Pathologist: The Storyteller of the Cell
As a speaker, writer, singer, actor, artist, we all can tell/write/sing/act/make art, to tell the stories/incidents of our own or others lives.But have we ever imagined who conveys us the untold stories of the tiny cells of our bodies? Never…
A Pathologist takes the major role to convey the innumerable stories of the cell to this world from its Pink and Blue Universe! (Hematoxylin & Eosin-stained tissues)
The Cell has so much to tell us, teach us, instruct us, about the day-to-day happenings going on inside our bodies. Because ultimately whatever we do to our bodies, everything is taken care of by the tiny cells only. Isn’t it?
When I place a glass slide under my microscope, I enter another world — a world made of countless tiny lives.
One of them is a cell, and today, I’ll tell you its story.
Under the lens, she looks simple — a round structure, a small dot in the center. But to me, it is an entire universe.
That dot is its nucleus, the control room where it’s genetic code — it’s instruction manual — lies carefully folded. It decides who it is, what it does, and how long it lives.
The thin membrane around it is its skin — selective, smart, and sensitive. It lets nutrients in, pushes waste out, and keeps it safe from harm.
Inside, its mitochondria hum quietly, turning food into energy. It’s ribosome work tirelessly, stitching proteins — the building blocks of life. The endoplasmic reticulum and Golgi bodies act like postal services, packaging and dispatching whatever it produces.
In a healthy tissue, millions of such cells live in harmony — each one knowing its role, dividing only when needed, dying when its job is done.
But sometimes, I see a different story!!
A cell forgets the rules. It divides too fast, ignoring the signals to stop. It’s DNA mutates, and it becomes unrecognizable — wild, rebellious. That’s how cancer begins — one cell’s story goes astray.
As a pathologist, I listen to these stories every day.
Each slide, each stain, each cluster of cells tells me something — about health, about disease, about life itself.
And every time I look down at that microscope, I am reminded:
Even the tiniest cell has a story worth telling.
It is not that the story telling activity between the cell and the pathologist is so simple! In some days, the cell tells me a very complex story which becomes very tough for me to decipher. I remain perplexed/ confused for hours and even days, try to join the dots, to actually decode the mystery!
Then as a pathologist, I smile and tell softly to the cell: “You’re the quiet worker no one notices.”
And the Cell smiles back at me saying:” I am your smallest self, telling your biggest story.”
And these stories are lifesavers. We should never ignore them. These stories are the Report Cards of our bodies, telling us what we did to them during the course of our lives.
Dr.Shyamalima Gogoi , Veterinary Pathologist
Principal Research Scientist at Dabur Research Foundation
