Category Archives: Ravi Shankar

The Inaugural Oslers

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The Inaugural Oslers of Medical College, Thrissur, Kerala, India: Then and Now by Dr P Ravi Shankar MBBS, MD, FAIMER Fellow, MAoME * In mid-2019 I received a WhatsApp message from a former classmate inviting me to join a group of my former medical school classmates. At our alma mater, the Government Medical College, Thrissur, Kerala, India each intake of students was named after a famous personality in medicine. We were the inaugural Oslers named after Sir William Osler. Kerala, God’s own country? Over the next week I exchanged notes and reconnected with my classmates. We had spent over six years of our life together. Now nearly everyone was married … Continue reading →

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The world is on hold, my breath is on hold

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by Dr P Ravi Shankar MBBS, MS, FAIMER Fellow * The world is on hold Towns once thronging with humansEmpty with the police maintaining the peaceMy steps resound noisily on the deserted sidewalksThe restaurants, cafes, and bars eerily empty My breath is on hold The virus has attacked my lungs I drown in my own fluids Each breath was a struggle, a gasp for air Talking to a fellow human’s a risk Always be mindful of the SOP Provide everyone their personal space Handshakes, high fives, physical contact Avoid, out of the question You sanitize everything in sight, left and right I am still in the ICU Tubes snake in … Continue reading →

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Thrissur’s Culinary Delights

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Remembrance of Kerala Repasts: Thrissur’s culinary delights By Ravi Shankar* Food is an important aspect of the culture of a place. Doctors should be knowledgeable about the rich traditions which have developed around food.  As a trainee in Kerala, the author reveled in the rich and varied local cuisine.  May his memories whet your appetite and perhaps you’ll recall some long dormant gustatory delights of your yesteryears. ************** I carefully opened the banana leaf in which the ‘ada’ was wrapped. The delicate aroma of freshly steamed coconut and jaggery with a hint of clove and cardamom wafted to my nostrils. Each bite was a poem, a symphony of flavours. Ada/adai … Continue reading →

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SpringFest at PGI

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by Ravi Shankar I struggled to keep my eyes open, my head straight and my attention focused on the task at hand. It was past two in the morning. I was fighting a losing battle at my friend’s apartment. The strong cups of coffee were not working. We were bringing out the next day’s edition of ‘Bullsheet’, the graffiti-style newsletter which was a PGI tradition during the institute arts festival. Taking on this added responsibility was tough but I enjoyed the creative freedom and the opportunity to look at the festival through a comical, non-serious eye. Most past literary and cultural secretaries had outsourced the task to others. We wrote … Continue reading →

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Coffee, Cutlets and the Culture of Healing

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Dr. P. Ravi Shankar* Key words: India, Internship, Kerala, medical college, medical students, coffee I was disoriented in time, place and person. Events were unfolding at a rapid pace. The meeting with the Principal, the completion of admission formalities, the medical checkup in the classroom, and the allotment of rooms in the hostel. We had come back to the main square of the medical college. My father and his uncle were there with me. We decided to go to the college canteen which at that time was run by the Indian Coffee House. It was my first introduction to the venerable institution. The college canteen was a circular structure with … Continue reading →

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