CHENNAI: As a Class 12 student back in 1992, A Sureshkumar had one dream to become a doctor.
More than three decades since buying a stethoscope and keeping his hopes alive, Sureshkumar has cleared NEET and secured an MBBS seat at Nagapattinam Government Medical College, all at the age of 51.
Sureshkumar, who is currently a vice-president of a diagnostics company in Chennai, attended the special category counselling for MBBS and BDS courses at the Omandurar Government Multi Super Speciality Hospital campus on Thursday (August 13).
He participated under the persons with disabilities category and opted for MBBS at the Nagapattinam medical college.
A double PhD holder, one in pharmacy and another in diagnostics, it was Sureshkumar’s long-standing interest in science, particularly Botany and Zoology, that helped him persevere with the NEET.
When family circumstances demanded, a young Sureshkumar, who had just passed Class 12, had to lock away his stethoscope along with his dreams of a career in medicine, and tread a different path.
"Even after completing my PhDs, my desire to become a doctor remained strong. Since there has been no upper age limit for seeking MBBS admission, and a NEET qualification has been a requirement, I decided to try the first time in 2022. This year, I finally cracked NEET," he told DT NEXT.
In 2022, the age criterion for NEET was relaxed, allowing candidates of any age to take the exam.
Sureshkumar said teaching Botany and Zoology to his two school-going sons helped him prepare for NEET. "Teaching them helped me revise the subjects," he noted.
Sureshkumar’s love of medicine reflects in his children’s names, too Landsteiner Suresh, after the scientist Karl Landsteiner, who discovered the ABO blood group system, and Jonas Suresh, after Jonas Salk, who developed the first effective polio vaccine.
Sureshkumar said he chose the Nagapattinam medical college so he could also take care of his 78-year-old mother.
Sureshkumar, for whom age is just a number, can’t wait to begin his classes. “Learning alongside youngsters will expose me to many new things. I consider myself young after all,” he quipped.
Aspiring to serve in villages, the idealist in him said, "If the government posts me in a rural village, I am ready to work without a salary."