TERROR

 

When one steps into NEET UG preparation phase with a dream in mind, fights through all obstacles just to secure a position in a government medical college, rarely does one imagine that, in the name of securing one’s future, a person ends up with a profession that offers no security at all.

As blood curdling rage burns through the hearts of young medicos, only one unanswered question hangs in the air, “HOW?” One wonders how does one get brutally murdered at a place we call our second home? How do we secure ourselves, being a part of a more vulnerable gender? How and through what parameters do we judge people to identify the Devil in them? How do we ensure justice?

As a medico, every day is a new learning phase. One attends ward postings, OPDs and demo classes where professors and PGTs take turn to teach and help the students to acquire new skills. As insecurity fills our hearts, fear runs in our veins, we remember the faces of the people we see everyday. The intern who prompts answers when we cannot answer the professor’s questions, the professor who uses his own socked foot as a model to explain deformities of foot, the PGT who carefully teaches us how to examine a breast lump, or gently scolds when we cannot wear our gloves properly. Can we not trust them? Can we not go for late night walks around the campus anymore, out of sheer terror? One also remembers the sick, helpless, seemingly stupid patients and their families one sees in the wards. Some of whom are kind enough to allow novice med student to experiment on them, while others are not so kind and say all kinds of incorrect disease history during exams. Should we be terrified before we offer them healthcare?

After years of learning, inhuman hours of service, does a person deserve to die with her dignity violated? As authorities try to cover up for the perpetrators, the scar on the face of Humanity deepens, as the news channels show this news to the families of each and every female medico, parents’ hearts darken with the thought of their daughter’s endangered safety. Concerned, fearful advices come over phone calls, “Do not go out at night. Do not trust anyone.” But is that really possible for the female intern who is the medicine on-call tonight?

One wonders, how to do justice to the deceased and her family? Some people might comment that going on strikes and closing the hospital OPDs for common people is a deadly decision, because sickness cannot and should not have to wait. But silence in such a situation is deadly too. While many people might judge this whole profession because of strikes, it is essential to remember that these same people will choose silence rather than protesting against such heinous offences. There will be some other “intellectual people” who will write long social media posts about how women are responsible for the crimes against them. It is time that we learn to completely ignore such people as they do not even deserve as much attention as hate comments. Justice comes at a price, and it is high time that we steel our nerves and get ready to pay that price.

This incident reminds us of famous dialogue from a Turkish TV soap called Magnificent Century, where the famous Hurrem Sultan tells her husband Sultan Suleiman Khan, “Do not look far Suleiman. The traitor is in the palace.” Indeed, the criminals roam free among us and only when we show them their real place behind bars, can justice be served.