Why and How I became a Doctor: Dr. Javeed Nayeem shares his story of perseverance

Mysore/Mysuru: City’s renowned medical practitioner and Star of Mysore columnist Dr. K. Javeed Nayeem shared his story of grit and determination, braving several odds, to become a medical doctor.

Dr. Nayeem, also an author, was delivering a talk on the topic ‘Why & How I Became a Doctor’ organised by Mysore Literary Association at Kalpa Kshetra Auditorium, Vijayanagar IV Stage, in city this morning.

In the talk that lasted close to one hour, Dr. Javeed went down memory lane, recalling how he had to face several challenges in his life, before finally realising the dream of his father who wanted his son to be a doctor. The driving force was his father who couldn’t become a doctor himself due to some discouraging circumstances in life.

However, encouraged by his father’s determination to make his son Dr. Nayeem a doctor, the son had apparently no other choice. His father was so impatient to see him as a doctor that he had sent his son a birthday card addressing him as ‘Dr.’, even before he became a doctor!

“I couldn’t score good marks in PUC exam that proved insufficient to get a medical seat and had to totally withdraw the marks of all the subjects to rewrite the exams and eventually got good marks in the second attempt, to get a medical seat. I got the seat in a prestigious Medical College in Manipal,  but my joy was short lived as Dr. M.V. Subbarao, a friend of my father in Mysuru, dissuaded him from admitting me to that college to study medicine, because that campus was known for indiscipline among students with unhealthy habits,” recalled Dr. Nayeem.

“Being an obedient son, I instead joined B.Sc and towards the end of the degree, learnt that Physics was mandatory to study medicine. Hence I had to study additional Physics course in Yuvaraja’s College,” said Dr. Nayeem.

After the talk, Dr. Nayeem interacted with the audience in a question and answer session that followed. However, though his journey towards studying medicine was a challenge, he could at last make it and help his father realise his dream.

President of Mysore Literary Association Dr. K.C. Belliappa, also the former Vice-Chancellor of Rajiv Gandhi University, Arunachal Pradesh, Founder Editor of Star of Mysore and Mysuru Mithra K.B. Ganapathy and others were present.