As part of India Week, Medicine student Somasundaram Rajasundaram describes their experiences of living and studying at Manipal University in India.
"It was early September of 2009 when I finally received my tickets from the government of Seychelles. I was to leave for India in a week to study Medicine at Manipal University (above). Although I'm of Indian origin, it didn't help much in the initial phase of settling down.
The first thing that hits you in India is the general state of pollution, dust and the suffocating heat. Gradually a tolerance develops, but not without a couple of attacks of the flu.
Studying in India
The workload is immense, straight from day one. It taught me a lot about time management. The Indian education system places a lot of emphasis on raw memory, but thankfully my university also gives equal importance to application of the acquired knowledge. A hands-on approach is the buzzword these days, and for me that meant we actually got to learn human anatomy on a cadaver- something most other medical schools can't afford to put in place. Teaching and lecturers in general are of the highest order, with dedication like no other.
