The first month of medical studies!!

Hey Everyone! This blog was initially meant to be a diary of sorts, an account of my experiences as I step into professional graduate studies as a medical student and beyond. It has been almost a month since I joined medical college, and I tell you the amount of study I've done this past month is more than I've ever done in an entire year ever before!!! My, has it been hectic!! Today is the first day since I joined medical college that I've come online at all. Weekdays have been spent worrying about assignments and weekends preparing for tests...it seems like I've lived an age since the 3rd of January, 2011.


 It feels like I'm in class prep again...what with daily homework, keeping copies for every subject and getting them corrected by teachers, and everyone treating 'first years' like babies. I guess I don't really mind all that, but the fact that everyone assumes we are too naive to follow simple instructions is just salt over injury!
Every teacher began her class by briefing us about the format she expected us to follow in our journals, which was necessary if she wants to correct our copies like kindergärtners; but to give painfully obvious details such as drawing margins and column widths was almost an insult to our intellect!! People approaching 20 should be expected to be able to decide these things on their own. To top it all, a month into the system and they still don't trust us to do it right X)) I could die with the shame XD


I've also grown fat, sitting on my gluteal region all day, studying. I tried the age old method of walking while cramming, but it didn't work out for me. I was too busy navigating to concentrate and understand, let alone cram, and I ended up tripping over my  own feet... luckily I only fell on the soft mattress on the carpet in front :\ Plus all the worrying makes me so hungry! =P I ate so many chocolates for the nerves... I'm sure some of you will understand.


The best part about joining medical studies though, was getting a bone bag! At first I thought we'd get the whole skeleton and I'd be able to assemble it all by myself and hang it in my bedroom. But I'd also thought the bones would be plastic! We got real human bones--only lower limb for now, but its cool anyway!!


The weirdest part is that there's hardly anyone in my class who seems to be enjoying their graduate study in medicine. Like they're not doing it because they want to do it. Fatima Jinnah Medical College, Lahore is an all-girls college. For most of them M.B.B.S. is another burden of life. Something they need to do to get marriage proposals from respectable and rich families. Only a few are likely to choose to pursue a career in medicine later on, which is a great pity. They have interest in the title but not in the work that comes with it, so they are not committed, and not likely to excel later in life. And yes, when I say I'm doing it only for the sake of the noble responsibility, no one believes it, or at best they think I'm immature to the reality of life.


Well, enough with the dark reflections for now. I really need to go do some biochemistry cramming for yet another test. But I've still got lots to share about my 'new class prep'. So 'later!

Update: Finally....I have passed a Biochemistry test...cuz it was all mcq's:P....Cheers!!! :-) 

Life as a Beggar

Have you given a single thought to the beggar who came a-begging at your car window yesterday? You, in your glittering black Mercedes, with a chauffer to drive you home. Probably you have not. Well, why should you? You have everything life has to offer: a magnificent home, an air conditioned office, and dozens of servants at your service.

In the morning your driver drives your children to the best school in the city. They study, have friends and make merry. They have tea at home, and nothing to do but study and spend a good time. You go shopping and throw dirty looks at street rats like me, whose only job is to spoil your lovely time by begging at the mall.

Have you ever placed yourself in my shoes? Have you tried to feel the misery of hundreds of poor little wretches like me, who are struggling to survive? Have you ever felt your soul sink with despair when you are faint with hunger and people like you pass by scornfully? You have not.

I live in a tent house—merely a shelter for the night. I have parents, yet live the life of an orphan. No one takes care of me. My father is a drunkard and my mother has so many children that she forgets our names. She works hard all day, but cannot earn enough to feed us all. I have neither education nor skill. I am forced to go begging for a living.

I live a wretched dog’s life. Each day I wake up before dawn. There is no water near our tent to wash or bathe. Not that I mind; bathing is not my favorite activity and I have got used to remaining dirty.

I wander the city streets, begging for breakfast. I find some stale bread in a dust bin and devour it ravenously. I prowl the roads aimlessly, often getting into a fight with other children over food or money or for no reason at all. We fight like wild animals, and I rarely get away without a sore eye or a bleeding lip.

I beg at signals and I beg at markets. I take delight in aggravating the well-heeled, stiff necked ladies at the mall. They ignore me, but I hang about them. They try to shoo me away, but I stick to them. It gives me pleasure to irritate these haughty ladies, whose well-dressed children give me hateful looks. Of course, I might get a penny or two as an added bonus.

I am often tempted to steal and do. I have a right to all the privileges the rich enjoy. If they do not give me my right, I will snatch it from them.

I have neither opportunity nor goal in life. My future is blank. I am already an addict and my condition can only grow worse with time. I have neither hope nor dreams for the future. I spend day after day of my life without purpose. My existence is useless. I will grow up as a beggar and criminal and at last will die alone by a roadside, with no one to cry over my dead body.