6/27/2023 0 Comments Abraham verghese booksIt was a wonderful education, because our professors had just retired from eminent positions in England and had come to complete a year of service. I began my medical training in Ethiopia, in one of four or five then-new schools established by the British Council throughout Africa. I still agree that it requires those two qualities, and I had both. That sentence made me feel that, while not everyone could be a math whiz or a brilliant artist, anyone with a curiosity about the human condition and a willingness to work hard could be a good physician. When he finally arrives on the wards, Maugham writes, "Philip saw humanity there in the rough, the artist's canvas, and he said to himself, ‘This is something I can be good at.'" He decides to return to London and study to become a physician. He's an orphan, but his parents left him money to pursue professional studies. The medical element in the book is minor, but there's a moment when the protagonist, Philip, finds that he can't make it as an artist in Paris. Ironically (because I am now an author as well), a book brought me to medicine: Of Human Bondage by Somerset Maugham. So, it was clear to my brothers and me where our career paths were headed. Middle-class Indian parents see three career options for their children: doctor, lawyer, or failure.
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