I feel like I’m living in two different sides of the same coin called life. Since I joined my MBA college two months ago, I have been engaged in answering a particular question every day, “Why MBA?”. Probably, I will be answering this question for the rest of my life.
I am Dr Sambita Ghadai, a Dental Surgeon by profession who is pursuing business management at XIMB with a hope of playing a small yet significant part in revolutionizing the healthcare industry. In July 2008, when I joined the Bachelor of Dental surgery at Manipal University, I was elated and filled with a passion to give the best of treatment to my patients. The first time I spoke to a patient, the first time I got a nod of gratitude from an old patient, the first time I extracted a tooth successfully, the first time I injected anaesthesia and all my other firsts were consequential in giving me a validation of my life’s purpose. I entered into core clinical practice after graduation where I got introduced to an entirely different world. I had to become a people’s person. I realized mere clinical skills are not good enough to serve my patients. I also required an equal level of expertise in pre and post-operative engagement for the overall improvement of the service being catered by me.
The climacteric which pushed me towards doing an MBA happened at the Asian Heart Institute, Mumbai. I stayed there for a month accompanying my father who had undergone 11-hour major heart surgery. Though I had a few pieces of theoretical knowledge about the booming healthcare sector, I got to see its first-hand manifestation at this state-of-the-art location. Hassle-free pre-operative engagements, robotic surgeries, minimally invasive surgeries using new technologies, efficient post-operative care, and effective rehabilitation techniques were instrumental in bringing clarity about my future goal. My interaction with Dr Ramakanta Panda and other “doctor-managers” at the hospital helped in giving me the much-desired inspiration. My dreams acquired a brand-new direction and this marked the advent of my journey of becoming a “doctor manager”.
It has been two months since I joined XIMB. I am trying to accomplish my dream of being in the corporate world. People often ask me whether I have bid goodbye to the “white coat”. No, I haven’t, and I never will. It has given the meaning and purpose of my life; it is the soul of my career. But I have relinquished it temporarily and put on the “Business formals”. Right now, I am on a journey where I am dealing with numbers, finance, statistics, case studies, and whatnot. Some days are grey while others are full of light. This journey is not an easy one. Despite all this, I can see the fog on this path getting clearer day by day.
Dr Sambita Ghadai
Batch of 2021
Xavier Institute of Management
