Why do so many Indians want to be doctors?

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I think it being his very first post here probably didn't help him
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Another thing to consider not mentioned anywhere is that this 'Merica, and although it's not perfect, is one of the best healthcare systems in the world...
Leaving all that calling to serve and love of people aside of course.
 
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tartesos said:
...'Merica... is one of the best healthcare systems in the world...
Click to expand...
Ummm, so when did you last check the current research on this...
 
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tartesos said:
Care to share on the contrary?
Grass is always greener on the other side...
Click to expand...
http://www.businessinsider.com/best-healthcare-systems-in-the-world-2012-6

That article has some links. The WHO study is 15 years old now and we may be doing a bit better on equality. It should be noted that the factors that contributed to the rankings were health, health equality, responsiveness, responsiveness equality, and fair financial contribution. I have not read the full report, but I would hedge my bets that we did well in health and responsiveness and **** in every other area, considering at the time 15-20% of Americans didn't even have health insurance to begin with. Just on those factors we are 15th. Combined with the fact that we spend more money per patient than anyone else our overall ranking was 37th.

Healthcare is a lot more than treating disease. However, if you have lots of money and are insured I don't have a doubt in my mind that you will find the best healthcare here in the good ol' U S of A.
 
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tartesos said:
Care to share on the contrary?
Grass is always greener on the other side...
Click to expand...
I'll try to remember to post links later (I have them bookmarked). I have a bunch of family crap today.
 
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WillburCobb said:
I'll try to remember to post links later (I have them bookmarked). I have a bunch of family crap today.
Click to expand...

Thanks!
Could have more clear in my post...
It's not the best for everyone( not perfect) but if you had the money to go anywhere in the world to treat yourself, where would you go?
 
Healthcare is a lot more than treating disease. However, if you have lots of money and are insured I don't have a doubt in my mind that you will find the best healthcare here in the good ol' U S of A.[/QUOTE]

This was my point.
Thanks
 
My future parents-in-law said that the only way I was going to be able to marry their son was if I became a doctor. Therefore, since the age of 6, I have been striving towards this goal...

KbKfdtI.gif
(brownie points for those of you who know this movie! :D)

Seriously? A big part of being Indian is compassion. Medicine has that component, and maybe that's why Indians are drawn towards it - not to mention that healers play a HUGE role in Indian Mythology. Oh, and, medicine is a pretty good profession on the whole which is why lots of people, across cultures, are drawn towards it.
 
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A lot of our parents came here for professional school. It's pretty easy to see why they would expect their children to follow in their footsteps.
 
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DoctorInASaree said:
My future parents-in-law said that the only way I was going to be able to marry their son was if I became a doctor. Therefore, since the age of 6, I have been striving towards this goal...

KbKfdtI.gif
(brownie points for those of you who know this movie! :D)

Seriously? A big part of being Indian is compassion. Medicine has that component, and maybe that's why Indians are drawn towards it - not to mention that healers play a HUGE role in Indian Mythology. Oh, and, medicine is a pretty good profession on the whole which is why lots of people, across cultures, are drawn towards it.
Click to expand...


Lol wat?
 
DoctorInASaree said:
My future parents-in-law said that the only way I was going to be able to marry their son was if I became a doctor. Therefore, since the age of 6, I have been striving towards this goal...

KbKfdtI.gif
(brownie points for those of you who know this movie! :D)

Seriously? A big part of being Indian is compassion. Medicine has that component, and maybe that's why Indians are drawn towards it - not to mention that healers play a HUGE role in Indian Mythology. Oh, and, medicine is a pretty good profession on the whole which is why lots of people, across cultures, are drawn towards it.
Click to expand...

The Namesake?

(Only because I read the book and there was a girl with a similar description...and I like random trivia) ;)
 
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Pretty much every Indian person I know said parental pressure started at an early age, and at a certain point you just decide you want it on your own without parental pressure.

I think a lot of Indian people are defensive about the topic of arranged marriages, but one of my friends from school doesn't give a **** and tells me everything lol. He said that being a doctor means he has a much better chance to get arranged to a hotter wife, and that was a big motivation for him.
 
DoctorInASaree said:
My future parents-in-law said that the only way I was going to be able to marry their son was if I became a doctor. Therefore, since the age of 6, I have been striving towards this goal...

KbKfdtI.gif
(brownie points for those of you who know this movie! :D)

Seriously? A big part of being Indian is compassion. Medicine has that component, and maybe that's why Indians are drawn towards it - not to mention that healers play a HUGE role in Indian Mythology. Oh, and, medicine is a pretty good profession on the whole which is why lots of people, across cultures, are drawn towards it.
Click to expand...

I'm actually fairly confident I've seen this movie and now I can't remember. But does it have Shah Rukh Khan? I think I remember him being in it.
 
Lucca said:
http://www.businessinsider.com/best-healthcare-systems-in-the-world-2012-6

That article has some links. The WHO study is 15 years old now and we may be doing a bit better on equality. It should be noted that the factors that contributed to the rankings were health, health equality, responsiveness, responsiveness equality, and fair financial contribution. I have not read the full report, but I would hedge my bets that we did well in health and responsiveness and **** in every other area, considering at the time 15-20% of Americans didn't even have health insurance to begin with. Just on those factors we are 15th. Combined with the fact that we spend more money per patient than anyone else our overall ranking was 37th.

Healthcare is a lot more than treating disease. However, if you have lots of money and are insured I don't have a doubt in my mind that you will find the best healthcare here in the good ol' U S of A.
Click to expand...
In all fairness, if equality is taken out of the equation and only the quality of care received by those with access to care is measured, we are basically the best system in the world. Essentially, our system is high quality and expensive, but low in access. There's also the issue of American lifestyles, which tend to skew our results downward, and the way in which we record infant mortality (any live birth, whereas most countries only count infants toward infant mortality at a certain week cutoff, such as 28 or 32 weeks) which makes our infant mortality figures appear worse than other countries that use different reporting methods. Basically, the rankings can say whatever someone wants them to say, depending on what they care about- if you believe access to care is important and rank it highly, then we will be far from the best, but if you rank outcomes for those with access to the system, with lifestyle factors and income compared on a one-for-one basis to those in other OECD countries, we've actually got excellent outcomes.
 
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cookiemonsters said:
I think a lot of Indian people are defensive about the topic of arranged marriages, but one of my friends from school doesn't give a **** and tells me everything lol. He said that being a doctor means he has a much better chance to get arranged to a hotter wife, and that was a big motivation for him.
Click to expand...


The idea of an arranged marriage sounds very appealing tbh. Don't have to deal with the heartache, games, and all the other things associated with western dating, you don't have to worry about finding the right one and can focus on other things, from what I understand you usually have a choice in who you want to marry, and honestly parents are sometimes better judges of character than young adults. Plus they usually have much lower divorce rates

The one downside I can see though is if your parents FORCE you to marry someone you have no interest in, that would suck.
 
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famoussquamous said:
The idea of an arranged marriage sounds very appealing tbh. Don't have to deal with the heartache, games, and all the other things associated with western dating, you don't have to worry about finding the right one and can focus on other things, from what I understand you usually have a choice in who you want to marry, and honestly parents are sometimes better judges of character than young adults. Plus they usually have much lower divorce rates

The one downside I can see though is if your parents FORCE you to marry someone you have no interest in, that would suck.
Click to expand...


lol. my parents tried this pseudo arranged marriage nonsense. resulted in an engagement that blew up in everyone's faces and them resigning themselves to the fact that I won't be marrying an indian guy.
 
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cookiemonsters said:
Pretty much every Indian person I know said parental pressure started at an early age, and at a certain point you just decide you want it on your own without parental pressure.
Click to expand...

This pretty much sums it up. I think it's a cultural thing…I grew up seeing my elder cousins become doctors or engineers and learning about the nobleness behind the medical profession. And that slowly translated to a passion for this career :)
 
DoctorInASaree said:
My future parents-in-law said that the only way I was going to be able to marry their son was if I became a doctor. Therefore, since the age of 6, I have been striving towards this goal...

KbKfdtI.gif
(brownie points for those of you who know this movie! :D)
Click to expand...

Kal Ho Naa Ho. Lovee this movie! <3
 
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cookiemonsters said:
Pretty much every Indian person I know said parental pressure started at an early age, and at a certain point you just decide you want it on your own without parental pressure.

I think a lot of Indian people are defensive about the topic of arranged marriages, but one of my friends from school doesn't give a **** and tells me everything lol. He said that being a doctor means he has a much better chance to get arranged to a hotter wife, and that was a big motivation for him.
Click to expand...

For me, this was exactly it. After being pressured (although not very hard, it was mainly just stories about how they wanted to do medicine when they were younger) from a young age, I decided to give it a try (my first choice was business). I fell in love with it on my own.

To address the discussion about helping people, I think all of us have consciously or subconsciously decided that with our given talents, love of science, and drive for success, medicine is one of the most impactful things that we can do to improve the world. Yes, you can help people working at McDonald's, but for the majority of people here, you can have a much bigger impact in people's lives as a physician.
 
Does law rank up there?
 
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fancymylotus said:
lol. my parents tried this pseudo arranged marriage nonsense. resulted in an engagement that blew up in everyone's faces and them resigning themselves to the fact that I won't be marrying an indian guy.
Click to expand...


Any particular reason why? Do you just prefer white guys or is it a disdain for Indian guys and their culture? Was the guy a loser?
 
fancymylotus said:
lol. my parents tried this pseudo arranged marriage nonsense. resulted in an engagement that blew up in everyone's faces and them resigning themselves to the fact that I won't be marrying an indian guy.
Click to expand...

I really hope I don't have to go through that to convince my parents the same thing! :sorry:
 
famoussquamous said:
Any particular reason why? Do you just prefer white guys or is it a disdain for Indian guys and their culture? Was the guy a loser?
Click to expand...

She never said anything about white did she?
Maybe she's rebelling and refusing Indian guys because of that. She might end up marrying an Indian guy, of her choosing.
Or a Just a guy of whatever race country etc.
 
Um, I feel like we are ignoring a fairly large contributor to this question as Indians and Pakistanis are a part of the second largest ethnic group (Hindustani). Coupled with the many responses given above, it's not that surprising (statistically speaking) that so many Indians want to be/are doctors.
 
TexasSurgeon said:
Kuch Kuch Hota Hai

As far as not marrying an Indian guy, maybe you just haven't met the right one. I wouldn't paint everyone with the same brush
Click to expand...

Lol no it's actually Kal Ho Naa Ho…

And yes, I agree with this. There are some really great Indian guys out there…sometimes, arranged marriages can help you find that person (you never know!)
 
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bluepeach9 said:
Lol no it's actually Kal Ho Naa Ho…

And yes, I agree with this. There are some really great Indian guys out there…sometimes, arranged marriages can help you find that person (you never know!)
Click to expand...
Haha yeah that first movie was. But lotus' comment "cheater" reminded me of kuch kuch hota hai cause they say it throughout the movie


And yeah I agree with you
 
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TexasSurgeon said:
Kuch Kuch Hota Hai

As far as not marrying an Indian guy, maybe you just haven't met the right one. I wouldn't paint everyone with the same brush
Click to expand...


Not looking anymore :)


tartesos said:
She never said anything about white did she?
Maybe she's rebelling and refusing Indian guys because of that. She might end up marrying an Indian guy, of her choosing.
Or a Just a guy of whatever race country etc.
Click to expand...

I'm just done trying to date someone to make my parents happy. It took long enough to untangle myself from the mess that happened the last time I did that.
 
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fancymylotus said:
Not looking anymore :)

I'm just done trying to date someone to make my parents happy. It took long enough to untangle myself from the mess that happened the last time I did that.
Click to expand...

The dramatic irony is ripe. I like.

- Cheez.
 
Do I have to be an Indian to get arranged with a fly Indian honey (assuming I'll become a doctor at some point)?

Or would being non-Indian be a huge turn off.
 
NYCdude said:
Do I have to be an Indian to get arranged with a fly Indian honey (assuming I'll become a doctor at some point)?

Or would being non-Indian be a huge turn off.
Click to expand...
My character was about to spit out coffee laughing. Such sassiness "fly Indian honey"....
This thread has been taken in such good heartiness, gotta say kudos to the troll.
 
tartesos said:
She never said anything about white did she?
Maybe she's rebelling and refusing Indian guys because of that. She might end up marrying an Indian guy, of her choosing.
Or a Just a guy of whatever race country etc.
Click to expand...

I was being presumptuous. It's just that usually when an Indian or Asian girl doesn't date men of their own race then they basically exclusively date white guys. I've witnessed that IRL but I'm sure in more diverse regions of the country there's other pairings. The only reason I said that is because it seemed like she swore of Indian guys forever.
 
famoussquamous said:
I was being presumptuous. It's just that usually when an Indian or Asian girl doesn't date men of their own race then they basically exclusively date white guys. I've witnessed that IRL but I'm sure in more diverse regions of the country there's other pairings. The only reason I said that is because it seemed like she swore of Indian guys forever.
Click to expand...

I hear you. In NYC there's also Hispanics and Indians. I'm biased.
I dated a nice Indian girl back way that I remember fondly... ( I was such a douche to her though, and I'm so sorry and wish her the best!).
And now suddenly I'm craving pulav and nan and tandoori chicken.
 
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tartesos said:
I hear you. In NYC there's also Hispanics and Indians. I'm biased.
I dated a nice Indian girl back way that I remember fondly... ( I was such a douche to her though, and I'm so sorry and wish her the best!).
And now suddenly I'm craving pulav and nan and tandoori chicken.
Click to expand...


Look at it this way, if you were super sweet to her she could have seen you as weak and lost interest in you and cheated on you/dumped you. It was probably for the best you treated her that way instead of her treating you like crap.
 
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