Slumdog Millionaire

Go see this movie.  

If you don't like it I'll pay for your tickets and an extra tub of popcorn for your troubles. 

See the trailer here:

http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi2220163097/

You won't be sorry.  When have I steered you wrong?

Sunday Dinner + Kaya Discovery

We had a lovely dinner last night inspired by Costco. That store always has wonderful meats, including leg of lamb. We rounded up some of Sanjai's Ortho folks for a Sunday Dinner. I think our invitation threw our guests for a loop, since home-cooked Sunday dinner is not really the norm with our group of people. However, we had a fantastic time with lots of laughter and very full bellies.

Even though cloudy and cold weather has begun to settle into Chicago, today was at least sunny. Poor, little Kaya has been deficient in her exercise lately due to busy schedules and unpredictable weather. So, I took her for a walk and a game of fetch. I'm sure any reader could tell that Sanjai and I are crazy about our yellow beast. However, one of our only gripes is that she is terrible on a leash! She pulls like crazy despite multiple different leashes and using training techniques. So, today after throwing the ball for her, I decided to let her just carry the ball in her mouth on the way home. It kept me from having to carry the slimy ball. I normally wouldn't let her, because she is so clumsy, she normally drops it. However, today she firmly held on to the ball AND as a result, she walked on the leash without pulling!! It was such a triumph. I'm going to have to try it again before she has worn herself out running.

President Obama

Obama rally in Grant Park, "Chicago's Front Yard." Three blocks from our apartment.

The energy on the sidewalks walking around was infectious. Chicago has not been a shiny, happy place by our observations in the past year. Except last night, people were so happy and kind to each other even before the first electoral votes were assigned. Perhaps the people were being presumptuous. However, if Obama can spread that kind of optimism, that's change I can believe in.

One of my students from last year, Jerry, is typically an underperforming guy. I was able to coax some effort out of him last year, even awarding him a most-improved award, but it appears he has returned to his old ways during his sophomore year. Yesterday, he walked past me humming "Hail to the Chief." I commented on his choice of song. He said to me with a twinkle in his eye, "First Black President, Mrs. Shukla." Will this historic election change the outlook of our typically underperforming Black students? I sure hope so.

Jen turns 30

I told Sanjai in September that I wanted some kind of celebration. I have been the martyr every year since our first year of dating - insisting that I'm not high maintenance and I don't need any fuss for my birthday. However, this year was different. Sanjai assembled a small group of our Chicago friends to celebrate my birthday, which is exactly what I wanted. We went to eat at Joe's Prime Steak and Stone Crab(not to be confused with Joe's Crab Shack!). We were joined by Neil, Reetu, Tom and Aarthi. We had an incredible meal and lots of laughter. Even though politics came up everyone was civilized and considerate.

Afterwards, we visited a Haunted House in a suburb called Melrose Park. The haunted house was your typical fare of loads of grotesque people jumping out at you. There was a crazy part that I haven't seen any other time. One of the rooms had a space alien who coaxed you into a tunnel that you traversed by walking a railed elevated walkway. However, there were swirling green lights that made the whole room feel like it was spinning. We had to hold the railing in order to pull ourselves to the other side - even though nothing was moving!! The visual stimulation alone was enough to trick our brains into experiencing vertigo. Dad, you would have been finished.

It was such a fun evening. I'm glad I asked for a little something. I was treated to an assortment of spa treatments the next day. I got a fantastic massage that was followed by a pedicure and a manicure. To top it off, when I came down from my massage, I found Reetu waiting for me so we could get our nails done together. It was a great day.

I'll try to better about posting. I've become spoiled by Facebook. Now that my mom and brother are on there I slack in posting. My bad - hope everyone is doing well. Oh my God, I'm 30!

Here's a picture from the Haunted House:

Catch up Blog Post 2

June brought endings and celebrations. I ended my first school year in Chicago Public Schools on June 13. I will be returning to the same school in the fall much wiser and stronger than a year ago. I've still been involved in some work during my summer "vacation." I have completed curriculum maps for the 9th and 10th grade science classes in this past month. My first quarter plan is due Aug. 18 and detailed lesson plans are due Aug. 25. The job can be quite demanding. My last day at work was going well. Students were dismissed at 9 am - they just came to pick up report cards, but some inevitably hang around (they feel safe at school so they find reasons to stay - often we put them to work and they happily oblige). So, I was frantically trying to get my room packed up for the movers that would be coming to move our things to the floor below. I was nearly done, when an impromptu meeting was called by the admin. During our meeting, two of the straggler students previously mentioned, J and K, walked through the meeting room carrying boxes for a staff member. They disappeared into her office, which adjoins to my classroom. When I returned to my room from the meeting, I found dish soap had been squirted all over the floor. I let out a bellowing, "DUDE!" and set out after J and K. I pulled them into my room and demanded an explanation. J (who is not a troublemaker) said only, "I'll help clean it up." K said, "How do you know it was us?" I told him all the adults were in the room with me and they were the ones who weren't - gotta teach deductive reasoning somehow! K reluctantly joined J in the cleanup. It was a rotten way to end the year, yelling at kids.

Sanjai ended his 2nd year of Orthopedic Surgery residency. His life has greatly improved. He will now only take primary call once a month. The rest of the time he is on back up for the 2nd year resident. The only sad part about his advancement is that our friends, Ben and Rob, who were chiefs, have now graduated. They will move on to fellowships that will take them away from Chicago. Rob heads to Duke for a year, then he'll be back at Rush. Ben heads to Africa for a year, then Gainesville, FL for a year, then back to the Midwest at a position in Iowa City, IA. So, we'll see these guys again, but Sanjai will miss them - they have been great teachers.

Finally, June also saw the end of our lease in the condo on the West Side. Hallelujah. While we enjoyed the people, the building and neighborhood were terrible. We are so happy with our new location and dwelling in the South Loop. I no longer have to frantically scan the sidewalk for broken glass to help Kaya evade. We're not woken up by our upstairs neighbor walking across the wood floor in heels at 2am. I've not had to call the police. It's fantastic! We are walking distance to so many attractions. We're both really excited for August to get here. My family is coming to visit for Lollapalooza, which is held at Grant Park only a few blocks from here.

Below are some pictures from the Graduation/End of Year Party that was held for Sanjai's Ortho program.


Ben, Noor, Nicole and Rob

with Reetu and Neil (we're going to their wedding in late Aug.)

with Noor and Ben (they're getting married this weekend!)

Catch up blog post 1

Last time we posted, we had just had our anniversary. That was two months ago. So, we've got a few things to catch people up on.

In late May, we travelled to Lancaster, PA to see our friends, Alison and Robin, get married. We were very fortunate to get to see lots of other med school friends at the wedding, some we had not seen since we left NC. Lancaster is a neat little town with a quaint downtown and nice people. Once again, the GPS system from Mom and Dad saved us. Little Northeastern roads have no rules, so it was nice to get help from that patient, all-knowing voice. It helped us to find a Doughnut shop from the groom's suggestion. He claimed it was the best doughnut he has ever had. The offerings were very unique, but even more like dessert than regular. It was too much sweet in the morning, even for this Southern girl. Overall, it was a great trip. We are looking forward to the next med school wedding, which will be in Los Angeles in late August.

3rd Anniversary

Our third wedding anniversary arrived this week. Poor Sanjai not only had a Grand Rounds presentation on the day of our anniversary, but he was also on in-house call at Cook County. So, we waited until the weekend to celebrate. We decided to do it up. We had dinner a place called Cite, which is on the 70th floor of the Lake Point Tower (Sammy Sosa once lived in this building!). The view was amazing. There were swallows diving all around the windows, presumably catching bugs. The food was very good and elegant. It was an evening we'll be able to remember. As we were leaving, Sanjai said he didn't know how we'll be able to top it in the coming years.

We're getting closer to wrapping up our first year here. I have five more weeks of school. It sounds like the last week is a fluff week. Sanjai edges closer to his third year, which means much less call. Also, we are three weeks away from the start of our new lease in an apartment in the South Loop. We can't wait. So, it's a busy but exciting time.

We have a wedding to attend next weekend in Lancaster, PA. The bride and groom were both classmates of Sanjai's in med school. It will be nice to see some of those folks again. The next weekend is my little brother's graduation. I am REALLY excited to see my family again, which will also include my grandparents.

Well, Happy Mother's Day to those who are mothers. Thanks for all you do!

Obama v. Tar Heels

Thought this article from the Raleigh News and Observer was cute:
http://www.newsobserver.com/politics/story/1053885.html

for my Dad

If you look closely, you can see that the wine is called "Juan Gil," which is the Spanish version of my Dad's name, John Gill. Dad, I'll bring you a bottle when I come to Alabama in May.

Indian Dance Competition

So, we went to an event called "Best of the Best" last night. There were nine teams from different colleges that performed Bhangra, Raas Garba and Bollywood fusion. We started off the evening agitated, because of one of the irritating parts of Indian culture, IST (Indian Standard Time). Indians have a well-deserved reputation of being hard-working and intelligent people. Somehow they have achieved incredible things as a minority in this country despite IST. What I mean is that Indian functions, as a rule, start late. Our tickets said 6pm. However, we were not let into the auditorium until 6:45 and the show did not start until 7:15pm. Grrr.
This picture shows the introduction of the nine teams. The team in the middle is from UC Davis. The costumes were incredible.
After the introduction, some children from a local Indian dance studio came out and performed. This little boy was adorable. He was flanked by seven little girls. He made all those cheeky Bollywood faces.
The dancing was pretty amazing. We both enjoyed the spectacle and athletism of the performers. Unfortunately, they ended the evening with a performer called Raghav. He is a pop star in the Indian community. He was lousy. He kept singing even though the production crew was asking him to wrap it up. He also had a backup guy named, "Iceberg Slim," who was hilarious. First, he was African American, which seems atypical. Second, he just paced in the background and occasionally made noises into the microphone. Overall, we had a good time, but I don't think we'll be back next year.

One fine Sunday

I mentioned in a previous post about going hiking. On Sunday, April 6, the weather was finally warm enough (in the 50's!) to go hiking. We drove up to a state park just over the Wisconsin border. We were so happy to be outside getting some fresh air. Unfortunately, warm temperature mean that the snow thaws and creates lots of mud. We found it difficult to find a path to walk on, so we gave up after only thirty minutes of walking. It was 10am.
We didn't want to waste the day. So we decided to see what Madison was like. Thanks to the wonderful GPS system we received from Mom and Dad, we were able to find our way with no problem. We wandered the pedestrian mall in downtown Madison. There were lots of fun shops, but since we had Kaya, we restrained ourselves to brief shopping. With lots of daylight left after exploring Madison, Sanjai got in touch with his college friends, Trent and Jenny, who live in Milwaukee. Again, relying on the trusty navigation system, we headed to Milwaukee. I had never met these two college friends. So, it was a real treat. I have now met all of Sanjai's Anatomy TA buddies. Trent and Jenny were so accommodating to us and our whiny, squirmy dog. We had a really nice evening of catching up and playing with kids and the dog. It was a very lovely way to spend a Sunday.

And the winner of the 1st Annual Rush University Medical Center Orthopedic Resident Facial Hair Contest is...

Was there ever any doubt?
Simple, yet hideous. 3 weeks in the making, it was gone the next morning.

Playing catch up

Jen here...


We have pictures to post and hopefully that will happen soon. Both of us have been swamped with work stuff. Sanjai is on call, again, tonight. My grades are due on Thursday and my quarter calendar is due on, um, yesterday. However, I explained to my principal that I've not yet received any training on the upcoming curriculum, so it would not be possible to produce. She was understanding. However, it means I have to crank it out in lightning speed after tomorrow. It just kind of feels like I can never get my head above water. I keep telling myself that the first year of anything is hard. I will get this curriculum figured out. Then it won't be so tough. Sanjai is on his last "primary" call of his second year. He rotates to Cook County next week. So, he will have in-house call, but he will get to go home the next morning and sleep. We are both looking forward to his third year when he will only have to take primary call once a month.


We had a glimpse of warm weather in the latter half of last week. We took the opportunity to walk around the Bucktown neighborhood. We've seen the funky shops from the car, but this time we got the opportunity to go inside. I had to laugh at the store that I thought was selling second-hand stuff that had price tags in the hundreds of dollars. Really? Plus, I could not believe the number of people a little bit younger than us who were smoking. I thought for sure that was out of vogue.

Later we watched UNC play Kansas. I had tears in my eyes and my lip was quivering five minutes into the game. I kept watching, cheering, hoping. The Heels came so close but fell so short. I guess my only consolation was that Kansas would go on to win it. I was pretty bummed.


We got up the next morning to go for hike. That is where I will end, because our hiking day extended into an event-filled day that I'd like to go into more detail about later. Hope all are well.

Our fun weekend (Mar. 21-23, 2008)

Jen here:

On the first day of Spring, it began to snow in Chicago. It lasted until Friday afternoon. It was slushy and yucky. However, we had tickets to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Sanjai "won" the tickets from the Graduate Medical Office for reading his email and asking an intelligent question. It was a nice evening. We enjoyed getting to dress up and seeing an amazing performance.

On Saturday, we finally made it to one of the incredible museums that the city has to offer. I was thinking of my dad as we walked up the steps to the Shedd Aquarium. He was so persuasive in getting us to visit the New Orleans Aquarium when we visited in 2002. I was hoping that the Shedd would be just as good so I could take him there one day. The aquarium is perched right next Lake Michigan. Check out the view:

I forgot to mention, Sanjai also had me help him shave his head that morning. He was thankful I suggested a hat for our travels. Here are some things we saw at the Aquarium:

We got there just as a Dolphin Show was starting. Talk about crowded. It was great fun though. They also have Beluga whales. There was a baby Beluga born this summer there, but I don't think we saw it (or it had grown very quickly!). They also had a great shark tank that you felt like you were inside. The stingrays were in a small enclosure that had a clear ceiling that you could walk on. So, it looked like you were hovering over water that had stingrays in it! We saw a feeding taking place in the "Caribbean Reef." There were stingrays there as well. The educator was really trying to make the hard sell of how docile they are. It was great fun. We only saw half of it, but we're members now. So, Dad, I've got a free ticket waiting for you!

We couldn't leave the Museum Campus, which also is home to the Adler Planetarium and the Field Museum, without taking a picture of Sanjai in front of the Brachiosaurus in front of the Field.

Finally, I will leave you with another picture of our pooch. She is so far from being any kind of show dog. This pose is what we call "person in a dog suit." Enjoy!

Kaya: A Hopi Indian word for "Baby Substitute"

Sanjai here:

Well, I know that Jen promised not to post too many pictures of the dog, but I'm under no such restrictions. Most of you know that we got a Yellow Labrador puppy while still in Denver. We named her Kaya, which is a Hopi Indian word meaning "little sister." We got the name from a Bob Marley song, only to find out later that when The Dreadlocked One is singing that he's "got to have Kaya now," he's actually referring to marijuana. So we just tell the Hopi Indian story when asked what her name means.

Thankfully, Jen had the whole first summer that we had Kaya off, and was able to dedicate some serious socializing time with the puppy. I would often come home to this scene as my wife had fallen asleep next to her crate. It was a lot of work (on Jen's part, not mine), but nearly 2 years later we have a fantastically behaved dog adjusting well to The Windy City (although she does miss the 300+ sunny days we had in Denver).

Although the title of this post is obviously a joke, I do think having Kaya has given us a chance to see what it would be like to have something to take care of and nurture without the responsibility (or dirty diapers) that come with actually having kids. Now that she's pretty much full grown, I'm not sure how long I can hold off the call of the Biological Clock. For now whenever talk turns to parenting styles, I rely on these last pictures as an example of how a living creature left in my care will end up (Drunk, in the dryer, or semi-rabid):

First Blog ("Honest to Blog?!")

So, we're trying out this blogging thing because we enjoy reading up on the Wildepod so much.

We've been having a busy March. Our friends from Denver, Dave and Sara, came to visit the weekend of March 14-16. It was great to see them and catch up on what's been going on with the University of Colorado crew. After staying up way too late on Friday chatting with them, we got up early on Saturday to do some sightseeing. We went downtown to eat lunch and maybe see the famous St. Patrick's Day Parade. When we got to State Street, there were hundreds of people dressed in green and already drunk (11 am). Feeling hungry, we ducked into a famous pizza place next to Millenium Park. Surprisingly, we got right in. Plus, we didn't have to fight the crowds for the parade. We could see it on the television monitors in the restaurant. I know it might sound lame to watch a parade on television, but seriously, Chicago is COLD. I'm really glad we didn't truck down there, because it was a pretty lame parade after all.

With bellies full of pizza, we headed north on Michigan Ave. on foot. Along the way, a couple of streetcars zipped past with smiling people hurling green beaded necklaces at people on the sidewalk. Imagine being one of those drunk people I previously mentioned... "Huh? Whawusat? Lemme tell you somming." Hee hee - I like to try to write how drunk people sound. Soon, we came to the Chicago River, which gets dyed green for the day of the St. Patrick's Day Parade. What an incredible sight.

Well, that was fun. We'll do our best to keep it up. Take care!