Life's the best teacher..

A year has passed since I joined my internship and began my real journey through the world of medicine. Everybody knows how difficult it is n all but what is more important is that it teaches you a lot..not only about medicine but also about people in general. It is a great opportunity to explore and experience the world around you. And to be frank nothing in my entire MBBS course had prepared me for what I saw and experienced. One thing is for sure..you can sit and read n gobble up all the textbook knowledge in the world but it will be nothing without the practical or 'Hands On' experience you get once your in the field. You have to learn how to deal with people,with particular situations.. be it declaring death or informing a relative about a bad prognosis or handling a mother her first bundle of joy. My first OPD in Department of Medicine was a nightmare come true..there were just too many people there..I began to have doubts if I could do justice to my patients, there was this sense of panic in me that I wasn't up to the task at hand... whether I could diagnose and treat them..without messing up. Luckily I had the backing of my colleagues n my seniors. And at the end of the day I came home tired, exhausted both physically and mentally but I came home glad that I had done something in my capacity as an intern to do something good. I think this one year of internship was the best thing that has happened to me. 5 important things I learnt here..
1) Always be a optimist not a pessimist..the world around you already has more than its quota of disappointments..don't add on to it. Just keep smiling n go around doing your job.
2) PERSIST through CRAP( Criticism, Rejection , Arseholes (yup I said that,there are a lot of them around) and Pressure) and you will find your way. People will call you a retard or a hooligan/ Arsehole(paradox!) but if you believe in something, don't budge rather make a stand for what you believe in and if you are right things will come around but at the worst, if you are wrong you will learn a lesson in life.
3) Never ever take anything for granted, value what you have while you  have it. I have seen too many people lose too much.
4) Never do anything for money but do it for love. If you are passionate about your work, money will follow you like its on auto-pilot!!
5) Always give your best, doesn't matter how insignificant or silly the job is..just give it your 100%. At the end of the day you will have a lot less to worry about.
Hopefully I will carry with me whatever I have learnt here.

3 Months...

Its been 3 months since I actually started doing the Doctor part in doctoring...In that time I must have seen 30+ people lose their lives..some out of sheer bad luck...some out of sheer stupidity. What it has taught me is that Life is simply too precious to waste hating someone or something or the opposite..and that life is fragile too. We may take it for granted..but the Human Body we inherit is incredibly complex..a result of millions of years of evolution..about a 100 trillion cells working in cohesion to keep u alive.. that is the best orchestra ever played...on a daily basis. How they interact,how they behave,how they live n how they die decides how well we do. And Medicine is the science that deals with all 100 trillion of them. And a branch of science dealing with such complexities is ought to be complex. Its a science that changes on a daily basis, keeps expanding with new diseases and new drugs..new methods of diagnosis n new treatment regimens. Yet in-spite of the all the human or superhuman endeavours..some diseases are still out of the fold of human understanding..not only diseases like AIDS or Cancer or Alzheimer's..but simple ones..like Rabies n Polio (I am talking about cure here not prevention). We know how the affect the human body..how our cells interact with pathogens n behave but still cant find a way to beat them. But what is essential is that we shouldn't give up, there are people around the world that keep pushing the envelope of our understanding about these diseases and hopefully one day the cure for these diseases will be within our grasp.


P.S. Just finished reading the book: The Emperor Of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee...an amazing book on cancer!

True friends...

Imagine...you step into a colossal classroom...packed with 149 students...whom you have never seen...in a city that's unknown to you...at the beginning of a journey whose course and destination you have no idea about.... One would probably freak out... That is how exactly I felt when I stepped into the lecture hall of BMC  on August 8th 2005. Slowly over a period of months I made acquaintances, friends and finally in a few years some guys became my best friends....It is to these 5 guys I owe my survival in medical college to. Had they been not there for me...I don't know how would have I managed to overcome the challenges I faced. These guys were always there for me...during my best of times and during the worst of my times....they exhibited amazing faith in me even before I believed in my own abilities...whenever I was in a state of despair...these guys would prod me and make me laugh...not only were they my best buddies..they were also my best critics, teachers and my inspiration. I have learnt something or the other from everyone of them. They taught me what really true friendship is. But the sad part is that we are not going to be together forever..college is going to end soon and everyone will travel a new path of their own choosing. Hopefully when I become a good doctor one day, I won't forget to thank these guys for being there for me when I needed them the most...and I pray to God to give such friends to everyone.

A beginning...

"Honesty is the best policy." Every one has heard that and I am going to start exactly there....To be frank I became a doctor purely by chance...even though I had taken biology as an option in my boards...I was never sure I would make the cut...upon that I came from a place where no one knew what AIPMT was. But when I did, I found myself at BMCRI...During my stay in medical college which, I must admit was not best of my experiences...I not only learnt about medicine but also about life and its realities. The medical profession is actually a funny one. Sometimes your wildest of dreams come true and sometimes the worst of your nightmares become a reality...well every coin has two sides and does medicine. There is healing and new life...there is suffering and death. You may end up seeing both in the same day. But no complaints here because  that's life. Hopefully over the next year as an intern and beyond, I will see more of this magnificent world of medicine...and hope this blog acts as a portal to that world.