Day in the life: Drishiya Vats
As a student studying in India, I try to experience as much medicine as I can by getting involved in clinical rotations. I am in my last year of school, I hope to graduate in July. Our program is a five year course that includes six months of internship at different hospitals plus an internship at a zoo. Soon, I will be working with the World Veterinary Services on a project in Goa.
As the rest of the world, we are also experiencing a lockdown, so our classes now are online only and our rotations are on hold for the time being. We are hoping to go back into our school by the end of the year, but there is still uncertainty if we will.
This is what I get up to on a typical day (pre-pandemic) as a veterinary student at Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University.
Breakfast – the beginning of a new day
I live in a large dormitory complex called a hostel, which hosts veterinary students only. We have 100 students in my class. In my unit, most of my roommates are night owls, so I’m usually one of the few awake in the early morning. Some of my friends are Muslim and they also get up around this time for their morning prayers.
My day starts at 5am, so I have time for breakfast and a workout. At 7:30 I go to our college mess (cafeteria) and eat typical south Indian breakfast, like idli dosha sambhar, or eggs and oatmeal. Afterwards, I come back to my room and check my emails.
Clinics in the morning
My university is located in Kerala, a state on the southwestern Malabar Coast of India.
Around 8:45am, I leave my hostel and ride my bike to our university’s veterinary clinic. We first work in the veterinary clinic assisting a licensed veterinarian on their duties. A typical day may be treating a sick dog, vaccinating puppies, or monitoring anesthesia during surgery. We don’t just see dogs and cats, we will also have goats, cattle, birds as patients. My favorite types of cases are dermatology or ophthalmology.
Lunch
At 12:30pm we come back to the hostel’s mess hall for our lunch. A typical lunch for me would be rice chapati or fish and rice. I like to eat lunch with my classmates and we mostly talk about the morning cases.
Lectures and wet labs in the afternoon
After lunch, I head back to campus and we have lectures from 1-3pm on a variety of subjects like surgery, preventative medicine, and toxicology. From 3-5pm we have a practical hands on training, for example, we may learn how to perform a certain surgery or treat a certain type of case.
Dinner – feeding the body and soul
Several times a week, I play cricket or go to the gym after I am done with classes. Cricket is very popular here, so it’s always easy to find a game to join. I also spend my free time at a local stable, riding and also caring for the horses. I hope to join the army following graduation, and having an equine background will make me a better candidate.
Dinner is served at 7:30pm in the mess hall. For dinner I typically have veggies, soup, and naan, which is a round flat wheat bread. Our room and board at the hostel includes meals, but we don’t get many choices, one dish is usually prepared for each meal.
After dinner, I catch up on my textbook reading or work on my assignments. When that’s all done, I will grab a friend to play chess or just talk with friends. I usually go to bed around 11:30pm.
Weekends
On Friday and Saturday nights, I like to have a meal with friends or to watch a movie. Definitely more cricket and horseback riding.
I also like traveling, especially to places where I can enjoy nature. Kerala is one of the prominent tourist destinations of India, with beautiful beaches. The state is wedged between the Lakshadweep Sea and the Western Ghats and has a humid tropical rainforest climate.
My family lives in Uttar Pardesh -which is in Central India and is 3500 km away from Kerala . It takes almost three days by train to travel from Kerala to Uttar Pradesh. Needless to say, I don’t often visit my family during the school year.