Internship at Sathya Hospital – Tejaswini from Mount Carmel College
Failures are never the end of the story, they are little baby steps that pave your way towards success. Tejaswini who at once lost all her hopes now is determined to excel in her career. It is not always about following the right way, sometimes going off the track also leads you to the right path. Here is an inspiring story for all of you to read.
It was that time of the year. The dried leaves of autumn, the results of my medical entrance exam saying “FAIL” and another mundane year ahead of me. What have I ever done for myself these past two decades, I often questioned my conscience. When I look at my dad I think, he did all right. He grew up to be such an intellectual man with power and humility embedded in his very nature. I was far away from getting things right in my life. One evening while I was escorting my dad from the car to his room after a long tiring day, he stopped after we had climbed some 14 steps and said to me “why are you so dull? You must treat failure and success alike”. I rolled my eyes at him and said “urgh daddy, nobody really follows that “. He grinned and said how about I make you a deal, since you have some free time on your hands. I still seemed disinterested and we continued walking. He then said that he would let me assist him at his hospital for a few months if I gave him one good reason why I wanted to work at his hospital and dedicated 12 hours a week. I remained silent and we didn’t talk about it in the following weeks. That Gandhi jayanti, I marched to his room and said “I’ve been thinking about it and I would like to assist you” he immediately said “tell me why?” I replied “because I have a plan that none of your other employees have”. He asked me to return with a neat plan having details concerning it. After a brief reading he looked me in the eye and said “you start tomorrow and remember if your plan fails you will have to withdraw your assistance”.
I began work soon, and I tried to look into what my father’s hospital lacked. Some weeks later we conducted a free health check up camp at a slum, organised a blood donation drive, printed flyers the very next month and helped spread oral hygiene in the local schools by distributing toothpaste. We also helped spread awareness for communicable diseases. Before I knew it, we had made so many administrative and health care changes for the well being of our patients. The changes were as small as getting the air conditioner to work in their room or even more as asking for feedback. Before I knew it, my sister and I had spent months trying fixing that was wrong at Sathya hospital. I was required to be on time every single day with no excuses and provide a note of absence if required. I was told that lunch was provided at the hospital canteen on the 3rd floor and I was treated no different than the other employees. Sometimes I would get angry at my father for not treating me like I’m his daughter at work but soon I realised that your DNA must not define you. In fact how you exercise and transform it is what really causes a healthy evolution and along the way I couldn’t be anything like Dr. Shantha Kumar, whom I admire very much. But I most certainly understood a key element that parents should pass on to their children or an employer to an employee is equality. Being around doctors and surgeons I couldn’t wait to be one myself. Watching the patients thank the staff was a sight worth waiting for. Now I had more reason to pursue this career and I was less concerned about my failures. Who said an internship only makes your CV better looking? Internships can sometimes be a path to self discovery.
My father summoned me one morning gave me a bite of his idly-sambar and handed over a sum of money. He said “now you can go shopping, you deserve it”. It was those bucks that I had earned. Am I seriously going to spend it on shopping? Give me separate money for shopping daddy” I demanded.
If Tejaswini’s internship experience motivates you, you can view the latest internships in Bangalore and latest Medical internships.
Editor’s note– Have you got an internship story to share? A chance to win cool Internshala T and other cash prizes by sharing your internship story here.
