Let them fly -away!

Stability is a good thing. 

Each morning, we get up and go to work secure in the feeling that this is just another day.. the only difference will be the patients and occasional ‘new’ residents. 

We set your goals and ambitions on this stability. We make our plans for patient care, education, research and publishing based on this secure assumption that ‘all’ will be there. 

It was not always like this before. Not at least in radiology. Like the matinee movies, it was a case of “daily change”. We never had more than two or three faculty in the department running the show with residents. Sure, the modalities were less, but the patient load was the same. Someone or the other ended up doing more work.. And then, after a few months, when things seem to have be somewhat settling down, there would be a change. Some one chose to leave KEM for greener pastures in a private practice or a private hospital. The wheels of this cycle never seemed to stop.…or so it seemed. 

I have, as head of radiology, seen this cycle for close to 20 years. My reaction to this phenomenon today is the same today as it was 20 years ago. A warm feeling of contentment, a sense of a job well done… one more of our own is stepping out into a world of his/her own   

“How can you be so unemotional when someone leaves” – many have asked me.

Sure it is possible - once you realize what it is all about to be a teacher and what a medical school and a teaching hospital are all about.

 

In the daily humdrum of clinical work, we seem to forget that we are all teachers.. may be we became doctors first,, but, our position today is that of a teacher and that is why we are here  in a medical school. As a teacher we teach all we know. We teach the basic formulas, what chemical reactions they decide to create depend on the individual talent of the taught. We do not have complete control over it. And from this cauldron of chemical reactions are born generation after generation of those that trained at GS and KEM…the legacy of our institutions and departments to posterity –

a few bad ones, a few great ones and most in-between. 

In a pyramidal system of staffing, there is never place for everybody; some will leave; others will have to - even if their hearts are in this place. 

As a chief or senior faculty, you will interact frequently with colleagues working ‘under you’ …. And, as they make their life’s decisions, they will turn to you for advice with implicit faith that you will take decisions which are in their best interests. You cannot misguide them. You have seen more life than them, you’ve seen the fate of those that have left before them… you are supposed to know.. you are the wise one. 

Making such decisions for others is not easy.. it never is. You, as their mentor, will have to bring to being a great deal of objectivity in advising them to leave or stay on. These cannot be colored by your personal interests or the interest of the department or, for that matter, even the institution.. All that matters is the best interest of the fledgling that wants to fly - you can neither let them fall to the ground below, nor can you keep them cooped up with the nest – in house arrest. At the right time, there is a need for a right decision. Some of these are most difficult decisions that you make as a medical teacher and a mentor. 

Pride in the people we train, gratefulness to those that have given their everything to run the show for us will always be your beacon - even as you advice them to take the ‘bold step’. 

And, as change is the way of this world, there will be new generations of fledglings even as the older ones are encouraged to fly - fly away - so that the seeds of learning that our institutions will sow through them will blossom into a million learning centers all over the world, treating patients and training doctors… bringing glory to these great institutions we know as GS and KEM. 

So let people fly --- fly away – towards the blue skies and the green pastures- even as you wait with bated breath……to see the fruits of the seeds they carry away from you -to seem  them to excel.... ...to see them outshine you. 

For, in the life of a teacher, few things can be as heartwarming as being completely outshone by his own former “pupil”!

 

 

 

All Rise

I cannot believe GS traditions can change so fast….

Not since school days , do I remember standing up when a teacher walked into a lecture hall; surely, not during my two years at Ruia, not the five years at GS and of course not after joining radiology.

May be in those yesteryears we were more concerned with truly having respect than just showing it.

But, these are different times…

When the Dean walks in for a meeting, most faculty and Chiefs stand up and this percolates all the way down along the line to our students. But, I steadfastly refuse to - even ignoring Nalini’s stern disapproving glance .. not because I do not respect Deans, but simply because, I do not see any reason to demonstrate that publicly. The only GSites who seem to blissfully unaware of the hierarchy are the native-bread, dyed in the wool, GSite packs of dogs. They seem respect only the hands that feed them and can even be trained to bark loudly and run after the Dean’s (new) car..

What? Do you want GS to got to the dogs?... – literally- should they set the tone for behaviour- they better stand to attention with heads bowed in veneration!

I do not think so, I do not think, standing up when some one senior walks in is a true show of respect.. may be a show, but not necessarily a true show… may be respect, but, not necessarily true respect. And, I should know .. what with the under-the-breath expletives that are uttered even as my colleagues stand to a senior faculty or administrator.

So, I find it exasperating when people stand up when I walk into our conference room for a lecture, or into the lecture theater for the occasional UG lecture I give. Thank God, they do not follow it up with a “Good Morning teacher…”

Students and residents standing up….. may be… just about may be OK, but what is most embarrassing is this.. You see, we have these inter-departmental clinical meetings several times a week. We have senior faculty from various departments coming into our conference room to discuss cases and teach. And, it embarrasses me no end, when they too stand up when I enter the room… and then their poor residents have no option but to follow suit..

Why do I loath this so much.. why do I not feel good when another professor calls me “Sir” and stands up in 'respect' for me. About senior faculty I do not know. No amount of persuasion seems to work; whereas some have changed to “Dr. Ravi” or “Ravi” over the years, others whom I consider great colleagues and respect a lot – some of them the finest faculty and we have on the campus today - insist and continue to call me “Sir”. One particular one is very candid and says says "I do not care what you say Sir, but, I will continue to call you 'Sir', Sir". So, after a while I leave these folks alone and admire their honesty and candidness at what they feel, say and do.

But what about the kids, the UG and PG ones?

I would like to believe that they really respect their teachers,, I would like to believe that their teachers live up to their expectations and deserve the veneration that the students seem to shower on them; but sometimes, I wonder if all that they do is just lip … err leg service as they “All Rise”

I do not know if you have noticed it lately, but the new generation of kids has no qualms about rushing into lifts, or sit all across the steps of the college stairs or walk 5 across along our long corridors blissfully ignorant of the inconvenience that they are causing others – junior or senior. I do not know about you, I have but rarely seen these kids, make way for others or for that matter even sick patients. Surely there may be exceptions to this.. but that is not “as a rule” as it ought to be. And , of course, it was not like this during out times. May be we did not stand up when professors walked into our classes, but we never hogged the staircases, the corridors or the lifts.

But as I never tire of saying this.. I am sure it is not the fault of the kids.. they have never been taught otherwise. They have never been told that true respect is respect for any fellow human being whether it is a poor patient in tattered closes or the Dean in his starched white apron. It is important to see who really needs respect. For, making way for a sick patient, or a ward-boy with a heavy load or a patient on a wheel chair is the true demonstration of caring, courtesy and hence respect for all fellow human beings , A way to show that we truly care…

So, show true respect by making way for a patient for the elevator, a trolley on the corridor or a ward boy with a heavy load. Let’s respect people for what they are rather than for what the signages outsides their offices or the name tags on the apron pockets proclaim them to be….

Let’s “All Rise” to people for what they are rather than to their titles that denote their “importance.”

So the next time any one stands up when I enter our conference room, he/she is doing it at his/her own risk of having to continue to stand.. for you will never again hear a “Please be seated" from me.

(This essay is inspired by Subroto Bagchi’s “The Missing I”

Giving....

I would have recognized that rich and deep voice any time-any where, though it must have been over a decade since I had last talked with that my teacher of mine – a blue-blooded GSite now in private practice.

“Ravi”, he started “I have a lady with me; she is the daughter of a patient of mine - who recently passed away -and she has expressed a desire to donate some money to medical charity. “I thought”, he carried on “the PBCF at KEM would be a good idea.”
“Yes sir, of course!” was my immediate response.
“In that case, can I send her to you - so you can guide her how to go about this?” he asked.

We agreed on a mutually agreeable time and there the conversation ended.

I am always game for taking for our institution. Though, if you have ever tried to donate some money to PBCF, you will realise that it is not easy. Once such time, they wanted to know why a particular sum of money was being donated. After much argument, exasperated, I wrote the reason : “… I wish to donate because ….I have too much money” The clerk read the note several times over with no change of expression whatsoever and very officially and with great flair pulled out a pen, underlined that phrase with red ink and readily accepted the cheque!!

Hardships aside, money is always desperately needed in KEM - what with the BMC interested in starting more teaching hospitals rather than take care of the existing starving ones. And, after 20 years of handling Deans and bureaucracy, I am always game for minor skirmishes with the powers that be. I know all their lines and my answers are always ready!!

A couple of hours later, the donor walks into the department at the pre-appointed time. I do not know how often it happens to you, but, there are times when you meet some one for the first time and, even the first few spoken words leave a deep impression on you. A lady in her mid fifties, our donor was one of the most pleasant and charming persons I have had the fortune of meeting. She had this genuine and sincere smile that reflected a pure heart and a lot feeling for life. Preliminaries over, we discussed how best the money could be donated and where it would most useful. Like most genuine givers, she left all the decisions to me saying “We just want to give”.

Over the next days, we exchanged several emails concerning the donation. I then learnt that she was motivating her friends and family to give and eventually all this will go into the PBCF. One thing lead to another and, she even ended giving a substantial amount money for the alumni fund that we were collecting for my school!!

First, a GSite , no longer in KEM, thinks of giving to his Alma Mater rather than to some other charity, and here is a lady, who has had nothing to do with KEM showing such great enthusiasm for the “task” on hand.

We move on from a 55-year-old lady to a bunch of 30-year-old entrepreneurs who spend each Sunday morning at a public hospital playing foster-relatives and taking care of patients’ needs - monetary and othe wise when they could have been “better off “ with playing golf or squash in one the plush Bombay clubs.

Or, this benevolent donor at KEM who has and continues to give crores and rupees to us – his only condition - anonymity for himself.

Closer at home, I can never express fully the gratitude I feel for scores of Alumni from our department who, over the years, have given lakhs of rupees in cash and kind. Often, with a ”Ravi, you do whatever you want with this”

Not that all the above are rich or famous, not all of them give money for 80G or for their names to be etched in gold on black granite.

They give - not because they have to, but because they want to.

After all, to give away in charity, you don’t need to have a lot of money – just a big heart …. in the right place.

Thank God, for such “small” mercies in this “mad-house” called KEM.

Back to School

Exactly at the stroke of 10, the school bell rang and all 80 of us – “boys and girls” - stood up as per usual practice, in rapt attention – and sang the National Anthem with full gusto. The “Jayahae…Jayahae.. Jayhae was followed by the traditional .. “Good Morning Teacher” in the inimitable SIES School style. The teachers in turn responded with a “Good Morning”. But the “children” from the “Good Morning” was missing. Because there were no children - only 55 year olds and about a dozen of their 75 year old teachers on a grand Golden Jubilee reunion, at the school that the “kids” joined in 1958 and left 11 memorable years later, in 1969.

The date was February 24, 2008 , a day I will cherish and savour as almost no other day in my life for the experience was all at once moving, enthralling, unique and unforgettable.

The idea was mooted by a GSite – naturally (not I, but a batch mate of mine) who modelled it on the now traditional silver jubilee (our batch had in 1996) and golden jubilee (will I be around then?) alumni get-togethers of our college.

It seemed an impossible task then in September 2007 when the idea was sown - but with cell phones, e mails and internet, a majority could be contacted and about a third attended.

It is difficult for me to describe my emotions as I entered my school today. Had we done a functional MRI on my brain then, you would have seen my temporal lobes on fire. A rush of memories and unique emotions is what I felt – and I said to myself “Why did we not think of this earlier?”

Those of you that have read my previous essays here, probably know that I always considered my school days as the best days of my life so far – well ahead of my GS career and the reason for that was not just my great school friends and those friendships devoid of politics but the almost “romantic” respect that I had for some of my teachers.

So, it was natural that when I saw my maths teacher enter school that morning, I rushed out to him to say “Sir, let me have the pleasure of welcoming you first” – not that he would have remembered me but because I was possessed by nostalgia.

Slowly, many other teachers trotted in - some walking straight and briskly, others slowly hopping in; but, all with radiant smiles on their faces.

Friends were a different ball game altogether; the boys from my class - I had no problem recognizing (I made a profound observation that day that madrasis, unlike others do not easily have temporal hair recession (unlike my balding GS classmates in 1996) – you see it is coconut oil we use ! – (may be I should write it up!) . There was a sizable number girls, some like a few boys, having come from outside town - I could not recognize a single one of them. But after brief introductions we back to old days chatting away like animated kids catching up on all that was left out in those 11 years at school (ah!, in our days, boys never talked to girls in school!!).

In vividly memorable moments, the assembled teachers were felicitated by their students and then we had the pièce de résistance – a full 15 min. lecture on Algebra and Geometry by our mathematics teacher – black board, chalk and all…. In his now familiar , inimitable style punctuated by wry humor he enthralled us for those golden moments and the best part – he certified us as being better in maths than we are at school.

I can go on and on with a compilation of the goings on that day - which like a normal school day ended at 4, but that is not point my writing this piece.

You see, that day I was not RR of KEM but Ravi R of SIES, I was not Ravi Sir, but Ravi Student, I was not asking the questions but answering them and then it suddenly dawned on me that there is the other side – the students’ side and when one of teachers in her emotionally chocked voice said – “the teacher student relation ship is eternal”, I couldn’t agree more.

I am so lucky to be surrounded by my students, I am lucky to have them stimulate me, I am lucky that one day, we will meet again and a tottering Ravi in an emotionally chocked voice will say, Dear Students “I happy that you have not forgotten that the student teacher relationship is eternal”.

And dear kids, these days if you see me a little more considerate and nice to you – you know why – it is “hang over” of the magic of the reunion!!

Now, go and have your own – it will change your life in ways that would have scarce imagined!!

March 2008