Leaving for India

Today is the day.  Today I leave for India.  It's hard to believe it's here after waiting so many months to go to the country I have dreamed about for a long time.  Julie, Cristine, Michael and I will start our long flight from NYC to Dubai (13 hours...a DVT inducing event), then from Dubai to Chennai.  Mr. Sukumar from Christian Medical College will pick up the weary travelers and take us to our home base for the next month: Vellore.  We will be working in the hospitals, rural clinics and a leprosy hospital, learning from a healthcare system vastly different than our own but simultaneously elegant and extraordinary.

Those are just the brass tax, as my friend Lauren says.  It's harder to put into words how I really feel this morning.  Last night Landon and I had dinner with many of our wonderful friends.  There was palpable excitement as they wished us all off, begged us to bring back souvenirs and told us to bring Cipro in the event of a case of "Bombay Belly".  However, there was also a sense last of how much things are changing in the months to come.  Several of us have already matched into residency (University of Miami for ophthalmology!!!), and the general match is yet to come shortly after we return from India.  We will all likely scattered to fate and the ends of the country, far from each others encouragement and support for the first time in four years.  I have to admit that this upcoming change is in my mind as I embark on this adventure.  I know India will be a time of reflection for me about the rapidly evolving circus-esque adventure that is life as a graduating 4th year medical student.

So now to India....I feel that "it is written" that I am supposed to be going there.  If you don't know this quote, you must watch "Slumdog Millionaire".  (One of my favorite movies of all time, and really one of the inciting influences that led me to apply for the rotation in India.)  "It is written" is the way that the protagonist, Jamal, uses to embrace destiny and it's his mantra that despite the contrary, things unfold as dictated by the universe or whatever deity you so choose as your own.  A lesson I need to remember every day.  I have imagined visual snapshots of what India will be like-unbelievable beauty, devastating poverty, Bollywood, cricket, delicious food, saris-but I know that I am only scratching the surface of a complex country that has the "ability to inspire, frustrate, thrill and confound all at once", according to my trusty Lonely Planet guidebook.

I hope to be able to continue this blog while I am there, pending Internet availability.  But I'm not going to worry about it, because remember, if it is to be, then it is written.....   :)