Of clothes and the healing touch
A circular issued by the authorities of Medical College in Thiruvanthapuram, Kerala’s capital city banning clothing such as jeans, leggings and ‘noisy’ ornaments has predictably stirred a hornet’s nest, with the fairer sex, who as if oxygen has been denied to them, are up in arms vociferously. I did MBBS in Kottayam medical college in 1983.
I do not recall my classmates belonging to the ‘fairer sex’ wearing jeans and leggings (which leaves nothing—including the dimensions of the lower limbs of the wearer from Gluteus Maximus to Flexor Digitorum Brevis, which are very important muscles of the lower limb, which we call leg, and important details of their inner wear, like colour and brand—to imagination!) They were allowed to wear saris and the white coat over it.
Only North Indian students were allowed to wear the salwar. Those days their ornaments didn’t make noise. Only their tongues did. By God they really did, and one of them still does! They were required to put up their hair neatly. Hair, those days were not straightened or curled through complicated, costly and sometimes painful procedures, putting their creator to shame and a sense of inferior creativity.
Their extremities were not waxed, reportedly more painful than crucifixion— which leaves one to wonder whether people subject themselves to such cruelty as a means of penance for sins committed! Yet, we all learnt medicine. The boys, and surely the girls too. Some did very well. Some like me just about managed to scrape through, for other reasons! Considering the fact that students these days take a mile, should you dare to give them an inch, I can see only one solution to the mayhem the circular, which the students term ‘archaic’, has created.
Why not impose uniforms, which ensures decency, decorum, modesty and appropriateness befitting future doctors? Throwing appropriateness to the winds these days, jeans, leggings—noisy ornaments—and shawls which fail to cover what it is supposed to, are worn by women even to churches.
The attention of hapless men among the congregation is often torn away from the cross to any part of female anatomy of their choice, which are by no means menial! Medicine, I can vouch, can be studied well wearing uniforms and by adorning silent ornaments. Medical students are supposed to treat the sick, and not catwalk the ramp. Intricate details of the doctors’ anatomy is the least of their patients’ concern. No study till date has showed that a skimpily clad doctor improves the survival of patients they treat (I think).