Moment:
June 24th at 9:24 am IST
My parents: *playing with a baby and making THE most random sounds while doing some kind of interpretive dance*
Me: Look at people hanging out with a baby, then imagine the baby isn't there...it makes it 100x funnier (side note: 10/10 would recommend haha)
We took an overnight bus ride from Hyderabad, Telangana to Raichur, Karnataka, where my dad’s eldest sister and her family lives. As soon as we set foot in her house, I watched my dad turn into a little brother with his big sister. He and my aunt are 10 years apart, so she was more of a mother figure to him growing up, and I only see them interact when they are together in India, so I sometimes forget that my dad has the same relationship with his two older sisters that my younger brother and I do.
He jokes around with and/or makes fun of them, takes embarrassing photos of them and sends said photos into the family group chat, and reminisces on childhood memories with them. These things happen with me and my brother all the time, and I’ve realized how lucky I am that he’s only two hours away most of the time instead of halfway around the world.
My dad's sister's son/my oldest cousin got married a year and a half ago, but my brother and I had school so we had to miss the wedding, so I never got to meet his wife (my cousin-in-law?). I finally met her during this trip to Raichur, and I am so glad she is a part of our family because she is so accomplished as an ENT doctor yet she is so sweet and down-to-earth.
I also got to meet Tanush, my cousin’s son, for the first time. He’s going to be five months old in July, and he is such a precious child. I’m an aunt! Well, actually I’m a Pinni (mom’s sister), Chinnamma (little mom), or Aunty (my mom says I get to choose), and I 100% would prefer that my nephew calls me Pinni because all of the people I call Pinni definitely have cool-aunt status and I want to be a part of that crew for sure. My first order of business as a cool aunt was putting him in a hopelessly adorable outfit, and because both of his parents are doctors, I got him a Baby M.D. outfit complete with a stethoscope and surgeon’s cap. Cue the aww’s.
My cousin Taranath is an orthopedic surgeon, and his parents started Nandini Hospital. His last name is Nandini, and that is also the name of the city that his family used to live in before they moved to Raichur in Karnataka. Since I am pre-med, he offered to take me and my brother to the hospital so I could see how medicine is practiced in India.
Right when we got there, I immediately noticed a shift in the atmosphere. It was cool to watch because to me, he’s just my cousin Sunny (for all of you who wonder why I don’t let anyone call me Sunny, he’s why) but he just commanded respect everywhere he went in the hospital. He introduced us to some of the doctors, nurses, and managers that were on duty, and I’ve never really needed a translator before, so I think it’s finally about time that I learn some Hindi.
My cousin and I talked a lot about the differences between American and Indian education systems, both in undergrad and medical school, and how the healthcare industries in the two countries differ. The biggest difference I picked up on is that once you choose your career path after 10th grade (high school ends in 10th in India), people don’t really move much off that path, just further specialization or higher education, whereas in the US, at any point in college you can change your major and people even go back to school later in life to change their career path. There are pros and cons to both, but that’s probably going to be a whole other post once I get the chance to do some more research on the subject.
We met up with the rest of the family at home, and after lunch, we all sat down to play some games while a cricket playoff match was airing on the TV in the background. We played Taboo, in which my cousin’s explanations were all about his wife, my aunt’s explanations were all about her grandson Tanush, and my brother’s explanations were all about…Parks and Rec. Talk about priorities!
My brother and I haven’t seen my cousin in five years, and we are all in vastly different stages of our lives than we were last time, so this time he had a lot of light to shed on what it means to become a doctor, which was really valuable coming from someone who had two doctors for parents but still explored all options before ultimately deciding that orthopedics is truly his passion. My cousin taught me a lot about how to survive the grueling journey to become a doctor, and I taught him how to play Taboo, so I think we’re even now.
