4TH MELAKA DENTAL CONFERENCE & TRADE EXHIBITION

IT’S NOVEMBER ALREADY?!

I’m back at home now for the deepavali holidays. Today will be the last day before I head back to Malacca. I thought maybe I should do some write up on some past events that happened few months back. There’s much to share and I’m just down right lazy to update. I know, shame on me.

Alright, this post will be a summary of my 2 days “volunteering” work at the 4^th Melaka Dental Conference which took place last October. It was held for 3 days but I only attended the last 2 days. The event was organized by the southern zone MDA and our faculty. 

Dr.Dhana asked for a group of us, from batch 2 to help out in the registration table. (Our senior insisted that we do the job. Sigh.) A total of 12 of us were on the job. On the 2^nd day, I was stationed at Mahkota Medical Center for the dental nurse talks. The other team was at Hatten Hotel. We arrive at the hospital around 7.45 am. I thought that at least someone would brief us on what to do, but we ended up teaching ourselves what do to. Vino and Chien Ying handled the registration while I just usher the people in the room. After some time, there were two other doctors who turned up for a while to handle the payment. (They weren’t friendly at all. Seriously) Syasya and Silk were the MCs for the day. The talks were actually fine. We did gain a lot of information from them. Dr. Naresh was there to supervise us. Lunch was provided by the hospital cafeteria. It was quite yummy. The day ended with dental nurses all over the registration tables, grabbing their certificates and demanding for their resists which we’re not responsible for. Imagine the chaos then. It was really all in a mess as some certs when missing and the head staff nurses all shaking their heads over their staffs’ behavior. There were also a lot of spelling mistakes in the certs which we couldn’t do anything to correct it. Hopelessly, we just told them to get to Hatten hotel to get it reprinted there. And oh, we did come across many who wanted to go back early, asking for their certs as early as lunch time. I didn’t know what was the fuss of a piece of paper until the last day of the conference. Besides that, there were also limited amount of goodie bag from Sensodyne and some nurses did not get it. We were even called “lousy” by some just because of that. Oh well, what could we do, we tried our best to make things less disastrous and mind you, there weren’t anyone to guide us.

The next day, all twelve of us were at Hatten Hotel.  We took turns to take care of the registration table. The talks again were pretty good. Outside of the conference hall, there were many booth set up by many dental suppliers. We got many samples of different products and even had hands on using the laser on an apple. I also bought some cute tooth-shaped case dental flosses. Lunch was scrumptious and we can really see everyone enjoying it. We started handing out the certs after lunch though there were still talks going on. At least it was not chaotic as the day before. We can see all the doctors were so glad to get hold of the certs and leaving happily after that. Hardly anyone was left during the last talk.

From this, I get to see the true reality of a dental conference. Most dentist, staff nurse and DSA just come for the certificate which holds points. I was told that these points are important for them to renew their license with MDC. (Correct me if I’m wrong) That’s why they kept asking about it throughout the conference.     

All I can say, we were exhausted at the end of the day. So much for experiencing a dental conference. 

Ps: Sorry for all words and no photos, we were just too busy to snap any. 

Phase II Orientation

6 weeks of holiday went pass me just like that. Now am back to my life as a dental student. The only difference: I am back in Malaysia for good.

I have written the draft for this post for quite some time now. I was so reluctant to continue it especially when my study load was piling up. However, something happened today that made me want to complete this post.

Let’s start from the registration letter. It came really late; 2 weeks before the registration day. Only three days’ notice was given to pay up and sent back the reply slip. I was oversea at the period of time but still manage get back to them. Some other batch mates of mine weren’t so lucky and they had a hard time in getting a hostel room. I really don’t understand why everything has to be so last minute. I think they can really improve on that.

On the first day, we were given till noon to register ourselves. There were registration booths set up in the cafeteria. After handing in the registration forms, we proceeded to collect our hostel keys. A hostel checklist and complain form were given to us along with the keys. We were free to anything after that. The orientation started after lunch that day.

To be honest, it was the longest orientation I ever had. The whole thing lasted for 2 weeks. (For medical student, it was only for a week.) It runs the whole day, 8am-5pm. We joined the MBBS student for the 1^st week. For most of the time, we have to sit in the lecture hall and listen to talks from many people. There were staffs from the library, clinical skills lab, IT department, psychology department, hostel wardens, hospital Pengarahs’ and people from medical mobile app company. It was really hard to stay awake through some of the talks especially those just before lunch. Funny that they choose to put the hostel briefing the last of all talks when we have been staying in comfortably for a few days. There was also a campus tour. It was conducted on the first day. It wasn’t really what I expected it to be. First they brought us around the main office building, library, academic block II and lastly the sports complex. It wasn’t organized well as there was only one person who was in charged to bring all 200+ students around the campus. We at the back hardly could hear anything. I think our own seniors should have been there to at least guide us especially in regards to our own dental building. I hope this will change next year.  At least they should have given us some kind of map like how the Manipal management did.

For the second week, we were slowly introduced to various fields in dentistry. I think our batch shocked the lecturers. Back in Manipal, we were known to be a quiet group; unlike our senior or junior batch. They were trying so so so hard to get us talking. Till now, the condition is still the same. In the first meeting with all the dental staff, the dean asked us to introduced ourselves one by one and share a little on our expectation from the faculty as well as the field we would want to specialize in the future. We were then introduced to our lecturers and the supporting staffs. He also briefly touched on the exams and academic layout for the next 3 years. On the subsequent days, we were shown around the clinics and labs. The OPD (outpatient department), reception, finance department and radiology department are stationed on the ground floor. As for our clinics, it is on the 3^rd floor. For now, we all share a dental unit with another partner. Our partners were decided by the management.  There is a surgery theater on the 1^st floor while our labs are all on the 7^th floor. We have classes mostly in the 9^th floor. On the same week itself, we were also briefed on the various rules and regulations of the clinic as well as sterilization of our instruments. We were asked to record the serial numbers of our handpieces and dental unit. I hated the introduction to “Gloco” the most. Gloco is a computer system where we key in our patient’s information and store it for future reference. Currently, we are all divided into 6 groups, each consist of 8-9 students. Each group will be posted to a different specialist clinic for a few weeks to learn the skills in regard to that field. As for our first general dental clinic session that week, we were all taught about taking E&D (Examination and diagnosis). A lecture on infection control was also held for us. We were also introduced to our yellow operation gowns which we will be wearing for the next 3 years.

There is also an assembly held on the first Monday of every month unless it crashes with our holiday. All batches will gather together in the hall like how we use to do in our national schools. Awards and announcements will be given out at that time. New lecturers and staffs will be introduced then.

I think that’s about it on the orientation. I don’t know about most of you, but being back just make me miss Manipal even more. 

A Glimpse of 3rd Year?

My last post was on the 16^th of September, it’s almost a month since I wrote anything. I don’t really have any specific things I want to share in this post; maybe just update readers on my life now. It will be all jumble and mumble up but please bear with me.

As you all know, I have just started my phase II in Melaka campus. Registration and shifting in the hostel was on my birthday itself, what a way to celebrate right? The whole process was actually not as simple as I thought. There wasn’t any proper instruction given  where we should go and what to do first. A formal hostel briefing was only held after we have moved in for 5 days. Imagine the chaos on that day. We have orientation for a week with the MBBS students. All these details I will write in another post later. Surprisingly, it was quite tiring to sit in a lecturer hall listening to talks from 8am-5pm. I felt so exhausted every day.

 For the dental students, we have one more week of subjects and clinic orientation from the dental faculty. All our classes and clinics are held in the new dental block (Academic Block II). It’s a nine floored building, fully air-conditioned. The interior is very spacious which sometimes gives me the chills to walk alone through the corridors. We are divided into pairs and each pair owns a dental unit. We are stationed in Bay 1 and 2 of Polyclinic A on the 3^rd floor. The clinic is open to public, so do come and make your appointment with us. All you need to bring is your myKad and of course some cash. Sadly to say, we are currently running out of patient. This is very crucial to us as, the lesser patient we have, the lesser chance we get to practice our hand work. The charges are cheaper if you are treated under a dental student, maybe it’s something you may want to consider. All in all, PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD ABOUT THE CLINIC TO YOUR FRIENDS AND RELATIVES. THANK YOU a thousand times.

Classes have started. Most lectures are on Monday. We have our general dental clinics on the Thursday afternoons (2pm-5pm). Currently, we are just practicing doing E & D (examination and diagnosis) on each other. To learn up the basics like general examination, taking radiographs, scaling, moisture control techniques, giving oral hygiene instructions etc., we are divided into 6 groups and posted in different specialties. I discovered that clinical years are the time we have to apply all our 1^st and 2^nd year knowledge in real scenarios. Far often we end up dumb when the lecturers ask a simple question regarding the stuff we have learnt. They would sarcastically reply  “you left everything back in Manipal?” I felt quite embarrassed. I just hope the lecturers will be patience with us.

We are also having hospital posting at Melaka General Hospital on every Thursday morning. We had our first surgery posting last Thursday and I was quite lucky to get 2 co-operative patients. Hospital posting is quite fun as we can get to interact with real patients but the bad side is we dental students don’t know much beside the head and neck region. It quite a challenge to come out with a diagnosis for conditions relating to other parts of the body.

The dental materials and the lab culture here is so different than in India. We are started to do our Class II teeth arrangement. From the cold-mol-seal to the cold cure, they all just seemed so foreign to me. What more shocking was that Madam Chua told us “We don’t use porcelain jar anymore to mix the cold cure. Those were the days last time when I was studying, we use it. Now got this silicon type, your porcelain jar OUTDATED already.” Imagine the horror look on our faces. Each of us bought at least 4-6 of it and we can’t use it. So much for wrapping layers of bubble wraps to cushion them in the boxes. I will try to think of something to use them. Sigh. One thing good about the lab here is that the lab assistant will not chase you out when the clock hits 5. They will patiently wait for you and also guide you to make your work perfect. No more demonstrations from the lecturers, only from the lab assistants.

That’s all from me now. It’s running late and I have morning lectures tomorrow. Update next time. 

JAGUN 6: Review on Second Year Subjects and Book

Greetings. I have written this post half way before going on a vacation with my parents. I had been pretty busy ever since I came back. I was only reminded to post this up yesterday when Cheryl asked me “What books we need for second year ah?” Ops~!

Ok, let’s roll~

 Pathology

The study load of this subject is relatively fair. I spent less time on this subject than the rest. We did not touch all the system; only those that is important to us. The lecturers of this subject explained things very clearly and they take it at a slow pace. The class notes are lesser compared to other subject.   

The textbooks are quite thick. We are using the same books as the MBBS students. Since we don’t use the whole text book, some of us Xerox the pages required, some opt to buy the books. I prefer to have my own book because the colored photos inside really helps in understanding. Underwood is good for the basic concepts; we used it more in block I and block II. This book is really simple and straight forward. Another book, Robbins for me was good for block III and IV. For this book, you need to digest the information slowly; a little tougher than Underwood. Most of the spotter’s photos were also taken from these two textbooks. Again, class notes are very important. It’s good if you can add up the extra information from the textbooks every time after class that day.

Microbiology

In 2^nd year, most of us suffer most on 2 subjects; microbiology and pharmacology. I only got to like it when I was preparing for unis’. It’s a subject you have to read from various source, link them together and try your very best not to mix up the pathogenesis, clinical symptoms and lab diagnosis. Every organism might look similar but they really differ in many ways. The first block was really confusing. I remember we had an SDL session on the classification of various forms of bacteria where the lecturer asked us to give examples of each group. I just don’t know any of them yet and have to even purely memorize the names of the bacteria for exam. Immunity chapter is actually interesting and I only sorted out CD 4 and CD 8 function during my study break. I was really confused about the whole picture throughout the year. Things started to become more stable from block 2 onwards.

The textbooks for microbiology are plenty. Certain books are good for certain topics. Mims was the standard textbook. It runs a system based arrangement which differs from other textbook. Other textbooks are organisms based i.e. Bacteria, virus, protozoa. Mims is sometimes detail in certain topic and sometimes really brief on others. Levinson is good for immunity. Another book call ‘Arora for Dental Student’ is good for chapters like bacteria genetics, malaria, oral microbes. This book is a must buy for 2^nd year because it really concentrate more on the microbe of the mouth and those that are of significance in the dental profession. There is another 2 books which are quite similar in content. Ananthanarayan and Baveja. Baveja organizes the information in notes like order whereas Ananthanarayan does it in paragraphs. They both are good for the individual organisms learnt in block 2, 3 and 4. Except for Arora, I suggest you just take a Xerox of the information you need in the other books, or else you really have to spend a lot on the books.

Pharmacology

It’s the subject I dislike the most. I don’t like things without understanding. It was a real pain memorizing those drug names. The first two blocks I was merely chanting away in my room and always end up forgetting everything the next day. It nearly cost me to fail my block II exam. I find the best way to tackle this subject is by group study. Do a thorough reading on the day the topic was taught. And yes, it will take up a lot of time, maybe almost 2-3 hours. Later, gather with a friend or two during the weekend and bombard each other with question. It really helps. Just so you know, block 2 is terrible, so don’t even dare slack a bit then!

The good news, we just require one textbook, that is ‘Tara V. Shanbhag for Dental Student’. (There is also another version for MBBS, so make sure you buy the correct one.) It’s quite complete and easy to read. Class notes is still important but do also read the textbook as MTF also cover whatever is in the book. Occasionally, the lecturer will recommend Tripathi, a deeper textbook. It’s not necessary to have this one though.

Dental Materials

I must say, credits to our good lecturers for this subject, it was really easy going. I still remember first year where we don’t pay attention and was totally clueless what does strength or ductility means. Dr. Arul face will spell out the total disappointment in us. Things were much clearer in second year. It’s not hard, just a little effort and interest can help you do well in it. The topics sometimes overlapped with conservative dentistry and prosthodontics. What I find most important is to apply whatever we learnt in the other fields of dentistry. An advice, always do your revision a day before Dr. Arul comes in, he always conduct Self Assessments before starting class. You actually benefit a lot from it, so don’t put it to waste.

Philips is a good book but I will recommend to start off with Shama Bhat first. Class notes are important but it’s good to read up the textbooks.

All in all, I suggest consistency in your revision.  Whatever you learn, try to apply it in dentistry, especially the basic science subjects (Patho, Microb, Pharmac). For practical wise, just try not do slack too much in prostho and cons. You will really regret it if you do so.

That’s all from my side. All the best for 2^nd year.

(Ps: Sorry for not posting any photos. I don’t have the books with me currently, couldn’t take a photo of them) 

Honest Review on Phase I

Hello! I have been running around lately, meeting friends and eating non-stop. Now I need to try think of something to shed off my ever growing waist. I kind of miss all the walking I do in Manipal daily. It must be raining cats and dogs there right now and fungus growing happily in the hostels rooms. Good luck batch 3 on spring cleaning later!

Okay, now about this post. This is my honest review on my experience in phase one. I notice I haven’t really written negative things about our life in Manipal. Just trying to balance things up with this post. I believe every university and course will have certain flaws or places they can improve. There is no such thing as a perfect university. There are always some lecturers that we like and some less. But again, we need to learn to adapt ourselves. Everything is not a bed of roses is it? Even roses have their thorns.

First I will write about the hostel. The girl’s New International Hostel is still under construction. The tap water isn’t stable; brownish sedimentations will always accumulate and you will have to allow the water to flow a while before getting clear water. My previous hostel didn’t have this problem, probably due to the ongoing construction. But I guess things will get better after all the construction is done. They are now currently building the new lecturer halls and a new food court just next to the hostel. By then everything would be so convenient. Anyway, most of the facilities and shops are already in walking distance.

There are also certain hostel rules that are really ridiculous. For example, everyone has to sign in the hostel book at night every day. However, you are only allowed to sign after 9pm. And if you so happen to fall asleep then, they will mark you absent.  It’s like taking attendance in the class. I gave up on keeping up with this rule. Also, the hostel curfew has recently changed from 12am to 11pm. Good news to the parents I guess.

On facilities wise, the lecture halls are quite in tip top shape. The corridors are sparkling clean. The labs are quite adequate. The only issue is that we need to share the Bunsen burners occasionally. Anyway, the new labs are on their way so that shouldn’t be a problem. Library here is really good. Everything is very organized. There are sufficient textbooks and reference books available. The atmosphere there is really quiet and everyone have a separate compartment to themselves. It’s either a conducive place to study or sleep.

Lectures are sometimes so so; some are really good. I always believe, to teach, is a gift. Some just have the flare to teach. Most lecturers here are always concern about how the students perceived their lectures. Some are willing to go the extra mile to improve themselves; and they really succeed. The basic science lecturers’ team is already quite established. Our dental faculty is relatively new. Though they are young and new, they are still doing a good job. Our dean constantly monitors how things are going though we don’t see him most of the time. I admit there were certain time there were tension between us and the faculty but that is always quickly resolve. I don’t blame them, the course is only 3 years old, many things are still establishing. The good thing is that our suggestion is always taken serious by the faculty. They will try to provide the best they can to meet our needs.

As for the study load, I feel it is reasonable. I know of other university back home where they need to learn the equal amount of anatomy, physiology and biochemistry as the medical student and at the same time learn up their dental subjects. So I can say we are already quite lucky. As per applying our knowledge, I think this can still be improve. I think it would be good if they practice case study like giving us real case scenario that happen in clinics and discuss it in a group. It should be done weekly, preferably on a Saturday; as a summary of the week’s portion. In that way, we can try to apply all that we have learned.

 PBL was carried out subject wise so it didn’t really help. If it was integrated with all the subjects, it would have been better. I heard that they have started doing that with our junior batch.  Also, PBL shouldn’t have been cut down to one. I don’t see it as a burden like how some of my batch mates do. I think probably they should have set up a different method. Instead of making us figure out what’s the new topic we need to learn, why don’t pick up the past topics that we have already learnt, and make us present it. First it can help us apply what we have already learnt and also help us to enhance memorizing. Furthermore, it’s a good way for the lecturers to check whether the students have fully grasped the topic. It would be easier do to that in a small group. New doubts can also be generated in that way.

On food, manipal is not really the best place to get green leafy veg if you ask me. Really, the veg that you can find here is always the same old tomatoes, capsicums, carrots and ladies fingers. You can go to the market to shop for the leafy but you can hardly order them in restaurants. On the bright side, Indian cuisines here are actually quite tasty. If you miss the fast food back home, we have KFC, Pizza Hut, and Dominos here too. Recently we even get Korean food here. If you miss mum’s cooking, you can head down to Thailin’s. The main problem is only the drinking water. No drinking water from the tap; unless you want to say hi to vibrio chlorea and other nasty friends of it. I think it’s a norm that you visit the toilet quite frequently in the first few weeks. My advice is that you assess the cleanliness of the restaurant before you decide to dine-in there.

One thing most students find it good is the delivery system here. Most restaurants have delivery service. It is quite convenient for us especially during the exam periods or if you’re lazy to go out to eat. Depending on the place, some are fast, some slow (at times might take up to one hour to deliver your food).

One thing I miss about India is the SMS service here. We have to only pay for the first two messages at a cost of Rs 1 each and the following messages for the day are FREE. However, the telecommunication companies love to send us spam messages and also calls. On average, I receive 40 junk SMS per day and at least 2 spam calls in an hour. Guess they really like to keep in touch with their customers.

Recreations services are quite good I must say. We have one of the best sports complex among the other university in India and probably back home too. Gym membership cost around 700 ringgit per year. There is also indoor basketball, badminton, squash, and tennis court. The only hassle is regarding the shoes. Besides your combo card, if you don’t have the shoes then out you go! Well, if you prefer outdoor settings, then end point is the place to be. Occasionally you might be jogging along with the cows. Be really careful about the cow dungs though.

Extra-curriculum activity is really up to you; you have to be sporting enough. There are amps of opportunities. You just have to get out of your room and get involve. Events like Interbatch, Utsav and Supremo are enough to keep you occupied.

I haven’t mentioned that there are PLENTY of guards everywhere, probably to ensure safely around the campus. And they take their duty really seriously. Sometimes, it just gets to your nerves, there is no such thing as bending the rules in their dictionary.

I think I have covered almost everything about Manipal. Will add on if anything comes to mind. For now, bye~!

Ps: Sorry it’s without photos. Kind of lazy to dig them out.

Once Upon A Time in Manipal

I’ve been home for officially 2 weeks now. I’m really taking everything slow; still in the mist of tidying up my room. My mum has been nagging me on how unproductive I am. Well, maybe it’s time I speed up again. Now, like I promised, here is my sentimental post for 2^nd year. 

 (Photo credit: Rashdan)

Well, this is it. I know once I leave Manipal, it will be a long time till I return. Honestly, 2^nd year for me passed through in a blink of an eye. So much had happened and hopefully I grew through those experiences.

 (Photo credit: Christine)

I really had so much fun with our dear batch 3 juniors. I didn’t know I could actually get really close with them. Always bursting with energy, always there to help us out, so much good qualities I see in this batch. Do continue to blossom batch 3; feel free to contact us if you need anything.

 (Photo credit: Zheng Tao)

Studies were always never ending. Time management was really crucial for me. The practical classes also increased and we have to always race against time to finish our work. Once I remember we did prostho work for the whole day just to make it in time for our competency test.

 (Photo credit: Chen Wei)

Once the final exam was over, the reality that I’ll be leaving this place for good didn’t seem real. I was just focusing on packing my stuff into the boxes. I thought I would have the time to stroll down all the memory lanes but packing just takes up too much time and energy. Dragging down the boxes was really back breaking. Luckily there were two akak that helped me. Even so, till the last minute of my time in Manipal, I was still packing. Well, I still managed to dig out a few hours for a quick dinner at Atil and spend some time with Michele and Esther.

The next time I visit this place, I will no longer be a student but just a mere visitor. I was here but am not now. The feeling won’t be the same anymore. I won’t be able to walk in and out of places I used to be. All I hope, my 2 years journey here have left a mark, at least in the hearts of some even if it’s not physically.

Honestly, I never have wanted to come to Manipal. Not until I receive the rejection letter from AIMST, I shut my mind completely to the idea of doing BDS in India. Yeah, I was having a prejudice mindset. However, the Lord really proved everything was far better than what I imagined. I really learnt and understand the cultural background here. It’s always different when you tour a place and stay there. In Manipal, though there isn’t much around, it is always just enough.  Like how the lecturers say to us, “if you learn this much, it’s more than sufficient”; everything in the small town is “sufficient.

Many say we have boring life here, no cinema, no shopping complex nearby. What I can say is that, living here as a student without  modern entertainments brought me back to the basic way of life. We did more outdoor activities instead of gluing our eyes 24/7 to the TV. It kind of make you mindful of the surrounding,  sensitive to others and appreciate life back home better. It is when you don’t have the things then you will feel fortunate and thankful when they are available to you.

Just like our Manipal University motto’s, coming here, I am “inspired by life”.

Dental Faculty Farewell Dinner

Good morning. Been sleeping till late noon the last few days; guess I’m still suffering from a lil’ jet lag. Shall now resume my list of things to blog about. Next up, the faculty dinner.

We had it a day after our block IV exams at Chaitya Hall, Valley View Hotel. Sad to say, everything about it was last minute. Cloud and Tian Yuan did the invitation cards. The cards looked lovely don't they?

I thought it would not be memorable if we just have dinner and no performance. There would be really little interaction between the lecturers and students.  After church service, Cloud and I sat down to brainstorm what to perform. Initially, we wanted to rewrite the lyrics of “Give me sunshine” from 3 Idiots but we were really out of time. Luckily, I stumbled one video in YouTube. It was a dentist version for the current hit song in India “Kolevari Di”. We decided to sing that. We also planned to end the event with a closing song. After much discussion, we agreed to sing “Do I make you proud” by Taylor Hicks.

We started the event by inviting our dean to give a speech. We seldom see him as he always busy with other commitments elsewhere. I was surprised that he turned up and indeed very happy. He thanked us for the dinner and gave us a few words of encouragement for the future.  He said there would come a day where post graduate study is inevitable to survive. With the many new start up dental schools in Malaysia, I agreed with him. 5 years of BDS won’t be sufficient.

After that, we invited Dr. Arun to give a word or two. He has always taken care of our welfare in the absence of Dr. Dilip. Later, our dedicated ex-CRs and CR represented the whole batch to give their short sharings and word of appreciation to the lecturers.

Before dinner, Cloud and I performed the dental version of Kolevari Di. We projected the video up and once the music started rolling, all smiles were on the lecturers face. 

After that, dinner was served. We interacted with the lecturers and fellow batch mates. After everyone finished their meals, we had a big group photo.

We played the “Snowing in Manipal” for the lecturers to see. The same gang of people who performed in the Chinese orientation sang along with the video. We ended the event for that night with closing song. Half way through the chorus, I almost shed tears.

After that, as a form of thank you, we all bowed together to the lecturers. I hoped that the action has touched them. Please remember us, Batch 2!

Before letting any lecturer go, we grabbed the chance to have one to one photo with them. It was sad that not all lecturers turned up. It would have been nice to see all 10 of them plus the other staffs there that night.

There were minor problems before the event started but I thank God that I persisted.

Once again, thank you, the dental faculty of MMMC (Manipal)!

Do we make you proud?

Photo credits: Yung Yee, Elayne, Chen Wei

Supremo Ball: Blast From The Past

The ball was really a blast. If you notice, I did not write about the last year’s ball. It was actually quite dull and we left right after we had our food.

For this year, the theme was Retro. Very few guys did turn up with the classic afro hair. Many girls were also in polka dots and pumped up hairstyles.   Like the past few years, it was held at the Chaitya hall in Valley View Hotel. The place was beautifully decorated with golden stars and retro posters. They even made photo props and had Marie Monroe and Charlie Chaplin cardboard figures at the photo booth. The dining tables were decorated with a disc at the center. Kudos to batch 28 girls for the decorations.

Jewel and I arrived first. After registering, we searched for our table. Surprisingly, it was the front table. We waited quite some time for the rest to arrive. We had a quick photo shooting session before the event started.

 First, they introduced the MCs for the night. Dr. Ullas then gave the opening speech. Apparently, Supremo ball started in 2002 and so this was the 10^th year they were hosting the event.

Next, our student council president gave a welcoming speech. She later introduced her other SC members. We were then entertained with a western dance performance by batch 26. The same batch also presented a sketch.  

Dinner that night was very scrumptious.  I regretted not taking more paneer. While having dinner, a few singing performances were going on. Among them, Naurah and Nigel represented on our class behalf. Good performance from their part.

Once everyone was almost done with dinner, they started the performances for Mr. and Miss Supremo. This year, the performances were in pairs; most were dancing. Our batch was represented by Jewel and Kern Wern. Jewel surprised us with her tap dance. You go girl!

After performing, the performers went through question and answer session. Each contestant was put on spot to answer a a randomly picked question. The judges would discuss on the contenstants response to it. It was quite similar to pageant contest. Some answers were really good and made my eyes watery.

While the judges deliberated on the result, prizes for various supremo games were handed out. As for BDS, we only managed to grab a prize for Badminton; anyways congrats! Next,  was the lucky draw event. Jewel won a headphone. After that, the second part of the sketch was up. Batch 26 really did a good job and the whole crowd enjoyed it a lot. The prize giving ceremony followed after that. They first gave prizes for the best dress and then followed by Mr. and Miss Supremo. That concluded the night. We had a photo frenzy time after that.

Photos credits: Zheng Tao, Rudy Zain, Cloud, Yung Yee