The Way We Are. By Naghmi Shirin

Yahya and Nauman have given a beautiful description of their lives after graduation. I thought a lot of people would come up with their stories but perhaps the doctors are the hardest working lot and most pressed for time. Though it takes a lot of effort to pick up the pen but once you start writing then you enjoy it.

I had decided to take up paediatrics when i went through rotation of paedes ward in 4th year. Prof Shaukat Raza Khan was the most gentle and dedicated person I have ever seen. Moreover, when I looked at babies and they smiled back at me, I knew that i would enjoy this specialty (though later I found that they cried more than they smiled).
In final professional MBBS, I was awarded the Burton Brown Silver Medal for standing first in clinical medicine. When i was asked to choose my house job by the board of professors, without hesitation I said "paediatrics", though one of the profs had advised me to take up medicine instead..Anyhow, I enjoyed my house job thoroughly and learnt a lot.
Here i found out that most of our class fellows were very ''Shareef "and a great company. Abdul Qayyum, Aqeel Haider, Israr, Amir Qazi were not only very good in their work but were very pleasant. Most of the time we helped each other against the wrath of professors. There used to be a morning conference
Daily, where we had to present any deaths over the last 24 hours.We always dreaded the questions from Prof Sahib. Once a death occurred in nursery and the body was handed over to the wrong family. They left for their village at night. After a few hours, the mistake was realized. Aqeel was on duty in the nursery. He took the address and left for their village. As the address was not complete, he resorted to announcements from their local mosque. After a hectic effort throughout the night, he was back with the body of the baby before morning, much to the applause of everybody. I think only a dedicated soldier like him could do that.
After my post graduation, I was selected as Dist. Paediatrician. There we had the first brush with the how the things are conducted in Pakistan. The DDs, DHOs the MS type of people don’t like people who are better qualified. So we decided at a very early stage to have our own set up. By the grace of God, we had a very good response and we said good-bye to Govt job and have never regretted our decision. I also worked as a consultant to a trust hospital. Since i loved children, so i have always enjoyed my work.

Recently ,my husband who is an orthopaedic surgeon, has started his pain clinic and I help him along because he is often overworked .I am learning pain management techniques and more over we can spend more time together... I think, all of us, where both the spouses are working should take a break and give more time to each other.