never wanted to be a doctor when I was young. I was a student of Pharmacy at Dhaka University for three months. All of my elder brothers were engineers, they all wanted me to be a doctor. They tried to convince me, but I didn't listen. My eldest brother knew the only way to change my mind, he made my mother talk me into taking the medical admission test. So I took the test and was selected for Dhaka Medical College.
During my first and second year at DMC, I studied, but I could not put my heart to it. But there was no other option, I had to continue. My interest in medical science grew during my 3rd year, when I came to the ward for the first time. My teacher, professor S. G. M. Chowdhury, was an extraordinary person. In my first class he asked me to take history of a patient of Myocardial Infarction. As I was presenting the history, he asked me few questions which I could not answer. He did not scold me, didn't utter a word, just pointed his finger towards the door. I left the ward silently.
It triggered a fire within me. since then, I tried my level best to give my full attention in all of my classes. It made me examine each and every patient with care, and as I came close to the patients, I realized how much happy I was to help people.
If you see a DMCan from our time, you can tell right away that he/she is a DMCan, no introduction is ever needed. This is due to the environment we had at that time. You don't even know how much the environment here at DMC has changed. There used to be cultural week and indoor games here at dmc. The scholars of the country used to attend these events as guests and judges. I still remember those poems recited by Golam Mostofa, he used to recite 8 to 9 poems at a stretch and we used to be mesmerised by them. we had a very enjoyable student life. We used to bunk classes to watch movies, eat at chokbazar wearing ‘lungi’. We played football too. We had sessions on poltical ideology too. There was student politics, political meetings and all the excitement that came with these things, but we drank tea at the same table afterwards. Student leaders were successful in their academic life too. Politics and education went hand in hand back then.
I always tell the young doctors of these days, there is no need of extraordinary brilliance in medical science. The main prerequisite is to be a good person. If you persevere, if your will is strong enough, you can be a good doctor, a good human being who serves the humanity.
Dr. Md. Azizul Kahhar
DMC K-34
Professor of Medicine
Dhaka Medical College