Coming to think about it retrospectively, I guess the journey really started when I started reading Erich Segal's DOCTORS , CLASS, and LOVE STORY. The characters made me feel like that life without Harvard was just not complete. I remember posting a quote from the CLASS on the RAW30 Orkut website while I was still a med student ( I think it was the last lines of the book CLASS) and Danish commented that Aftab, dude, RMC is not Harvard. Of course, at that time I still did not know I would really one day end up at Harvard.

           Then, my memory flashed back to fourth year. Omar Hyder, now himself a Harvard graduate, recruited me for arranging an international conference on gastroenterology. I, then, mobilized to establish a team of people from my class and that is how I met another person that would be another inspiration, Sara Ijaz Gilani. Sara proposed we carry out a research to present in the conference. And so, my first research project was born and a team was born too. For the most part, Omar and Sara would form the core team members of all the research endeavours I was a part of.

          During final year, Omar Hyder, applied for the Fulbright Scholarship; the American flagship and one of the most prestigious scholarship program in the world. I carefully observed the process and Omar Hyder was kind enough to start letting me in on his emotional and time consuming journey. I gave my GRE just after the summer when most of my class fellows were busy with the burdensome final year curriculum. I waited perhaps as anxiously as Omar himself for the result of the scholarship process. He got it and I was ecstatic. 

          The getting into the university process was even more af an emotional rollercoaster ride for Omar, and I continued to observe the ride from a close distance. At that time, I was finalizing a research project that I did with Yasir, Sara and Rashid on stroke. That was when I knew that there was nothing that made me more happy than designing and carrying out medical research. I also was moved by the fact that we Pakistanis always quoted data from the US or the UK, but never from ours. The best we had were estimates. So I realized the potential of epidemiology around that time.

          After final year, I started work on my Fulbright scholarship application. That is when Omar told me that the scholarship committee expected us to be clear on what we wanted to do and how we intended to help in the capacity building of Pakistan. What would make us more special that the other applicants, some with very very high GRE scores and an academic record that was unblemished? What aspect of Public Health did I want to work on? Why epidemiology? What particular branch of epidemiology? What was the scope in Pakistan? How many people had worked on it? How would I help on my return? While pondering over this on our way to a RMC annual dinner, we thought about geriatrics. The moment the word popped up, I realized the immense potential of the field. Omar got accepted into Harvard just around that time, March 2008.

          So I geared up my statement of purpose around the dearth of epidemiological data in Pakistan and absolutely negligible work on geariatrics in Pakistan, while at the same time quoting the projected rise of the elderly population in the country. During April, Omar Hyder, introduced me to Dr.Nasir, AMS Holy Family Hospital, who was also incharge of the Elderly Care Program, co-sponsored by the Ministry of Health with WHO. He wanted us to become a part of his team on a research on the facilities available to the elderly in tertiary care hospitals in Rawalpindi/Islamabad. So we started work on that, though, it had many hindrances on its part, partly because all of us could only work on it part-time as we had jobs and because of the lack of expertise on design and implementation. We did manage to chalk out a plan and it is currently waiting approval of funds by WHO.Anyways, he would become another important influence on my road to Harvard.

      I gave my TOEFL exam at the end of April 2008 and barely, submitted my application before the 1st May deadline. I was called up for an interview mid June. 

     ( To be Continued)