Doctors are one of the most hardworking and dedicated people you can ever meet. This is the opinion of the future Indian neurologist Abhishek Thapliyal.
We continue to present the stories of foreign students of Yerevan State Medical University after Mkhitar Heratsi. Their impressions of Armenia and Medical University are basically the same, but those stories also have their peculiarities.
Abhishek Thapliyal, a fourth-year student at YSMU Faculty of General Medicine, was born and raised in Delhi, India.
The 22-year-old future doctor says that at one time he was interested in spheres traditionally not connected with each other in a conventional sense, but one day he realized that he had to find common ground between them.
“I was very much into photography. I used to handle my school's photography assignments. I was a bookworm who would spend as much time I could spend between world of fiction and sci-fi and I would geek out as much as I could in our computer labs. To briefly summarize, this was my school life”, Abhishek tells.
In high school senior years a lot of teachers recommended him that he should take up Latin legum baccalaureate aka study law. Abhishek also thought of pursuing engineering. “At some point I considered joining military as well, and, yes, I did apply to film school of New York University”, Indian student adds.
Every profession, in his opinion, has its own right to be pursued: whether you’re a shoe shiner, a chef, a firefighter or a pilot. “My mother has a very cutthroat dialogue about this which goes something like this, and I quote her: “It’s about doing what you want to do with a 100%, taking punches to the jugular and getting back up”. To be brutally honest, my parents are two sage saints who would have supported me in any and every endeavor I chose, which I’m beyond thankful for”, Abhishek says.
He discovered Armenia in 2015, while he was watching Conan O’brien. “I was intrigued and curious about what this land was all about. Later I had educated myself not only about the remarkable cognac/wine production, but also the strength and courage of this land to preserve its culture and heritage after the dreadful events that took place between the period of 1915-1917 under the Ottoman empire”, future Indian doctor emphasizes.
And the more he read about the untapped potential of Armenia in the sector of education and development, the easier he made a decision to call Armenia his second home for the coming 6 years for higher education. “It was a no-brainer that Yerevan was the dream city any student could ever ask for. And the long list of neighboring lush green towns such as Goris, Noyemberyan , Meghradzor etc., can be continued indefinitely. I still remember my first day when I arrived here. Looking out of our huge window in the hostel, we spent a good 30-40 minutes, taking pictures of the purple sky. To say the least, Yerevan makes you fall in love with itself, at first sight”, Abhishek assures.
He said that he had the pleasure to meet some of the best people in his life in YSMU. “Medical University provides a student with all the tools to be one of the best and to be more. The professors are very helpful. The International student department is very informative, our dean and vice deans are always available for students to interact with and discuss their problems as well” the Indian student says.
If it was not his passion for traveling and exploring the world, he would love to stay and work in Armenia. For now, branches of neurology and robotics have fascinated him.
“If someone chooses to follow a medical profession, one has to be very alert and calm at the same time. The doctor have to be mentally very strong”, Abhishek notes.
To all the future doctors and healthcare workers he would advice to be persistent with their drive and work ethic. “One cannot build a whole wall of success in one day, but the best they can do is to add one brick at a time to that wall day by day. And in case of difficulties they have to push themselves and remind themselves about the very root reason and the path they have followed, to chase the successful human being that they see themselves becoming in the future”, Abhishek Thapliyal concludes.
Author: Tatevik Ghazaryan