2005 Events

Click here to see a slide show of past events.

Second Annual Placebo Cup tournament

The second edition of the coveted Placebo Cup began on the 5th of August with the inaugauration sport being basketball. This is a new introduction as it was not played last year. The teams clashed in the SVBA (St Vincent Basketball Association) arena for a blazing half court 2 on 2 match. Drs Maan and Al Ashhab represented the defending champs and played against Drs V Velez and Sahni trying to get an early edge for their team this year. The teams played vigorously with Dr Moualla using his height to full advantage and Dr Al Ashhab's agile moves worth watching. At the end, the Blue team emerged victorious thanks to the great dribbling and movement of Dr Velez and the long shots scored by Dr Sahni to wrap up the game 11 to 5. Here are the snapshots courtesy Dr MG Velez...




Diwali and Eid Celebrations

The festivities of the Diwali and Eid celebrations did not need the loud bangs of fire crackers. They were more than made up by the fantastic music played by the residents' band (Drs Velez, Budny, Shibuya, Mezaros and Cannales) and by the melodious songs by Dr Pandit. The food was great and in great variety. It has been reported that one of the attendings commented that this beats any festival or restaurant anywhere. Staff from the hospital enjoyed the venue greatly. Everybody soon broke on to the dance floor and a variety of dancing sequences from disco, breakdance to bhangra, garbha and so on, were seen. Dancing continued until late night when, as Dr G Velez had predicted, we were kicked out (just joking...). The kids danced, fell down tired, got up and danced again. And all this was a combined effort of the residents who behaved and turned out to be great hosts. Our special thanks to Dr Pandit for providing the great mixer and speakers, Dr G Velez for the prettiest invites ever in the history of SVCH Diwali celebrations (believe me, they will be hard to top), Drs Kelleti and Satyanarayan for the beautiful Rangoli, and last but hardly the least, Dr Al-Ashhab, who was a great help all around during set up. There are so many pictures of the night but here is the first instalment...








Halloween Spooks

The ghosts prowled wild at the Fairview Village party room last weekend. Very imaginative costumes and creatures were unleashed. The fun ranged from Queen Cleopatra (Dr. Ismail), to the Ghostbuster (Dr. Velez), the pirate couple (Drs. Sharma & Sahni), Adams family-inspired characters, Srikanth, Dr. Eghobamien himself, and a band of witches and vampires (Drs. Anand, Deepa, Dilnasheen and family & Dr. Wee). The show belonged to the incredible Hulk (Dr. Naik) who bagged the best costume award. It was an extremely entertaining night. Here are the memories...



Ice skating with Dr. Eghobamien




October Events

After a long slumber post-Placebo cup, the house-staff is active once again. October should be a busy month and many events are planned...


Oct 21st:

A tentative date for the next movie nite. A night of drama, suspense or comedy? Well its up to your votes for what will play, but it will definitely be a night of delicious pizza, probably popcorn and rivers of cola. Please put your preferred movies in moxes and send them over to any of the housestaff members.




Oct 29th:

This friday may not be the 13th of the month but all the ghosts and gouls will be out on the... well, hallways of 3W (resident's lounge) or the partyroom at the islander (venue undecided yet) for the BOO-BASH spectacular of Halloween Night. Our president promises that the best costume will get a prize. Here are a few memories from the last haunting...




Nov 12th: Diwali/Eid Party:

Now, it is the time of the year again. All hail the biggest traditional partee organised annually, not just by the housestaff, by all the residents. Along these years there has been great support and attendance on this day from our beloved faculty. We continue the tradition this year. Venue: Islander apts party room. The feast for the occasion is organised by the residents each getting a speciality from their own regional cuisine. Traditional clothing is preferred and full cultural glamour is expected to be displayed. We are planning the very special musical talent of the residency program to come together and play for all of us. Of course Dr Pandit, we will always have special requests for you. And again last years memoirs...




The Placebo Cup

Congratulations to the blue team! We believe that the cup, being the first of its kind to be organised for the residency program, was a great success. Kudos for the housestaff for the effort. I am sure everybody, who got to the venues that is, had great fun. Clearly vollyball, bowling, table tennis and soccer were the popular games. A lot of great outcomes and data coming out of this pilot study are being analysed at this time and we are sure that the organisation, participation and fun during the cup will be much better next year.



The Reds are back. As the placebo cup moves on, the Red team has definitely shown that they are no pushovers. Two good days for this team, after a dull first two days, has brought them to a position from which they can shoot for the cup once again. Wednesday saw a close pool match between Drs Budny and Sahni vs Drs Anand and Induru. A good three games saw the blue team win 2-1 and increase the lead on the points table to 12-0. On thursday, however, the yorktown bowling lanes saw a great turnout for the Red team. Although Dr Anand (blue) was the top scorer at 115 points, the Red took the match with a team average score of 84. The blues scored a team average of 70 points.



Table tennis attracted the biggest turnout yet from both teams and a long session of matches followed. Here are the scores...

Dr Salman(red) beat Dr Aggarwal (blue) 21-17
Dr Wee (red) lost to Dr Noaiseh (blue) 8-15, 6-15
Dr Ramasamy (red) beat Dr Velez M. (blue) 21-10
Dr Schwartzman (red) beat Dr Khattab (blue)
Dr Velez V. (red) beat Dr Anand (blue)
Dr Sahni (red) beat Dr Induru (blue) 14-14 (2-0), 15-7
So the Reds gathered 5 points to 1, at the table so to say. Because of the lack of our official photographer on site, we have dearth of pictures but we promise to make up.



Total points tally...Blue leads Red 13-10.

Planning to make up between the teams after the intense placebo cup is over, the housestaff is looking at a trip to the Kellys Island during the last weekend of August. Pitch in your ideas if any. You know they were once united...



The 1st Annual Placebo Cup sports events were inaugarated on 6th of August, 2005. There was great enthusiasm and a good turnout...from the BLUE team that is. The organisers were found frantically paging various team members from the RED team to make it to the chorum and avoid a forfeiture. All that effort was to no avail as all the 'atheletes' who kept showing up in the distance belonged to the Blue team. The only saving grace for the Red team was Dr Pandit who decided to join them but even with his help they totalled five people and had to forfeit 6 points to the Blue team. We hope the Red team will show some team spirit, by showing up at least, and help their team make a match out of the points table.

The other events were in tennis. A very close mixed doubles saw red team's Drs Sharma and Velez V. take the blue teams' Drs Velez M. and Anand to a scintillating tie-breaker before losing by a point. Thel other match saw the secret weapon , Dr Induru for the blue teaming with Dr Anand to beat the reds' Drs Velez and Sahni who were arguably tired of trying to get their team together. So on day one...kudos to the Blue team for a white-wash performance. We are sure the Reds have some thinking and showing up to do.Here are the snap shots....



The Annual Interns Welcome Picnic took place Sunday, the 26th of June. The venue was Squire Vallevue farms in hunting valley. As expected it was a blast with lots of games, fun & some great food. There was a great turnout both from the residents and the faculty sides. Everybody enjoyed the company of Dr Christie, Dr Sopko, Dr Senger, Dr MacIntyre and Dr Eghobamien. We saw some great hits on the field and good spikes on the volleyball court. The tastebuds enjoyed ethnic foods with the traditional picnic BBQ. A variety of desserts rewarded all those who showed up as well. Here are a few glimpses of the picnic...





Ist Annual SVCH Housestaff Association Paintball outing on 17th June was great success. It was good to see the residents and staff team up... ummm to kill each other....is that right? Astronomical amounts of ammunition was spent and the teams fought for the flags of glory. Dr Sharma was awarded the title of the flag captain for valiantly sneaking into the enemy fortress and stealing their flag multiple times. Mr President (the actual housestaff president) had a tough time saving his life when he was left without a gun and one bodyguard to protect him. And to add to the drama, we saw some people shot in the back. All in all a fun experience with lot of bruises and a mild case of poison ivy.



The Annual Intern Welcome Dinner at the BDs Mongolian BBQ grill was much awaited and equally appreciated. We thank Dr Christie and Dr Boyle for giving us the pleasure of their attendance. It was fun and filling. Photographs will be posted soon so come back to check them out.



In the near future your dear housestaff is planning to organize a camping and white water rafting expedition. Details will be available on this page soon as the plan materializes.