“At some point, you have to make a decision. Boundaries don’t keep other people out. They fence you in.
Life is messy. That’s how we’re (interns) made. So, you can waste your lives drawing lines. Or you can live
your life crossing them. But there are some lines… that are way too dangerous to cross.”
(Dr. Meredith Grey from the English series Grey’s Anatomy)
The life of medical students in our country can be described in one word as “weird”. We all decided to
take medicine as our path of career to make some contribution to the world. We all thought of bringing
‘some’ change in creating a supportive environment. After a tedious and lengthy time frame of four and
a half years of studying, going to class, studying, eating, studying and sleeping for five hours(if you’re
lucky) in the medical college, we finally get the coveted title of being called as a “pseudo”doctor! A
doctor on paper, a physician just for the records, but a hypoglycemic servant in true sense.
Internship is a phase of transition from being a medical student to a doctor , a period of one year where
we are rotated in various departments of the hospital. We are supposed to be trained by our supervisors
and learn the aspects of practical management of patients through channelizing the knowledge gained
in the preceding course of MBBS. Huh! All we do is get squeezed up by our seniors until the last drop of
blood for helping them in filling discharge cards, dropping things for someone, administrative clerk
getting and working for peanuts!
Ours is one of the country’s leading public tertiary care institute , Topiwala National Medical College and
BYL Nair Charitable Hospital located in the heart of Mumbai. We get a chance to experience various
kinds of situations in our everyday life. An OPD of hundreds of patients, indoor wards stacked with
occupants and Operation Theatres working twenty four seven, the campus is seen densely populated.
The 365 days of internship period is a time which teaches a lot.
An open assistant for everyone, the whole hospital ranging from mavshis and mamas (ward staff) to
sisters to professors has a right to kick your ass and make you slog. All you can do is SMILE! Stay Calm!
SMILE again! What for? A signature that will apparently determine your caliber as a physician! 😛
The morning starts with a heated argument with mavshis on the ‘United Nations’ agenda of blood
collection. They behave as neurosurgeons who just got free from fixing a meningeal artery rupture and
ask us to do our jobs efficiently else they’ll complain. Then comes the most awaited members of our life-
the sisters! They determine the course of action for the rest of your day. The white dressed warriors
who are perennially ready to bombard us with sayings like “AYEEEE INTARNNN, ITNI LATE KYUN AAYA?
TERA APRON KAHAN HAIN? WARD MEIN GHUSNE NAHI DOONGI! ITNE SAARE DISCHARGE CARDS
KAHAN LEKAR JAA RAHA HAI? AYEEE INTAARNNN”. You feel like punching her and say ,”Yes, I am
stealing the hospital discharge cards and selling them in the mall nearby” Blah!
The registrars behave like our senior contemporaries. Some love us, teach us ,understand us and even
give us the freedom to study while some are just jealous of how can we enjoy when they can’t. The last
hurdle is our senior professors who say “ARREY TUMHE KABHI NAHI DEKHA, TUM MERE UNIT MEIN
THE?” and what all we can do is SMILE and beg for their signature.
Despite so many flaws in the mandatory internship rotation of medical curriculum in our country, we
learn tons of new aspects. The art of counting dates back to live back a normal life, to be happy all the
time, to work for a payment that can’t even afford paying for your basic necessities and above all
respecting all the classes of society. We climb on ‘cloud nine’ when someone calls us “DOCTOR” , we feel
blessed, it feels awesome. I am sure you all will experience this myriad of emotions one day. If we all are
committed to our dream in medicine, the rewards are more than worth the efforts we put in. The
feeling of treating someone depressed and ill is incomparable to anything we face as an intern. It’s all
about our preparation to learn the art of healing! It’s all about hard work and resilience!
— By Charu Dutt Arora
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