Robert Frost and medical students

I am not well read in Frost ( or poetry in general for that matter), but there are some lines that somehow stick to you over the years

Like the classic
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep

Or the lesser known, but equally memorable

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Now why this sudden burst of poetry , you may ask. Well, the poems above must be appealing to any student in Kerala unfortunate enough to choose medicine as their career. I share part of the pain as my wife is a medical student too.

Now here comes the "unfortunate" part of the choice of a medical career. You would know that MBBS is worthless, you need an MD to survive. If you want to excel, DM is a must. Here is where the completely illogical compulsory rural service bond enforced by the Kerala government comes into play. See the table below to get a sense of this atrocity. 

Degree	Years to complete	Bond period  (years)	Amount to break the bond ( Rs. Lakhs)
MBBS	5.5	3	5
MD	3	3	15
DM	3	2	25

Total years for completion = 19.5 , assuming that you clear all the entrance exams in first attempt. You enter the system as an 18 year old, and if you are really brilliant, you can leave at the tender "young" age of 37.5 !! And during the bond period, you could be posted to any village health center, pretty much anywhere in Kerala.

Contrast this to engineering where right after 4 years of studies the students start earning. Higher studies in Engineering ?? You must be kidding !! Why this disparity of treatment is something that fails my logic. What we lack in rural areas is not so much in terms of healthcare, but more in terms of basic infrastructure like power and roads. So all the case of government to do rural service agreements for engineers, one would think ...

As a husband of medical student, I know I am doomed :((. There is pretty much no hope of a family life any time soon .... Maybe things will change , maybe sun shall rise from west.