Day 7 – When the World Bleeds, So Do We

There’s a strange dissonance in sitting in a lecture hall, learning about trauma management, while people outside the four walls of our college are living it—literally bleeding.

Today, my mind kept wandering to the tragedy that occurred yesterday in Pahalgam, Kashmir. The news broke mid-morning. One moment we were copying notes; the next, I was staring at my phone screen, reading about a targeted attack on innocent tourists. People who came to witness beauty, not brutality. People who were brutally murdered for no reason other than the fact that they were Hindus.

And suddenly, all the theory we had studied felt hollow. What good is learning about emergency medicine when entire communities are left gasping for peace?

I won’t pretend I understand the politics or the layers of conflict. I don’t. I’m just a medical student, watching the world unravel through news headlines and social media chaos. But I do understand the aftermath—the broken bodies, the mental wounds that don’t show up on any scan, the family who will sit by hospital beds, praying for miracles that textbooks never mention.

There’s guilt too. Guilt for being safe. Guilt for scrolling past tragedies because we’re too tired, too numb, or too busy cramming for the next exam.

But maybe that’s where the shift begins—not by knowing all the answers, but by refusing to look away. By choosing empathy in a world that’s begging for it.

So here’s to every future doctor, sitting in a classroom today, silently wondering if we’ll ever make a real difference. Maybe we already are—by caring.