Ashiq Pramchand, a 23-year-old medical student, is a pianist, a student of northern and southern Kung-Fu styles, a TV presenter, the manager of a tech company, the founder of a student club and a table tennis champion.
The accomplished Durban man believes his real adventure began in medical school, so it was only natural for him to write a book about it.
Pramchand’s newly published book, titled The Great Medical Student Odyssey – Tales and Adventures in Medical School, details his journey at the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine and illustrates the incredible adventure and harsh realities of medical students in SA.
Each population group taught me profound things about the human condition that society does not usually see.
“Thousands of hours are spent at the bedside and in the operating theatre. Blood will be drawn. Tutorials will be attended. Friendships will be forged in the wards – those democracies of appearance. You will see patient gowns, devastated and relieved complexions, tubes and IV lines. In this crucible, where life is renewed and taken away; we witness some of life’s most beautiful and crushing moments.
“These places are autoclaves for the soul, where pressure, high patient caseloads and low resources purify us – they force us to abandon or challenge our vices, to help others. These experiences are life-changing and profound. In my anecdotes, I try to capture this profoundness ... The clinical years are where the real adventure begins,” Pramchand said.
During his time in medical school he has met countless people across many age groups, from newborns to the elderly.
“Each population group taught me profound things about the human condition that society does not usually see. I wanted to elucidate our work, share some of my life-changing accounts in medical school and give future medical students a better understanding of what medicine entails. I love writing as well. Writing a book felt like the natural path to follow,” he said.
Inspired by his parents, both in the medical profession, Pramchand enrolled in medical school and developed a passion for medical writing while serving as a research placement at the Centre for the Aids Programme of Research in SA (Caprisa) and the KZN Research Innovation and Sequencing Platform (Krisp) laboratories. His passion resulted in three publications.
As one of the top medical students at UKZN, Pramchand has been instrumental together with his twin brother, Ishq, in the creation of a student organisation that aims to improve the speaking and writing skills of healthcare professionals through the development of lectures and study resources for students.
Pramchand has also played an active role in UKZN’s SA Medical Students Association (Samsa) for five years, during which he served as its vice-president, treasurer and research director. Through Samsa, he formed a partnership with Habitat for `Humanity, an NGO that builds homes for disadvantaged rural communities. While working in rural Umgababa, Pramchand was instrumental in tuberculosis education and awareness as well as arranging free HIV testing for community members.
A keen pianist with more than 17 years of classical training and a student of northern and southern Kung-Fu styles at the Chinese Martial Arts and Health Centre in Durban, he also manages a small technology company called ZavourIT, which creates apps to help South Africans find solutions to unemployment.
Pramchand also represented KZN at the SA table tennis championships in Bloemfontein. He is a TV presenter and voice actor for a local show called African Essence.
He laughs when asked if people brand him an overachiever. He laughs harder when asked if he ever sleeps.
“I feel that there is always enough time for the people and things that matter to us. I choose not to seek them as discrete or individual skills and hobbies, but a series of things that I do that all complement each other in some way. By developing one skill or hobby, we actually develop many skills at once. Discipline is also a necessary factor that ensures that I optimise my time for each of my hobbies,” Pramchand said.
He said the take-home message from his new book was that the relationships doctors formed in medicine are crucial to developing themselves as healthcare workers and as human beings.
“By taking the time to explore new skills and connect with other people as much as we can, we can learn more about people, have more fun and seek beauty in our art.”
