My first memory of my medical college days is of a professor who would ask me strange questions during the bedside clinic, such as: “Where is Kamshet?” or, “Where are the Alpana Talkies?” As an outsider to the city,I had no clue of the correct answer. Everybody enjoyed such interrogations except me. I later learnt that many rural students had the same experience.

I know that many rural students were toppers in their own schools before coming to medical college. The alien and unfriendly environment of the medical college, the language barrier, and the tensions of parental expectations, all affected them. I know of two students who committed suicide.

Caste was another thing that mattered. While high-caste students themselves were very friendly with others, many professors discriminated. I still cannot believe my own experience: during my final year surgery examination, a distinguished professor asked me my caste! He even asked what I was doing in medical college, of all places. Such experiences did affect my learning process severely.

I tried to quit in the second year, despite good marks, because of these tensions and because of money problems. I received a scholarship, and stayed on only because I could not let my parents down.

As it is, students are young, facing the tension of growing up and joining the real world. Many don’t find their feet easily. The system must identify such students and support them. Teaching – and learning – involves more than mere transmission and absorption of knowledge. It has to be personal.

Ethics received a backseat in the education process. It was certainly not taught in college.

In a way the education system reflects the tensions in society and passes on the same messages. When a professor looks down on his students and bullies them, the student learns to treat patients in the same manner.

One problem that I see today is that doctors are not from the communities they are supposed to serve. They may not even speak the same language. This class difference is very pronounced. Doctors often use the familiar form of speech with their patients, even their elders when they should be addressing them in a respectful way.

I sometimes see doctors exchanging sexual comments in operation theatres when women patients are undergoing anaesthesia. But I am sure that this is not a general case.

Doctors have little understanding of other areas of life. They blame patients with tuberculosis for not taking their treatment, they say women don’t use contraceptives because they just don’t care about getting pregnant. This may not be outright unethical, but I wouldn’t like to be treated by a doctor in that manner.