Prologue (nugget 1)

There's a story behind everything, and I'll tell this one in parts. the posts may be randomly, arranged, interspersed among remaining, unrelated posts, kinda like nuggets. Which is precisely what I'll call them.


Medicine. I’ve long given up on any notions that claim exactly how noble this profession is. It has become a standing joke among my friends that med school teaches you to appreciate the pain of other people by putting you through unbearable suffering to begin with. Oddly enough, a year into the programme and I’ve begun to see the truth of this statement for myself.
It all starts off as expected. A little kid with stars in your eyes, doting parents and grandparents constantly drill it into your head that medicine is a wonderful profession, that people will respect you and according to one of my distant aunts ( whom I’m sure we’re not related to) give you free upgrades on the flight of your choice. Jeez, and you mean to tell me people still don’t see the merit in the long and winding road of medicine?

Of course, there’s also the fairly respectable alternative –engineering. Any self-respecting Indian child will only consider one of these professions as a suitable after- school option. Makes you wonder then, have we killed creativity? Funny, isn’t it, that we rarely hear of the neighbour’s child going off to Turkey for a course in anthropology … or even a summer course in Middle Eastern philosophy. The annual turnover of doctors and engineers, though, is enough to populate yet another country. We’re amassing a workforce of professionals for jobs that don’t exist. And we call this progress.

However, before I digress any further, this story is about my experiences. Medicine, for all the amount I am liable to curse it, it the only option I ever considered. I could never imagine myself doing anything else – ever. And my parents heartily approved. Oh wait, I haven’t told you yet, have I? They’re both doctors as well.