My Long March Experience

On 14th of March, wearing a tie and suit, I sat on a caravan of 7 cars and 1 bus. Myself, being seated in back seats of bus surrounded by some other diehard supporters of free judiciary, the day was full of fun, anger, anguish and moments of elation. 14th of March was supposed to be the day when the huge long march for restoration of free judiciary had to come from Multan to Lahore. Resultantly, thousands of blockades and containers were placed all over punjab to stop movement of the lawyers and civil society. By the media estimates, around 8000 containers were used along with 1500 lorries and trailers. Not only that but each and every policeman in the whole country was on every big and small road to stop any kind of vehicle movement at all.
So in these conditions, we began our long journey to lahore at around 6 pm in evening. Just as the Sahiwal city's limits were crossed, we were put off the GT road by police as it was blocked. Using the bypass, we drove 30 km towards Okara city when at the okara city toll plaza there was a huge blockade and a complete traffic standstill. The trcuk and bus queue extended for more then a kilometre. At this point, we lost 2 of the cars from our convoy as they got through the traffic more easily. The remaining convoy drove off the road through thick brush and uneven ground and got on a rail track that was under development. Just as we crossed the toll plaza and tried to get on the road again, suddenly police cars and vans appeared with big lights. The bus was stopped and they got on to check on us. We were advised not to make any signs or raise slogans. Some pleading and love helped the police guys in letting us go. As we moved forward, we were contacted by the 2 cars that had gone ahead earlier that there is a huge traffic mess and police blockade at Patoki city. So we stopped on the road at a diversion going to debaalpur city and convened a little meeting among us to figure out which way to go. A NH&MP police car arrived and the police guy was really tired of all this and advised us to go via debaalpur. The only problem he said would be of security as its not a safe area. Even though totally unarmed and unprotected, we decided to head to debaalpur as we were strong in our commitment to reach lahore city by 15th march morning.

It was around 8 pm now, and the next 4 hours were full of blockades and dead-end roads. We faced so many police people and containers that at points, we felt ourselves pushed to limits. Pleading with them, trying to scare them, raising slogans such as "chief tere janisaar, beshumaar beshumaar" which means 'Chief Justice-your foot soldiers are uncountable'. Mostly our hard work, commitment to reach lahore, loud slogan-raising and presence of an Inspector general of police's brother along with a DCO helped us. One of the funny moments for us was when police diverted us at a town called "CHUNIYAN" and after 2 hours, we ended up twice at the same place. It still is a joke that either the mysterious Chuniyan town is very big or the roads make a complete circle there.

On our way, we met a police guy who was so sympathetic with us that he himself wished to join us in long march. Most of them were sympathetic to our cause and wished us well. A police guy on Raiwand road opened the blockade only and only for us, and not for normal transport, while at another point, the police picked up the huge stone blocks and barriers for us from the road. One of the defining moment for us was when we were very close to Lahore city at around 1:15 am in the morning. It was very dark and silent and we saw hundreds of trucks and buses stuck at a blockade. The police wouldn't budge and the only way to get around was a very narrow road with a sharp turn. Our long bus couldn't get through that turn as there was a big pit on one side so we all got off in our suits and ties with great vigor and ran around to gather bricks and stones. It was such an amazing site to see everyone bringing bricks including myself. In no time, we had filled a major portion of the pit and someone found a huge concrete slab that we placed over it. The bus made its way and the many many dozens of trucks that had been standing there for a whole day now followed us. It was one of the final defining moments in our long trek.

The rest of the journey to lahore was full of thunderous claping, slogan-raising and victory signs. By 2:30 am at night, we had entered Lahore city and to all our surprise, we had overcome 17 road blockades and many road diversions withing a remarkable 8 hours. It not only practically showed me that 'where there is a will, there is a way' but I also looked forward to the eventful day of 15th of March when the huge march was to head to Islamabad in its final leg of journey. And now as I have written it down, millions watched on TV screens as thousands of people poured on streets of lahore and moved every blockade in the way on self-help basis. The huge caravan had not even reached Gujranwala city which in normal circumstances is an hour's drive away from lahore when the Independent Judiciary was restored. The Prime Minister came on TV and announced the decision. The dictator president zardari of pakistan had lost against the people's will and whole country rejoiced and jubiliated. It was a tiring 3 days for me. But the end was such an amazing spectacle that even many of us participants were dumb-founded.

For the first time in front of my eyes, the people of Pakistan have shown some awareness. Previously, the people only united after natural calamities struck somewhere or there was a fear of stupid war or there was a cricket match. However, for firt time, people reached a similar conclusion on a totally different topic. The question of restoration of an unbiased judiciary in Pakistan was one step further in collective awareness of the people of this country. This was not some emotional rhetoric but an analytical decision reached completely by the people. And for first time I guess in history of this country, the military did not directly interfere in a people's movement and the movement did reach its logical conclusion.

A further testamount to the ordinary people's power and for me, once again it has proven that borders and countries do not matter. Its the people who count. Just a few months ago, I was at Grant Park witnessing President Obama make history with power of people and now I saw the people's power at work again about ten thousand miles from Grant Park. I had myself worked hard to push people for this revolutionary long march and you can see a glimpse of those dark and uncertain days here when I wrote, plead and mailed people to join this cause http://somairs.blogspot.com/2009/03/free-judiciary.html
May everyone get his right to justice fulfilled everywhere in the world.

Alex and Frisbie !!

Alex is another of those people who I found really unique in my recent USA visit. I met him for first time at Mark's famous ultimate frisbie. As the history goes, the ultimate frisbie there is going on for more than 14 years now. And many many people have played the game there over more then a decade. The tradition was set in by the volunteers of the Mennonite Volunteer Service, and the early players were mostly the Mennonite House residents. But as of today, hundreds other have enjoyed the game of ultimate frisbie including me. Coming back to Alex, I met him first during one of the frisbie games and he was a fun character. Later on, we again had fun interaction during Apple-picking in Michigan. Alex is a really humble person with an amazing and fun attitude towards life. Although, himself an architect, he is a crazy skate-boarder and hurt himself while skate-boarding and nothing was ever dull when he was around. It was really fun to dance like crazy with him on Milena's birthday and hear so much fun stuff ranging from beer to german language 'good words'. One of another persons that I would wish to see again later in my life someday.

Like Alex, I really admire the spirit of Mennonite volunteers as well as all practical volunteers who spend their lives thousand of miles from their homes for good of others. Hope I get to meet such wondeful and amazing selfless people throughout my life who have such a beautiful insight on life...
See you in Chi town again Buddy!

500 blog hits and counting...

am really surprised... and happy too with the way my writings have been read by the people. I began this one on 14th February 2009 and its just 7th March 2009 today. So, in essentially 21 days, i received my 500th visit of my blog. The count is at 507 as I write this piece right now.

I would like to thank all those who came here to read, and would hope so for the same in future. Thank you all of you and keep reading.

READING LEADS TO FREEDOM OF MIND !

Pacifism - A necessity for life..

The present state of world affairs has made the establishment of peace, and pacifism a must. With the burden of social, economic and environmental responsibilities, the human beings do not really have any other choice but to avert conflict, hatred and destruction. The idea of mutual destruction may have been a deterrent but it never was a sweet idea, nor was it able to stop any wars. In fact, it only made wars more dirty. The spectre of a spectacular war of total annihilation did not occur but the presence of proxy wars made it even more terrible. It not only cleared the powerful nations of any direct responsibility of wreaking havoc but it also brought with it the idea of using third-party countries as pseudo-battlefields. Afghanistan, Angola, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, Iraq, Somalia, Kashmir and many other nations and nationalities had to suffer more then a generation of hardships only because the ego of a few just could not be appeased.

Unfortunately, for all other problems that this planet faces today, war is one of those extravagant deals which has still not given contentment to many a blood-thirsty humans. Of more then 6 billion people living in this world, more then half live below poverty line. It effectively means that their lives are merely masses of shadows barely surviving with the ultimate aim of finding the next meal. Their personalities, thoughts, objectives, beliefs are totally emaciated. And all that remains is constant hunger. And this is not all, one-third of humanity does not know where to get drinkable, safe water...and how ? Not a single human being can claim protection from diseases that are becoming just too many and the great divide between haves and have-nots is increasing exponentially.

The planet Earth is waking up from its natural slumber by human excesses and showing the humans their correct place in form of global warming and haphazard climate change and the thinning lines of food, water and energy demands and supply are just about to snap. A huge catastrophy of hunger, disease, chaos and anarchy is just at doorstep. And yet all that a human thought can reach is to national boundaries. Its amazing how enticing the prospect of 'land' has been for humans throughout the ages. From Alexander to greeks and romans up to the present day civilization, not much has changed. One ideology goes only to make way for another. One religion dies only to let another one take its place. And one Government leaves the power corridors, only for another one to take its place. And in this futile change over, little Gods or as we should say, tiny napoleans and alexanders try to manipulate little universes around them. The curse of nationalism or religious fascism just does not leave humans any sort of respect from a million other species on planet. The childish hatred gets down to such a boiling point that unimaginable loss of human life is considered a 'worthy sacrifice' to keep the map lines drawn the same way on atlas. Just a small walk down the history lane tells of countless who killed or got killed in name of patriotism when in fact, no one really remembers them or cares about them. And no one really will! Who knows the names of millions who died in French wars or the sino-japanese war or the war of independence or both world wars. Loss of life, money, intelligence, time and energy... all too expendable for these nationalist people to 'save the glory' of artificial borders. And yet when human society is at brink of self-extermination, these egoes have only multiplied. The reasons change, names of wars change, new enemies are created, new boundaries are drawn and the cheap human blood is spilled and the poor planet earth is injured. Earthquakes, Tsunamis, Floods, Hurricanes, Draught and Starvation, Glacial melting, epidemics and pandemics, deforestation, ozone rupture, global warming and horrific diseases do not really make an issue for power-hungry humans.

Money, power, glory, lust, fake respect, might and racial as well as national supremacy!! There isn't much different between racism and nationalism except for a few alphabets. The simple humans of same species who were previously racially profiled are now nationally profiled. Where few races gathered to persecute other races, now nations collaborate to persecute other nations. I just don't understand when this curse of nationalism and small groupings end. Humans as a species are at a brink of disaster. Planet Earth has been too kind to humans and its kindness is now being taken for granted as its weakness. But for this huge globe of energy and mass, humans are as unspecial as are the other million species. And probably much more fragile than even dinosaurs. I just hope humans learn soon and start living together as an endangered species and stop these petty fights for the sake of humanity's good and lively future.

Free Judiciary !

A free, fair and just society is the the basis of a civilizations' development. Nobody can ever progress where his rights are not protected by a justice system that weighs him and and his rulers in same balance. Of all the great struggles in great societies, the most fair demand that was ever asked was of fairness in justness. Magna Carta and civil rights movement are just a glimpse in this flood of struggles for equality and justice.

In my country at present, the existence of extremely unjust courts that validate the most embarrassing of rules such as NRO and PCO cannot allow the normal society to flourish. These rules of present justice system are so absurd, evil and destructive that sometimes it seems as if the surfs in Russia before Bolshevik revolution fared better then the poor normal people of my country today. Never in history of Pakistan has been superior judiciary used as a pawn in dirty political game where just the good of few tens of people is considered more important than hundreds of millions.

How can one even justify that the daughter of present chief justice of pakistan-aka the fake justice in eyes of real people can have the academic result of his daughter changed against the norms, rules and social normalcy. And not just that the case of farah hamed dogar is a negation of basic education right for the rest of Pakistan's nation but it also totally kills the merit-based system and takes out all the energy that poor put in their studies and education. Why would anyone work hard in a country where only the rich will win and poor will loose. Its disgusting how people who work hard to make their lives well are never allowed to achieve their aims. Pakistani people must understand that even at the most dire times of nazi onslot in 1941, Sir Winston Churchill was more worried about the impartial functioning of judiciary in his own country. Now that is what we call BELIEF. Belief not in some out-of-the-world help but in your own strength. And nothing can be more fulfilling in a society then the presence of a just and fair system of judgement.


I am least concerned about any of the politicians or politics in pakistan now. But what I do wish is to spread this awareness among the masses that justice is not a privilege. Its a RIGHT....A BASIC HUMAN RIGHT. And there is a time when you cannot just sit and wait for some 'invisible hand' to come and help you in achieveing that.

Nobody takes a person serious when he cannot even put his own house in order. And unfortunately, its same with masses in Pakistan. The Government gives a sh*t to what people think since it knows they are not really people of action. But everything changes and so do I hope that people will change. They will finally wake up to figure out that when you can't get what you own by begging, then you have to snatch it. Again !! JUSTICE IS NOT A PRIVILEGE....ITS THE MOST BASIC HUMAN RIGHT !!!

...and what am I doing for that ? I wrote a letter of appeal to citizens of Pakistan about this issue and have till now dropped more than a thousand copies in different areas of my locality. I have also mailed a copy of this letter to Principal of Rawalpindi Medical College. And apart from all of this, am myself going to the long march and sit-in on 16 March 2009 in front of Parliament and supreme court.

Get a copy of the letter named 'MY LETTER' at
http://ifile.it/luivdgc

Islamabad - The beautiful ! .... ?

Few days back, I went to visit some old visiting spots in my old, beloved city where I gre up most of my life. Islamabad is very different from what it was a decade back. It used to be a beautiful garden city with some great family spots. There were times when crime was almost zero in this city. People in fact used to joke that Islamabad is a separate country within Pakistan, oblivious of the problems surrounding it. But frankly speaking, Pakistan of those days was a thousand times better then what it is today. The city was small, serene and somewhat just and equal. I remember those days of school where I met my love for first time. One of my class-mates was son of a parliamentarian and numerous others were from good families. The reason being that Islamabad was a small city, a garden city inhabited by bureaucrats, teachers, doctors, lawyers, engineers and scientists. Those were good, old simple days. Over time, islamabad has become infested by millions from all over Pakistan hungry for power, authority and importance. The real islooites - the quiet middleclass who literally built Islamabad has died. Little is left of the good peaceful people who while living in Islamabad thought Pakistan was as beautiful, serene and at peace with itself as are the natives of this city.

Today, all greenery has vanished, schools are rotting houses of corrupt student unions, the literate people simply left for greener pastures, others simply vanished. There is no peace, no beauty in anything. People always seem to be in a hurry, ready to spit out anger, furious on God-knows-what. Big, useless roads span over, what used to be greenbelts of trees. Vulgar, immoral beings haunt poor girls in this city where once a switched off street light made an issue. No rules, no manners, no patience, no respect...nothing is same. It seems like the city is there but not the spirit. It hurt to see my beautiful isloo in hands of the unknown people. As I think of it, Isloo simply became part of Pakistan...

So coming back to my trip, I went to some old picnic spots of the city.

Pir Sohawa (Gokina)

Shakar Pariyan (with obnoxious new Pakistan monument there)

Damn-e-koh

Islamabad zoo

Islamabad Playland (Japenese Children Garden)

Track-3 (hiking place)

Rawal dam

Rose and Jasmine Garden

Lotus Lake (now dead)

Museum of natural history (almost empty and closed)

Open air theatre (also almost dead)

the trip was sort of refreshing, very very nostalgic and beautiful. I remembered all those good and beautiful times and days. My this trip also became better as my elder bro was with me and we dont usually hangout so much now.

I took some pictures, hiked a bit, sat and thought about the million problems people in pakistan face. And after a great day of remembrance, nostalgia and smiles, I headed back home in evening, hoping that life and people will change and someday I will see the same old islamabad someday :)

Martin Luther King Jr.

The words of Coretta Scott King, wife of the great Martin Luther King at his funeral...

"My husband often told the children that if a man had nothing that was worth dying for, then he was not fit to live. H said also

that it's not how long you live, but how well you live. He knew that at any moment his physical life coulf be cut short, and we faced this possibility squarely and honestly. My husband faced the possibility of death without bitterness or hatred. He knew that this was a sick society, totally infested with racism and violence that questioned his integrity, maligned his motives, and distorted his views, which would ultimately lead to his death. And he struggled with every ounce of his energy to save that society from itself.
He never hated. He never despaired of well-doing. And he encouraged us to do likewise, and so he prepared us consantly for the tragedy.
I am surprised and pleased at the success of his teaching, for our children say calmly,'Daddy is not dead; he may be physically dead, but his spirit will never die.'
Ours has been a religious home, and this too has made this burden easier to bear. Our concern now is that his work does not die. He gave his life for the poor of the world - the garbage workers of Memphis and the peasants of Vietnam. Nothing hurt him more than that man

could attempt no way to solve problems except through violence. He gave his life in search of a more excellent way, a more effective way, a creative rather than a destructive way.
We intend to go on in search of that way, and I hope that you who loved and admired him would join us in fulfilling his dream.
The day that Negro people and others in bondage are truly free, on the day want is abolished, on the day wars are no more, on that day I know my husband will rest in a long-deserved peace."

hahaha...my spanish course!

I have been learning spanish for a while and for that purpose, mostly it was the teach yourself method. But recently, since I was free, I began taking courses. Yesterday I was asked to write a small note on 'My Imaginary Friend'.

Here is my note:

Soy somair. Tengo a un amigo imaginario. Nombre es Pedro. Es de Perú. Le gusta frisbie. Jugamos frisbie diario. Le también quiere fútbol.

Soy somair = I am somair.

Tengo a un amigo imaginario = I have an imaginary friend.

Nombre es Pedro = Name is Pedro.

Es de Peru = Is of Peru.

Le gusta frisbie = He likes frisbie.

Jugamos frisbie diario = We play frisbie daily.

Le tambien quiere futbol = He also likes soccer.

....hahaha, don't even know why I wrote it here. Just getting bored. Going to take a nap.

USA medical elective experience

It was in summer of 2007 that I went for my final year medical student electives to USA. It was pretty much all too unexpected and pretty poorly planned that I was also surprised the day I reached US that am finally here.
It all began in December of year 2006 when this idea was first floated to me of going for US medical electives in final year. At that time, I was in my 4th year of medical school in Rawalpindi Medical College and was giving my 3rd professional exam. Being a very mediocre student and especially super mediocre in Medical School, my interest was always governed more by being career-oriented at that time then bookish studies for my exams.

When this idea was first given to me, I outrightly rejected it that my parents won't agree being from a normal middle class, working class pakistani family. And also, half of my close relatives being doctors and none of them having gone for any electives whatsoever put my idea in a weak position even before it began. Me and my love discussed the various elective ideas and she being very optimistic and interested in the whole matter also pushed me in looking into it. So slowly, after gathering some guts I asked my father and mother one day in early January of 2007 that I wish to do US medical electives and that how important they would be for me and my career and my studies. I further made it clear that I won't be going there just for USA electives experience but also will be appearing in United States Medical Licensing Exam - clinical skills part. And within a few days, quite contrary to my thinking, my parents granted me the approval. This 'go-ahead' signal was perhaps as surprising to me as it was surprising for them. The real thing was not their decision in deciding what I should do or not do, but in fact I needed their financial support if I did go for such an endeavour.
So, then began the long process of sorting out electives' universities in USA which offer medical electives to foreign students, especially from Pakistan. In the process, I sat for TOEFL iBT, payed different fees to different programs and went through various processes of making my transcripts and sending them to different US medical schools from my medical school. The important thing to mention here is that I was never helped in this matter by anyone except the internet and anyone or everyone who really wishes to go for USA elective experience can be frothing from all the required information if he/she spends sometime online searching for all the available info. Doing it by my own self totally, I had to go through a lot of trial and error. Lost money, received rejections from alot of the programs and since I was also applying for USMLE and doing the whole paperwork for my love also, it was kind of difficult and marred with troubles. By April, nothing seemed to be going fine. My final hope rested in Rosalind Franklin University and the University of Wisconsin. Email being a slow and unreliable method for me in this regard, I decided to start calling all of them. A positive response on phone from Rosalind Franklin for an available seat in august of 2007 made me look for other universities with openly listed faculty phone numbers. So, I started calling all of them and it was sheerly good luck that I called Ms. Pam in University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas just asking about any avaliable US medical electives for foreign students that summer. The reply was astoundingly wonderful and made me extremely ecstatic. She told me that they have seat avaliable in even May and June of 2007. Since it was early April, I took no time and sent my application materials through DHL the VERY SAME evening at 5 pm.
Some days later, it was on my close uncle's wedding reception day that I called again to know of my application when I was given the good news that I have been accepted. I at-once followed with seri's application but their seats were filled so it got approved in another department and also in another university of the University of Texas system. Then began the hectic paperwork for visa and it went quite smoothly. In fact it went much more easily then I expected and the only thing that got bogged down a little bit was the security clearance, also called the administrative processing. Things did look a bit difficult as administrative processing took some time but finally all was set for me to head for my USA electives experience. Getting a leave from my own medical school was not a problem in Pakistan ;) ...
I received my passport back after a wait of a month while I was supposed to begin my elective earlier. So, the same day I received my passport, I went to look for a plane ticket to US. That day proved to be useless as we couldnt really find a good ticket with a good deal. As it was my first time going to USA, my end destination was Dallas in Texas, and I had to reach the DFW Airport within 2 days. So, my demand from all travel agents was to make my itinerary all the way from islamabad in pakistan to Dallas in Texas. Being a difficult task to find such a flight deal on a day's notice, my first day looking for it was a disappointment. The next morning, we finally were able to find a deal for that same day's night. It was a good deal with its own problems though. The biggest being that I will have to have a stayover of 14 hours at Dubai.

I ran home and began packing. Sometime after midnight my parents came to drop me at the airport. And then began my first US adventure. The emirates flight to Dubai was smooth. Stay was prolonged at Dubai but I was able to enjoy all of the time in exploring every inch of the place. My next flight was long and really exciting as I was flying to United States for the first time. Got to see a lot of countries from sky including Jordan, Italy and France as well as arabian sea, mediterranean sea, persian gulf and Atlantic Ocean. I landed at JFK Airport in new york city at around 7 am the day before my first US elective day. It took awhile to get through immigration and to get to Terminal 2 where I was supposed to get on Delta Airlines flight to Dallas. Another surprise awaited me there as I was told that my seat is not confirmed. After raising some hue and cry and finally getting a new bording pass, the flight was cancelled. All the passengers were put on next flight which was going 3 hours later. Finally, when I sat in that plane, I was so sleepy that I slept straight through 3 and half hours of flight. It was really great to see the Dallas skyline and finally to get on the ground. But I was about to find that my US adventure is just beginning as Delta had left my main suitcase back at JFK airport. I was told that they would deliver my bag at my given address but I was too worried to leave my bag at the mercy of Delta, so I waited for 4 hours at airport till the next flight arrived with my bag and I had a sigh of relief. A novice as I was in world travels, I had arranged my stay here totally through craigslist. And didn't really know where I was heading except that I had that guy's address, cell number and a printout of our email correspondence. But when I reached his place after paying heftily to the cab driver, I was finally relieved to find a nice guy with a nice home, and a room ready for me. It was well enough for me since I really wasn't looking for any more adventure for the time being. After ironing my clothes quickly, I went to bed to wake up early next morning.
My stay in south side of Dallas provided me a good opportunity to look at the lower strata of society in US and get to see life up and close in a different world. It took me 50 minutes daily to commute to the UT Southwestern campus from my place. Both of my internal medicine electives were based at the Parkland Hospital. The same Parkland Hospital where President John F Kennedy died :(

The first day of electives went really fine as I was able to round with my attending who was a really nice lady. Her name was Dr. Wada and she was my attending for only 1 week. Later on, Dr. Wada would also be the attending of Seri along with the same fellow that

was mine too during the rotation in Infectious Diseases. For most part in my rotation, my attending was Prof. Dr. Paul Southern who was a very nice person. A very friendly and caring teacher who helped me and is still helping me in my further studies. Other than him, my fellow Dr. DeMarco was equally superb and extremely nice to me. It was his first rotation as a fellow too so we had good 3 weeks of fun and patient care. With me, there was a PA student doing her rotation too. Her name was Kristin and she is now a qualified Physician Assistant working in Houston. There were also a lot of other students and teachers who I interacted with but couldnt keep contact with all of them. During those electives, I found out the prevalence of Pseudomonas Aeruginosa in hospitalised patients in US. Saw a lot of MRSA cases and the worse lower extremity infections in Diabetics. I found a big percentage of patients in US hospitals to be the classic text book cases of HTN and DM co-morbids. The overall experience for me was quite new and exciting. Totally different workup as compared to the ones we do in pakistan and different modes of teaching provided me ample opportunity to see and learn. Also, I was able to see the healthcare at its almost best as compared to the one provided in pakistan.

Unfortunately for being in Pakistan, health and education have always been the last priority for the government ever since Pakistan was created. Compared to all that, I think that USA has one of the best healthcare even though many people will not agree with me. Back to my USA elective experience , my 2nd elective was in rheumatology and on my first day I received a 5 lb book called 'A PRIMER OF RHEUMATOLOGY' which definitely for me was not a primer but a bulldozer because it was so heavy that on leaving USA, I had to leave it at the airport (along with other stuff as my bags were above the allowed weight limit).

My time through my second elective was equally good as the first one, except that it was a bit more boring. And since I had to prepare for my step-2 USMLE, my time was kind of preoccupied. I finished my US medical electives on 30th august and had a 1st september flight to houston which was nothing less then an adventure as I was really short of money so I took the 408 bus at 5 30 am in morning. And I had to ask the lady at fastonia's home to give me a free ride up to 408 for which she was really generous to come and drive me to bus stop at 4 am in morning. At the DFW airport, I had to dump close to 20 lbs of stuff to bring my luggage weight in range so that I do not have to pay extra 25 $ per bag. Flight was quick for about 45 minutes and I shot a video of whole flight....yes! whole flight. At Houston, the Days Inn shuttle arrived on time and I reached the hotel in late afternoon. My time spent there was really good as I was able to hook up with some Indian, Syrian and Pakistani docs who were all there for Step-2 CS. Not only that we all hung around together for 3 days but we also practiced together our FA and uworld cases. Arbaz, Garima, Mansi, Puneet bhai, Ibrahim and Manzoor. Suddenly, I had more friends in USA and most of them are still good friends of mine. Not just that but about half of them are residents and they have been a great source of information for me in my USMLEs.
On 4th of september I gave my USMLE step-2 CS with some of them and then went for a fish burger at McDonalds. Early next morning, I was on a flight to NYC to see Talha. Those were some great 5 days I spent in NYC. Not just with my school days friend Talha but another of my old buddy Junaid came from Toronto, Canada. We were together after a lapse of around 9-10 years and it was just amazing. We spent a wonderful time there. Walked all over Manhattan, went to Long Island beaches, watched movies together and hung out with Talha's friends. But all good times come to an end and so was it there. Soon after, I left for Pakistan and after spending sometime at Dubai, I was back in Islamabad. It wasn't just that. I went to my Medical School the same morning I touched down at Islamabad Airport with a new vigor for medicine and some good stories to tell.

My overall experience was awesome and my level of trust greatly increased on people, which reached its epoch on my second trip to US in 2008. I was able to spend some quality time in Dallas, went to Houston, saw New York and also went to Fortworth which became an important city to me next year for another reason. Looking back now, I just say that everything that happens has a part to play in the bigger picture. Not exactly talking of divine intervention but just that my USA elective experience was as best as it could be. And lastly, its not that difficult as people think it to be anyways.

I again went next year for other reasons but did two more months of US medical electives. With time, I have been able to build a good USA elective experience that may help me a long way I guess.