10 Days in Hell
Names have been deliberately changed to protect people's identities. "Optics is everything," one of my friends used to say about the politics in medicine. How an action looks is given more importance over what it actually does. And whether you like it or not, politics and medicine are always going to inseparable. There is no better example of this than the pandemic. During my first innings in a government setup, I only got a glimpse of the politicians at play. But it was during my second stint in late 2020 that they were truly front and centre. Back then, I was a young, hopeful doctor who was looking to serve in an unprecedented health crisis. I left entrance preparation midway to join into duty in a rural area a good 45 km away from where I lived. My friends thought I was nuts but I felt it was something I needed to do. Not only out of a sense of duty but also to get away after being alone for so long in an empty house. It wasn't long after I joined that I