I was interested in becoming a physician, more precisely a cardiac surgeon somebody who plays with people‘s hearts as I understood it at that time! but then life is not as simple as that; there is big gap in wanting something and actually achieving it.

I come from the rural background of a developing country, where I completed most of my schooling. I’m sure you can imagine the standard of education, I need not elaborate…

After discovering the competitive entry system for med school and noticing the board marks of the students who were accepted, my desire to become a med student started to wane… by now I only thought about it during the night what sweet dreams!.

I went to an undergraduate college and studied Psychology as my major. By the time I started college I was certain about one thing - I was determined to study something that I found interesting.

After 6 months of studying I had come to realize that an "interesting" major doesn‘t necessarily lead to a career. So in my junior year, I decided to "get some sense" as my mother called it at the time and change my Psychology major to a Business minor. After another six months or so of studying financial accounting, marketing etc, I started to think that a Business minor was more or less a meaningless degree of useless information.

So I thought, ’OK I am not a psychologist, I am not a business person. What else can I become?’ Then it struck me, ‘Of course! I will become a lawyer!’ I applied to study Law and was accepted and even went to the housing day and met my future classmates. However, after meeting them, I thought that my future as a lawyer would no doubt culminate in me becoming a mean, bitter, old man with a lot of money. Sure, I could become a DA or a "people‘s lawyer" but who was I kidding? I knew that I would probably be too tempted by the money and perks of corporate law to do any of the helping others stuff. This is not what I wanted to become. It was then I realized I wanted to devote my studies to my first love, medicine.

I moved to Delhi and started preparing for my premedicals, believing that somehow I would be accepted to medical school. The day came when I was selected for all of the medical schools I had applied to except one, and I chose to accept the best offer without a second thought.

The first few months were like a roller coaster ride as I tried to adjust to an alien environment with the fear of being ‘ragged’. Whilst ragging was a pleasant experience I came to realize the importance of ragging as a necessary evil when I reached my senior years. Anyhow this has since been banned by the supreme court of India - fortunately or not!

Maulana Azad is a great school; the deans listen to you, the classes are designed with the sole intent of making you a good clinician, and campus housing is the cheapest option you will ever find. We all live together in three high rises across the street from where we go to our classes. This, as you can imagine, can get a little intense at times because we not only live together but we also study together and go to classes together too, day in, day out. But at the same time, it is convenient and secure, especially if you have moved here from other parts of the country.

My advice to first years or premeds out there is: DO NOT LISTEN TO OTHER PEOPLE‘S ADVICE because everyone has their own way of studying and coping. Whilst some students read every book and attend every lecture, others will miss lectures to study independently. It is important to do whatever works best for you. That’s my advice but as I said you don’t need to take it!