It's a New Day...

7:45am: My alarm, as usual was ringing incessantly and I, like every other day, as my daily chore, hit the snooze button and rapidly passed from stage II of my sleep (to which the alarm has brought me into!) to stage IV… The clock, as a loyal servant, ignoring my battering, again resumed its duty of bringing me back from stage IV of my sleep to alert state with prominent beta wave emitting form my brain in another 15 min… but got the same treatment from me again…

I AM NOT GONNA SAY GOOD BYE....

"Yeah and its over before you know it,

It all goes by so fast...

Yeah the bad nights takes forever,

And the good nights don't ever seem to last...."

It was Monday... the 13th day of Sep. 2004 when I joined this college as a first year MBBS student. I was almost one and half month late from most of my batch-mates who had already joined this institution in the month of August.

My happiness was soaring high... not only because I had accomplished the long cherished dream of wearing a white coat but also because the most fierce period of ragging was almost over by then...(truly speaking the later one had contributed more to my happiness) And today when I am just few days away from bidding adieu to my alma mater- Indira Gandhi Medical College and Hospital, Shimla,

जी ले खुलके इस पल को...

एक दिन जिंदगी ऐसे मुकाम पर पहुँच जायेगी..

यारी-दोस्ती सिर्फ gtalk तक रह जाएगी..

हर cup coffee की, याद canteen की दिलाएगी ...

और हँसते-हँसते फिर आँखें नम हो जाएँगी...

Office के chamber मे Labs नज़र आएँगी...

पर चाह कर भी proxy नहीं लग पायेगी...

पैसा तो होगा, मगर TREATs की वो वजह खो जाएगी शायद...

जी ले खुलके इस पल को मेरे दोस्त...
क्यूँ कि ज़िन्दगी  इन  लम्हों  को  फिर  से  नहीं  दोहराएगी....!


विराट 

The Essence of Medical Profession!

What does it mean to be in this profession?

       The year I got selected, some 275 thousand students appeared for the exam and approximately 2,500 got what they aspired for! Less than 1% of total!! 

              That by default makes us the ‘chosen few’ for the job. This also means that we have been chosen as individuals who can be trusted upon with other people’s lives. This is definitely a great honour and thus we can be proud of our achievements so far. But we should also remember that this privilege also brings with it immense responsibilities- to patients, to society and above all to humanity. 
Let me elaborate what I mean by it:

         Before entering the World of Medicine whatever we did, we were doing it with ‘us’ at the centre. We watched movies, cricket matches, listened to music, roamed on mall, played games, read books, novels, slept, worked-out, partied etc all because we felt like it and it was fun doing all. Our all interactions with this world were solely about ourselves.

           But now things have changed. Everything that shapes us now will somehow be affecting our patients in future. So the way we treat our life is no longer just about us. Whatever we do, we think, we add to our clinical skills will affect the people we treat. We miss one lecture or practical or a procedure and we might be jeopardising someone’s life later on! May be I am exaggerating too much but still it implies that from now on at every crossroad that we come across in life, we have the responsibility to make the positive and right choice for ourselves so that we can be the best physician/ surgeon for our patients!

              Entering this medical field has ushered us into the world of understanding human body and the limit to which it can be pushed... which we do realize during 30 hour long night duties when we try hard to remain a ‘human’ but on a really long night shift, we tend become more like a “programmed bio-mechanical individual” working automatically based on algorithms, following the protocols and guidelines rather than a calm sensible doctor with the ‘human-touch’ which the patient expects us to be...!! 

            So, it’s easy to get trapped in this world of medicine... but yet along with all these chaos, we do meet interesting colleagues, mentors and friends... who make this interesting journey of ours little more exciting and fun... So, Let's not forget to ENJOY! After all, beside a doctor, we are all human beings with certain needs and so are our patients! :-)

Virat Kuntalam
IGMC, Shimla