By Dr. K. Javeed Nayeem, MD

A small news item buried deep inside my newspaper caught my eye today. It said that the National Medical Commission (NMC), the body that governs and regulates medical education in our country, has decided to bring in a rule that restricts the maximum time allowed for an undergraduate medical student to complete the MBBS course, to ten years.

This time frame is supposed to also include the mandatory internship of one-year duration, that comes after passing the final year examination. There is a further stipulation that the first year of the MBBS course should be completed within a maximum period of four years.

Now, for those who do not know the background of this high-powered regulating body, let me remind you that the NMC is just a reincarnation with a new name, of the once infamous Medical Council of India (MCI), which until its existence, was known for the highest levels of corruption in granting recognition to medical colleges across the country and also in fixing their intake of students.

It was the same body whose one chief was caught by the CBI while taking a bribe of two crore rupees, to grant recognition to a medical college which did not have the infrastructure necessary to get it.

A further search is said to have revealed that the bed the man was sleeping on had 300 gold bars, worth crores of rupees, hidden in it! This became a national scandal, albeit momentarily, not unlike the one caused recently by the leakage of the NEET question papers, which also will most certainly fade from public memory, like the many much bigger scandals, across our country.

Most of you may feel that the latest move of the NMC to fix the maximum time limit to pass MBBS, is a step in the right direction because the first question that comes to your mind is ‘of what earthly use will a doctor be, if he or she has not been able to complete the most basic medical course of five years, in double that time?’

But there are some seemingly unearthly truths that I have seen, both as a medical student and a teacher in a medical college, which I would like to share with you. It is unwise to think that all students who take their own sweet time to emerge as doctors from medical colleges are unwise. They may not have been very good as medical students, but I have seen dozens of such slow learners who have outdone their academically brilliant classmates and become very successful billionaires.

While a few have done this after dropping out of medical college and pursuing other professional fields, a good many of those who took years and years to acquire their degrees, have become phenomenally successful practitioners, right in the medical field.

As a medical student, I have sailed past many collegemates who had been there for more than ten years and who finally completed their courses only many years after I did.

While only some of them seemed a little bashful about the way they were going about passing their exams only after repeated attempts, most of them were completely at ease. So much at ease, that they were proud that they had acquired the status of being the dons of their colleges and hostels, to whom their juniors turned to for advice, guidance and even protection.

They never were in a hurry to complete their studies and become doctors within the stipulated time frame and many of them even used to do many other kinds of businesses, including share market trading and even money lending.

Among those who took years to pass are some who now own high end hotels, transport networks, super-speciality hospitals and even medical colleges. A few have gone into politics and have even become Ministers, wielding much power, influence and wealth. And, all of them have done this without ever turning back to look what they once pursued and left behind.

I had a senior in my school days who entered medical college three full years before I did and who was still there in the final year, three years after I completed the course and was a final year post-graduate student doing my MD.

One day it so happened that my professor who was to take a class for their batch felt a little unwell and asked me to do it instead. After I entered the classroom and was waiting for all the students to settle down, this seasoned senior emerged from the last bench and with a benign smile handed me a small slip of folded paper. When I opened it and saw the message, it said, “Bloody fool, I am here in your class only because of attendance shortage. Now don’t try to show off your smartness or embarrass me by asking me any questions here.”

I complied with his silent request and felt happy when he finally passed his MBBS and became a doctor, a good three years later. Today he is a very successful and much sought after doctor abroad, earning millions and thankfully doing much philanthropic work, both there and here in our country. Now, how’s that for one shining example of success in the slow lane!

And, why the hurry in this lane?

Citizens may recall that an already wide enough road was widened a year ago, by felling forty fully grown roadside trees, clandestinely, in the cover of darkness, And, this was done after spending crores of rupees, purportedly to smoothen the flow of traffic, that, as we all know, was not at all heavy there.

Today, a tight bottleneck, that slows down traffic to a snail’s pace, has been created on the very same road, by placing barricades, as you can see from the picture I have taken.

Does it make sense? If this is how we do our city planning, can I ask what the need was, to hurry with the senseless tree cutting? Does someone in power have an answer to these simple questions?

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