The Profession Of Saving Lives

- Somesh S Menon

When time came for Vinod Xavier to choose his future course of study after class 12, the then-17-year-old was unperturbed. As long as he could remember, he had his eyes set on only one goal. “I was clear that I wanted to do something good for society, something that would visibly impact people’s lives. Besides this, my favourite subject at that point was Biology and the reason why I pursued PCB in Classes 11 and 12. Post that MBBS was a given,” he says. The Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery course, or MBBS is the established path to becoming a doctor of modern medicine in India. It takes clarity of thought, immense dedication and unending hard work to become successful in the profession. But if you do succeed, becoming a doctor is undoubtedly one of the most rewarding professions.

“I had a less than 40 percent chance of getting through an MBBS course, given the level of competition involved. But unlike my peers, who kept aside various backup options in engineering, I was very clear that I only wanted to apply for MBBS courses. Everything thankfully worked out and I haven’t regretted my decision for a single day,” says Xavier, now a doctor doing his DNB in Internal Medicine at Sagar Hospitals, Bangalore.

Varying roads to MBBS