Not every ‘ WHY ‘ requires an answer…
“Why did you choose to become a doctor?” asked my interviewer at my cultural interview at Jeeon HQ.
“ Well, it was a very well thought-out brainwash by my parents” I said without much delay, because it was true! However that was not completely true…actually it was quite far from it.
It all began when I was a little girl,my father would often talk about my grandfather and what a great man he was and if he were alive life would be so different. I had never seen my grandfather, not even a photograph. So here was little Pushpo wondering what a wonderful life she was missing out on because her ‘oh-so-awesome’ grandpa wasn’t alive. My father figured that I had this void in me because of it and he had his ‘eureka’ moment! He decided to tell the then ‘naïve’ Pushpo how much her grandpa wanted one of his grandchildren to become a ‘DOCTOR’. The excited little girl exclaimed “OMG really?…I’m going to become that Doctor!” Yes folks I walked right into the trap with pride, dignity and grace (what was I thinking?)
So while my friends at school wanted to be superman, batman, Barbie or the local ice-cream man, I wanted to be a doctor. I was going to grow up, become a doctor, go back to my grandfather’s village, treat all kinds of patients for free (CRAZY ROBIN HOOD DOCTOR) and make my grandpa so proud in heaven! I bought all the doctor toy sets, checked my dad’s heart with a plastic stethoscope and fed him jelly beans as medicines. I told people left and right that one day I was going to be Dr. Pushpo!
When I was in my teens, I studied extra hard and was labeled as the ‘nerd’ but I didn’t care because becoming a doctor was clearly more important. My best friends dropped biology right after IG’s but even that didn’t hold me back from taking it up for my A-Levels. I could never imagine to be anything else (this my friend is effective brainwash!).
After completing my A levels my dad brought me back to Bangladesh, the land where there is 1 doctor for every 3400 patients. Clearly this is where Dr. (ROBIN HOOD) Pushpo was dreaming to be! Soon I started studying for my medical entrance exam and that is when I realized that I should have thought of a PLAN B, but it was too late. So here I was studying the anatomy of a cockroach (zoology) and the importance of cycas (botany) and GOD-Knows what else! I successfully failed the Public Medical Entrance Exam and packed my bags and was all set to go back home. However My dad was not going to let years of his efforts to go in vain right? So I was made to appear for another medical entrance exam and unfortunately I passed ( sigh…no…deeeeep sigh!!!) And 6 painful years later I became Dr. Pushpo Babul Hossain.
Now having read all that, one must think that she really didn’t want to be a doctor, she probably regrets studying Medicine and she had no reason whatsoever to ever become one! Well, this is why you should not be judging someone halfway through an article!
My father lost his father when he was really young. My grandfather was barely 60 when he passed away due to what I now figure was a cardiac arrest. At the time there were no doctors available at his village in Keranigonj. The nearest health facility was at Dhaka and at the time the only way to get to Dhaka was by boats. Due to lack of awareness and accessibility to healthcare, little Pushpo never saw her grandfather. She grew up with this void in her that still exists today. Even though her father had effectively brainwashed his little daughter into becoming a doctor at a very young age, what kept that ambition alive was that she never wanted another granddaughter to miss her grandfather. She believed that everyone deserved to see and meet their loved ones and that lack of healthcare was not going to be one of those things that would deprive people of such happiness.
Yes, I hate the process of becoming a Doctor-the sweat, tears, sleepless nights, lack of social life ,financial security etc. But I love ‘BEING’ a doctor and holding a sick person’s hand and assuring them that they are going to be alright and I’m going to do everything in my ability to make it happen.
So the complete answer to the question “Why did you choose to become a doctor?” would be “Well, It was a well-thought out brainwash by my parents and to be honest I’m glad that they did it because I love being Dr. Pushpo”
Being the impulsive person, that I am, I don’t always know why I do certain things but what I do know is that certain things we do, is just for our soul. And not everything can be explained and that’s okay. You don’t need to answer every ‘why’ that comes your way, as long as your soul is at peace with what you do. Thus I figured that Jeeon is one of those certain things that I do not have an explanation for, but what I do know is that Jeeon and I have something in common. Maybe it’s the dream, the passion or that intangible substance that none of us at Jeeon have ever managed to describe in its entirety…and that again is okay, because not everything requires an answer.
