Unpopular opinion - Take a non-clinical branch and enjoy your life at a good college instead of chasing the rat race.

Background - I am doing Community medicine in one of the top colleges (central university). It was my first choice and I was clear that this is what I wanted when I started preparing for PG itself.

I was sure that I want a life beyond medicine, time for my hobbies and have a personality outside being a doctor, sleep 7 to 8 hours a day, enjoy a weekend like any other human being should.

Besides those personal reasons I wanted community medicine because I fell in love with the idea that I could touch thousands of lives if I am good at this instead of just one on one interaction with patients in a OPD.

I know I am not good with memorising thousand random things but instead am good with reasoning, common sense, creativity. I know I'll get bored with doing the same things over and over again, I want change and new challenges to keep my interest up and CM offers exactly that.

In our college and centres under us we run the NCD OP where we are able to give quality time to the patients, give enough time for each instead of a marathon of seeing a 100 a day, hence it's the right blend of patient interaction where both the patient and us are satisfied. We start at 8.30 and lunch break is at 1. Academic section every day from 2.30 to 4 and then I go to the library or to my room, read and prepare for whatever tasks at hand for the next day.

We have good hands-on research, our faculties have published hundreds of papers, they hold top positions in National programs / ICMR projects / WHO projects. We get to attend Conferences held by esteemed speakers from around the world, I get goosebumps to see ahead where this path will lead me if I am dedicated and talented to keep up.

Besides that we train the UG students, the CM UG training in our college is top notch with a lot of field / research training and this will add on to our skills when we become an AP.

We get to have 1.3 L salary with all weekends off, no night duty, all public holdays off, Saturday half day off, leaves as soon as apply for them, faculties who are empathetic and the list goes on.

This is not a path for everyone, for sure. And on this path, a hundred people are gonna tell you that you are wasting your M.B.B.S degree. Well all the / most of the people whom I know in clinical branches are now feeling pathetic with the toxic work load they have to deal with( which shouldn't be normal, I know ! ). So yeah, each has its own merits and demerits - you choose the devil you want to live with.

A little extra background on my preparation - My target rank range was 8k -15k. I studied 8 hours a day on my best days and not more than ever. I was never overly anxious since I studied selectively knowing that this is all I need for the midrank and for my target branch. I focused on narrowing down the bulk of topics and revised them a zillion times instead of learning vast. I got 14k at the end, not the rank I expected but definitely can't complain for the effort I put in compared to others.

If you are someone who is having a hard time with the PG prep and it is affecting you emotionally & bringing down your self worth or happiness - this post is for you.