Hello BookWorms
Medical literature is one of the toughest genres to write in. If you involve too much of medical terminology, your stories end up becoming medical notes. If you minimise the medical aspect beyond a certain extent, it becomes Just another piece of literature.
Hence, telling stories from the hospital zone in my opinion equivalent to walking on the razor’s edge.
This is exactly where Dr Shivam Pandya excels.
Let’s Dissect
Welcome to my dissection table and today I am putting blade to “Cuts and Bruises” by Dr Shivam Pandya.
The Central Concept
The book is a fairly quick read with just 11 stories. All the stories are personal experiences of the author during his surgery residency.
Now, the author could have used this opportunity to just glorify himself by sharing stories of his successful surgical achievements, but the author has used selected stories from his memory bank and mixed them well with the appropriate usage of medical terms to open a window wide enough for a layman to witness a surgeon’s life in all its hues.
The Stories have a range
The author has presented even his failures and errors (Vexing Veins) to send home a motivational message and has successfully shown the doctors too are humans (Brave battles for breaths).
He has presented the dilemma of being a doctor and a member of the fraternity (Mystery Mop), and also shown the sacrifices one has to make in this field (Big birthday bash).
All the 11 stories do a wonderful job of humanising the noble profession of medicine while exposing the reality of Indian Journalism (The Devil wears a lab coat).
My Sole Grudge
If I have to express one negative point about this anthology of short stories, it will be that it is too short for my liking. I sincerely hope that the author will soon come up with a second volume, and that it will be a bit bulkier.
Final Verdict
A must buy for those who go around maligning the entire profession based on the limited experiences with a few rogue doctors, and also a must buy for doctors who have turned too professional or too corrupt.
Read and understand why ours is the most important job in this world.
Important
P.S – My favourite story is “Happy Endings”.
Looks like an intersting read…
interesting*