourth Year

It's hard to believev it is already April.  I can't say that I have contributed much to society in the past month, but I think I will finally be starting a research project and apartment hunting.  Guess this means I have to wake up before 1pm--I know, it's a rough life as a 4th year.  This month my official elective is entitled "Computers in Health Care" which is a course offered by NY Medical College.  I have to complete 18 computer related assignments that I turn in via email.  So I never have to go anywhere, it is independant study.  I have yet to look at the syllabus, but hopefully it won't be very hard.  So if there are any other fourth years out there lookin for some elective where you can sit on your ass at home, this is the one!!

This past weekend was yet another party infused 4 day event.  I think my liver is going to fail one of these days, but I bet my bank account will deplete before that can happen!   I try not to even look at my bar tabs or my bank account anymore, but I think if I stayed in one weekend, I could buy myself a 60Gig Ipod and a steak dinner at Peter Luger.  So on Saturday, a whole bunch of us ended up at the same place.  It also happened to be the day the clocks go forward, so we lost an hour of partying time!  You would think we would have less time to drink and be more sober, but no.  Instead, halfway through the night, I realized my phone was gone.  Shit.  I just got this brand new phone after breaking my last one surfing in Hawaii a month ago.  Why does this always happen to me?  The place is huge too, so I thought it was gone forever.  Then randomly, as I was walking from the bottom floor to the 3rd floor, I cursed in frustration, and some random guy was like, "is it black with a beach scene?"  Which indeed it is.  So I followed him up to some far off corner where his friends were, and lo and behold there it was!  Not the first time I lost my phone at a club and retrieved it (It's actually probably the 5th time), but damn was I lucky.

We left at 4:30 (after the time adjustment), and were gonna grab a cab for some grub.  Instead, somehow, my friend flagged down some stretch limo, and 15 of us got into a limo built for about 10. (I was lucky enough to have one of the fitter girls on top of my lap, so I guess it wasn't all that bad a ride!)  Somehow nobody in the back knew where we were going, i figured it'd be mahmouns, Kati roll, or some shit like that.  But where do we end up?  The white castle next to Korea town.  That's right, we took a limo to white castle.  The funny thing was, at least 4 of the peeps were vegeterians!!  Nothing like white castle fries for your late night meal eh?  I think between all of us, there were about 70 or 80 burgers consumed.  Now that is downright nasty.  After sleeping at 7:30am, I woke up at 4pm only to eat 2 reheated white castle burgers.  Needless to say my stomach really hated me.  I think I'm gettin too old for this shit... Hah! yea right.. I love fourth year!!!

On another note, this article was written by an Indian woman  in cali entitled "Is Arranged Marriage Really Any Worse Than Craigslist?"  Very interesting, funny, and so true!!!