Academic Diaries and exam gourmets…
When I reminisce about school days, I have a mixed bag of memories. I was a naughty kid albeit an intelligent one. In kindergarten when I had a tiff with one of my batchmates, I waited until she approached the class teacher with her classwork and when she was about to be seated again, I stealthily pulled her chair backwards and the poor little thing found herself on the floor. I got reprimanded and as expected in the first PTA meet, a formal complaint was lodged with my parents.
Academically I didn’t do badly. I was above average or rather good in those years. I remember in the second grade we were given this class assignment comprising of synonyms/antonyms/adjectives(don’t exactly recall). I realized that out of the 10 questions asked, I had answers to only 9. I also conjured it up in my head that if I were to number all the answers, the teacher would realize I had missed one. On the other hand if I just left them not numbered and omitted the one I didn’t know and she saw all ticks in a row, she would probably not notice the missing word and give me full marks.
To my surprise, that is what my teacher did. She gave me full marks not realizing that one question was un attempted. Today, I cannot believe that as a tiny tot I was scheming, planning and hacking my teacher’s psyche.
Come 5th grade and I had started becoming very forgetful. I forgot my homework a lot. It was not deliberate impudence because I loved to impress my teachers, but I just didn’t remember my assignments. Either way I got punished a lot for it. School life hence was a lot of hits and misses. However, I do not remembering having any other health issues then. That was soon to change.
Cut to my medical school years.
As I have mentioned previously, I am highly intuitive. During my exams as my roomie and I would revise, I had this habit of randomly opening my book and start reading whatever page opened up, if I found it worth my time. My roomie who was noticing this and being aware that whatever I read often showed up in the theory papers would ask me,” Tell me what you are reading. Mee pann tech vaachnaar.” meaning, “I will read that too.” She would do this for every other topic. I would find it preposterous and hilarious at the same time.
When it comes to exam preparedness, sometimes it is our family more than ourselves who are neck deep in anxiety. It’s a cultural anomaly. We Indians love being fussed over and molly cuddled and an exam round the corner warrants both. I remember every time my brother left for an exam, my father would be planning and pre planning his commute. If he was taking one vehicle, my father would want an other vehicle to follow the one ahead for any contingencies. The rest of us would have to thwart his preposterous ideas with our exasperated reactions.
The entrance exams were an other ball game altogether. Less intuition and more thinking on your feet and at the same time keeping your faculties functioning. Many of us went battle ready to the exam hall. With us would be an entire artillery of chocolates, glucose, sandwiches, lunch, water, coffee et all. We had to be prepared for any eventuality and an enemy attack in the form of a health scare with dipping blood sugar levels and your faculties shutting down out of nowhere.
This intuitive spell continued into my post graduation and so did mom’s molly coddling. The three of us, V, S and I took a cab to the venue. My mom being the mom she is and her maternal instincts trickling down to the rest of the entourage, packed us sandwiches which S gleefully relished and V refused. V was content munching on his apple. Just an apple a day for him kept the next five hours at bay.
Speaking of apples and breakfast, I remember being extremely uneasy mid way through my theory exam and asking my examiner for a bite of those chocolates in my bag. It was only post that, that I could get a hold on my faculties again, or so I thought. Post the first session, we sat again on one of the unused hospital cots discarded in the corridor and had our lunch. Again, something my mother had packed for all of us.
After that S would leave for a different exam hall while V and I sat sprawled on the not so clean floors. We couldn’t care any less. Revising our portions were more important. Nostalgia revisiting, V asked me this time. “What are you reading?” It was ‘Interstitial Lung Diseases’. He started reading that too and as luck would have it, the question showed up for the exam a few moments later. :D Dude, you have your apple and extreme confidence. I made do with my hard work, intuitions and resilience .
The horror continued in the VIVAs. Midway I was uneasy again, extremely so this time. I was desperately munching on to my chocolates again only to realize that it wasn’t helping. I requested for a bite and gobbled some sweet bread. Complex carbohydrates. My mistake. That didn’t help either. Seeing the whole scenario unfold, one of the internals walked up to me and asked me to have a proper lunch instead. He dismissed the entire batch for lunch. I was better after lunch break again and could salvage the rest of the exam.
Mulling over it, today I remember the words of one of my Gastroenterology registrars. While performing a colonoscopy he casually quizzed me as to what diet I would advice a patient with intestinal malabsorption? The answer was-A diet rich in Medium chain fatty acids and short chain fatty acids.
Today, I realize after researching on the same that the said foods actually work to some extent. Rather, to a good extent. Every time my blood sugars would dip and feel my energy levels plummeting, I would have butter milk during my last hospital stint and would immediately feel better. Every time my mentor offered to buy me tea, I requested buttermilk instead. I didn’t realize why it was working then, but now I know.
This is why.
Supposedly Medium chain and short chain fatty acids do not require transport proteins to get absorbed from your intestines into your blood stream. They also do not require transport proteins for getting assimilated into your cells for generating energy/ATP and are also not Insulin dependent. In short, they are one of the quickest and the most efficient sources of energy you can provide your body.
In fact, when provided with both fatty acids and carbohydrates, your body will use fatty acids in preference to carbs and store the carbs. Precisely the whole premise of keto diets. Fascinating! Isn’t it?
My Grandma’s diet comprising of good old goat milk in my growing up years had just that. In fact a typical Kerala cuisine with loads of coconut provides your body exactly that. Your fermented cheeses, butter, yoghurt provides your body this much needed energy source.
So next time you want to munch on a chocolate bar on your personal battle front, try a pack of butter milk instead. Mishti dahi would be a perfect and a much needed accompaniment as a dessert for the exam gourmet.
