Book Review: VQE (The Tale of an Indian Physician in the United Kingdom of the 1980’s) by Vivek Gumaste

VQE is an interesting memoire of a young Indian physician who struggled in the 1980’s turbulent England to have a better medical career in US. The narrator, young and 26-years old, completes his MBBS from Bangalore and plans to practice medicine in the USA. However, it is not easy to get into US for medical field; one has to go through a rigorous examination. During his time (1980) it was VQE which stands for Visa Qualifying Exam.

For attempting VQE, he lands up in England as there it’s easy to get a temporary job to meet basic needs. He stayed there for over two years but those years were neither good nor monotonous. They were eventful and always kept him on tenterhooks, he was quite ambitious but uncertainty, insecurity, self-doubt and gloominess were never to leave him for various reasons.

Life in a foreign country is not that easy as people generally reckon with. It is like the grass is always greener on the other side, but a closer look reveals something else. As soon as he lands up, his struggle for accommodation, job, climate and cultural acclimatization begins. He was not at ease but being an ambitious person and the vision of success helped him keep going. This book is a fountain of knowledge for those who want to peep into that time of England, be it history, culture and reality checks.

Mostly non-white people are forced to work in the field of Geriatrics, which means treating and taking care of senior citizens, and it is considered a deplorable job in the field of medicine for white people. Often white doctors stay away from this field. But medical professionals from the Asian countries often have to satisfy themselves with it. Another interesting fact is locum positions, means working temporary – ranging from days to months. Getting a permanent job in England as a medical professional was a tough proposition then.

Even by filling locum positions, the narrator was managing his day to day life and making reasonable amount of money. However, the political landscape of Britain that time was changing and immigrants from Asia or Africa were subjected to ill-treatment. As you read, you will get to know about the terms like Sus Law, Paki, Skinheads and so on. Leaders like Margaret Thatcher and Enoch Powell made immigrants scapegoat for their personal political motifs. There was so much hate in the guise of racism that race riots were thing of common in England. Above it, his locum positions at crime-dominated places like Hackney made his life fraught with fear. He lived in fear. Some hate-spreading people tried to round him up but every time he eluded them wisely and silently.

Though racial discrimination, jingoism, race riots run like banter in the book, well on a positive side the book is also full of medical philosophy and terms that never reach the ears of laymen, for example in the below stanza the author has brilliantly explained the term Auscultation:

Auscultation is a medical term that simply means “to listen” and owes its origin to the Latin word ‘auscultaire’. It is the process by which a physician listens to sounds emanating from certain body organs like the heart, lungs, and the gastrointestinal system, with a view to ascertaining their workings. When a physician places a stethoscope on your chest during a physical examination, he is auscultating your heart or lungs.

There are many prominent events covered up in the book for instance the marriage of Diana with Charles and the hype about her ring and pictures with kids.

The war for The Falkland Islands may surprise you as it totally seemed futile. Well, clever politician hardly leave any opportunity unexplored. As in this case, Thatcher made it an issue of national patriotism or say fake patriotism and people were enjoying it. It was people like Thatcher that made simple people’s life tough and feed on immigrants’ miserability. The narrator kept a tight vigil on her political acumen and he this time sums up quite dauntingly:

Thatcher’s attitude, right from the beginning, was like that of a mediaeval ruler and every word she uttered in her feisty voice sounded like a cattle cry. Pragmatism was missing. The result: the country found itself in the frenzied grip of jingoism. I saw a crude, vulgar display of antipathy everywhere in the county: among my physician colleagues who broke out into a loud applause every time an enemy vessel was targeted, in the talk among the common people on the street, and in the news media, both print and TV.

The events that unfolded before Vivek are disturbing but his rich and homurous narrative keeps the book going at brisk pace with no air of discrimination. The book, in all senses, can serve as a guide for people aspiring to go to foreign land for practicing medicine.