Ascension

When I first read the “Ascension” brochure I was wide eyed for quite some time.. as the whole concept of ascension was a daring one .. knowing it would be scoffed at as being too abstract and with no real application. It was the brain child of Dr. Lopa Mehta, a little silver haired lady with kind yet determined eyes, years of wisdom lending a shine to them, a magnetic presence and my husband’s very dear teacher, She is the flag bearer of the department of humanities at KEM. She told me “We want this program to be very spontaneous , We don’t want to straight jacket anything” she said ..  . and that’s why it was for the chosen few who understood its essence ..who understood that medicine is more than just books and patients and wards ..

One of the best debates was about the standing of an Indian medical graduate in today’s world. Brilliant panelist’s and veterans like Dr Avinash Supe, Dr Ravi Ramakant and Dr Tushar put forth their experiences and thoughts .. for the first time I heard about rural And community medicine as a possibility right after MBBS .. and that doing PG was not really mandatory .. the country and its people demand a different kind of expertise and not what we necessarily see and learn in tertiary centres in the metros ..The popular trend of specialisation gives us a very skewed picture of the services that we can render .. the panelists asked us if we had ever treated our profession like a love affair and not just something that we had stumbled upon .. had we made a well thought out decision or were we just part of the herd .. had we nurtured it ? At that point I was astounded that for all the thinking I do , I had never really looked at the bigger picture as a person with remarkable ability to give to society .. was I only looking at degrees and competition and digging a deeper hole for myself .. I looked around at the undergrads who were listening and hoped they would grab this opportunity to take charge of their life .. they were being pushed to think and ponder. At that point, I also felt tremendously old all of a sudden 😊

These guys on stage who had someday sat on these very benches in the audience, unsure about their future, today rooted for the students .. It was cruel to blame the students when the system had driven them into a corner” they said.. as Dr Supe put it “the Indian Medical Grad is not in a good position today”..

Talk then veered off to hobbies and passions .. and Dr Tushar said “Always have a income generating career and a non income generating passion” I think I’m always going to remember these golden words.

The other touching moments were when these old timers broke down and their voices quivered as they spoke about their teachers and their alma mater .. how fondly they still remember and quote Dr Manu Chaudhary and his ideology and his songs  .. “Where have the inspiring teachers disappeared ?” they beseeched ..  It lead to a great internal remorse that I would never experience this kind of nostalgia and devotion .. oh to be in those times and this place then..!!