Medic
Liter
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he only book I know which was a must read when
I joined MBBS was ‘Doctors’ by Erich Segal. I had
never explored this genre. But I did read it and it
was very good. The story was about a couple and their jour-
ney through Harvard Medical School days till much later. At
least one gets to know about the stereotypes one associated
with the medical profession. Then much later, my brother
gifted me a book by VS Ramachandran and Sandra Black-
eslee called ‘The Phantoms in the Brain’. It is a masterpiece of
work. The book is a compilation of extremely interesting neu-
rological diseases in the form of cases and how Ramachandran
deals with them, understanding them, postulating of a biological
basis, understanding the complex neurophysiology and then pos-
sibly the treatment. It was pure fascination that got me through the
book in a jiffy. Phantom limb, and cortical plasticity was something
I learnt through this book much before I did from Ganong in the first
year. When one senior asked me before the professionals about corti-
cal plasticity (he was challenging me), I recounted Ramachandran not
Ganong. I realized that you understand and retain much better from such
books when it is told in an interesting ‘literature like’ way and not a textbook.
Due to the interest developed by Ramachandran, I searched for other such
books, on interesting neuro books and I discovered the amazing world of Oliver
Sacks. Oh, that man and his writing! Pure brilliance! His TED talks are no less. I started
with ‘The Island of the colour blind’ because this was a book recommended to me during
my schooling by my family physician when she learnt that I was colour blind. My parents had
a lot of queries if it would be a hassle as I wanted to become a doctor. Coming to the book, it