Nightmares in Obstetrics & Gynecology: 5

When I started my postgraduate studies, I was enthusiastic, eager to learn new things, and keen to apply all that theory I had learned as a student. Unfortunately I soon learned that life was not so simple. There were many things that traumatized me; things that had no business being in the academic environment, but were there because there were people and people will be people. There was my Registrar, who probably was unsure of herself. She was a locum of the regular one. She would ask me to be ready for the morning round at 7:30 A.M., and would let me go for breakfast after the round. She would keep me waiting till 8:15 A.M., and then start the round. After the round it would be time for starting the outpatient clinic or operation theater, so that there would be no breakfast. At night, she would keep me waiting to start some intrapartum monitoring until 9:30 P.M., at which time the mess would close. Then she would allow me to go for dinner. There would be no dinner. I missed 75% breakfasts and 50% dinners as a first post resident, and lost 6 kilogram weight in 6 months. She apparently had all her meals in time and actually gained weight. I shudder even now thinking of those days. Then there was my lecturer, who had borrowed my notes when I was a student and she was a Registrar. I had to ask for them back repeatedly after a few months. She finally did return them, but probably held a grudge against me. When I became a houseman in the unit where she was a lecturer, she saw to it that I would not get any operative work. I spent 6 months dressing wounds while my classmate in the next unit kept operating regularly. I did get sufficient operative experience in the subsequent years, but the pain of denial did remain with me for years. I am feeling awkward writing about the Associate Professor of that unit. She had a rich husband, and even without his money she was OK because she drew salary much higher than the stipend I received as a houseman. One day she asked me to give her twenty INR for going to the canteen with another staff member. It was surprising neither had any money. I had that amount in my pocket, and I gave it to her. She said she would return it later. A week went by. We met every day, but she did not return the money. Then she said in front of a number of people she remembered she had to return my money. A month went by. She said the same thing again publicly, but still did not return it. Now it is 24 years since. She met me a few times after I became head of my department, while she had moved on to an affiliated institute as an honorary gynecologist. She has not returned that amount. I resented the loss of that amount then because I was paying for my education from my stipend as a postgraduate student, and the money was important to me. If I had invested it in fixed deposit in a bank, it would have become 960 INR today. I moved on long ago. But life would have been much better without such people around.