After months of planning and with help from Indian Panorama, we finally embarked on our 2-week tour of India. We arrived separately in Delhi with my flight from Madurai arriving just hours before Melody’s plane landed Sunday midnight. From our hotel in Connaught place, we met our guide in the morning to tour the Qutb Islam complex, where the towering Qutb Minar loomed more like a victory tower than as a minaret. At Humayun’s tomb, we circled the monument to capture every facade on camera, despite the perfect symmetry. Lunch at Pankara market kept us lethargic as we gleaned over the monolithic government buildings of the Rajpath. Dissatisfied with the faux government-sponsored souvenir shop our guide took us to, we spent the evening finding the real government shops followed by South Indian fast food amidst screaming toddlers for dinner. On Monday, we took a day trip to Armristar via India Rail, where we ignored the syndromic beggars at the station and basked in the luxury of free masala tea and samosas aboard our first-class car. Upon arrival, we scarfed down a thali at a local dhaba, then spent our few precious hours at the Golden Temple. Our spiritual stroll among Sikh worshippers in the gleaming white marble courtyard was awarded with a detour to the kitchen, where we helped prepare rice, dal, and chapatis for the 50,000 or so visitors who mooched there for free. We toured Old Delhi the following day, starting with the Red Fort and Jama Masjid, followed by views of the garishly gilded interior and elephant sculptures at Akshardam temple. After burrowing through the narrow alleys leading to the Hazrat Nizamuddin Aulia and watching a politician receive blessings for his recent election win, we enjoyed hearty Mughal kebab & shorba for lunch, followed by delicious Armritsari fish and Murg Saagwali for dinner. We said goodbye to Delhi on Wednesday aboard the morning train to Agra, where the awe-inspiring beauty of the Taj Mahal was made better with the love story behind its conception and the free admission for visiting on World Heritage Day. At Agra Fort, the red sandstone was reminiscent of the Red Fort, but was much more unique and ornate in appearance. Inspired by the opulence, we splurged on some marble-inlay jewel boxes and dinner at the Oberoi, where we enjoyed sunset views of the Taj and a Gohbi Tandoori so delightful, Melody asked the chef for his recipe. We snuck another peak of the Taj the next morning before setting out for the abandoned town of Fatehpur Sikri along the way to Jaipur. The day-long drive was punctated by a stop at an Escher-like stepwell and multiple mosquito bites before we arrived at Dera Mandawa hotel. Here, the beautiful heritage room, cow-methane powered kitchen, and personal greeting from the husband and wife owner made us feel right at home, as we prepare to journey through Rajasthan.

My experience here at Aravind has opened my eyes to a healthcare system that manages to deliver high quality eye care in a cost-effective manner to millions of people. Over the past 3 weeks, I spent most of my time learning the intricacies of small-incision cataract surgery, a cheap and effective technique for those without access to high-tech phacoemulsification instruments. I also visited Aurolab, where low-cost intraocular lenses, surgical instruments, and sutures are produced and shipped to more than 130 countries worldwide. Yesterday, I traveled to a screening camp and helped the residents and sisters recruit patients from underserved communities for surgery. While these experiences gave me a glimpse of eye care delivery in India, my trip also taught me some of the local customs – walking barefoot, head bobbing as an acknowledgment, eating with your hands (although I’m still hanging onto the toilet paper), and honking … a lot. By the end of my stay, I had learned to raise the spice tolerance of my taste buds, and to no longer be surprised when an elephant walked past the front door. When two other U.S. residents arrived to begin their rotation during my last week, I was able to help them adjust to the system. Over the last two days, we celebrated the end of my stay over a home-cooked meal at Drs. Kim & Usha’s house and a rooftop dinner with Dr. Prajna at Hotel Park Plaza (not to be confused with the Park Plaza Hotel). As I packed my bags for the next leg of my journey, I look back fondly on the hospitality of the Aravind family and eclectic group of friends I’ve made here. It was certainly a trip to remember.

Having to work six days a week here at Aravind meant that there was little time for leisure. So for my first day off, I decided to explore as much of the city as I could. My morning began bright and early at the Meenakshi Amman Temple. After meeting my guide Rishi, who came recommended by both Frommer’s and guesthouse tenants, we proceeded inside to explore the expansive temple complex. Meenakshi is a fish-eyed, triple-breasted goddess, consort of Shiva, and one of the few Hindu female deities to have a major temple devoted to her. The temple is considered by many to be the height of South Indian temple architecture, and is enclosed by 12 gopurams (towers), each as colorful as a Mardi Gras parade. After a requisite blessing by the temple elephant, we spent nearly two hours examining the intricate carvings, learning the lore of the deities, and watching worshippers annoint their foreheads with colored powder. Afterwards, I was led into several shops around the temple periphery, each touting a good rooftop view of the temple, but not before showing me their selection of souvenir statues, silk, and carpets. I did manage to score some teacups and salwars for Melody before heading to the Taj Gateway Hotel for lunch. My rickshaw and I seemed a bit out of place among the fancy cars and clientelle there, but the uphill ride was worth the aerial view of Madurai and a hearty luncheon of tomato soup, chicken curry, and gulab jamun. The afternoon was spent at the Tirumalai Nayak Palace with its lofty yet lackluster architecture, and at the Gandhi Museum, which featured poster boards recounting India’s path to independence and the blood-stained loin cloth in which the hero was killed. I strolled back to the guesthouse from there, stopped for a cup of chai and photos with the locals, then rested briefly before heading back out in the evening to get fitted for a suit at Hajeemoosa and dining on delicious mutton biryani atop the Royal Court Hotel for dinner. Despite the sizzling heat and getting lost on multiple occasions, the hectic day was immensely satisfying.

I was excited to embark today on my first trip to India for my surgical rotation at the Aravind Eye Care system. Thanks to another Frankfurt airport strike, however, my flight got canceled. Fortunately, after some frantic calls to Lufthansa, I managed to catch an alternate flight through London from British Airways. Nearly 20 hours of flying later, I arrived in Madurai surprisingly refreshed and with little jet lag to speak of. For my first few days there, I had a chance to tour the fascinating complex including both the free and paying hospitals, a research facility, and a manufacturing division called Aurolab which produces their surgical instruments, lasers, and intraocular lenses at a fraction of their cost in the U.S.. Aside from doing a few extracapsular cataract surgeries and practicing suturing at the wet lab, I’ve been trying to accustom myself to the system – wearing communal slippers in the OR, scrubbing with sterile water poured from a jug, and most memorably, learning to recognize a patient’s clothing so that I could identify him or her amidst the sea of eye-patched patients lying in the vast catacombs of rooms for their post-op check. I was most impressed by the network of “sisters” here. Recruited right out of high school from surrounding rural areas, these young women are trained as patient counselors, ophthalmic technicians, and even scrub nurses, with the hope of obtaining the educational and financial independence for a better future. Beyond work, I’ve also learned to dodge auto-rickshaws on the road and bypass the stray cows and goats that wander the streets. I’ve even made a few trips to buy some button-down shirts at a local mall, as well as toiletries and snacks from a nearby grocery store. The guesthouse where I’m staying is populated by a few other foreign visitors, including a team of business school students from Michigan and a young couple doing some organic farming volunteer work. A housekeeper maintains the premises and prepares all 3 meals each day. The food actually turned out to be brought over from the hospital cafeteria, which albeit being free, accounts for the rather unsatisfying meals. Since they work six days a week here, I’ve made plans to explore some of the tourist sites here on my only day off tomorrow.

It’s been a long time since we held a cue stick in our hands. So when we decided to join a college friend for a few games of 8-ball at Jillian’s last weekend, it was not a pretty sight. After struggling to finish 3 games in 90 minutes, we decided to console ourselves at the highly touted Sweet Cheeks Q for some Texas-styled ribs & brisket. Opened by a former Top Chef star, the restaurant is conveniently located just steps from Fenway Park and had some of the largest and tastiest biscuits we’ve ever eaten, but the meat itself was overrated. This weekend, we revisited the ICCA semifinals at MIT for one last visit before we leave Boston. None of the groups managed to wow us this season, although we were glad they finally found new MC’s to run the show. We spent the rest of the weekend packing my bug spray, sunscreen, and malaria prophylaxis for the India trip. Since my flight is not until the afternoon, I plan to be a good resident and go into work for macula conference before heading to the airport.

Amidst the fervor of planning my trip to India, we were introduced to a Nepalese treat that until this weekend was a fabled delicacy that I could barely wrap my mind around. As featured in a NY Times article just days ago, momos are dumplings from Nepal and Tibet that are similar to traditional Chinese ones, but blend cumin, coriander, and other spices that embolden them with South Asian flavors. The beloved snacks purportedly drive even devout vegetarians (like the Dalai Lama) to break their habits on special occasions to indulge in their meaty innards. According to my friend, they are best made with water buffalo, although we were satisfied with using pork and chicken as substitutes. Between devouring the momos, Nepalese pulled pork, homemade chai, and our cherry clafoutis (no, not exactly following the theme), we enjoyed some good company and videos of human tetris from the land of the rising sun before braving the rain storm to return home. The remainder of the past few weeks has otherwise been uneventful, with a lackluster Madonna performance at the Superbowl half-time show and a even more dated act by Billy Crystal at the Oscars, demonstrating once again that the Academy is lagging way behind the times. I guess it’s back to Skyrim for the time being!

Back in NYC for the long weekend, we returned to Golden Shopping Mall in Flushing with my parents for yet another eating spree. Armed with chopsticks in hand and Serious Eats loaded on my phone, we started on the first floor with some hearty pork-stuffed fish balls from Old Wang Ji, then descended into the bowels of the building for Lanzhou Handmade Noodles, cumin lamb and gummy “cold skin” noodles from Xian Famous Foods, and a dozen North-South Dumplings which were out of this world. Before heading home, we stopped by the nearby New World Mall to check out the fabled food court there. What we found was far more impressive than anything we had imagined, with nearly 5 times the variety of food stands and a vast central seating area. Already stuffed from our lunch, we vowed to return here the next time we visit. On Sunday, we met up with my old friends in Brooklyn, trying not to suffer a heart attack over fish & chips, fried mac n’ cheese, and a deep-fried Snickers bar at the Chip Shop in Park Slope. After that, we grabbed some mediocre dim sum for breakfast from Grand Harmony before our bus ride back to Boston. Despite stuffing ourselves full, we still managed to catch up with my med school pal at Highland Kitchen for their Monday-night buttermilk-fried chicken special. I’ll definitely miss these foodie adventures together when we move apart this summer.

Welcome to the new and improved Xephalon 2.0! Almost 10 years after its inception, my website has long been overdue for an update. Of course, my decision to upgrade this time was actually not prompted by all that free time on my hand, but by rising hosting costs which had forced me to move the site to another hosting company and domain registrar. Of course, the transfer itself was not without its own set of issues and headaches. In the process, I’ve had to replace the antiquated Cutenews PHP script with the more popular and versatile WordPress content management system with MySql support. I’ve had to spend the past week manually converting the text-based database to the new format, which hopefully will be worth the time. So far, I’ve been pretty happy with the service at Go Daddy, although I was sad to lose IMAP e-mail support. With work and life becoming more busy, I’ve actually juggled with the idea of taking down the website all together. But for now, I’ll try to stick it out for a while longer.

We spent the weekend with my residency classmates for a ski trip to Loon Mountain in New Hampshire. It was the eve of my 33rd birthday, and being aware of my mortality, we decided to forgo skiing and opted for snowshoeing instead. The well-groomed 2 km trail took us along a quiet mountain stream with sightings of mora tapinella reminiscent of a scene from Skyrim. After refueling on hearty American fare like lobster-mac, Portsmouth pie, and mussels at The Common Man, we made fools of ourselves over a few rounds of Cranium before calling it a night. For my birthday dinner, we met up with the Harvard gang for HK-style seafood at East Ocean City. Dinner at our old med school hangout reminded me of our bygone days, but with more babies at the table this time. We felt a bit out of the loop with all the baby chat, but it was good meeting all my friends again before we leave the city this summer. Meanwhile, my team at the VA hospital celebrated the end of our rotation with dinner at El Oriental En La Cuba. Despite the flog of all the administrative duties at the VA, the patient and surgical experience has been amazing, and is something I will look fondly back upon. That said, I am also looking forward to returning to home base, where I can’t wait to get back into the groove of academic teaching and more importantly, good cafeteria food, again.

As we prepare for the big move this summer, and with many big expenditures looming on the horizon such as medical licensing and a trip to India, we’ve had to scrutinize our finances more carefully. One major decision has been to hold off selling our condo, and keep it instead as a rental property. In the process, we’ve had to look into refinancing our mortgage to take advantage of the low rates, finding a management company to look after the place when we leave town, and meeting with realtors to investigate rental prices in our neighborhood. I’m also discovering all kinds of junk I’ve accumulated over my past 8 years in this apartment, which I hope to sell off in the next few months. Meanwhile, I’ve finally gotten my hands on a new laptop which has been backordered since Black Friday. I’ve always been a fan of Asus motherboards and graphics cards, but this is my first experience with their ultrabook series. The Zenbook UX31 is purported to be a blend of form and function – featuring a sleek aluminum body reminiscent of the Macbook Air but with better performance and longer battery life. My major gripe has been the shallow keyboard which is taking some time to get used to. Time will tell how I adjust to the new form factor.