Lage Raho Munnabhai

Last week, I had that standard call for advice but with a new twist. After the usual pleasantries, I was asked, “My daughter is deciding her future. Do you think she should be pursuing medicine as a career?

Sanjay Nagral
Nov 20, 2020, Mumbai Mirror

Last week, I had that standard call for advice but with a new twist. After the usual pleasantries, I was asked, “My daughter is deciding her future. Do you think she should be pursuing medicine as a career? We are confused as many doctors have told us that it’s not worth it, given the long years and hostile working conditions. And that Covid is going to worsen the situation in the future.”

As someone who is asked this question regularly, I now have a mixed feeling of dread, regret and even some mirth when it is posed. What I would love to say is: “Welcome to the club of Indian parents obsessed with their child’s career when she is just 16. Give me a break”, and bang the phone down. But often out of sheer political correctness, I have to respond. Usually I start with, “Does your kid want to become a doctor or do you want her to be one? If so, why?”. The discussion typically meanders to a classic question: “How easy is it to settle?” Soon the caller realises that they are not getting the oneline answers they want and hangsup with a disappointed thank you.

There is a buzz, strengthened by the devastation of Covid, that it’s no longer worth taking up a medical career. Too long, too hard and very little satisfaction as the discourse goes. This is the discussion in the charmed circles of well-todo parents, many of them doctors. But the ground situation is radically different. There is still a huge demand and aspiration for a medical career; at huge costs, even by paying astronomical sums of money and taking loans. Or spending six freezing years in a medical college in the far corners of Russia. And, of course, repeatedly writing hypercompetitive exams like NEET which is a leading cause of student suicide in some states.

There is a fundamental problem with the way many of the questions around a medical career are posed. Is it really tough to train to be a doctor and are the long years’ worth it? But worth what? Is it now difficult to become a successful doctor? But then what is success? The answers depend on the goalposts. For those who seek an easy, quick degree to start earning, there is indeed disappointment.

There are many real-world reasons why kids even in the new India continue to pursue medicine as a career. It is by far a degree which guarantees social standing and upward mobility. In a hierarchical society this is important. The mobility translates in many tangible ways. Respect from family and friends, breaking out from caste and community oppression and of course a value in the marriage market. In many communities a doctor boy is guaranteed a huge dowry.

A qualified doctor in India is never jobless as long as he or she is willing to work in underserved areas. A certain minimum income, far above an average graduate, is almost guaranteed. There are plenty of opportunities to pursue high quality science, though unfortunately that’s not what Indian medicine is currently about. Also, if one is keen to pursue a path that doesn’t demand the stresses of patient interaction or long working hours, there are several alternatives. It’s a privileged life as long as one is aware and cognisant of privilege, especially on the relative social scale.

This is not to say that only a medical career provides an opportunity to help people. That would be disingenuous and condescending. But the talk about medicine being tough, long and unsatisfying arises because it is increasingly deracinated from the humanist science that it is at its core. If the possibility of an opportunity to be with people, many of them suffering, help them and see the thankfulness in their eyes appeals to you or your kid, welcome to medicine.

A few years ago, I was invited by my alma mater to deliver a ‘inspirational’ talk to the new batch of undergraduate students. When I asked how many of them had joined medicine after watching Munnabhai MBBS, House MD or Gray’s Anatomy, there was a wave of embarrassed laughter. After attempting to be ‘inspirational’ with anecdotes and history and staying away from ‘advice’, I could not help end with one unsolicited bit at the end. ‘If any of you has joined medicine with the primary purpose of making lots of money, I would urge that it’s not too late and you should consider leaving. It’s a long, challenging, stressful life but with meaning in helping those in trouble even at one’s personal cost and safety. The rest usually falls into place.

Many of the young kids of that batch are today likely to be working with Covid patients. Chances are that there are many. It’s unlikely that they remember that idealistic advice I offered them. Covid has perhaps made some of them realise that a ‘settled’ career is not the same as a ‘satisfying’ one. Munnabhai MBBS is essentially Lage Raho Munnabhai.