Dr Geeta Kadayaprath recounts how she balanced her many roles
There is nobody quite as good at the balancing act as a woman. When I was growing up, little did I know that I would have to don several hats and with elan… that of a daughter, sister, wife, mother and above all that of a surgeon. The last bit was probably the most difficult. Training in a field which is largely male-dominated required a lot of persistence and thick skin to stand ground. There were no days or nights during training, just a long stretch of hours, one dissolving into the other, sometimes into as many as 50 hours! Then, the energy was different. You could do 50 hours and still find time to chat up with your friends. I really did not know what exhaustion was then.
Years of hard work
An extremely supportive family and an excellent mentor created the road map for me. When I look back, I believe I have not done too badly and have managed to create my own niche space. Each role that I have played as a woman has been, with utmost sincerity. I am definitely partial to my role as a mother. My daughter was the reason I loved going back to every evening. I may not have seen all the tiny transformations that happened in her, but I had my daily time with her. I would take her out to play and read to her every single night. She fell in love with books very early.
My surgical training helped when I would sit up all night, nursing her when she fell ill and not once, did I feel I was making a sacrifice. I had done it all the time for strangers and here she was a tiny part of me, in need of my care. While I was working hard, my daughter grew up under the selfless care of her grandmother.
Despite my hectic schedule, I have tried my best not to miss the landmark events in her life. We are the best of friends today with our usual dose of squabbles, fun and frolic. She has grown up to be a loving, sensible and responsible young woman. There is a lot of me in her and as a mother, I only feel pride.
