Best 3 years of my life....!!! Chapter 1: An outsider (Part 1)

Chapter 1: An outsider (Part 1)

My first contact with NIMHANS was the academic section which was a pleasant surprise, especially coming a day after dealing with the most hostile academic section one can ever imagine at Madras Medical College (MMC)(would need a separate write up if I start explaining how spiteful the people  there are). The staff in the academic section are the most friendliest I have ever imagined and expected. The warmth,  amiableness, approachability and facilitatory nature of the staff was just the initial trailer of the main picture that followed panning out over a period of next three years. 

After the initial admission procedure got over I was directed to go and meet the Head of the department,who during that time was Dr Sekhar P Seshadri, who was in-charge HOD, as Dr SKC has gone on vocation. I went to meet him in the CAP OPD, where to my pleasant surprise I was greeted in Tamil, the language which is the mother tongue of both of us. Friendliness and simplicity of the man struck me immediately. As if the friendly banter between the junior most fellow joining the institute at that time and the HOD is not surreal enough, he took me in person walking with me across the OPD hall to the unit 1 OPD, and introduced me to Dr Shivaram who was in charge of allotting the units. I was almost in a dream-like state unable to fathom whether it was all real or a pleasant dream.  I don't think anyone would have experienced such a humble HOD anywhere in India, especially in the medical set-up. I can challenge anyone any amount as wager for the same. 

My first snap at NIMHANS  (Courtesy: Sisira )

Once I joined the unit 1, Chief of the Unit, Dr BNG, wished me good luck and was chatting with me in such a casual manner which was all alien to me, having experienced strict bureaucratic attitudes from even the junior most assistant professors in a state government medical college all through my UG days. As I was fighting with the deadline to cancel my PG seat I got admitted through the All India PG within the next 5 days to avoid paying penalty of Rs two lakhs and when I reported the same to Dr Shivaram and Dr BNG, they asked me to immediately take leave for two days, go and sort it out and come. That day when I was returning back to Chennai, only thing that was going through my mind was how lucky I was to get into this place. I was even ready to pay Rs two lakhs if things din't happen as I expected. 

I still remember my first day in the OPD, where Dr Naren who was more like a consultant than a SR, asked Mahavir to guide me through the routine. He did it with his usual flair like he subsequently did in the next  two years with our junior batches only this time I felt like a junior listening to a senior. Though the feeling of being an outsider never left me because I was joining twenty days late by which time the introduction of the batch was over and friendships already taking root among those posted in various units. To my eyes colleagues who were working in Unit 1 at that time were looking intimidating to me, (when I think about it now, I can only LOL..:D) may be because of the preconceived notions that I had about people who might have got selected in such a competitive All-India exam as that of NIMHANS.

 Though at one end I was happy to step into such an esteemed and friendly Institute, on the other end I was a bit apprehensive of how would I be able to match up with the nineteen other brightest minds from all over the country who have chosen Psychiatry as their career. It took me almost two months to get used to the place professionally as well as personally before I could feel a sense of belonging. The struggles, discoveries, new friendships and how from being an outsider to the one who became the coordinator of the batch activities, needs to be told.            
                                                                                                 ...... To be continued