When we were undergraduates in MBBS, we used to stay in hostels in pathetic conditions. The latrines were un-usable and the corridors unclean. Once people of Indian Medical Council came to the hostel for inspection. Looking at the appealing conditions of our living, one of them asked, “Do human-beings live here?” One of us replied, “No, sir, only medical students!”
A Professor of mine was relating an incident during his younger days, when he had just started practicing medicine. Once he prescribed a medicine for his friend’s mother-in-law for her head-ache. He came back a couple of days later, and the doc asked him, “The medicine I gave you, did it help your mom-in-law to straighten her out?”
The friend replied,”yes, it sure did straighten her out. We just buried her yesterday!”
During the quiz programme organised to celebrate the New Generation Month, during the tea-break, a naive contestant asked me what I do for a living. When I said that I’m a Gynecologist, he quizzed, “And what do they do?”
I quipped, “A gynecologist is a person who finds faults at places where others find pleasure,” much to the amusement of the listeners.
There was one self-proclaimed philanthropist to whom I always approached for any donation for our club’s service projects, but in vain. Not one to accept failure, just the other day I asked him to contribute generously for the old-age home we visit for the health check-up regularly. He initially protested, but on my persistent appeal, I heard that he has arranged and sent 4 old couples to the house as inmates as his contribution !
A senior colleague of mine, frustrated at a particular taking to alcohol with a vengeance, tried to demonstrate the ill-effects of alcohol to him, put a worm in a glass of alcohol. The worm died soon after. The doctor asked the patient, ‘What did you learn from this?”
The patient, displaying his intelligence, replied, “Alcohol is good to kill worms in the stomach!”
Sometimes, teachings in the sacred books have a different story to tell. The Bible says, “Love Thy Neighbour.” A friend of mine, upon reading the line, advised me : “Please certainly do that, but don’t let her husband know about it!”