AIIMS – The Best?

[This is a long article. It has been made it as real as it can get! This is the most blunt perspective one can give online in a limited time. Hope you don't get bored and understand why the author says what he says!]

Being in the ‘best’ medical college (and hospital) in your nation is such a boost! But I’m not here to talk about how we are the best. I’ll give you an insider’s perspective on what AIIMS lacks and also share my thoughts on ‘Can AIIMSonians call themselves elite?’

What AIIMS is?

• The best… blah blah blah… I’ve spoken enough and you’ve heard enough!

What AIIMS lacks?

• We can be categorized under the colleges whose main aim is to diminish the intellectual potential of the ‘brains’ of this nation using techniques such as rote-learning, memorising, and regurgitatation.
• Learn it all! I mean, even if you hate a subject (like community medicine, dermatology etc), you still got to learn it. Spend hours of your life doing something you don’t like, don’t want to, and which will not even help you in your future… Sounds lame, doesn’t it!
• Lack of constant contact with faculty in the department. Assign a student to one faculty per department (when student:faculty ratio is 1:10, you can do it right?)
• Total lack of extra-curricular incentives for students. Give them extra marks for participation in extra-curriculars like Inter-college debates, sports events, theater etc. Give extra marks to those working with N.G.O.’s (Non-government organizations). Small incentives go a long way if your aim is to create not a robot with gigabytes of knowledge but a socially responsive doctor!
• Lack of Theatre-Club, Movie-Club etc. All our talents are unleashed during seven days of PULSE (our annual inter-college fest) and four-seven days of INFEST (our internal festival). No wonder we suck at almost all events which we take part in. The saving grace are our sports teams (football, basketball).
• Lack of Wi-fi internet connection all throughout the campus (not only the hostel). I mean guys, this is not 1980’s. All the ‘good’ campuses in the nation have it. Why are we left out?
• Lack of a central information system for patients (equally helpful for doctors!) I can’t stress this enough but then, who cares!
• No, I mean, absolutely NO facility for a common patient. if you are a poor man from Bihar, you’d queue up at 6 AM at a counter which opens at 8 AM, waiting in the hot sun for hours before getting a card made. Then you’d wait for hours in front of a god-forsaken OPD room just to get a glimpse of the doctor. You would be taunted, harassed and what not while you struggle for space. And then, finally when you do meet the doctor, s/he would take no more than five minutes to listen, examine, diagnose and instruct you for further tests or medications and you shall be kicked out! Oh! I wish your tragic sojourn would culminate there but if you were to get a test done, you would run pillar to post just to get the date for it. About the beds in the hospital, forget it, you just won’t get them!
• Still dare call AIIMS the best college and hospital? I doubt your intelligence and thought process if you do!

The ELITE AIIMSonians!

• I’ll be writing about this soon.
• This section is inspired by Shashi Tharoor’s article ‘Memories of Stephania’ (HT City – July 16, 2008) in which he talks about the elitism at St. Stephans College, New-Delhi.