Despite spending long hours poring over their books, sitting attentively in lecture halls and looking after patients in the wards, interns and students of a medical institute in Odisha have managed to find time to launch two music albums.
What is more creditworthy is the handful of the wannabe medicos of the Institute of Medical Sciences and Sum Hospital (IMSSH), Bhubaneswar, are the lyricists, composers and singers in the album numbers.
It all started when they came together to launch the 'Saaj' college music band in 2008. Six students, Abhinab Nayak, Surja Agrawal, Soumyadipta Mishra, Soumyakanta Mohapatra, Jay Kalaria and Sarthak Satpathy, had founded the band. All of them have since graduated from the college.
The seeds sown by them have since blossomed into a tree. Sharing a common bond for music, the students and interns often gathered to sing and enjoy themselves whenever they found some spare time. But the idea to launch an album took shape gradually.
"It has given us a lot of satisfaction and the lyricists, composers and singers are all from our college. This, perhaps, is the first music album launched by medical students in Odisha," Maitri Rang, who recently completed her internship, told IANS.
Rang, who hails from Howrah in West Bengal and has been the spirit behind the endeavour, said they were encouraged by those who had floated 'Saaj'.
"We wanted to keep the fires burning. We were greatly inspired by the musical exploits of (singer-cum-medical practitioner) Palash Sen (of 'Euphoria' fame). His achievements infused in us the spirit to go at it," Rang told IANS.
The first album, 'Saawariyaa', released a few months ago, was the medicos' "labour of love" as they struggled to make it happen.
The album had six Hindi songs, with Rang lending her mellifluous voice to three of them.
"We consider it a dream come true, a major achievement, though it's a bit away from our profession," said Rang, who has been trained in classical singing.
The other songs in the album included 'Saajna', sung by Suraj Agrawal, while Sohom Ghosh, a student from Kolkata who already has a Bengali album to his credit back home, was the lyricist, composer and singer in several numbers.
The group, now with new members from the first and second year students, recently launched its 'Naina' second album.
The album contained 11 songs, all penned and sung by students who had either passed out of the medical college or were still studying there.
"It has been a difficult journey as we have to perform our duties in the hospital and study, but the group has achieved it because of their collective passion for music," Ghosh told IANS.
(Sirshendu Panth can be contacted at s.panth@ians.in)
