"Be yourself, everybody else is already taken"
- Oscar Wilde.
"Nobody tells a tenth standard students, especially the academically brilliant students that there are more options too; they always make them stand on the diverging road, that gives only two choices, science or mathematics, or rather say, a career choice of A doctor or an engineer.
Nobody tells a student preparing for pre medical entrance test either, that getting into a MBBS college isn't the guarantee of a good future, that five and a half year later you would find yourself writing another entrance again, or that post graduation is a necessity in a country like India where the layman might not know the risk factor for STD, but they do know to seek a gastrologist for stomach ache.
And a country that works with high reservations rates even in a post graduation entrance, making a mark for yourself is a tough job. You seldom decide the branch you need; your marks, your rank, your age and most importantly your caste does. Unless you have the patience to repeat a year, undergraduate doctors usually compromise.
Three years of residency in again torture, more so the first year, especially if you are in a government hospital. Being the only tertiary centre affordable these days for the surrounding rural population, the patient load is very high, but then that's the catch. Only the patient load is high, the facilities and the managing hands aren't.
If you are lucky, you get a senior resident post after your graduation, and you go on to become Assistant or Associate Professors in a teaching hospital, or open a practice of your own and flourish on your talent, without any pressure.
I have been on the luckier side, given that I got the SR post just two months into finishing my PG, that too at AIIMS, the place I have dreamt to be working at since my Pulse tour. Yipee.
Oh Sorry, I forgot the introductions. I am Dr. Nandini Murthy, Psychiatrist, SR recruited at AIIMS ( sorry about the flaunting but I am super happy) and you my dear, is the white, fresh and excited first page of my new Diary :p.... "
Nandini closed her diary and kept it inside as the metro halted and making her way out of the underground station, she smiled when the view of Gate nu. 1 of the campus caught her sight. With her white coat hanging on her left arm and a Litman stethoscope around her neck, she looked ethereal simply because of the sheer look of wonder her eyes proclaimed.
She wasn't in this campus for the first time, she had spent the best ten days of her life here, when she came to attend PULSE, the medifest organised by AIIMS every year, in her second year MBBS. She had some really good memories of this place but then, she had never thought that just after completing her post graduation she would get a post of senior resident here. It was all magical, but she was willing to enjoy it.
Waking into the hospital building, she let her nervousness go away and welcomed the familiar aura of confidence. In a green cotton kurta and plazo set, with her lab coat draped on her left arm, she looked every bit of professional she was supposed to, but at the same time, simple and approachable enough by the patients. She walked to the receptionist and inquired about the psychiatry department, only to be instructed to take the elevator to the fourth floor.
Her meeting with the head of the department, Dr. Pratik Malik, went smooth enough, and if nothing, the old man was delighted to have her. They had met on a psychi conference before, while she was in her second year residency and her knowledge and mannerism had impressed him since. He asked her to wait for the department meeting that was scheduled for the afternoon, so that all the senior residents could be introduced to the PG students and the professors. Meanwhile she was asked to collect her routine from the incharge RMO at the office.
Nandini took a deep breath as she came out of his chamber, her demeanour happy and satisfied. First day wall all good uptil and she hoped to keep it that way. Walking towards the RMO room, she was crossing the doctors' chambers when her feet halted hearing a deep musculine voice reached her ear drums, stopping her in her tracks. She knew that voice, she recognised it immediately and why not, this voice was once her motivation and inspiration. This voice was why she was drawn to the feild of psychiatry. She turned her face to watch through the glass partition on the chamber door, He was there, teaching what seemed to her, final year students.
" Usually, following the death of a loved one, Greif has five stages, and we, as psychiatrist should be well versed with them. This is how we help people in need, by first accessing what stage they are in, because we know what should come next, and sometimes it's our duty to help them reach the next step.
Dr. Kubler Ross, divided grief into the following five stages-
Denial.
Anger.
Bargain.
Depression.
Acceptance.
Denial, when the attender denies to believe that his loved one is no more. You would have seen the three neck turns of 'Nahi, Nahi, Nahi', in any Indian TV show", Nandini heard the students chuckle at his example, while he simply shrugged, letting a small smile take over his features.
"Then comes anger, which is usually directed to the treating doctor, or most of the times God. This phase too, you all must have seen, the heroine screaming at the idol of their God/ goddess, shouting at them manically", he imitated very poorly but the class burst into loud chuckles. Nandini herself could not help but admit, the man was an amazing teacher.
"Then the baragin, when the heroine asks God to take her in exchange of the life of her beloved, though I am not sure it works, except in an Ekta Kapoor series", the man made a face and the class laughed again, before resuming to take notes.
"Then the depression, which we should treat if prolonged because more than one year of grief is called Pathological Grief, and at last the Acceptance, of what has happened and then eventually, everybody moves on!", the man settled down on his chair again, looking at the class, while Nandini admired his side profile. No doubt, he was on the news so much.
" But Dr. Malhotra, is this applicable to the greif caused by a breakup? ", one of the girls stood up, questioning him and he raised an eyebrow at her, before shaking his head at this new generation that understood nothing but patchups and breakups.
"Greif can be caused by anything Madam, and if the relationship was genuine enough, yes the stages could be identified. Most teenagers that come for treatment are already in the depression phase, and eventually move on to acceptance", the doctor stood up again and walked to front of the table, crossing his arms, and looked at the students. In his formal clothings, and the labcoat he was adorning, nobody could say he was in his thirties.
Nandini's eyes caught the name plate outside the cabin, and her eyes grew misty.
Dr. Manik Malhotra,
Associate Professor
MD, psychiatric medicine.
A deep sigh escaped her, as she turned her eyes back to the cabin once more, but was terrified to death when she found the same set of brown eyes she admired so much once, staring right back at her, his face confused.
Nandini didn't waste a second to run away from the cabin, stopping just outside the RMO office, praying in her head that Manik hadn't seen her, or even if seen, would not remember her.
Fate is always ironical, because there were days when this same South Indian, doe eyed, petite beauty had prayed numerous times to meet the great Dr. Manik Malhotra once, and be fortunate enough to study under him, and now the same girl was running away from him, as if she had seen a ghost.
But then, given the condition of Indian Justice System, a clean chit isn't the guarantee that the accused is innocent, and without being sure, Nandini didn't want to cheat the dying memory of a twenty year old girl, the girl he was accused to provoke suicide of, of Aadhya.
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Finally, there goes the first chapter. Reviews awaited.
This story is going to be very different from my usuals, so do tell me if you want to read!
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Chaotic Tangles!
Fanfiction**Can be read as General fiction** The young, leading psychiatrist in the country, is charged for allegedly provoking suicide, but is bailed and later declared innocent. He thinks the complications are over, but when a young free spirited recently p...
