Of Mosquitoes and Cricket

So it's been over a week since I left the UK - that went quickly!
I'm being kept very busy with a hospital day lasting from breakfast at 7.30am to closing time at 5.30. With a bit of internet time, a much needed shower and dinner there's not a lot of time for sitting around.

My home for the next 7 weeks

Mosquitos - I became aware on Monday of the appearance of small dots over my wrists. They didn't look like a stereotypical bite so I ignored them. By that evening they'd become pretty obvious and I counted 8 over the upper half over my arms and back - clearly gained during my sunday night sleep. I hadn't packed antimalarials as this area is 'Low risk' and hadn't opted for the very expensive Japanese Encephalitis vaccination! Panicking, I arranged my net in a makeshift fashion using two dining chairs either end of my bed. I also discovered that I'd been provided with an overnight repellent that's plugged into the wall. Combined, I can safely say that I've suffered no further trauma and can tell you that a mosquito bite takes almost exactly 5 days to fully heal. I feel a great sense of triumph over these little creatures.

A working, if not attractive, mosquito net

Cricket - This story starts on Monday afternoon, when I turned on the television in my room and was greeted by a blank blue screen on all channels. Bye bye to the three English film channels I'd discovered the day before. I soon discovered that I was not alone - in Tuesday's "Times of India" (a fantastic read - also doubling up as a mosquito swat) an article told me that 75% of the city's televisions had gone similarly blank due to the switch over from analogue to digital without the provision of a digital box. This made me feel much better. Though I naively believed I'd have a lot of time to sit around watching films my disappointment was nothing compared to the thousands of Indians keen to watch the IPL - Indian Premier League. A cricket thing. Judging by the "Times of India" this is a BIG thing. A HUGE thing. It even has an opening ceremony. Since then there have been riots in Allahabad by ' the common man' who cannot watch the IPL without a working television. Staff all over the campus are talking about cricket and yesterday I spent my dinner time  watching Mubai vs Bangalore - the TV in the canteen gained a digibox on Wednesday. I was told that the IPL earns more money than the British football Premier League. I found this hard to believe but was then told the cost of the adverts, which I calculated to be about 10,000 pounds for 10 seconds of fame, and there are a lot of adverts! Each time the bowler changes or a man is batted out there are two advert breaks. The IPL is set to last two months so I'm going to become an expert on Indian cricket.

Hospital wise I've spent time in the physio department, lab and medical records since my two days in charting. More of that to follow, but I felt that I should spend this post introducing you to two of my new cultural experiences!