A night on the town. One of the doctors that we work with and his wife invited the group to party last night at one of their favorite pubs. The food was good, the drinks were ordered and everyone was dancing. It was interesting to see the night life of Bombay, being one of the more cosmopolitan cities here in a very conservative country. The men were definitely more abundant than the women—no different than any other club I’ve been to—and it seemed the bulk of them hovered around our group with the hopes of dancing with the Americans. It seems universal as well that it’s the women that dance while the men drink. I always love to watch people in these types of social situations since I don’t drink but don’t feel uncomfortable around those that do. After a fun night of drinks and music and dance a few of my companions were a bit more tossed than planned. For the most part it didn’t stop anyone from rotating through the hospital this morning but a few were drowsier than others.

Today’s rotation was one of the more informative sessions so far, not so much from the perspective of medical knowledge, but more from the observational view. A few of the patients that came in had manifestations that didn’t have any specific diagnosis like one man with ulcers all over his tongue that had no distinguishing morphology. What took the cake was an internist working in the medical out-patient clinic. An advantage to being a pre-medical student is the justification for not knowing answers to the questions that the doctors ask about clinical situations. My roommate is just finishing his final year of medical school at Boston University and doesn’t have that same escape from the clinician’s purposeful harassment. Part of learning medicine is extensive testing by doctors that have passed through the training ground of experience. It was eye-opening to see the trial by fire that I hope to pass through soon and amazing to see the immense knowledge that this veteran doctor had. My roommate did well and handled the inquisition with composure.

After leaving the hospital we accompanied an o.b.-gyn to the slums with some residents for a free community outreach clinic. A local government leader from the area had set up the program with the doctor and today was the first day. Although most of the woman came with no gynecological complaints it was interesting to see this massive group of woman gather to receive healthcare and shoo out all the men with the exception of us and the driver. The clinic was held in a large hall with a stretched canvas tarp serving as partition. The pretense of a line passed by the residents who took medical histories, to shuffle past the canvas to receive physicals, at which point we didn’t see the women until they left. To entertain ourselves, we practiced Hindi with the kids.