26 May 2013
I teach under-graduates as well as post-graduates. My favorite question to them is “WHY ARE YOU BECOMING A DOCTOR”. I am always surprised at the variety of answers I get:
“I want to make a lot of money”, not bad; these days, criterion of a successful person is the one who makes a lot of money at the end of the day.
“My parents wanted it”, an answer I get quite often.
“So I could find a good spouse”, another popular answer. Female doctors are considered to make good house-wives and better mothers (can help in their children’s education).
“To serve humanity” is a very unpopular reason to become a doctor. That makes me wonder how our values have changed with time. Now we are living just for ourselves. We teach our children that money is what makes a person powerful and successful; it can buy anything but we often forget that it cannot buy HAPPINESS, HEALTH, SERENITY, CONTENTMENT AND AN INNER PEACE.
I see my peers working in teaching hospitals in the morning, then after a couple hours afternoon nap, they get busy in their private practice and come home middle of the night; by the end of each day, their bank balance multiplies and they go home happy, feeling rich. I ask them sometimes, “How much time are you giving to your families”. They always talk about “quality time“; according to them a few hours over the weekend, taking the kids out to cinema, park or a club is enough; it suffices to make them a good parent. Wives have a surplus amount of money for shopping so everyone is happy spending it while our Hard -Working Doctor is just a money making machine. Once that machine gets old and retired from work, then he realizes that the kids, who have grown up now, have no time for him as they have nothing in common; no common topics to talk about, no hobbies or interests to indulge in together, the wife doesn’t know what to do with him as she has led all her life developing her own interests while our good Doctor was busy making money.
Now our good doctor sits alone in a park on a bench under a tree and reminisces about his life, what he achieved and what has he lost. He still has a healthy savings account but could it buy him company of his children or his wife NOW?……… …….