THEN & NOW
I passed MBBS 42 years back & M.D. 37 years back. As in the afternoon of my life I look back to young medical students & Doctors of today, I find a towering difference in their attitude and ours. I am feeling tempted to compare the two our picture with that of recent ones.
This temptation is increased in Pokhara, Nepal, where I have recently joined as Professor in the department of Pharmacology in one of the best Institutes of Nepal. This is the oldest and best managed private medical college in Nepal. Manipal College of Medical Sciences. When I compare this huge giant with my allmamater M.L.N.Medical College, Allahabad [Founded in 1961]. We happen to be its lucky 50 students of the FIRST BATCH.
We were 50 young man & women desirous to learn Medicine. We came to the college with a fire in our hearts to learn more and more. I still remember very clearly the rainy morning of August 1961 when I ascended up three staircases to go up the top rooms on 3rd floor of newly constructed building of S.R.N Hospital. This was being erected at the grounds of famour Malaka Jail [behind Govt. Inter College, Allahabad. The remains of the jail were very much there. We assembled there for our Medical Examinations & to complete the formalities of admission. Somehow every thing was O.K. I was finally admitted to MBBS I st year course along with another 49 students [out of which were 10 girls. Some of us came in waiting list & we even ragged our own class fellows.
When one appears for the Pre-Medical Test one sees so many beautiful faces and it seems that Medical College is a very romantic place, where one finds many beautiful Medical students or Doctor’s. But reality is some thing else. The girl’s who were admitted with us were the ugliest among those who appeared for the test., except two, the rest better I do not say anything about them.
When the classes started the girls used to wait outside the class and entered it only with our teachers, as if we were wolf who would devolve them and they sat only in the first row. First two rows were kept vacant for them. This monotony was only broken in our IIIrd year due to our very strict Professor of Anatomy Dr. H.C.Verma.
The romantic years of Medical College are very nostalgic memories, they were our best years of life, and we were young & full of energy. The college building was the formal Government House in Allahabad [As in olden days Allahabad was capital of Utter Pradesh, and Governor used to stay there]. This Government house was a big compound, with large number of big trees, serpentine roads leading to main porch, indoor swimming pool, Dancing Hall with wooden floors for Governor of Utter Pradesh. When it was converted into Medical College the dance hall was temporally converted into our Pathology & Pharmacology Labs. The front portion of dance hall served as our lecture room of our IIIrd year class. The monotony of front bench block finished, but still we had very formal relations with girl students of our class. Being overweight I never got any lift from any one of them. There were large number of Peacocks in he compound and came to our class. How romantic was this moment.
In first two years our classes were held in S.R.N. hospital only. PHYSIOLOGY Lab was in the basement and our Anatomy dissection hall was in the Mauchary of that hospital. We gave our university 1st Professional Examinations from there. The boy’s were placed at the back of hospital quarters which was converted to boy’s hostel, the girls were put up in Nurse’s hostel.
In our times there was no a computer, Ultrasound, CAT neither scanning nor so sophisticated Pathological & Biochemical tests. As the knowledge of medicine grew all these changes are bound to occur. Our Medical Text Books were of Foreign Authors, as no good Indian authors were known nor available. We went to medical college with a sense to serve the humanity and to become good doctors; money was the last thing on our mind. We used to cycle to our college at the most we used scooters.
And now the whole picture is changed. All of them have mobiles, big and fast Motorcycles, fashionable & branded cloths. Girls also dress up like boy’s Unisex cloths. I have seen now that as soon as a fresh batch of medical students come to Medical College. In the beginning they remains singles, but very soon pairs develop. They walk in pairs one boy and one girl.. Not only in college but at public places hand in hand and some times even in awkward positions. They sit in the dining hall with each other, eat there meals together from each others plates, putting on apron, and stethoscope round their neck, as if they are very busy. I have seen them in dinning hall with a laptop in between and with two girls one on either side doing so called combined study. I sometimes wonder how they are able to handle medical studies in such light atmosphere. Even at my age if I am put in such a situation I will be simply unable to concentrate, what to say of medical studies, I may not be able to do even novel reading of which I am very fond of. I will not be able to assimilate any thing. They seems to be so carefree, it seems that they are not much interested in studies. The factories of Dad are running in the form of Nursing Homes, or dad has tons of money to send them to US for jobs & further studies. They dream of specialties and super specialties or USMLE. No one wants to be a good doctor. If you tell them to make one cotton sub, or tie a bandage they may not be able to do so. Our practical hand is defiantly better then them. I feel that one should be a basic good doctor, in respective of specialty. I do not know that how many of them are able to assist a normal delivery of a child on a running train in emergency situations. We can do that even being a Pharmacologist.
Some times the modern medical students look very funny to me, as they only pose; there is no substance in them. Unfortunately medicine is no more service before self it is pure Business. The standard of Medical educations is also going down and down every day, especially in private medical colleges. Today Doctors give more importance to investigations, misuse antibiotics, unnecessary operations, and doing medical errors more. It is all a show business.
Doctors of today depend more and more upon machines rather than their clinical skills, bedside manners & clinical judgments. THE GOLDEN ERA OF CLINICAL DIGNOSIS IS GRADUALLY SINKING IN THE SEA OF TECHNOLOGY TODAY
I passed MBBS 42 years back & M.D. 37 years back. As in the afternoon of my life I look back to young medical students & Doctors of today, I find a towering difference in their attitude and ours. I am feeling tempted to compare the two our picture with that of recent ones.
This temptation is increased in Pokhara, Nepal, where I have recently joined as Professor in the department of Pharmacology in one of the best Institutes of Nepal. This is the oldest and best managed private medical college in Nepal. Manipal College of Medical Sciences. When I compare this huge giant with my allmamater M.L.N.Medical College, Allahabad [Founded in 1961]. We happen to be its lucky 50 students of the FIRST BATCH.
We were 50 young man & women desirous to learn Medicine. We came to the college with a fire in our hearts to learn more and more. I still remember very clearly the rainy morning of August 1961 when I ascended up three staircases to go up the top rooms on 3rd floor of newly constructed building of S.R.N Hospital. This was being erected at the grounds of famour Malaka Jail [behind Govt. Inter College, Allahabad. The remains of the jail were very much there. We assembled there for our Medical Examinations & to complete the formalities of admission. Somehow every thing was O.K. I was finally admitted to MBBS I st year course along with another 49 students [out of which were 10 girls. Some of us came in waiting list & we even ragged our own class fellows.
When one appears for the Pre-Medical Test one sees so many beautiful faces and it seems that Medical College is a very romantic place, where one finds many beautiful Medical students or Doctor’s. But reality is some thing else. The girl’s who were admitted with us were the ugliest among those who appeared for the test., except two, the rest better I do not say anything about them.
When the classes started the girls used to wait outside the class and entered it only with our teachers, as if we were wolf who would devolve them and they sat only in the first row. First two rows were kept vacant for them. This monotony was only broken in our IIIrd year due to our very strict Professor of Anatomy Dr. H.C.Verma.
The romantic years of Medical College are very nostalgic memories, they were our best years of life, and we were young & full of energy. The college building was the formal Government House in Allahabad [As in olden days Allahabad was capital of Utter Pradesh, and Governor used to stay there]. This Government house was a big compound, with large number of big trees, serpentine roads leading to main porch, indoor swimming pool, Dancing Hall with wooden floors for Governor of Utter Pradesh. When it was converted into Medical College the dance hall was temporally converted into our Pathology & Pharmacology Labs. The front portion of dance hall served as our lecture room of our IIIrd year class. The monotony of front bench block finished, but still we had very formal relations with girl students of our class. Being overweight I never got any lift from any one of them. There were large number of Peacocks in he compound and came to our class. How romantic was this moment.
In first two years our classes were held in S.R.N. hospital only. PHYSIOLOGY Lab was in the basement and our Anatomy dissection hall was in the Mauchary of that hospital. We gave our university 1st Professional Examinations from there. The boy’s were placed at the back of hospital quarters which was converted to boy’s hostel, the girls were put up in Nurse’s hostel.
In our times there was no a computer, Ultrasound, CAT neither scanning nor so sophisticated Pathological & Biochemical tests. As the knowledge of medicine grew all these changes are bound to occur. Our Medical Text Books were of Foreign Authors, as no good Indian authors were known nor available. We went to medical college with a sense to serve the humanity and to become good doctors; money was the last thing on our mind. We used to cycle to our college at the most we used scooters.
And now the whole picture is changed. All of them have mobiles, big and fast Motorcycles, fashionable & branded cloths. Girls also dress up like boy’s Unisex cloths. I have seen now that as soon as a fresh batch of medical students come to Medical College. In the beginning they remains singles, but very soon pairs develop. They walk in pairs one boy and one girl.. Not only in college but at public places hand in hand and some times even in awkward positions. They sit in the dining hall with each other, eat there meals together from each others plates, putting on apron, and stethoscope round their neck, as if they are very busy. I have seen them in dinning hall with a laptop in between and with two girls one on either side doing so called combined study. I sometimes wonder how they are able to handle medical studies in such light atmosphere. Even at my age if I am put in such a situation I will be simply unable to concentrate, what to say of medical studies, I may not be able to do even novel reading of which I am very fond of. I will not be able to assimilate any thing. They seems to be so carefree, it seems that they are not much interested in studies. The factories of Dad are running in the form of Nursing Homes, or dad has tons of money to send them to US for jobs & further studies. They dream of specialties and super specialties or USMLE. No one wants to be a good doctor. If you tell them to make one cotton sub, or tie a bandage they may not be able to do so. Our practical hand is defiantly better then them. I feel that one should be a basic good doctor, in respective of specialty. I do not know that how many of them are able to assist a normal delivery of a child on a running train in emergency situations. We can do that even being a Pharmacologist.
Some times the modern medical students look very funny to me, as they only pose; there is no substance in them. Unfortunately medicine is no more service before self it is pure Business. The standard of Medical educations is also going down and down every day, especially in private medical colleges. Today Doctors give more importance to investigations, misuse antibiotics, unnecessary operations, and doing medical errors more. It is all a show business.
Doctors of today depend more and more upon machines rather than their clinical skills, bedside manners & clinical judgments. THE GOLDEN ERA OF CLINICAL DIGNOSIS IS GRADUALLY SINKING IN THE SEA OF TECHNOLOGY TODAY
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