iRADiX

I cannot believe GS traditions can change so fast....

Not since school days , do I remember standing up when a teacher walked into a lecture hall - surely, not during my two years at Ruia, not the five years at GS and of course not after joining radiology.

May be in those yesteryears we were more concerned with truly having respect that just showing it.

But, these are different times...

* GS = Seth Gordhandas Sunderdas Medical College, Parel, Mumbai

What? Do you want GS to go to the dogs. - literally? Do you want them to be the yardstick of disrespectful behaviour? They better stand to attention with heads bowed in veneration!

I do not think so, I do not think, standing up when some one senior walks in is a true show of respect.. may be a show, but not necessarily a true show... may be respect, but, not necessarily true respect. And, I should know; what with the - under-the-breath - expletives that are uttered even as my colleagues stand to a senior faculty or administrator.

So, I find it exasperating when people stand up when I walk into our conference room for a lecture, or into the lecture theater for the occasional UG lecture I give. Thank God, they do not follow it up with a "Good Morning teacher..."

Students and residents standing up..... may be... just about may be .. OK, but what is most embarrassing is this. You see, we have these inter-departmental clinical meetings several times a week. We have senior faculty from various departments coming into our conference room to discuss cases and teach. And. it embarrasses me no end, when they too stand up when I enter the room... and then their poor residents have no option but to follow suit.

Why do I loath this so much.. why do I not feel good when another professor calls me "Sir" and stands up in respect for me. About senior faculty I do not know. No amount of persuasion seems to work. Whereas some have changed from "Sir" to "Dr. Ravi" or "Ravi" over the years, others whom I consider great colleagues and respect a lot - some of them the finest faculty that we have on the campus today - insist and continue to call me "Sir". One particular one is very candid when he says" I do not care what you say Sir, but, I will continue to call you "Sir", Sir.! So, after a while, I leave these folks alone and admire their honesty and candidness at what they feel, say and do.

But what about the kids, the UG and PG ones?

I would like to believe that they really respect their teachers,, I would like to believe that their teachers live up to their expectations and deserve the veneration that students seem to shower on them; but sometimes, I wonder if all that they do is just lip ... err leg service as they "All Rise"

I do not know if you have noticed it lately as to how the new generation of kids rush into lifts, or sit all across on the steps of the college stairs or walk 5 across along our long corridors blissfully ignorant of the inconvenience that they are causing others - junior or senior, patients or staff walking behind them. I do not know about you, I have but rarely seen these kids, make way for others or for that matter even for sick patients. Surely, there may be exceptions to this.. but that is not "as a rule" as it ought to be. And, of course, it was not like this during out times. May be we did not stand up when professors walked into our classes, but we never hogged the staircases, the corridors or the lifts.

But as I never tire of saying, I am sure it is not the fault of the kids, They have never been taught otherwise. They have never been told that true respect is respect for any fellow human being whether it is a poor patient in tattered closes or the Dean in his starched white apron. It is important to see who really needs respect. For making way for a sick patient, or a ward-boy with a heavy load with him or a patient on a wheel chair is the true demonstration of caring and hence respect for our fellow human beings , A way to show that we truly care...

Courtesy is the demonstration of true respect.

So kids, show respect by making way for a patient for the elevator, a trolley on the corridor or a ward boy with a heavy load. Let's "All Rise" to people for what they are rather than for what the signage's outsides their offices or the name tags on the apron pockets proclaim them to be....

And, the next time any one stands up when I enter our conference, he/she is doing it at his/her own risk of having to continue to stand; for, you will never again hear a "Please be seated" from me"

(This essay is inspired by Suboto Bagchi's "The Missing" )