(STORIES FROM THE SCHOOL – III)
Unit: The Road Not Taken
What’s your ambition?(The same old innocent question)
I was pretty sure of the statistics for the answers.
As usual one-third of the class proudly claimed they want to be doctors. What kind? No idea. That’s fine.
Each one of you loves to be one? What’s the main attraction?
Yes!! Money!
And the prestige?
Yes, yes, of course!!
So that means you would ‘love’ to be with sick people all your working hours? How many of you – now?
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*
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To my utter dismay, NOT A SINGLE ONE OF THEM!
Oh, what did I do? Did I ruthlessly eradicate a batch of doctors? Sorry, that was not my intention.
Wait! There were two – but one, a wannabe politician and the other a wannabe journalist. But a politician… and a journalist… and the sick…?
Think of that teacher who doesn’t want to be with students, that salesman who doesn’t want to be with customers, that vet who doesn’t want to be with animals…
Now I know what’s wrong with the doctors these days.
Now I am thinking what I can do to help (at least some of) my wannabe doctors to be REAL doctors.
I Think So 
REminded me of kids who’d say the same and be flummoxed when asked the why question 🙂
I love these anecdotes 🙂
More power to you, to help them Love to be that doctor!
Yeah, we need doctors. But what if they don’t to be with the patients? I hope at least a few of them will come back with the answer “Yes, we love it.” Thank you, Usha!
Good point- something to ponder on, certainly!
And yes, I think teachers can be instrumental in changing the way their students think.
True, Manju. I feel it’s a crime to be a doctor or a nurse if you are just there for the sake of all the money involved or to be teacher for the vacations. Thank you Manju, for you comment.
Oooh, I think you hit the nail well and truly on the head there!! You’re so right!! The majority of Doctors, and sadly even some nurses today, are not in the job because they want to spend their working hours around the sick. In fact I get the impression a lot of them make long term sufferers of illness feel ashamed because they are not cured yet – and somehow the patient was supposed to find that answer within themselves. You can tell I’ve had a lot of bad experiences can’t you?!! 😀 There are a few ‘good’ Doctors out there, and when you meet one they stand out like a flame in the dark.
It’s terrible though, that young people have no concept of the reality of a job. Where are they learning that??? And frighting too. What if in the future hardly anyone knows or wants to the job they are skilled at? Could it really get that bad? And yes, what can you do, to erase the ‘wannabe’ to the ‘I know I the job is for me’? I hope you can my dear, I really hope you can find something. Wonderful subject for a poem… really makes you think. 🙂
This experience was an eye-opener for me. Today we had a mothers’ meet and the mother of one of those girls who wanted to be doctors told me the girl is re-considering her ambition. Just think of it – the fact that this job has something to do with the sick was a shocking revelation for them, something that made them recoil. Same must be case with most of the doctors. No wonder we come across just a few passionate ones. I told my girls they could do either one of these: develop some interest and passion for the profession or simply forget about it.
These words of Martin Luther King have always motivated me: If a man is called to be a streetsweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause and say, here lived a great streetsweeper who did his job well.
Yes… we should do whatever we are most drawn too… it’s who we are, naturally! 🙂
True. But the influences are too strong for many.
Bindu, you make such a good point here. Perhaps the long and grueling years of medical school and residency were meant to be a sort of screening process, to separate those who don’t know what they are getting into, from those who do have the heart for it and want to serve those who are ill or suffering. I’m happy to say that Matt has had some wonderful doctors. His cardiologist and heart surgeon are both from India, too. 🙂
There are drop-outs, but many of them who still have no interest in the sick people cling on to the profession just for the sake of the other perks. If we are lucky, like Matt, we get the good ones. Thank you, Julia, for your valuable words.