When the cream turned sour...

I still remember the day i got my medical common entrance results... of the thousands who had appeared for the exam i was in the top 100.
i was going to join the elite group of doctors. study and train in the premier institute the state had to offer. in short i had achieved what all the school , college, classes teachers keep harping about "bache padhai karo tabhi to bade ho kar doctor ,engineer banoge." the quintessential indian middle class mentality.. i say middle class because the rich have enough money to put their kids in private colleges and the poor and underprivilidged,if they r privilidged to be from lower classes have reservetions. i say indian dream because only indians r still fixated abt the dr degree.
and so the journey started ..the voyage actually.
five and a half years later and i am still on the road to be a doctor.
after four years my engineer friends started earning..
after these five and a half years my Bsc plus mba degree friends have started talking of pay packets..
i have no complaints...but when i heard that our course is going to be extended to 6 and1/2 years.. that is when the cream started turning sour.

The day i got my common entrance results, the colony kids came asking..
didi what book to read, how many hours do u study, what do you eat...which classes did you join.
The first day of our med college our dean addressed us ..welcome u now belong to the cream of society. you were the best students in your respective schools , the meritorious scholars of your colleges and now you will be doctors... the CREME DE LA CREME.

five years hence i travel 3 hours to a health centre in a rural part of bombay called malvani, spend the morning seeing kids, elerly ppl, dispensing medicine, vaccinating kids, going into the homes talking about Aids, counselling pregnant women about nutrition .. travel back...and STUDY. i study in the train, in between patients , after coming back in the evening.. why? because my future is not secure. because i have yet another common entrance to give.. to be part of yet anothyer creme de creme society of the post graduates.. But the cream is slowly getting sour.

We already have one year of internship, in which we get i stipend of 1700 a month.. 2oooo a year.. which most of my own batch engineers earn in a month but i am ok with that.
when does the cream get sour? when the govt makes the internship for two years.. when our future is on hold for another year, or more.
people say.. but you like serving people, you are doctors you should serve people- yes , i care, but for 1700 a month ! and with an uncertain future! i care but at my own cost?! and why are doctors singled out to care for tyhe rural india?
people say that we will earn later in life...how much later ..i am 23, another year of internship 24..one year to prepare for entance ..25.. three years pgt..28... three years rural post graduate bond..31... setting up practice ... 35.
and we were the cream of society...