Hello NL team,

I am Dr Khushwant Singh and I’m a subscriber (makes for a wonderful entry line, doesn’t it?). I am usually busy with work all day and the only time I get to listen to Hafta is in the grey area between lying on the bed and falling asleep. So yeah, I sleep listening to you guys.

Anyway, coming to the point, there is one panelist whose point of view I have never been able to understand, that is Madhu. Probably she is a little too intelligent for me or a little too high up from the ground. But this week her views were way too disappointing. Let me tell you why.

Firstly, ma’am, you suggested a compulsory overworked internship in a hospital like Safdarjang for doctors to know what India is like. Well, surprise, surprise, internship is compulsory and every government hospital is overcrowded and crazy like Safdarjang. That’s our rite of passage, ma’am.

About rural service, I’ll tell you my story. I am from Jammu and Kashmir and we have no compulsory rural service there. But probably because I read a lot of books on ideals and principles, I voluntarily chose to work in the rural areas instead of moving to big cities, going abroad or higher education like my peers. I chose Uttarakhand as I loved mountains and the health condition there is deplorable. I have worked in the remotest villages, worked at glaciers and have been the only doctor in a 100-km radius. I have seen people die because of lack of basic medicines in my hospital. A patient bled to death in front of my eyes because there was no suture provided by the government. Hospital after hospital, town after town, I saw people die in my hands because I had no medicines. Imagine what that does to a 24-year-old mentally. I still feel like an accomplice to their murders.

Add to that, the meagre salary was never on time. There were no senior doctors around so I stopped learning. I missed out on higher studies. So after two years of sticking to my ideals, I moved to a corporate hospital, where I’m paid well, on time, work and learn with the best neurosurgeons in the country, provide the best care available to every patient who comes to me and most importantly, I am guilt-free. I hope everyone understands that doctors are human, and not faith healers or magicians who do not need medicines or instruments.

If this is what happens to a doctor who was motivated and willing to work in the villages, then tell me Abhinandan, for I expect you to understand what I feel, why shouldn’t I say a big F*** YOU to everyone advocating compulsory rural service for doctors?

Dr Khushwant Singh,

Dehradun