Prof.
Krishna Nand Sinha was our teacher in the Department of Surgery in King
George’s Medical College, Lucknow. He was a Cardio-thoracic surgeon and an
outstanding one. I remember assisting him, Dr. Vijay Dikshit and Dr. Vijay
Mohan Kohli in many experimental open heart surgeries in dogs before he conducted
the first open heart surgery in a patient in 1980, and the first Coronary
Artery Bypass Grafting in 1981. We all stayed up all night in the post
operative ward. He had keen interest in video assisted thoracoscopic surgery
and also started the first pacemaker implantation programme in KGMC. The
cardiologists picked it up much later. He was a methodical teacher and a very
keen observer of human behaviour. He retired as the Head of the Department of
Surgery in 1998.
He was my thesis guide when I was doing my M.S. in
Surgery. I was attracted to him because of his sagacious nature and calm
attitude. He talked slowly and his thoughts were invariably profound. He
understood that the thesis was an occasion to familiarize me with surgical
research – how to select an interesting research hypothesis which would later
give me the opportunity to make a good podium presentation and result in
publication of a few worthwhile research publications was his top most priority.
I
was the first person in my family to become a doctor, and so unlike a few of my
friends, I did not have the necessary mentorship at home to guide my medical career. Prof. Sinha filled that void admirably. He was my mentor, my philosopher
and my guide. He was of the opinion that a research thesis must satisfy a few criteria
1. It
must be a topic that relates to public health of our part of the country
2. It
should involve a recent investigative modality that is of current interest to
the journal editors
3. It
should teach me a new skill
After
going through many testable assumptions we zeroed in on ‘The effects of tobacco
chewing on esophageal mucosa – a clinical, histological and ultrastructural
study’. Because we would be studying the esophagus, in the same set of
patients we planned to study the oral and pharyngeal mucosa too so that this
data could help us to compare it with esophageal mucosa and also document it
separately into two more research papers.
True
to his meticulous planning, I learnt a new skill – the use of both rigid and
flexible endoscopes for performing esophagoscopy. Prof. Sinha made me assist 50
cases before allowing me to introduce the endoscope under his expert
supervision. I learned to sprinkle Lugol's Iodine on the esophageal mucosa and
biopsy the suspicious areas in the upper, middle and lower third of the
esophagus. He then showed me how the gastro-esophageal junction looked and how
the stomach mucosa was completely different. He also demonstrated foreign
bodies and malignancies and corrosive strictures in his clinical patients, who
had nothing to do with my research. He introduced me to his senior Prof. Pramod
Nath, who in turn showed me what an electron microscope looks like and later
what ultrastructural changes tobacco was producing on the esophageal mucosa.
While to most of my colleagues thesis was a huge burden, over and above their clinical work load, because of Prof. Sinha, my thesis was perhaps one of the most enjoyable parts of my post graduation days. He was a tough task master and those were pre computer days. He made me rewrite my 120 page thesis 14 times before approving it, but the bonus of this hard work was that I had three indexed publications from my thesis, one before my M.S. examinations. His benevolence and kindness was exemplified by the fact that I was the first author in all three papers.
Prof.
Sinha, Prof. N.C. Misra and later Prof. S.K. Bhatnagar were the outstanding
troika who emphasized upon me the value of research and publications. Prof.
Sinha would often remind me that while others will approach a job interview
with the reference of their influential father and father-in-law, your
publications will be your calling cards, and they will be very hard to ignore.
He taught me how to choose a journal for publication, what an indexed journal
was, how to respectfully respond to reviewers and how to handle rejection,
modify the paper and promptly send it to another and better journal.
Even
after my M.S. days I remained in close touch with Prof. Sinha. He and his wife, Prof. Preeti Sinha, who was in Lucknow University, stayed in
Mahanagar, very close to my place, and his continued mentorship was priceless.
After I returned from my overseas training and started my practice, a senior
teacher, who was practicing in a hospital in Mahanagar, invited me to start my
practice in his hospital. I went to Prof. Sinha for his advice. He looked at me
for some time, smiled, and said “Nothing ever grows under a Banyan tree.” This
sagacious insight, astute perception, and erudite understanding of such
delicate matters was the hallmark of his wonderful mentorship.
I
often remember my teachers by their lectures, but with Prof. K.N. Sinha I will
make an exception. I will try to recall a long conversation I had with him one
morning, while sitting in his lawn, and later, when the sun got the better of
us, in the lounge room.
He
was trying to emphasize to me that success in profession and in life are not
very different. Those who achieve one and not the other, or those who achieve
one at the cost of the other, have really got it wrong. Striving for success is
a trait many people share but don’t always know how to accomplish. This need to
succeed causes almost everyone to try their best, however, after some times,
while some are reaching their goals, others still find themselves tired,
exhausted and still lagging far behind. So, there was no dearth of effort in
them, but perhaps not in the right direction.
If
you feel stuck in place, stagnating in life, the "5-Hour Rule" can help you get out of
this situation, he said. “What is the 5-hour rule” I asked. As its name
implies, the 5-hour rule speaks of a dedication of 5 hours a week, or one hour
per day of work, to deliberate learning and self-improvement. This means that
in order to succeed, you have to leave yourself 5 hours a week and devote your
attention to learning only, without distractions or excuses. Not everyone
learns in the same way, but there are several methods to do this to produce the
best results from the process and to understand what you need to change in
order to be more successful:
1.
Reading
The
hobby of reading is shared by many successful people. Swami Vivekananda, Ishwar
Chandra Vidyasagar and Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan were all avid readers. They
all attributed their success to their reading habit which ensured that their
learning never ended. In order to make sure you read and grow, always keep a
book in the bag you carry around, set reading goals like several hours or
several pages a day, and do your best to meet them.
In
today’s day and age, we also have the option to read books on our cell phones
or portable tablets, making reading books that much easier. This is one habit
that has never deserted me.
2.
Thinking
When
you truly want to learn instead of just read, you have a very different
mindset. Instead of approaching a book as “I need to finish this” you instead
say “I’m going to master this. I’m going to know this like the back of my hand.
Understanding what you have read and the information you’ve collected is a key
condition for success and learning. When you spend time reading to learn and improve
yourself, it is also important that you take the time to understand what you
have read so that you don’t feel overwhelmed and tired. It is essential that
you spend the time to cut off distractions when internalizing this information.
A good way to do this is to keep a journal that will help you process your
feelings and thoughts. Writing a summary of what you have read will also help
you process the things you’ve learned and apply them to your work or any other
field you wish to succeed in.
3.
Experiment / Practice
Once
you have begun to learn and understand what you need to do to get ahead and
succeed, you can start the practical stage; make time for yourself every week
or day to try theories or ideas you have. It could be a project in a job you've
struggled with which you've found an interesting way to do or anything else you
want to succeed in. When it comes to practical experience, there are no bad
ideas, and experimenting with different things, "crazy" as they may
be, will allow you to test what works and what doesn’t. A surgeon should practice a new idea again and again in the mind, before translating it in clinical practice. When you find what works,
you can apply it to the "real world," that is, at work or other places
where you are struggling to succeed.
It
is also vital to learn from the mistakes of others because none of us will live
long enough to do all the mistakes ourselves and learn from them.
4.
Don’t confuse working with learning
It
is easy to confuse work with learning, and when we do, people begin to feel
that they are standing in the same place and stagnating. It is important that
you realize that investing many hours at work is not what will guarantee you
success in the future. When you begin to devote time to learning and not just
to work, you can develop significantly. This way you will focus not only on
your daily problems but also on the future and on the way you can strive for it
and your goals successfully. Set apart time for deliberate learning so that
you’re not only consumed with work, but also with other important things that
can push you forward in life.
5.
Focous on self-improvement rather than just productivity
People
often mistakenly think that having a product of their actions means being
successful, but that isn’t true. Success in life is not measured only by
material achievements that can disappear in an instant, but in constant
improvement. Achievements are important, but try not to focus only on them and
what you have at a given moment, but on what you will gain in the long run.
The
biggest challenge in the 5-hour rule is perseverance since people are
constantly out to reap rewards and good outcomes. However, when that doesn’t
happen they may give up and make mistakes that will only push them further away
from their goal. To make sure this doesn’t happen to you, try to focus on
learning and improving yourself, not just on the number on your paycheck, for
example. When you learn that you can do things much more complicated than you
thought you were capable of before, success will come in a way you could never
imagine. For a surgeon, this is priceless!
The
next time you pick up a book that you believe will be helpful to you at work or
in life, slow down. Take notes. Don’t finish the book until you feel you have a
mastery-level understanding of the concepts. Then build a plan for how you’re
going to implement these concepts. It’ll take you twice the time but give you
ten times the return. And, that is how our morning discussion on self
improvement culminated.
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