READ WHAT FEW ALUMNI HAVE SAID ABOUT THEIR ALMA MATER........
Dr Rajendra V. Prasad M.D., F.R.C.P.C.
California
I hail from Udumalpet, Tamilnadu. I completed my P.U.C. course in Tiruchi in 1961. I applied to three medical colleges, K.M.C., All India Institute of Medicine in Pondicherry and Madras Medical College. I got seats in all three. My father and I visited all three institutions and we both chose KMC. I was number one in Anatomy in KMC. Also I got first ranks in pathology, pharmacology, bacteriology, juris prudence and the aggregate score in my II MBBS in the whole Karnataka University. I was the second best outgoing student in the batch of 1966. Then I came to the USA in 1968 after a year of house surgeoncy in Madras.
In India I passed my ECFMG examination in 1967. In the USA I passed my FLEX examination to obtain license in the state of California. FLEX examination covers all medical subjects. I passed my boards in internal Medicine, Hematology and Oncology. I also became a Fellow of Royal College of Physicians of Canada. I have published a few scientific papers. I also was appointed as Assistant Clinical Professor in University of California at Irvine in 1975. In 1985 I was promoted to Associate Clinical Professor till I retired in 1999.
I am a proud product of KMC. I got superb education at KMC. The quality of education was phenomenal. The founders have created a fine environment for our education. Our teachers were fantastic. They did not behave like superiors. They treated me like a friend or a family member. I could approach them with questions anytime. They taught us with lot of interest and gusto.
I used to go to our library to study in the evenings and found it to be great. I would spend some evenings in the anatomy theater with my anatomy book. Dr. Godbole had worked day and night to create the amazing facility. Looking at a specimen in three dimension is much better than looking a picture in a book. During my final examination in Mangalore, there were doctors from General Medical Council, London present. They were impressed with the performance of our students. I am a good teacher of medicine. My teachers at KMC were the best. My success in my medical career is because of my teachers at KMC. I salute them for what they did.
Our college is ranked highly at the national level. I am proud of our college and the highly dedicated teachers. I salute them and wish continued success.
Dr Jagdish Butany
MBBS, MS, FRCPC
Canada
I am a proud alumnus of KMC, Manipal (Class of 1971). I am a practicing pathologist at Toronto General Hospital, a Professor of Pathology at the University of Toronto and Head of the division of Anatomical Pathology in the department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology, University of Toronto. My years at KMC, Manipal shaped me, gave me skills I needed and helped me become the man I am, with the skills I have!
I have very fond memories of my alma mater, where I learnt Medicine and the value of sustained, hard work. Every one of my teachers in basic sciences, and the clinical years was a model teacher with very high qualifications in their specialty, who encouraged me to learn, see as many clinical cases as possible and to discuss them amongst ourselves, with our seniors and our staff (faculty). There was never any element of frustration or suggestion that a question was trivial, only encouragement to keep on moving forward.
I recall fondly the evenings and weekends spent in the clinical wards at times with a few colleagues, occasionally alone (a nursing student would often come to help translate! – I was not a Kannada Speaker) examining patients and learning the clinical skills that stood me in good stead in later years. The library facility was excellent and after hours one could get a classroom opened and study into the wee hours and through the night. The education I received here and at the affiliated hospitals helped make me the clinician and academic that I have become.
The faculty student interaction was always pleasant. This does not mean that assignments could be left incomplete or that poor clinical skills went uncriticised!! Far from it!! The KMC faculty have given me thousands of others, the skills to heal.
There was excellent camaraderie amongst the students and every communities’ major festivals were celebrated with gusto! The major national holidays (Divali, Christmas, & Pongal come to mind) were always memorable days! The students were from all parts of our country with a tremendous diversity of mother tongue, religion, tastes and we learnt to live together, work together, eat together, have fun together and to learn together! These skills have stood me in good stead, as I chose to live in perhaps the most diverse city in the world! We made friendships that have survived, needing only the spark of the letters “KMC”, to bring us together in a foreign land, as happened to me when I was visiting Kuala Lumpur as a teacher and examiner and in other medical schools.
I learnt to be passionate about what I do, the value of integrity and give respect to all. In turn I have benefited greatly from those years of learning and the three traits just mentioned.
I immigrated to Canada (Toronto) in 1975, trained as a pathologist (FRCPC 1979) and later spent a year as a Fellow at the NIH Bethesda, USA (NHLBI – Pathology Branch, 1981). My subspecialty interest is Cardiovascular pathology, here at Toronto General Hospital and the University of Toronto. I have 300 peer reviewed papers to my credit and 6 months ago published the 4th Edition of Cardiovascular Pathology of which I am a Co-Editor and a contributor.
A few years ago, I had the good fortune to visit KMC, Manipal, meet a number of faculty and gave a 3 hour (actually over 4 hours!) demonstration/lecture to pathology staff and residents, many of whom had come from Mangalore and beyond. It was a joyful “re-union”!!. While KMC had changed (grown) dramatically the warmth of the people, the eagerness to show what they have and in turn to learn from what I had to offer, brought back very pleasant memories of years gone by.
In the years here in Toronto, I have received my teaching awards, been (and am) an office bearer of many professional societies and have had the opportunity to teach many undergraduate and graduate students and colleagues. To each I try and impart the values- Passion, Integrity and Respect, small words whose value was learnt in the small town of Manipal from wonderful teachers and words which continue to resonate with me. KMC Manipal was and is a great centre of education where knowledge is imparted and skills acquired to be used for the benefit of all.
Dr Hee Kong Fong
Malaysia
"From Malaysia to India, I spent the most vibrant years of my life in Manipal. I have such a love-hate relationship with this place, a place that I could not wait to leave when I was far away from home, but now, I can't wait to come back to relive the amazing moments I had in Manipal.
Being a few thousand miles away from home, life in Manipal was not easy. I used to curse the endless amount of lectures, I used to blame my teachers for teaching "too much", I used to hate it when the lecturers pimped on me during clinical rounds. It was until I came to the US for electives, only I realized our teachers in KMC were actually among the best. They were experienced, knowledgeable, dedicated and most importantly, they have a compassion in teaching. The extensive clinical exposure that I had in KMC has helped to horn my clinical skills, and gives me the confidence to attend to patients with a wide range of illnesses.
It takes more than endless hours of studying to survive through medical school. KMC has taught me not just medical knowledge, but independence, self-sufficiency, resilience, critical thinking, patient interaction, and how to work with people of different cultural backgrounds to form a great team together, which was valued very highly by residency programs in the US.
The bottom line is, KMC has prepared me well not just to be a physician, but a human being that can relate to our patients, a colleague that blends well with everyone in the team, and a student that always motivated to learn more for the betterment of our patients."