I am attaching an edited version of the Prof. Rajasuriya’s paraphrase of Kipling’s Poem “IF” in memory of my colleagues in Medical College, many of whom became and remain extremists to this day, because of what they had to undergo while students.
IF (With apologies to Rudyard Kipling) Professor Kumaradasa Rajasuriya LMS(Cey), MD, DCH, FRCP
IF you can keep in mind that you are dealing with human lives and not with cases, pray.
IF you can treat them without discrimination, whether they are labelled pauper or to pay
IF you can consider every being as equal, be they Sinhala, Tamil, Muslim or Burgher and treat all your STUDENTS as you would treat all patients without discrimination of Caste, Colour, Creed or Race
IF you can, rush with equal alacrity, to see a patient who needs attention STAT. IF it is no matter that there is no ‘buckshee’ in it, yet, if offered, you can refuse it flat.
IF you can, by a smile, cheer up the ailing, or by a touch, relieve a sufferer’s pain. IF you can, by a word, console the dying, who will never taste this earth’s tortures again.
IF you can, force your heart, nerve and sinew, to work overtime for those who need you still. IF all that counts is just the joy of serving, it matters not what happens to the bill.
IF you can wait, and not be tired of waiting, for the fame that one day perhaps you will earn, cheap notoriety the while disdaining, nor rush to print, because there is much more to learn.
IF you can, leave the trick of administering, to those who have made it a crooked art, knowing it is but a quack’s one accomplishment, of honest men, it never forms a part.
IF you can talk to touts and keep your virtue, or treat big bugs and not lose the poor’s touch. IF neither wealth nor fame can yet corrupt you, IF all beings count with you, but none too much,
IF you can fill the unforgiving minute, with sixty seconds of work well done.
YOU WILL THEN HAVE REACHED A NOBLE PROFESSIONAL’S SUMMIT AND WHAT IS MORE,
YOU WILL DIE CONTENT, MY SON.
All True –Statements of the finest
