HUMERUS IN THE HOSTEL: A Guide to Surviving Medical School

by Nishikanta Verma

WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO BECOME A DOCTOR? Join me as I look back at a time filled with chaos and cadavers, joy and despair. Welcome to JIPMER, a Medical School in the southern Indian coastal town called Pondicherry. Welcome to five years of of a life inside the oven, where a raw school student will emerge, mostly baked, somewhat burnt, as a doctor. Welcome. To my story. JIPMER is one of India's top Medical Institutes. Pondicherry is one crazy town. A mad medley of bikes, scooters, cycles, the odd car and the all-important-pedestrian. But, most importantly for starving students, it also had duty free alcohol, ambrosiac food and an old world charm that refused to be cowed down by the chaos and randomness of a growing, pulsating, alive seaside city. From the very northern town of Chandigarh near the Himalayas, I landed here to start an MBBS degree. I found myself in a town of dosas and sausages, toddy and Bordeaux (often in the same shop), where names were still spelled as Anandakirouchanane and Latchoumibady and where one could get to the very French sounding Romain Rolland Library via the very Tamil sounding Ellaipillaichavady. Between 1993 and 1998, I was here, in this town that grew on me, trying not to drown in a sea of books, exams and waves of despair, with friends for company and a life to experience. HUMERUS IN THE HOSTEL walks you through it all, from Day 1 till graduation. In between lies a tale few have told - what does it take to become a competent, safe doctor? Books? Yes. Exams? Yes. A ton of studying? Yes.But that's not the half of it. Reckoning with the constant threat of inadequate attendance, cats giving birth in the hostel room, fires caused by cigarettes, nearly getting murdered and managing to pass exams along the way, this is a journey told in real-time, as it happened. Enjoy the ride!

404 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 25, 2020