"വെറും എംബിബിസ്സും, കാലി ചായയും."

"വെറും എംബിബിസ്സും, കാലി ചായയും."

This blog is for my my fellows and colleagues - Doctors;  for none can feel this emotion better.  But by the end of reading through this blog I am sure that everyone can relate to it, for many of you would have had this in your conversation at some point of life; especially if you are a malayali,  and no doubt you have a relative- near or distant who is a doctor. 

I think it is a very well known fact that medical profession is one of the tough ones to go through, considering the duration, volume of subjects, long working hours, lack of leave and vacations and so many other factors. So, as  common sense, it should be understood that the ones who pass out of medical college and become doctors are those who are anywhere of above average brilliance and efficient.

My state, my home has always been lovingly called God's own country, and with the blessings come a large number of professionals who we're called second to God, which I totally disagree for looking at my myself  and all the friends that I know - we are all human beings- flesh, blood and nothing else.

So just like I said above we all go through  lot of struggle and hardship to get through these 5 years of medical college and get a pass degree. And that's when we enjoy one of the few vacations of the course- after Final near mbbs examination, before our results are out and waiting for internship to start. 

That is exactly when reality strike us cold. I was having my month long vacation after my final year mbbs examinations and was home. It was the last week, and I had already received news that by God's great grace I had cleared through. So before returning to college for my internship, I went to my regular Barber for a haircut. I knew this guy right from my childhood, for my dad always used to take me there for a haircut and to say the least - I hated it, everytime!

 The story of the guy goes like this. He was born in a small village, and his father was a barber himself. In the early days of my childhood I had seen his father come to my ancestral home every week to give my grandfather a shave and once a month for his haircut. My grandfather who did not have much of hair those days, I wondered if a haircut a month was ever necessary!  Irony is that probably I'm closing in and realising the same now, the agony of loosing hair...

So my Barber- was my grandfather's Barber's son. He had wasted all his childhood throwing stones at mango trees, riding used bicycle tires with a stick and those sort of adventures. So when he flung his eighth grade his father taught him the same job that he knew well-to-do. However my barber never learnt the job good enough. His latest styles and creations were probably the hippie styles my dad carried around while he was young, and had the misconception that all kids had the same hairstyle- side split and combed to perfection, that it looked like a cow licked your head through just about now. I hated every haircut, every single time all my childhood.

Coming back to recent times, there i sat for my haircut and he immediately struck a conversation with  me. Quite happily I told him that I had cleared my mbbs finals. That is when he cut my happiness with cold steel. He said,

"ഈ വെറും എംബിബിസ് കൊണ്ട് ഒരു കാര്യവുമില്ല! വല്ല എംഡി ഒന്നും ഇല്ലാത്തവരെ ഞാൻ ഇപ്പൊ കാണിക്കാൻ പോകാറില്ല!"

That was the moment when I had several conflicting thoughts ran in my mind about reality. Though I had heard the same dialogue a few times from family and friends earlier,  never ever had I felt so offended n frustrated.  Honestly,  I believe that every profession has it's dignity, 

എന്നാലും എട്ടാം ക്ലാസ്സിൽ തോറ്റ അവൻ എന്നോട് അങ്ങിനെ പറയാൻ പാടില്ലായിരുന്നു. അവന്റെ അമ്മേടെ....  വീട്.. എന്റെ വീട്ടിന്റെ അടുത്താ, എന്നിട്ടും അവനെന്നോട് അങ്ങനെ പറഞ്ഞു രാമൻകുട്ടി... 

That one dialogue made me realise how cruel this world was to each other. Me, being a naive student till that day suddenly came across harsh realisation of this world, where a nobody with no skill is telling me, my five to six years of hard work is worth Nothing!  Zilch... Nada.. Rien! 

I heard the same dialogue several times more in the coming years until I started with my Post graduation. It was getting frustrating until I found the perfect answer- "ചേട്ടാ, ഈ എംബിബിസ് കഴിഞ്ഞാലേ പിജിക്ക് ചേരാൻ പറ്റൂ. അറിയാമായിരിക്കുമല്ലോ അല്ലെ?". 

So the ones except the pea brain understood what I meant and went their way. 

Life moved on and I see my wife face the same situation nowadays, so do some of those young friends that I know. As the years go away, the agony of listening to that statement has probably got worse, what I understand from the words of a friend that I listened to recently.

I'm sure none of us doctors have ever come to you saying- "You ain't cutting hair well mate!" nor have we ever commented any of those poor engineering guys who are living a life with  a burden of dozens of supplementary exams, or year-back that- " This B-tech is of no good, you gotta do at least an Mtech, MS or MBA, for me to give you work to build my home, repair my laptop!" 

Never! we haven't done that! we aren't the sort who do that either! LOL!

So a humble request to all fellow human beings- Please be considerate to doctors. They very well know, what it is that have to be done after MBBS, way lot better than you can imagine. And for sure most of them are under a lot of stress,  frustration and agony because of the same. 

വെറും എംബിബിസ്‌കാരെ വെറുതെ വിട്ടേക്ക്. നിങ്ങളുടെ വെറുതെ കൊടുക്കുന്ന ഉപദേശം അവർക്ക് വേണ്ട!


Cheers..  If you have read this far. 

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