The Envy of the Society

Dr P was a skinny man from india. There was rumour that he was a wealthy kid whose family owned a nursing home back in Mumbai. One then wonders why a respectable wealthy consultant doctor like him would want to suffer demotion and work as a registrar in mini Singapore.

This day, as Dr P, JW, DH and I were strolling along the corridors of the faculty, Dr P began lecturing us on a few short stories of his life.

"When I was a medical student, I was a corky one indeed. All the doctors who taught us found me corky. I thought I was very smart, and I knew everything. Then this well-known professor came to me one day and said to me: 'P, why did you become a doctor?'

"My response was more immediate than lightning. 'I want to make loads of money!' I told him. He said, "You want to make money? Why not I give you a piece of land? And you build a restaurant on it. You will make more money like that than being a doctor. You mark my words and you come and tell me if I am right 10 years from now.'

"So I became a doctor, and realised how right my professor was. It was true. You can make more money running a restaurant! As a doctor, you will never earn enough money to call yourself rich until your hair has turned white!

"But being a doctor is different. You go and ask all your friends if they want to be a doctor. They will tell you they would want to if they were smart enough. You go to a departmental store and you tell the salesman you need to rush back to the hospital for an emergency operation, they will start talking to you and treating you differently.

"If you are a doctor, you are the envy of the society... ..."

This must be the most correct statement about doctors I have heard from a person for a long time. How many doctors can say that they make millions every year? Certainly not more than half. Too many people discern doctors as money-spinning machines with no fear of going into financial dismay. Indeed, I admit the average doctor does get a pretty decent salary. But to say that that would make him very wealthy, I disagree. And even if some doctors end up becoming rich beyond belief, I defend them by saying their hard work has paid off.

Which profession requires you to study all your life? The medical doctor studies and treats the human life. And human life is, undoubtedly, a mystery. There is nothing more stimulating and rewarding than "solving" a mystery. I salute to all my predecessors and I aspire to be one of them. Money must never be the main motivational factor for a career.