MY FIRST MBBS

CH 41 :MY MICRO ANATOMY AND MICRO DISHONESTY

2012-09-12T01:11:00.000+05:30

Dishonesty? that too by me? that too in my teens? a very rare thing to happen ! well, let me confess in detail. As most of the people around me know, honesty has been the core competence of my life.
well, we had to study a subject in anatomy known as histology. it meant study of micro anatomy- the microscopic appearance of cell and other body structures.
we had a big basement hall in the dept of anatomy. there was something different about this hall.
the hall was neat and clean. i mean there were no human bodies or its cut open parts or even the museum like specimens! also it smelled clean as there was not a trace of the body preservative formaline in that hall. so what was there in?
the hall had series of microscopes arranged on row of connected tables. there were a few cupboards and things to study was hidden in those cupboards. during the practical of histology, our teacher - dr raibaghkar- would open up the cupboard and get out a wooden brief case from it.
" so today, we will study the muscles of the body." he would say.then, he would open up the wooden case and give the slides to us. we were needed to see them under the microscope. we had to learn to recognize the structure.
" there are three types of muscles in the body. the skeletal muscle- looks red elongated, the smooth muscle -looks spindle shaped with nucleus in the center and the heart muscle- that does not have individual cell wall but it forms a network of cells making a syncitium.. right?.. now see under the microscope and find out which slide you have been given... no noice.."

easy.. wasn't it? just put your slide under the scope and see ! but as you look in, you would see the visual field studded with saffron reddish color with black streaks and spots on it. nothing matched the structures said to be seen! there were some moments of eureka when sir himself would come and show things with a pointer glass. the worst part this was, these slides were to be kept for spot examination! during the examination, we were needed to identify the slide and give the answer within a few seconds before moving to the next spot.

also, we were needed to draw figures in the histology journal with comments.we had to use blue and red pencil to draw the figures. i must admit - though i was very lazy in completing journals, initially i did the job as good as i could. sir used to see the journals and sign it.

after some time, madam dangerwalla became in charge of the histology teaching. she was very ideal and so was very difficult to satisfy with the journal work. she would sit and see our journals in detail.
" who is this roll no 59?" she would speak calmly while we would be struggling with the microscope.
"yes madam, that is me.." vaidya surname used to put me among last students of my batch. i would sit up and go to madan.
"now what is this?" madam would forward my journal and point to a figure drawn by me.
" this is madam, a columnar epithelium.." i would say hiding a fear inside.
" is it? do you know the nuclei of the cell of the columnar epithelium are at the base of the cell? " she would stare and naturally my face would be flat and mind blank !
" you have drawn in center.. this is wrong..go back and correct this. i will see your journal afterwards.." that was the usual story. most of the journals would return with remarks to re do the assigned work with the correction !

it was not that i never tried to reach up to the madam's ideal but somehow it was not my cup of tea! i tried and tried and ultimately stopped writing histology journal. i started avoiding the classes. but this did not solve the problem. rather, it aggravated. that was beacause journal writing was must for each and every student to be eligible for appearing in the external examination.

i was in a bad need of a friend who could push me. tapasvi was already there and in fact he was one of a rare student whose journal was never returned by dr dangerwalla ! but apart from looking at my work what else can he do for me?

luckily i had a special friend who would sacrifice more time for me and do something more. yes, jasmine was ready to draw figures and even write for me! the work had piled up so much i was really tense when she offered to help. i never had got my journal work done by any of my friends till then in my life but i could not resist her offer. she happily took my journal and draw right figures for me and so i was able to show up my journal before time of the examination. that was my micro dishonesty! probably first and last academic dishonesty in whole life by me! [though that does not justify what i did i know!]

however, jasmine could obviously not help in the histology hall and so my struggle with slides and microscope was on. before exam, all batches were given revision. at the time of revision, we were shown all the slides again and again.
"hey neh, do you know how to recognize slide of bladder?" one of my friend asked.
" it has trasitional epithelium" i said promptly.
" you fool! you will never learn!" he smiled " look at this corner of the slide..."
i tried to look in the microscope.
"not there in..my friend! look outside.. can you see a special scratch here?" he pointed the corner. there was a scratch mark there.a 'special marker' of that slide.
" you see this is how you identify a slide of bladder..!" he looked at me with winning smile " you know , one of our senior told me the trick!" the trick was instant hit. many a times students indulged more in finding or encrypting a 'special marker' on the slide.

" but what if they give any other slide of bladder?" i asked an obvious question.
" our anatomy dept have a limited set of slides and the same slides they will use in the examination. in the exam, they will cover the label of the slide but they can not cover such special identification mark! so forget everything ! just remember scratches and marks on different slides! " he had cracked the code completely. but i never liked this idea. it was like cheating. so i never indulged myself in finding special marks on the histology slides.

then ultimately there was a terminal exam. we were taken to the same hall and were given blind labelled slides for examination. dr raibaghkar was the examiner.we were given a few minutes to recognize the given slide.

" now tell me what is your slide?" sir came and stood near one of the student.
" sir i think this slide is of the cardiac muscle.." said the student.
" ok good.." sir said." tell what do you see.."
" there is a syncitium of the cells.."
" that is very good" sir's 'good' added more confidence to the student.
" i also see scattered nuclei .." the student added confidently.
" that is great..very good" sir rarely smiled but i saw him that day. he smiled mischievously.
" sir i see the muscle fibers .." pumped by 'good' plus 'very good' , the student said further.

"ha ha ... ha" sir laughed aloud. just before a second he was praising that guy! he surprised all of us.
" my dear student this is a skeletal muscle and not a cardiac muscle .. ha..ha..ha...!" and he left the table leaving my good friend totally shocked. this was typical of dr raibaghkar. he would never give you any hint during the exam about the right answer. on the other hand he would eat away your exam time by leading you to your gross mistakes.

i really have no idea whether my student friend spoke everything because of any 'special marker' on the slide! well for me, it was a lucky day. i was given slide of the urinary bladder which i could identify by the transitional epithelium..!

CH 40 : SWEET N SOUR ANATOMY MUSEUM

2012-09-06T01:09:00.002+05:30

though anatomy was one of the subject i hated the most, let me tell you nothing was more fascinating than to see human structures in such a detail. when you meet any one, you just see him or her from outside. study of anatomy lets you see any one from inside. you also realize how correct is the old saying 'beauty is skin deep'. i do not mean to say the human structures inside the skin are not beautiful. they have their own beauty. but they look alike in different human beings. anatomy probably tells us whatever way different we look from outside, just go 1 to 2 mm deep in the skin and all look almost same!

though, i was not among the best, i was an average dissector of our batch just like my friend samir. we both were active members of our 6 member group dissecting a female body given to us. we had margi, manisha, namrata and bimal as our partners. one of us would hold our bible for dissection - cunningham- others would read and would try to follow the instructions to dissect the anatomic structures. we had couple of forceps and a knife to explore the wonders behind the human skin. during each session, we were given a target to reach to a structure. it was not easy job. we had to be very cautious in each step. one mistake and it could destroy the anatomic structure. we were needed to identify the different parts and the tissues of human body to be able to follow the dissection manual properly.

during such a session, you get absorbed to the work in such a way, you hardly care about your apron and hands and fingers soiled with the stinking preservative formaline. in fact whole of you would stink like a hell after the anatomy dissection session. the job was tiring and time consuming.
on one day , some how, we finished the dissection a bit early. so i got a chance to wander about. there was a big hall near our dissection hall. some of the finest dissected specimens were kept there preserved in chemical and packed in transparent glass containers. that was the anatomy museum.

as i entered, i saw specimens of different parts of human body arranged and classified on big racks. there were sections like 'upper limb' , 'the brain', 'the heart', ' the abdomen and pelvis' etc. but the most eye catching section was the one showing development of human fetus! it showed tiny babies with tiny fingers toes and even eyes! the specimens were arranged in such a way that showed a small baby gradually progressing towards a big child in the womb. we all were like those babies one day! how fascinating! there were also some eye catchy specimens of abnormal human fetuses. some had no limbs, some had big heads while some even had open skull without any brain matter.

however, the most mysterious looking part of the museum, i must say, was the section on the human brain! a small whitish organ with wavy surface was the real boss in command ! some 'I' was hidden behind every such specimen ! brain really looked like an ultimate structure.

there were also some horrible looking specimens. i mean, imagine a half cut face with one eye! or a full face with cut open skull without brain to show the base of the skull from inside.
if some one asks me about most ugly part of the human body, i can not remember any one. Even the intestines and the stomach had their own beauty. same can be said about human genitals.

was that over? no..~! apart from tissue specimens, we had 3-4 full human skeletons hanging at one corner of the museum.some bones were arranged in a few showcases. from tiniest to biggest. most attractive naturally was the skull.

in this vast collection of the specimens, i was trying to spot that day's dissection part. just fumbling around, i was probably the only student inside the museum. i saw big pelvic bones and skull bones of buffalo kept for comparative anatomy.It really looked a herculean task to set up such a nice anatomy museum. it must have costed hours and hours of dedicated and skillful dissection. i really saluted the man behind the whole task- resp dr shrivastav whom i still was yet to see.

the fact i was not knowing that time was, in the near future this hall was to serve as a place for revision and reading. my friend jasmine and me was to use this place to refine knowledge before examination. though i hated reading and examination, and she loved exams, we both liked the museum. she was to prepare exhausting and un ending reading time tables for me in this hall. i never was knowing we would spend hours and hours here for studies. i hated reading and so jasmine was to come in my life to teach me! sometimes you open up a simple door and suddenly you find that door opened new life to you.

"who is there in..?" suddenly a deep authoritative voice struck my head from behind breaking my thoughts. as i turned around i saw an old man which looked like a big professor staring at me with fury. i missed a beat. who was he?
" what are you doing here at this time?" he asked me in punitive tone. my anatomical structures got loose. no one needs deep anatomical knowledge to get loose!
" sir, i was trying to study the specimens.." i said with whatever little voice i could speak.
" at this time? it is time for dissection.." sir scolded.
" we completed today's dissection sir.." said i keeping my head low.
"what? completed? just go to hall and do your work !" that was an order.
i walked to hall with fear of some punitive action. my fifteen minutes passed with big tension but nothing more happened. in the first mbbs, most of the students really fear the teacher like a kindergarten kid! some how sir did not come to our table. probably my sin was not that big. my beats settled ultimately.
i saw that old professor talking with one other big professor.
"hey look! this is the prof that scolded me.. " i asked my friend " who is he?"
"dont you know?" he said with surprise " he is none other than our head of the department of the anatomy dr shrivastav.."
ouch!

CH : 39 ANATOMY OF ANATOMY

2012-08-25T22:43:00.001+05:30

human machine is far more than perfect. any student can realize this fact by studying human anatomy. As a student in my childhood, i was always curious about the structures inside us. Now here, At psmc, i was given a chance to see the human body completely from outside to inside. the subject of anatomy was perceived as one of the most difficult one in the entire medical curriculum. however, to make it easy,our deptt of anatomy was having a rainbow of the staff. i mean, it had one of the most renowned anatomist dr shrivastav as the head, [whom i feared the most], associates like dr mehra , dr dangarwala and dr raibarkar, and able tutor dr rakesh gandhi. also, we had others like dr gediya and madam dalwadiya to complete the list.

we had rotation in a week. three days for anatomy and three days for physiology and biochemistry.the anatomy days were a bit unpleasant for me. what would you do with the subject that had nothing but vast information and fine details about human structure? No reasoning - just mugging...!

we had to learn the gross anatomy, surface anatomy, bone anatomy that is osteology, cellular anatomy known as histology apart from systemic and special organ anatomy. add to this embryology and neuro anatomy..!

my relation with anatomy had a bitter beginning. the incident took place when we all were called for a practical. i do not remember what mistake i did but it prompted my professor to speak harsh and hurting words for me in front of all my classmates.i exactly remember his remark till today. he said " pata nahi kaha se aa jate hai aese log medical me!" - [ i do not know how such people - read me!- get admission to a medical college] it really did hurt a lot at that time. sir might have had remarked very casually but a sensitive teen like me could not handle it. what was wrong with me? wasn't i an honest middle class student? i got my medical seat on merit and not by donation. what big mistake a student like me could commit that amounted such a remark? i felt like standing up and saying " sir my merit has sent me here and not you at all." but that could happen in a dream only.in fact, my self esteem was fragile and so i was hurt badly.

that evening i could not speak to any one but tapasvi. i told him how i was treated by that old wolf. he listened calmly and said." come on neh! he is a weird man.. how can he know who you are? and how can even you expect from him? come on ..forget it.."

" but he said in front of all"

" so what.. every one knows you in our class..and same way we know him also. just forget." he was able to convince me. sometimes it is vital to forget than to remember. i learnt that.

the other teachers, i mean , most of them, were empathetic and after some time i was perceived as one of the sincere student.our batch was allotted a female body and we started with female lower abdomen. for us, the terms were very new. dr dangar wala was our lady professor and was very good at explaining latin terms.once i remember to have asked her about something from female genitals that no boy probably ever would have asked.

while reading cunningham, our official book on the dissection of the human body, i could not understand a few terms. madam was just outside the dissection hall. i thought i should ask her.
"madam , .."
'yes please..?'
" madam could you explain to me what is the meaning of labia minora and labia majora?"madam smiled..probably to my innocence. no other boy would have asked this.
" ok ..let me show you" she said and came to the cadaver we were dissecting. she took a forceps and reached to the female genitals of the cadaver
."you see.." she pinched a part of genital " this is minor lip of the genitals known as labia minora and ..." she pinched another part " this is the major lip that is... labia majora.. is this clear?"
" oh yes madam" i said perspiring at my blunder! my friends laughed at my knowledge.

i still had not seen the professor i feared the most... dr shivastava.. the head known for his deep knowledge of the subject and strict conduct. our seniors said dr shrivastav used to get furious even for a minor mistake. that was enough to create fear in me.but such incident never happened.

first time i saw him when he came to take our class on human embryology. he used to teach with passion. on that day he taught us formation of digestive system. he explained all the developmental movements with a model.
dr shrivastav, in fact, loved students. but some part of his love was expressed by his anger towards laziness or misconduct of a student. he always applauded good students. tapasvi was one of his favorite.he was very much pleased by my friend jasmine. over the period, jasmine established her as the best student of our batch.she was the same girl which cried in exam hall and sat back only after great persuasion by dr rakesh gandhi- our jr lecturer. soon after, jasmine started scoring in all the exams. and so she became one of the most admired student by dr shrivastav.

for some unknown reason, some people enjoy speaking so called sexy in class. one of our tutor was fond of speaking words with double meaning especially in front of the girls. girls hated his class while some boys enjoyed. one of our professor was also like that. he was none other than the one who remarked on me that day. one day he was taking our class. he was teaching about layers on lungs." you know.." he said " the lungs have two covering layers .. the outer layer is attached with the inside of the chest wall while the inner layer is stuck with the lungs.." he glanced at the class and paused " let me explain this.." he smiled as if a teen boy looking at a girl." if we assume the breast as the lungs ... the outer layer is the petticoat... and the inner is.....the bra! "

CH 38 : A STRANGE ANATOMIST

2012-08-25T01:06:00.002+05:30

[ NOTE : the professor i am to talk about was a very honest, dedicated to students and a scholar of the subject. but he had atypical behavior. some times far from normal. that had weaved many stories around his personality. i also was one of a curious student about his life.most of the events i have witnessed while some i have heard from others. i have attempted to write something meaningful about this weird man, naturally changing the real name, mixing and making the story.presently there is no information about where he is. i wish him all the best!]

when you are in 1st mbbs, you like to wish your new professors whenever you see them. it was a gesture of respect and love and a try to nurture the new relationship. boys and girls liked to say 'good morning sir' whenever they encountered any teacher anywhere. to hear such a wish was just like hearing chirping of birds [more so when girls sung it in salvos!].

most of the teachers had their own response. someone would say ' morning-morning' with eyes flashing. others would reply in a rather flat manner. but most of the teachers liked our gesture.
" good morning sir!" i said with all my enthusiasm to a fair handsome professor who was passing by me near the college. it was a cool morning and i expected a warm smile back. but that strange professor just passed by me as if nothing had happened! i was a bit taken aback. why? wasn't i loud enough to reach his ears? he did not care even to glance at me. was he in some hurry? might be. I felt neglected but that was okay. someone may not hear you when he or she is in hurry or lost in own thoughts.

some one told me he was professor in anatomy.

In the boys hostel, when i met my seniors and lobby partners that day, i told them the incident.

" why a good professor should not respond to a wish by a novice student like me? is he a proud man or was he in that hurry?" i asked
" can you describe him?" one of my seniors asked
i tried to remember how he looked.
"oh yes.. he was a fair, handsome, nicely built man with a thick mustache and wavy hairs. he was around 40yrs. probably he was in dark blue t shirt. he was walking fast as if he would miss a train otherwise.. and he had a brief case in his hand.."
" there you are! it is none of your fault neh! you know, we have only one such man in the campus who would not respond to our wish at all! not even to the girls! he just would keep walking and would not look to the student even if wished aloud blowing his head off! "
"yes exactly that s what happened today. he appeared odd man to me." i exclaimed
" oh really? he might appear as such but i tell you he is not like any ordinary professor." my senior said
" he is a scholar in his subject. he has done his pg from all India institute of medical sciences..."
"wow.." AIIMS was like medical angel's abode to a student like me.
" have you ever seen him anytime talking with any one in the campus? he keeps away from everyone..." told my senior
" from where is he?"
" probably from somewhere around delhi.."

soon there after, i encountered him in the class on our routine anatomy day.

in the class, he would come with a stick in his hand as a pointer and start his lecture without any other talk. he never asked questions to us. though addicted to ask questions in the class, i do not remember asking a single question to him. his voice was deep and was mixed with hissing sound from the vocal cord. his speech was pressured.

he used to teach a lot, bombarding the information to our little ill capacitated brains. he used to write furiously on the black board and erase it with double the intensity making noisy sound of the duster[ours was the time when there were no dust less white boards]. he loved to use colored chalks to show us details of the anatomy.he always tried to tell us the important points in his lectures. he would repeat and re repeat same lines when he thought necessary. in between , he would look at our vacant faces and again re teach the line till his fullest ability. he never scolded any one. but sometimes he used to make gestures of frustration. i mean, in between the lecture, he would raise his hands to his head would forcibly close both the eyes grasp his head and murmur something like 'no no' to self. and soon, again he would regain himself and try to make the point clear to us.

like many of the professors he also had a peculiar tag line- at any important sentence he would pause a bit, point his pointer, move it around the sentence on the black board and would speak "underline thousand times.."

something more about him. he used to stay alone in a room provided by the management. we never ever saw him talking with anyone like my senior said. and to add to the mystery, some one told he was un married.

think about this.. a scholar from aiims, coming alone all the way from a city like delhi to a rural place like karamsad, handsome fair earning good salary and still living alone at this age. very odd.. no?
His background and behavior probably attracted me towards him. i used to wish him every time i saw him. though my efforts were futile. i never got a smile back at that time.despite all that, some how i hoped to talk with him sometime. i noticed many a times he used to change his way when he saw me coming to his way. that was very weird. it triggered more of sense of mystery about him in my mind.

was he alone in his family? or was he left alone? was he having a very painful past to hide? why he was not married? might be, he was a badly heart broken man. sometimes i even wondered if at all it would be possible for me to talk with him ever. but why.. why at all should i force some one to talk with me who never wished to talk with any one? probably there was sense of doing something good for that odd acting professor. i thought if he started talking with a student like me, he might re think about his lonesome life and some miracle might happen that might bring him back to normalcy from his weird nest.

Over the period, i learnt it was not only me who was curious about this mysterious gentle professor. there were many others which tried to break the ice. there were some senior boys and even girls who thought probably the same way which i did.

there was a tall girl in our senior batch. she was one of our category. initially she started wishing the prof despite no reply. then she observed sir changing his way whenever he saw her. so she changed her strategy. she started following him! she would not leave him till confrontation!

one day, as i heard , she started following sir. he walked fast, she walked fast. he changed the way, she changed the way. he tried a lot but she persisted. As a last resort, sir started climbing the stairs. she also went following him. sir literally ran to our college terrace. but she was a fanatic. there was some spirit in her head. she ultimately cornered him on an edge of the college terrace.

" good afternoon sir" she said
"ok ok good afternoon ...you go now" said sir annoyingly.

this was not over. he had to face one more fanatic girl from our junior batch.
" i took it as a challenge. i felt i must get this prof talking with me.." this was how she put cause of her actions in words. " i kept following sir for many days. some times even used to search and find them for the reason. on each encounter, though i wished with all the warmth, he did not speak any thing. i felt, some how, he will give in. and one day, believe me, he came probably searching me and said 'how are you?'.." she recalled with trembling voice " now it was my turn to behave strangely... this was because suddenly i realized i was a girl and i feared if i created a soft corner in his heart.. this could be a big mistake!.. i stepped back and literally ran away from the scene. just before a few minutes when he spoke to me i felt i won the game but soon, it struck to my mind i unknowingly probably was playing with feelings of a gentleman...." she admitted " no one should play with feelings of any one like this... and leave feelings, just think of a girl following you apparently with no reason. how bad he might have felt while encountering me like that daily. no one should behave the way i did, i only wish him to pardon me.

this was not the case with me. i used to just wish him whenever i met him. this was just like with any other teacher. for me, like i said, initially there was no response from sir. then he started nodding head in response.

again, some one told me a new story about this man. i still do not know how far this is correct but it sounded believable to me.

when sir was young, at delhi or somewhere, he fell in love with some one. they said it was a perfect pair. she left sir only because sir had asthma. and that, i guessed, broke this gentleman. so he left delhi and joined this remote medical college.

life takes sudden turns. that happened with my professor. one day, he developed severe breathlessness. it was an acute attack of bronchial asthma. sir was so breathless he was unable to even speak. some doctors residing around him immediately took him to the emergency department of our hospital. he was admitted. started with the oxygen and the drugs. though, he never mixed well with any one around him, at the time of need all the doctors residing around him and the students came to see him and to help him.

he recovered gradually. but during his stay in the hospital, he probably realized how students loved him and cared for him. he really was thankful to all. unfortunately the incident took place when i was not in the campus. the episode definitely helped to break some ice.

sir started answering the wishes! and what about me? i was happy as sir would stop sometime on the way and would ask with big smile 'hey neh, howz going?" . his few words felt like gold medals to me! i salute this unique man and wish him all the best wherever he is presently....!

CH 37 : MY FIRST HOTEL VISIT

2012-08-15T22:48:00.000+05:30

as i learnt afterwards, it was beji's idea to form a group with us. as a group, we used to sit and used to talk a lot apart from academic activities like reading book of applied anatomy.one fine day, jasmine and beji came.

" hey neh, how about dining outside this sunday together?" proposed beji. to say no to any one is one of the difficult task of my life.secondly, when something is proposed by one of your first girlfriend how can you say no? more over,the student mess remained closed on sunday evenings and we were forced to manage sunday evening's food outside somewhere.. two decades back, options were limited.there was no any restaurant in the campus. nearby karamsad had a few laari walas to rescue us. there were some fine hotels at vallabh vidya nagar, but that were too fancy and probably costly for a middle class student like me. still, you forget your class when invitation is from some one special.

" okay" i thought for a while " but where should we go?" i hoped she would say to some udipi like place.
"avre" said jasmine enthusiastically. oh! i saw that hotel on the way from anand to karamsad. it appeared one of the costliest hotel i never wished to go in. but i always wondered what type of food they served.

in fact, though as a city, bhuj was not a very small town and also it was not that as a family we never dined outside home, i was exposed to only a few kinds of outside food- gujarati and madrasi. since my mother was a working woman, my father many a times allowed luxury of dining out. mostly we would stop at darbargadh, a place near palace and tower of bhuj where all sorts of outside food was available- dabeli, bhel, ragda petis, bhajia etc. that food was far more tastier to my test buds than what we were preparing at home. or, we would go to bus station where masaladhosa was available on a laari called nityanand. But the greatest luxury for me and my only sister neha was to go to anando, a south indian specialist restaurant near our hamirsar lake. it served best quality of all kinds of dhosas, uttapas and vada idli. i remember as a small kid to have read the prize of dhosa rs 5 only! and as i grew up, anando remained my favourite place to eat. i had voracious appetite then- i could finish three big plates of dhosa, uttapa and bhel! all costing around from rs 10 to 15!

there were some other costlier places also like hotel prince but we never went there. as i grew up, i realized that outside food was very much harmful to our health. our family's outside eating was far more than any other family around us. teenage somehow brings idealism to all of us. i felt we should not eat outside and gradually became staunch fighter that would prefer even khichdi alone over outside food- be it my favorite masala dhosa! i became a staunch proponent of home food.

and here, the girl power -designed to melt almost the convictions you have in life- dragged me! so despite all my beliefs and arguments against outside food. i happily said

" thik hai...jayenge.."

jasmine looked happier. she had that innocence to not to hide whatever happening in her heart. while beji was on the other pole- she was able to hide or mimic anything. it was not possible to read her.

on the sunday evening, i and tapasvi went to avre. tapasvi had cancelled his routine weekly home visit to be able to join us.

jasmine, beji and anu were waiting there for us. they all were dressed nicely and looked pretty (if not heroines!). to dine with pretty girls is a kind of kick for any teen boy-who would disagree? ( probably my dear friend hemant would!)

the hotel was just on the road. it had a big glass entrance. as we reached the door, the guard sitting at the door stood up and opened the door. he lowered his head and said "welcome..sir.." that was the first ever salute in my life i received for spending money!

as we entered, there was one other guy who guided us to the table.i felt, he was a real useful man since he safely took us to a table situated in one of the side rooms of the main dining hall in horribly dim light. some instrumental was played from hidden speakers. almost all the tables were full. we appeared lucky enough to get the table. the sound of plates and spoons were adding background music to murmuring voices of the customers. there was strong spicy smell in the atmosphere.

the place appeared far different than our 'desi' anando at bhuj which i thought as a big hotel till now. there were no door keepers who would welcome and salute you. it was properly lit and you easily could see the empty tables to choose from.

we sat down and arranger ourselves on the table. i and tapasvi were on one side while three dolls -beji, jasmine and anu sat in front of us. the dim light was adding beauty to their faces. that must be the reason to keep such lighting sparked in my mind. the hotel was decorated luxuriously. wall paintings, show pieces looked gorgeous.there were no fans. it was centrally air conditioned. i never had dined in such a big decorated ac hotel.

soon, one waiter came and served water (those were not the days when mineral water was offered as a choice to the customers).He also put menu cards. i was curious to know the type of food they served. i picked up one.

the card was full of items i never heard of! there were soups, subjees different kinds of pulaos and rotis. but the most shocking part for me was the cost. each of the dish was about or more than three times the cost of my favorite masala dhosa! though we were to divide the expenses, the rates made me perspire!

jasmine, tapasvi, beji all looked very comfortable. probably for them, this was nothing new. a suited booted polished man appeared from the dark to take the order.my friends ordered many things enthusiastically. jasmine looked expert among all.

it took quite a long to deliver the order. but naturally, we enjoyed talking and sharing with each other during that time. the food was served. each item was new for me. it was first time i saw what they called roti and how a naan looked. i realized all the food was immersed in butter and oil. and it was called punjabi food. was that the daily food the punjabis eat? i think no one would dare to think that question after seeing any tall and healthy sardar!

i do not remember the amount of bill we paid but i enjoyed the company and that was the cost for that.

Nothing is more costlier than a girl! this was the first lesson in my life to justify.

soon, the chocolaty evening got over. with one more paid salute at the exit, we re incarnated to middle class students from 'sirs'!
" oh man, my stomach is full like never before.. i think we need a walk." i said. probably it was true for all of us. To get out everything possible from single paisa spent, we forgot we had limited capacity stomach!
every one agreed. we started walking towards vallabh vidyanagar. 20 years from now, the road was almost free from the traffic and almost lonesome. ideal to walk. it was about 8.30pm late evening.
--suddenly we heard a man's cry just nearby "save me...save me.." it was horribly loud and was coming from a slum like area just near the railway track. before our brain could deduce anything further, a completely naked young man appeared from the dark running towards us. we all were shocked.
"save me .. save me.." he was running and crying. like a lightening he passed by us making quick way to the other side of the road and vanished in the dark. soon, a mob of men came rushing from the rail side. all of them appeared furious. they wanted to catch the naked man.they steered to the same direction but the naked man was gone in the dark. vanished to save himself.

everything happened very fast within a couple of minutes. it was simply beyond any ones imagination what happened. was he a thief? but what about his clothes? torn by the mob? but in that case there had to be at least some torn cloth on his body. there was none. he was anatomically completely naked.

probably that guy might had been caught while trying to have sex with some lady. or might be trying for rape? this was the sole reason that could explain whatever happened shocking all of us.

i think we would have witnessed a murder if the naked man was caught in front of us. the horrifying moments left lasting memory.

ch 36: MY FIRST VIVA

2012-07-29T00:25:00.000+05:30

as my father never wanted me to go to a regular school, i had luxury of starting my schooling at the age of 9 yrs! as i entered the school, i realized that the traditional education system had a peculiar way of examining the students. the system wanted all the students to behave like a herd of sheep and, to emphasize that, it wanted the student herd to sit in a room under supervision of a system defined so called teacher and write answers to some jargon questions. face to face examination was a rare thing to undergo. the system genuinely believed all the students could be judged by same standard of questions! in such exams, there almost never were oral and face to face exams. yes, in practical classes, teachers used to ask some questions. in 12th std exams especially, there were practicals followed by a small session of face to face oral exams.

and now here, in the medical college, we were to face special oral exams called 'viva'... though it may appear funny today, it was a great stress on most of the students- especially those from gujarati medium. how could you give answers in english when it simply was difficult even to understand it?

"so..." dr harsoda, tutor in physiology once announced when completing his lecture " we are completing the bloods... you will have vivas on bloods this weeks.." he said typically adding 's' wherever he could.that was typical of his speech. the announcement ran like an electric current in our nerves. if not all, most of the students felt the weight of the word viva.

apart from routine 3monthly 6monthly and yearly exams, a medical student is churned almost twice a week in viva exams. same was to start with us. there is no doubt most people believe medical graduation course as one of the toughest course of all the branches.

as some of our seniors heard about our first viva, advises suggestions were showered on us.

" 1st viva? ha .. ha.. ha.. you all are to be beaten from all the side! beware..! harsodas might eat you alive!" said one of the chronics from seniors.

" you do not need to read at all for viva...just be cool and answer if you know... never bluff.."
" even if you try your best, harsodas will never give you more than 6 out of 10marks and at worst you might get 4.. so why to worry for mere 2 marks?" a logical advice!

" you know, only we boys have to read.... for girls it hardly matters especially if she is hot enough!" some frustrated guy said.

" hey .. all of you read nicely..do not waste time. if you read for vivas, it would be easier in the final exams. you all need to have habit of answering in viva." advised one good senior. "i know students which know a lot but when it comes to speak it up at viva, their toungue gets paralysed. so practice from now.."

personally for me, to speak was not a big issue. i had such habit. big issue was to read! i hated reading and hoped to learn and remember everything from the college classes. that naturally, was simply impossible. but it was always my fantasy!

we were taught how the blood cells were formed in the bone marrow and what different stages were needed to get a mature red blood cell. the stages had different names according to their appearence on microscope. you needed to mug up the whole cascade! still, when everything was over, and your brain holded the names of the different maturity states of the red cells with great difficulty, the text said what you mugged up was only one theory of red cell production the other was ready to be described further! and this was how all the biology went... all information, different theories- we had British school of thought, american school of thought and thank god there was no any indian school of thought on red cell production.

i really hated but tried to mug up some facts and read. my friends were sincere and most of them read quite well. i had no idea about the questions. few seniors told us something about that.

at last the day arrived. the herd of my batch mates gathered around the chamber of dr harsoda. all were well dressed and were in white aprons. sir was in his chamber on his chair. i remember my samir, margi, manisha prakash and bimal waiting for the viva outside the chamber. all were naturally a bit tense. few of my friends came with big physiology textbook and some notes.
-and the bell rung! first student was called in for viva. i do not remember who he or she was, but i remember the rest becoming tense and attentive to the voice heard from the question chamber of dr harsoda. as 'v' for vaidya usually came last, my turn to go in the chamber for the viva was almost last.
the students became silent to listen to the sounds coming from the chamber. i never liked to hear questions from outside. i had my own reasons. like, i always liked to give extempore answers. secondly, hearing questions from outside always was felt like stealing something. thirdly, repeat questions were less likely[ so why to waste energy ]. and finally, probably the most appropriately- i was scared to discover my ignorance about the answers of the questions beforehand! so i never tried to peep my ears in the viva chamber. however, most of the students usually tried to hear the whisper like questions heard outside.few of them would immediately open up the books to seek the answer.few will announce the answer from their deep knowledge for fellow student's benefit.

-i used to stand still, trying to hide my tension and closing ears to all the noise and whispers around me.such times probably give you time to forget the world and remember only the small present tense. the world gets shrunken.
the bell rung. the first student came out. all others circled him.
" hey.. hey.. what did he ask?"
"nothing"
" what nothing?"
"i mean, nothing was asked from what i read.."
mean while the bell rung again for the next student.
the cycle went on till my turn.the bell rung. probably i was the second last. the chamber was small. dr harsoda was on the other side of the table. as i entered, he gestured and asked me to take the seat.
" you are... vaid" like dr harsoda, almost no one pronounced my surname vaidya correctly.
"yes sir" my heart started pumping extra blood for my nerves.
"tell me..." he took a long pause as he seemed to have used all his armamentorium against my friends. "tell me vaid...." he probably at last dragged a question the wall behind me "what are the reticulocites?"
" they are the immature red cells"
"etle means ke?"- one of sir's favorite gunglish dialogue!
" i mean last step before maturity" i said
" fine fine" he nodded his head. dr harsoda never liked to pull legs of any student. i do not remember him becoming harsh to any one. he asked me a few more questions and done! my first viva was over with a great success! success was not about the marks. that were not probably even distinctive. Success was just about to go through the first viva!
there after, like all the medical students, viva became a routine part of life at the college. i liked physiology vivas. physiology needed less mugging and more common sense. i disliked vivas of anatomy and biochemistry.
in physiology, dr harsoda and dr singh were very liberal in marks. they used to ask predictable simple questions. how can i forget dr shivdatta nishith? a fair handsome and tall army physiologist, always awarding less marks in the vivas? he used to call five students together for viva in his chamber. he would ask the question and if the student could not answer, it would be passed on to the next student and so on. many a times his question would go from one corner to the other un answered. sir had atypical speech. i think whole of our batch even today would remember the way he spoke the famous " all-or-none -law" [allar nanla!] i remember how he demonstrated popliteal artery pulses to me by crossing his legs and asking me to observe his pulsing leg.

dr s k singh used to be very gentle in viva and would give ample of marks event if the student spoke little. probably he believed in the positive feedback theory. he would even explain the things in the middle of the viva.
the head , dr mazoomdar was a real teacher and physiologist. he used to ask anything that he believed to be answered by a student's common sense about the subject and chapter.[khommon sense!]

CH 34:RANG BARSE..AT MY COLLEGE...!

2012-02-20T00:25:00.000+05:30

Life is a package deal with curses and bliss packed in a single bundle. and sometimes, a curse, as perceived initially, converses to be a bliss. since i belonged to a far away place, this was such a case for me. while my friends enjoyed all the festivals at their nearby home, as they used to before their entry to the college, i had unique opportuinity to be part of some of unique celebrations at my college campus!

one of the vivid memory that i have for such an event is celebration of holi. since most of the students were from nearby places, only a few used to be at the campus on big festival days. some were forced to stay back like me because of their far away homes while some had to stay back to read for the scary examinations.

the boys' hostel was 'c' shaped at that time. the open end of the 'c' faced beautiful farms. it looked more like living in a lavish farm house than a college hostel. i lived in room no 15 with tapasvi and biren as my partners-one from ahmedabad and the other from gandhinagar. both never liked to miss any opportunity to go to home even in the routine days. so i was usually left alone in my room.

I do not remember any traditional holi fire in the campus but the next day, dhuleti, was celebrated with great zeal! i remember first such celebration. before telling that, let me reveal, i was a very shy as a kid and hardly used to play holi in its full violent flavor! back in bhuj as a child, i used to play holi with few of my friends and was always worried of some alien attack on me! i basically disliked to be wet and more to be dirty. also, i never liked someone attacking me and making all my hairs studded with the color. you can now imagine how i might be hating use of coal and mud in place of color on such an occasions.

i had no idea whatsoever as to what would happen on the day of dhuleti. I remember there was one kaka who used to come from karamsad to sell milk pouches and small cakes and puffs. he used to shout "lactose" in place of milk! he used to come on his bicycle and was very talkative. he had habit of talking a lot about any thing.just a few days before the holi festival, kaka started telling his own tingling life story about how he met kaki on the day of dhuleti and what and what not he did. you can imagine how popular his extempore speeches might have got in the boys hostel! i am sure, there was less of truth and more of fiction and fantasy in what he spoke. but truth never mattered anyone while listening to such tingling stories!

as the day of holi approached, some students told me about the celebration in the campus but i was least interested in being a part of such a celebration.on the other hand, i had great plan of taking rest in my room while let others to play holi.
but life is full of surprises especially when you are a teenage boy studying in the first year of a college. so, as soon as i rose in the morning, the noises of water fight started. i also heard some voices coming towards my room. they knocked the door. i was a bit scared to open the door of my room. was someone out there with a whole bucket of color just waiting to throw on me? or might be a whole gang was awaiting to attack!
but before i could think more, my friends started banging the door! what should i do now?

" neh! come out.." cried a voice with a big bang. " dont leave him ! no mercy on any one today!"

" neh.. come out" others also joined the voice. they were banging my door so vigorously, i felt, they would break it open! they were keen to ruin my plan of a great lazy day. ok , so be it. i gave up. i lifted my heavy holiday body with a great effort and reached the door.

as soon as i opened the door, i was firmly caught and greeted with colors from all the directions.i simply had no chance to resist. i tried to protect my head and eyes but soon it was over and i became fully colored clad like my friends! we all looked alike! my nose, my eyes and my hairs were studded with color. the boys looked such, even their mothers would not recognize them at first. voice was the only resort to recognize someone! i had no mirror to have a look at myself but the way i was attacked, i had little doubt of looking less horrible than my friends!

when you are tricked you also want others to fall prey to such a trick! in hope of getting such an event soothing my eyes , i looked around. at that moment, i saw setu being mercilessly attacked. he was coming out from the bath area. Although, he probably had taken a full bath just then, the friends dragged him to the open side of the 'c' of the hostel. As i saw, some mud colored students were there awaiting for the prey ! it appeared, they had pre prepared mud on the ground! setu was almost thrown in the mud and his fair skin changed the color within seconds! he hardly resisted the friends. setu's color became one with the horrible looking gang playing holi there!

so the day started quite unexpectedly.one after the other, the friends were attacked. almost no one was spared from the hostel. the colored friends joined and soon the gang expanded.
' come on neh, let us go' my friends asked me to join the gang. it was first time when, once a gang fearing kid like me, on that day became a part of such a frightening mob! the things that i hated till date- colors, mud, wetness some how poured an eternal joy in my heart. i felt something changed inside. probably that was joy of being one with the friends.my lazy ideas faded before i could think more. instantly, i became equally zealous to join the gang.
psmc has a vast campus spanning about three to four kilometers.our hostels were at one end , the hospital was in the middle and the staff and teachers quarters were at the other end.
Tell me,as a college boy where would you like to attack on the day of holi? of course, the targets were clear.- the teachers and the girls- our class mates and the nursing students! but wait a minute! i hardly was knowing any girl at that time and i do not remember pouring color on any one! neither had i the luxury of getting colored by the soft hands!however, some of my seniors had such a luxury!

after the girls hostel and the nursing hostel, the mob moved on to the teachers quarters. most of the teachers offered sweets and were very happy to see our gang banging at their homes.it appeared a heavenly celebration.
the fun was still not over. after the exhausting journey, lastly we reached dhobi ghaat. every one threw their mud and color stuck body in the tanks meant for washing the clothes! ouch! the water was cold but who cared such a thing when playing with friends? i must admit till that day, i never had such a holi in whole of my life!
on last note, i must whisper in your ears that some of the gang members took undue [or DUE] advantage of the festival to break in the nursing hostel and color the nursing students. as we heard the rumors, some one said some of the students did more than just throwing color at the nursing girls.
But before criticizing, i must tell you a story of an english film that i remember . the film showed the hero, a medical student, breaking in the girl's hostel after a frenzy of a football match. he was caught and the authorities, especially the dean was very keen to get him severely punished until a good professor showed old records which proved same incident against the dean when he was a medical student!

fact is more fictitious than the fiction!
history repeats!!

CH 33: A SURPRISE PARTY

2011-12-07T09:15:00.001+05:30

For students like me, the struggle for recognition had two facets. one was concerned with my degree and the other was concerned with my own recognition as a person. the college authorities were expected to do everything for the first part while, naturally, for my own recognition, i had to do whatever i could.
as i have elaborated earlier, the groups of like minded (and like funded!)started forming in our class. since we were averse to concept of closed walled groups, we never attempted formally to form any group. so we, i tapasvi and hemant remained aloof from all the groups, ultimately resulting in 'no group' group! our group also consisted students like bimal chhaya- a fanatic proprietor of no group theory, anish shah, chirag shah and of course biren gandhi-my room mate. but truly speaking, our 'no group' group was lacking in girl members.
as far as girls were concerned, hemant was least interested in any such relationship. in fact, though being a fair and chocolaty collegian, he was averse to girls! if any girl tried to take even a glimpse of his face anytime in the class, his expression remained such, would never dare to speak with him.
for tapasvi, the case was different.It was not that he was deeply interested in girls, but some how you could find him now and then in between bunch of girls and girls! may be he was very good communicator and knew exactly how and what to speak with girls.though he was a tall but an average guy, his eyes were very caring and truthful, probably making him a very trust-able man.
in between these two, probably i was on a mid line. not averse to girls like hemant on one side and not a krishna kanhaiya like tapasvi on the other. i was a thin, a bit dark skinned and serious appearing guy.honestly, i must say, not that i was not interested in girls but i never knew how to speak with them. as i have written earlier, my first experience of talking with a college girl , that too my own classmate, added to my disability. i felt grossly insulted due to that bizarre event and feared rejection every time when i talked with any girl.
thus, one day, when beji and jasmine invited us to join with them and to make a group,though facing full resistance from hemant, i was happy. the original idea of forming a group was of beji.the group was officially formed and consisted jasmine, beji and anu from girls and tapasvi ramesh and me. But unofficially, all my other friends were in a way part of the group since they were joining us in one or other activity of their choice and this included hemant also.
beji was an uncontested dictator of the group activities. she was a keralian christian girl with big and naughty eyes, smiling face and sharp brain. she used to speak many a times in riddles that no one could ever understand (even today, if you wish to cross check my statement, just open up her facebook wall and look at her posts - half of them probably she might not be understanding herself!). still, to our gross irritation, she and jasmine would giggle and would say some words secretly in each other's ears, after such riddles! she was very out spoken and liked to be at the center of the attention.she was a very confident girl assured of all her qualities. but strangely enough, though she appeared adult, sometimes she behaved like a child. the bottom line for her was - she liked to be liked !
jasmine, looked more like a shadow to beji, had a little desire to get noticed. it was her nature to study study and study. though she had thick glasses, i could notice, her eyes were full of tender innocence.she loved beji as much as she would endorse almost everything said by beji and would do everything to please beji. she was so much influenced by beji, she used to forget even her own independent identity in beji's presence.
to me, their friendship was something that made me feel valued for myself and added some answer to quest of my own recognition.
some times, beji and jasmine had weird ideas. like, on my very first birthday after my entry to psmc, they suddenly appeared on the gate of boys' hostel. it was hot evening time of the august. until now,all my birthdays were celebrated at my home. this was my first birthday away from my home. the whole day had passed like a routine one. how could i imagine, something would happen of such a kind, i would remember the day for the life!
" hello neh! let us go for party!" exclaimed beji and asked us to come for a surprise party. there was a colorful gift packet in her hand. i wondered what was there in! was it really for me?
we were summoned to our lecture hall's terrace. i tapasvi and hemant climbed exhausting stairs to reach to our beautiful terrace. it was so high, you could feel like to be on a small mountain. since ours was a rural college, once you climb up, the eyes could feast on trees and farms all around, till the skies met the horizon.as the terrace was on the lecture hall there was natural almost forty five degree slope in half of the terrace making it a leisurely place. you could throw your body loose on the slope and enjoy the sun set. our psmc was a college with many couples and lovers - no doubt the terrace had many stories to tell and was full of hidden secrets!
jasmine, beji and anu were waiting for us.the sun was about to set.the air was clean and the terrace was glowing golden with setting sun's light. we all sat in one of the corner of the terrace and a candle was lit urgently.
Until now, i really hated the English way of celebrating the birth days. back at home, i used to celebrate the day with my friends without any kind of candle blowing or singing happy birth day. no friend was allowed to gift me. it was rule to give all something to eat but never a cake or a pastry. i used to ridicule my other friends which celebrated birth day in so called English way.
here, on the same occasion, things were up side down! everything was prepared beforehand. even, they bought some gifts for me. what gifts? they had a small packet nicely covered with a shining decorative paper.
'Hey neh, cone on! what are you waiting for? " looking at my hesitant expression, beji said. i was confused and was thinking if i could deny such a ceremony. but looking at the enthusiasm, it would have been too harsh behavior from me. i did not say anything and simply obeyed the order.
as soon as i blew the candle, all my friends sung "happy birthday"- the song i hated till date. before i could think more, the colorful box was put in my hand. they asked me to open. to my surprise, there was a kite shaped water push button game of rings and there was a balloon attached with a noise making hollow wood stick.i was stunned.
"what is this?" i said in puzzled voice. what did they think of me? a child of 3yr ? a mentally challenged baby? i really could not understand how to react to it. i accepted it with a bit hesitation.
" cant you see boy?"within seconds, beji snatched my game and showed me how to play, as if i was the most dumb lad available around! she also blew air in the balloon with all her lung capacity and showed me how to blow in the hollow stick to make noise from the gifted balloon!
" so, you can play like this! " said beji tagging the line with her big smile. tapasvi laughed.
think of a situation when you are trying to behave more like a man but pushed by your girl friends to behave like a kid. any way, i had no option but to accept the gifts. i could have said no, but that could have hurt their feelings. i felt, the love and care shown for me was far more important to respect than to stick to my beliefs and principles. probably that was not the time to have discussion on such a serious topic.
they had brought pastries and something more to eat. every one was happy. i was too! the evening was made special by making each of my friend sing for me something.
i remember, though i never played, i had kept those gifts carefully till recently with utmost care. it was a symbol of love and care showered on me by my new friends of the college. the quest of recognition started taking some shape.

CH 32 : MBBS OR 12TH PASS?

2011-11-26T00:13:00.001+05:30

well, the strike was over and i soon joined my routine at psmc. since the time of the admission, i was very well aware of the un recognized status of the mbbs degree of our college. however,.i and my parents were sure that the college would get recognition by the medical council of india. simlpy because we trusted name of hon. shree h. m. patel, once right hand of sardar patel. more over, there was no other option for me. i had to study at psmc if i wanted my dream of becoming a doctor to come true. it was last chance for me.

however, many of my friends took the admission with sheer ignorance. like, as for example, my good friend jasmine mehta, opted for psmc leaving all big and recognized medical colleges of gujarat only because her home was just nearby at vallabh vidya nagar. she stood 1st in merit in whole of the anand district and was eligible for admission at any medical college! but unfortunately [and fortunately for me!] her parents never knew what the animal known as MCI looked like!

there were many such students which chose psmc only because of proximity of their home. most of such students were from ahmedabad and vadodara..

it was natural for all the students to feel depressed on the issue of recognition. so, though full of college life, fun and of course studies, our campus at that time had a kind of hidden depression. because, some where deeper in minds of the students the feeling of being un recognized reeled. even in happy moments of any group some one would unknowingly hint at the problem and the moments soon would perish in air.
once, when we were having some happy time, some one spoke of recognition. the discussion was going on at nursing hostel probably at bimal chhaya's room. ketan shah, popularly known as ketan dada, told some stirring technical facts.
" you know, we were knowing this since admission." he said " since we were paying full donation, we know all the technical aspects." all others become silent and his voice grew more serious
" presently, if you pass out even with flying colors, with your mbbs degree from psmc, you are not more than 12th pass student of the state." his statement stunned us." let me tell you no one from us would be able to claim any government job."
"so what hell will we do with such a degree?"
" just think over. we are hoping to get recognition of our mbbs course by medical council of india. till then, we are 12th pass!"
" and what does it mean when they say our course is recognised by the sardar patel university? i know our course is recognised by the university" said some one trying to console the group.
" it means nothing. i mean, you will be recognised graduates of the university but remember no one can practice medicine without recognition from the MCI."
"and why the hell this MCI is not recognizing our college?"
" you see, i tell you the process" ketan dada was son of a very well known surgeon from rajkot. his father and mother were in the profession since years. "any college when demands recognition from the MCI, it invites the inspectors from MCI to show the facilities provided to teach the future doctors. the inspectors would come and tell what still is remaining to comply with the minimum standards. the college would be recognized only when all standards are met."

" and this would be done finally only when our first batch passes out." added vimal hemani, my good friend.
"suppose if the recognition does not come by the time the first batch passes out. what will happen to that batch? "
" that batch would remain 12 th pass!"
" you mean for their life time?"
" no no. it means they would remain 12th pass till our college gets recognition. they would be recognized as doctors retrospectively as a rule." said vimal.
there was silence in the room. all we could to was just to hope for the best.
" presently, the president of MCI is dr ketan desai, our doctor from gujarat university." some one added his knowledge.

so, soon after period of elation of getting in an mbbs course, this was a shock every one suffered who entered PSMC !

" and what about the post graduation?" a very relevant question.
" but first, tell me, do you really think we would be able to pass this mbbs?" ketan dada's comment made every one laugh. "any way, as of now, our college does not have any post graduate course. and neither we would be eligible for other university's PG course till the MCI recognizes our mbbs first."
"damn! we are trapped "

for me, at that time, just to be a doctor was the goal and post graduation meant nothing. i wanted to be a doctor and that would be served even if i was only an mbbs doctor. but to remain only 12 pass after five and half years blood sucking course? leave me, any one would commit suicide !

thus the waves of depression remained under current. the discussion was not limited to our campus. it gradually came to be a social stigmata. the people around us when asked about our study, we proudly would tell them about our gorgeous medical college. after listening everything, they would say " okay, so, PSMC ! is that your college? that unrecognized one no?" and would add " so what are your plans with such a degree?"
we frankly had no answer to such life questions except to keep mum and feel depressed. some one would feel pity on us while some one would say some words of hope. some times even parents of my friends got frustrated because of such discussions around them.
once, out of such frustration, we went to meet dr haridas, hardly knowing his technical position. he was the head of the department of biochemistry. he was living in a bungalow near the main entrance of the college. he greeted us with a big smile.
"come...welcome..."
" sir what will happen to our recognition?" we asked in panic.
" i hope soon it would be resolved" said he with wishful thinking. "all are trying their best. we hope to clear the inspection next time." our tender and innocent minds listened to him as if we were listening to the head of the MCI assuring us!
" and sir, what about our post graduation? our college does not have such courses."
" in that case, government may ask the other colleges to keep five five seats for our students in each of the medical colleges."
"wow! can this really happen?" sir showed us our day dream.
"may be.. let us hope so.."
though, sir, out of sympathy, showed us a day dream, we all believed in him and went away to our hostel room and slept nicely that night! the reality was far away from what he said and we were not knowing what challenges we would face in future.

our batch was probably were fourth in a row since the admissions started at the PSMC. the first batch was soon to go for the exams and we were waiting eagerly to see what happened to them.one day, some one said the team of inspectors from the MCI was to come to inspect our college. they were to ascertain the facilities at the college. their duty was to make our education a quality education by forcing the college authorities to provide minimum needed facilities.

the atmosphere of the campus became charged with buzz of issue of recognition. what facilities did our college have at that time? briefly, the college building was already like a new bride. the hospital was functioning since a few years more than the year of start of the college. our college had a vast campus, big and well designed building for running not only all the needed departments but also a good library and indoor sports facilities for the students. ( not mentioning dark corners and open huge terraces essential for lovers and official couples!).

our library was studded with big big cupboards stuffed with thick and horrible medical books. the journal section was rich with probably all possible uninteresting books subscribed from world over.
. we had a huge play ground surrounded by eucalypti trees on one side and mango trees on the other.same way, we had rainbow of teachers in each of the departments starting from head to tails. the labs had adequate equipment and experts of the subjects. all the teachers of the 1st mbbs were full timers. looking at all these, we felt, how any inspector could deny us recognition? what was lacking then?

even if being students of first mbbs, we used to go to the hospital sometimes just out of curiosity. our shri krishna hospital was a big hospital with all the major departments functioning with full time staff. the hospital had different wards. but that is where we saw the problem.since ours was a rural medical college away from any populated city, the patient turn over of our hospital was low. we used to see hardly a few patients admitted in wards.to be a good doctor, a medical student ought to be exposed to large number of patients.

when the dates approached, the college authorities started organizing health check up camps in near by villages and poured indoor patients in our hollow empty hospital wards to make up the needed number of patients ! we saw buses coming in our campus bringing people for admissions. god only could say how many of them were real patients! our wards looked like hospital wards first time ever since we joined.

i do not remember seeing the most wanted and still probably most disliked inspectors from the MCI but i do remember how depressed we felt when the news of denial of recognition arrived in the campus after few days of interval after the inspection.

there were different versions to explain. some people said, since h.m. patel was an honest man, he refused any favor to the inspectors and their bosses. some one said, dr ketan desai, the president of the MCI, had some personal account to be settled with one of our senior professor. there were so many theories.hardly a few believed our college really lacked the facilities.

this was just start of the torture. we had to face the inspection by the MCI almost every year. plight of a student working hard in such an unrecognized institute can be understood only by his or her fellow students.

CH 31: MY ARTS COLLEGE

2011-09-06T00:53:00.002+05:30

It has been now 22 yrs since I joined pramukhswami medical college. I do not remember why but there came a period of strike just after a few months of joining the college. It was the time when all of us just were getting familiar with each other and strengthening our new friendships.

As soon as the strike announced, all the students, freshly sick about their homes, departed immediately. I also left for bhuj. i promised my new friends tapasvi, hemant, biren, jasmine shah and others to keep in touch by letters. That time the world was devoid of any kind of mobiles! So forget about sms!

When I arrived back in my beautiful home town bhuj, apart from roaming around leisurely with friends, I had nothing to do. i already was awerse to reading medical books. There are only a few rare occasions in life when you wish to do something just to kill the time. It was such a time for me.

Three decades back, bhuj had only one arts cum science college and one commerce college. Both were and are on the same road and so the road is rightly known as the college road in bhuj.

The r. r. lalan college was one of the oldest and as old as my parents graduated from that college. Those of my 12th std friends opted to do B.sc. had to go to lalan college. Just to kill time and have some college fun, I joined my school friends suresh, yogesh and started attending the lectures at lalan college.

The college was a few kilometers away from the main city. I never had any vehicle and I used to enjoy riding my grandfather’s tall bicycle to join my friends in their college. The college campus was vast. After entering the campus, one had to go a kilometer or so to reach the red college building.the college was big but it was in many ways different than my college. it was big, but ill maintained. the corners were studded with waste papers, used ball pens etc.

while there were limited students in my college, i saw big herds of students in lalan college near every lecture all and corridors. in my college, boys and girls were seen freely interacting with each other. here, the groups of boys and girls were mostly seen non interacting. probably there was no social approval of good friendship between boys and girls. my friends told me most of such friendships were haunted by gossips.

the class rooms were big enough to accomodate about 100 students. but students were probably far more and each class was grossly over crowded. i remember a few lectures i attended. one day i went to a sanskrit class. the lady lecturer was a new one. she was to teach famous story by kalidas 'abhigyan shakuntalam'. it is a love story.

the class was full of students. all were talking to each other and there was big noice. some students were standing and some were still coming in while a few were going out. the big windows were good enogh to bring fresh oxygen for all of us and were also giving panoramic view of the beautiful campus outside. however, windows mainly were used to interact with friends peeping in from out side. entry of the lecturer hardly made any difference to the activities going on in the class ! the roll call was done and taking advantage of the chaos, many said "yes madam" on behalf of their friends wandering somewhere else! the crowd was such that it was imposiible for the lecturer to confirm.

the lecturer had some notes with her and she started speaking something from it. some good boys shouted "stop noice stop noice "to help the novice teacher. the noice lessened but coming in going out and peeping from windows continued. the lecturer was heard till a few feets.i was within that range.as she taught further a sanskrit word "paurush" was repeated again and again. succumbing to my nature, i stood up and asked "madam what is the meaning of paurush could you please explain for me?"

my question was totally un expected for her.it struck to her from out of blue.i was confident that it would be impossible for her to recognise me as an outside student. she was silent for a few moments letting the noice and chaos in class to increase. then she said paurush was a king and it also means a man. the answere not only dis satisfyied me but also the class. i really was astonised to find a lecturer in sanskrit unable to explain word paurush.

Not all class were same. husband of my 12th std chamistry teacher jyotiben, dr. trivedi was a prof of psychology and i attended his class after taking his due permission. that class was totally different and just like was any of class in my college. students sat with pin drop silence and greeted the prof by standing up as he came in.

" dear students, " said sir " before going for today's topic, let me tell you there is one guest student in our class, " he pointed at me "nehal is a student of mbbs but out ou curiosity of the subject he has joined you friends today. i welcome him.." i thanked sir by bowing by head to him. it feels very strange when all of the class suddenly starts staring at you. i took some time to settle my heartbeats ! sir's lecture was fine and like a learned artist playing his favorite instrument.

the experience in the lalan college thus was mixed. however, i also went to commerce college with my friends wich was couple of kilometers away from the lalan college. the atmosphere there was almost same.at commerce college, i had luxury to attend lecture of lecture of our respected professor dr vakhat sinh jadeja. he was teaching english to college students. and to my surprise, he had to teach from very basics as if he was teaching primary school children! i remember asking him a question in the class and he was so happy to answere it!

whenever i see any college, i always wonder wether the courses provided in such institutes have any meaning for leading a productive life. wether it confers even basic knowledge of living life, leave the honesty and mirality away. arts commerce and even science colleges add nothing to life except degrees.they eat away important years of our young generation. i feel all the courses should have either meaning in life or some kind of vocation. i feel no thrill to learn kalidasa when i know that no one outside is going to offer me even a clerk's job even if i recite whole of the abhigyaan shakuntalam! i definately would enjoy learning it if it means getting creative writer's job in a news paper or something.

meanwhile, the strike was to get over in my college. i had written quite a lot letters to my new friends and they also had replied to my pleasure. i still have copies some of those letters !

CH 30 :NEHRU'S FOLLOWER IN PANCHVATI THE SLUM

2011-09-01T05:01:00.002+05:30

For me, going to panchvati slum every week became a ritual to feed my soul with my dreams and ambition to serve the needy. Amongst all my friends, I was one of the most regular in visiting panchvati. As I described earlier, panchvati was a typical slum with all the bad and a few good qualities. to be good friends was one of such good qualities they had. As our visits became regular, people started trusting us more. many became our friends and started sharing about their life.

Most of the people of panchvati worked in the farms nearby. Some had little jobs at karamsad. Many were not employed at all.so It was nothing surprising to see some one jobless. however, those which worked, they had to work very hard to earn their bread and butter.

While most of the workers looked tired in the evening, There was one man of around 50 yrs, which looked afresh most of the times. also, he had better hut and better clothes than his counter parts. his hut was just in front of our slum clinic. i really wondered as to what he was doing to make such a living?
" hey, kaka,may i ask you a personal question? what do you do for living?" one day i asked him ultimately, when he was leisurely passing by our clinic.
" me? " he stopped.
"yes kaka. i never have seen you working. how do you make living?" i exclaimed my curiosity completly to him.
he stood still for a while. might be he was hesitant to reveal. probably he might be a retired man living on his son's income that he disliked to reveal i guessed. i felt my question was too personal and intrudive. i thought i should not have asked such a personal question.
after a few seconds he made up his mind to reveal the secret. "my son, do you know? when i was young, there was a great leader..."
-leader of his times? hey, what is he up to? would he talk about some swamiji? a bhagat? or might be ganghiji? no no. he might not even know gandhiji. his talk made me more eager.
" yes kaka.."i said trying to hide my curiosity.
" his name was javaharlal nehru.." wow! kaka knew nehru! what a blow!
"he used to tell all the indians to go back to villages and start gruh udyog (small scale business managed totally at home). this would uplift not only your family but also your village and the state and the nation ultimately..." he gestured totality with both of his hands to mark his point.
"so my son, i decided to start a gruh udyog here. that is what i do for living..." he smiled. i never knew he was such a great man! His hut was just in front of our clinic and we were totally unaware of his gruh udyog. but what exactly was he doing? should i ask him to show us? his talk gave me more confidence.
" that is simply great kaka! we never knew it! but can you allow us to see your gruh udyog?" i was eager to see and so i asked him.
Again he looked in a bit confusion. might be, he was doing some gruh udyog like making papad or khakhra that is mainly percieved as women's work and so he was again hesitant. again he needed some more time to think on my demand. probably he was making up his mind to say no.
" okay son i will show you what gruh udyog i run." he agreed.
" thanks a lot kaka! may we, i and my friend tapasvi come with you right now?" i jumped immediately.
" that will not be feasible. you can come next week when next time you come here in your clinic.you need to come in the late evening." it was difficult to wait till next visit but there was no option.

Usually, we worked at panchvati in evening. After finishing our routine clinic or some community work, we used to return to our hostel at around 7.30 pm. we could visit kaka after that time.

that evening, while returning from panchvati, curiosity about kaka's gruh udyog had studded my mind. i and tapasvi talked about the kaka on the way wondering about his gruh udyog. the man was really great as he came to his village just for following advice of our great first prime minister.

and again the day came. i and tapasvi both were eager to reach to panchvati and go to kaka's hut to see his gruh udyog. both of us started our routine work. while examining patients, suddenly we heard a big cry outside. the voice was of some old lady. both of us ran out side our hut clinic along with our other friends.the cry was from the next street. we ran in that direction.

we saw an old lady of about sixty loudly cursing her husband for something.she was standing outside her hut and her old husband was on char pai -cot- sitting loosely with dirty clothes. the grandma was shouting and her husband who appeared half asleep, was probably not listening to her at all! to our surprise nobody but it was only us who ran out for the shouting.

we all were puzzled as to what to do. a local from nearby hut came to us to solve our confusion.

" just leave them..." he gestured at the old couple." both of them are drunk and this is their daily business..." damn! what kind of people they were! drunk every evening and quarreling?As i saw them again i immediately recognized the grandma. she was none other than one which was coming to our hostel in evening to sell carrots cucumber and tomatoes.she used to sit at the big gate of our girl's hostel and was very popular amongst girls. all used to call her "masi". she was very keen in observing the boys and girls. some times her awkward comments were enough to give a spark to quarrel.it was her routine to come to our campus daily.

and here she was buying liquor daily from that money she earned from the hostels! really, such kind of people waste even something they have. it was pity she and her husband both could get the liquor. some one must be supplying the whole area. home service like milk man!

masi's shouting lessened, as she started crying.for all the neighbors, this was probably routine. no one seemed concerned about her crying. rather, some people were smiling looking at the poor old lady.

i had heard about the ill effects of liquor- physical economical and here i was witnessing social. i felt liquor must be banned. no one should be able to get it. for masi, apart from witnessing her sorrows, we were unable help. gradually her crying lessened and we went back to our work. we felt very sorry for the old couple.yes, we forgot kaka's invitation to go to see his gruh udyog because of this mess. we remembered suddenly when we were packing up our clinic.

"hey,tapasvi we almost forgot kaka's invitation today. let us go." i told tapasvi
"yes. that masi's cry made us forget even our souls! it still hurts inside.any way, let us go to kaka." said tapasvi.

kaka was sitting outside his hut on char pai in his routine clothes. he was expecting us. he stood up as he saw us coming.
" ram ram kaka." we greeted him.
"ram ram. come here with me." kaka gestured to come into his hut.
his hut was a typical one of a slum with a few steps to climb to enter a chali outside. the door was little smaller than needed for an average adult to enter. i had to bend my head but tall tapasvi needed to bend whole of his body to pass from the door!

there was small main room poorly lit with tungsten bulb. there hardly was any furniture. walls were studded with photos of different gods and goddesses. a kitchen was attached to main room that hardly could accommodate a person.there was small window in the main room.
kaka guided us further in again from a small door. the room we entered had no windows to my surprise. kaka stopped near a steel drum of about half a meter hight. the drum was kept on a chulha. fire was lit with sticks below. smoke was filling up the whole room from the burning sticks. drum was tightly closed and a pipe was coming out towards a glass bottle kept at some distance from the chulha. some clear liquid was coming out from the open end of the pipe along with some steam. a white big funnel was kept to stop spillage outside the bottle.

" now tell me boys isn't it like your laboratory in your college?" said kaka in proud voice. "when i was young, javaharlal nehru told the youth to go back to their villages and start their own gruh udyog." he went near his assembly and put his hand under the end of the pipe to get a few drops of the liquid he was making.
"see? it is pure!" he showed his hand to us.
"what is this kaka?" looking at the hand smeared with the liquid, i inquired.it was smelling bad like a hell.
"don't you know? this is liquor!" kaka opened up the damn secret! so this was his gruh udyog! it was nothing unbelievable but surely it was unexpected. tapasvi looked less surprised than me may be because he had seen mone villages than me.i really was surprised.kaka, a hero for me just before a few minutes suddenly turned villain! he might have his own excuses for staring such a devilish production center. but no excuse can be entertained for any work that can ruin lives of other poor people.
" i will show you how to check when it is perfectly ready." kaka started enjoying his show. "i learnt all this when i was young at ahmedabad." he extended a small container under the open end of the pipe to get a few drops in it. he put it on the floor and lit it with a match stick. biff! the liquid caught fire immediately.
" can you see? if it is ready and pure, it will immediately catch fire.i take utmost care for the quality." kaka explained his deep knowledge.with a blow of air from his mouth, he extinguished the fire.
" when nehru told the youth, i was wondering as to what could be done by me at my village. then i learnt this. this is my small scale business." he was as proud as any self made business man. i and tapasvi both were speechless. technically, kaka had created a wonder despite the fact that he never had seen a school. but morally, was he right? the law of land in gujarat would not permit sell or making of liquor. but what would we say if an industrialist starts an official plant of making wine out side gujarat? lawful? simply because he could throw money to make it lawful? difficult question to answer.
kaka showed his business with zeal.thank heavens, he did not offer us free treat of his pure product!

now i could understand from where did the masi and her husband got the ticket to hell. in fact, On the way from panchvati to our hostel, we used to see a lot of whitish empty plastic bags. I wondered about those bags. In those days, plastic bags were not as commonly seen as today. In fact, the plastic revolution had not started yet.I had seen such bags, as I remembered, in bad lonely streets of bhuj. Some of my friends had told me such bags were used to pack locally made liquor. There used to have very typical rotten grape or jaggery like smell in the air around areas where such bags were thrown. Same smell and same bags were seen on the way back from panchvati to our hostel. the major waste seen in and around the ugly pond was of these bags.

naturally when production was local, it was very easy to get. but weren't they worried of police and jail? not at all. gradually it came our knowledge police used to come to panchvati, not to arrest people but to get hapta! so no tension for those making or taking! some times they used to stop their business for sometime to restart again after new setting. we heard that panchvati was notorious for this and they were supplying to even agents at ahmedabad!!

CH 29 :PANCHVATI: SEARCHING SOUL IN SLUM

2011-09-01T04:59:00.000+05:30

The elusively named slum panchvati near karamsad village was 2-3 kms away from our hostel. Dr Mehta’s health circle used to work there. As a part of the health circle, we used to go there weekly. The slum was just touching a small dirty pond. (Presently there is sardar patel memorial in place of that pond.)

“So friends, how will you approach the people in the slum?” before leaving for slum, dr mehta asked us all “you first need to introduce yourself in proper manner. Let us play a role. Uma sister, can you please be a slum dweller for a few minutes?”

Uma was a senior student from nursing college and was very enthusiastic lady. She was natural leader of the nursing students. Our pre slum visit meeting was as usual at the small garden of dept of psm.

“Ok sir. This is my home and I am sitting outside.” She said as she folded her legs on the lawn. “Who is coming to my home?” she smiled.

“Yes neh and tapasvi go to her and introduce yourself. Do it as if she really is a lady from slum!” dr mehta asked us.

We both stood up as all other friends of ours watched us. We approached ‘the slum lady’, uma sister. She was not shabana aazmi or something but was very honest about the role play.

“Ben,” started tapasvi “namaste! My name is tapasvi” he turned to me “this is my friend Neh. We both study in medical. (That is what the local public used to call our grand college!)

Uma looked to us skeptically “so why are you disturbing me then? Go to medical and study for yourself. Let me do my home chores.”

“Ben, we are here to teach you people about how to keep healthy.” I said a bit in proud manner.

‘just a minute there neh,” dr Mehta interjected immediately “ you must remember you are not obliging her but rather she is obliging you by allowing you strangers to go near her home. Be more polite.”

“Ben namaste!” I folded my hands made my tone softer and shabana- I mean uma sister- could not help herself from smiling. “My name is neh. May we talk to you for a minute?”

This time uma acted less apathetic to my request “yes please” she said
“We both study in medical near your village. We are here to talk with you and others. We want learn about how you live. We will also run a small clinic here and you and your family can come to us if anyone is sick.” I tried my best.
“You are welcome here.” Said azmi at last. Dr Mehta approved.

Dr Mehta gave us small bag of drugs and we started walking towards the slum. It was 2-3 kms away from our college. It was evening time.

The entry to slum was typical. There was filth and dirt every where on even the main road. Native dogs stared our party but somehow allowed us in as it was not complete dark then! The goats wandering outside were very indifferent to our movement. Dr Mehta and our seniors already had contact with the people of slum and so some of the people greeted dr Mehta as we headed in.

The houses were ill ventilated and mostly were made with mud and stones. There was collection of dirty water here and there. As it was evening, it was time to cook and so sagdis were lit near some houses with thick smoke coming our from the coal. The smell of the smoke filled our nostrils admixed with the smell of dirty waters. Probably there were no bathrooms and toilets in any of the house. The pond near the slum served as a huge open toilet for them. It also provided the luxury of water to wash their clothes.

some men of the community were probably coming back to home from the farms where they worked. some old men were relaxing on hand woven char-pai just at the entrance of their huts. some were seen in groups-relaxing, smoking bidis and talking something to each other. they hardly noticed us. we also noticed some age old grandmas outside their home smoking bidis! this was a strange and striking similarity of page thee celebrities and slum grandmas!

a few mothers were seen with their babies in their hand.they were hardly concerned about the house flies irritating en mass on the nose eyes and mouths of their loved ones. by looking at them, it was horrifying and obvious, they must had not been given bath since days.in schools, we read what mahatma said "uncleanliness is our national disease". this was live demonstration of that terrible fact.

we heard there was no any school or anganwadi! but how any one could forget god? of course there was a small temple of some goddess just at the center of the slum. it was probably the cleanest part of the slum.

Some children were playing on the street. They were first to be disturbed by our movement. As they looked at us, I could see feelings of amusement in their eyes. Some of them started following us. Some ran to walk in front of our small procession. A few dogs also joined their friends. Soon, a herd of children collected around us.

Dr Mehta stopped for a while and turned to children “children, can you all please repeat loudly what I say? Let all of your friends and mothers in kitchen listen to you.” The children were already excited to do something.
“Je khay chana, te jive gana” (those who eat Bengal gram, live more) he shouted the slogan. And the mass of children repeated pulling their vocal cords apart!

“ je khay bhaji, eni tabiyat taji!” (Those who eat green leafy vegetables, have good health) again the repetition was like to break the sky in pieces! ‘How come such a post graduate of medicine shouts slogans on the road? Isn’t he worried of his social status?’ I thought.

“Je khay mag, ena jor ma chale pag” (those who eat green gram, walk with strength) dr Mehta banged the ground with his foot as he spoke “pag” making a thud. The sounds of thump made by small children with their tiny unclean feet filled our ears and I still can hear that!

As we progressed in, other children joined us. The elders saw us with questions in their eyes. From the streets, our circus traveled to a small hut. One school aged boy, probably his mane was ramesh, as I faintly remember rushed to us with some keys in his hand. He was probably son of the head of the community.

The hut was given to the health circle for running the weekly clinic. Some of my senior friends soon arranged the drugs and took out the hallmark of the doctors- the stethoscope!

kp, one of my seniors, was a great enthusiast. He took all the children to a small ground and arranged them in rows. He stood in front of them and asked the children to do physical exercise with him. others sat down in the hut and started the slum clinic as a routine.

This was a completely new experience for us. we had read about true India in our books. This was in front of our own eyes- poor, dirty, illiterate, crowded, un organized, backward… far from the world we came from. It was a different world.

but still, despite all disturbing facts, one striking fact i must remember- the people of the slum were caring for each other. whole slum was probably a single family. if some one was sick, he or she was accompanied by relatives and the neighbors - without any yearly premium paid! like many parts of india, families were joint. no elders were thrown away from their homes however sick or dying they were!

we could see love and affection in eyes of the elders of the community for us.they relied on dr mehta, relied on us unconditionally.

With all odds, they still were making their living. They welcomed us and soon accepted us.

ye mera India! I love my India!

CH 28 : MARU JIVAN ANJALI THAJO!

2011-09-01T04:55:00.002+05:30

it was not only me, my best friends tapasvi and hemant both were also touched by dr rajesh mehta.

"tapasvi, i intend to go to dr mehta's weekly meetings. will you join me?" i asked tapasvi. though hailing from ruthless darbar community, tavasvi's make up was all different.though tall and powerful, he had very soft heart and was very emotional. he was a son of a famous poet,writer and director shree indu puwar. probably he and hemant were my only friends which could understand some of my odd ideas and emotional outbursts.

"yes neh, definitely we will go together. hemant also would like to come." i was almost sure of that.dr mehta casted a kind of magical spell on us.hemant, son of a medical officer, dr. ghanshyam shah, working at an interior village gothwa, was fanatically charged with emotions to serve the underprivileged. his family originally lived in today's pakistan before partition. on sundays when all others, including tapasvi, were gone home, i and hemant used to enjoy our solitude.many a times we had hot discussions for burning issues of our people. we would agree most of the times and some times not. we highly depended on each other to bring our ideas to action. when we discussed, he used to be very emotional. i remember one such night,when we had a very hot discussion. there was some dis agreement at a point. after fierce arguments, no one could convince. it all culminated in deep silence ultimately. after a few minutes i saw tears rolling by hemant's eyes.that made my eyes wet too. that disagreement was the greatest agreement made between two friends!

some of our seniors were already going to dr mehta's health circle.some had gone just for their curiosity. naturally different persons had different view points for dr mehta " that weird doctor? what he feels is he? his dressing and way of talking just irritates me! i never can accept such a doctor." said one of our seniors.

" you will spoil your time for nothing. he will take you to nearby slum and ask you to serve! he is a kind of half mad man.if you join him, you will also be like him! people laugh behind all those who go to his meetings!" another opinion from a senior.

"see, going to slum for service, talking about countrymen and how to uplift their life....all sounds sooooo good! but in reality what difference would it make to crores of such poor people? does he believe he can change the world just by this? i don't believe him!" some had more rationalized version to spell their negativity for dr mehta's activities.however, apart from a few such strong critics, most of the students, even if not going to his meetings, had respect for dr mehta and his activities.

on the day of meeting,there was nothing much to discuss amongst ourselves. we all three went there. the meeting was in our college building at a small garden of deptt of PSM. some students from medical college and some girls from the nursing college were sitting folding their legs making circle on the lawn.it was evening time after the college hours. dr mehta was also in the circle.he looked nothing different than in the class room.somehow i felt very soothing there.it was as if my hidden wish to do something for the poor was about to be granted. there were no any formalities. soon, dr mehta closed his eyes for prayer.from the way he sung, it was obvious he was not a singer but you could feel he could sing from his heart. all others joined him to complete the chorus. i remember only a few lines of that prayer presently.

jeevan anjali thajo maru jivan anjali thajo!
bhukhya kaje bhojan banajo, tarasya nu jal thajo!

( but i got full prayer from the net and copied it here!)

જીવન અંજલિ થાજો !

મારું જીવન અંજલિ થાજો !

ભૂખ્યાં કાજે ભોજન બનજો, તરસ્યાનું જળ થાજો;

દીનદુ:ખિયાનાં આંસુ લો’તાં અંતર કદી ન ધરાજો!

મારું જીવન અંજલિ થાજો !

સતની કાંટાળી કેડી પર પુષ્પ બની પથરાજો;

ઝેર જગતનાં જીરવી જીરવી અમૃત ઉરનાં પાજો!

મારું જીવન અંજલિ થાજો !

વણથાક્યા ચરણો મારા નિત તારી સમીપે ધાજો;

હૈયાના પ્રત્યેક સ્પન્દને તારું નામ રટાજો !

મારું જીવન અંજલિ થાજો !

વમળોની વચ્ચે નૈયા મુજ હાલકલોલક થાજો;

શ્રધ્ધા કેરો દીપક મારો નવ કદીયે ઓલવાજો!

મારું જીવન અંજલિ થાજો !

કરસનદાસ માણેક

the prayer churned our heart. it reflected our emotions soaring high at that time.it could wet corners of our eyes. but to be emotional was not everything. that emotion had to transform to a definite action. probably, i felt, dr mehta was able to give us that chance.

"friends, we have some new friends with us today" said dr mehta pointing to us." can you please introduce yourself?"
" tapasvi puawar from ahmedabad."
" hemant shah from visnagar"
"neh vaidya from bhuj"

"ok ...let me tell you something about this activity. health circle is a like minded friends group interested in doing activities which could help those who are in need.routinely , we go to nearby slum and run a clinic from them.we provide them free drugs.we also do preventive activities in the community. we believe in holistic medicine and rational use of drugs. we believe all human beings equal may they come from any religion, social or economic status. we have equal respect for all the religions. we want youngsters who believe in humanity and are determined to work for the change in the society."

thus our journey with dr mehta started. it was because of him, we could meet several good friends like kp, ragnesh, neeraj pandit, chavli, kadri, uma sister, meghna sister and many more. how could i forget jagdish soni? a gem of the persons i ever had met. he turned to be a true friend forever. dr. bhalendu vaishnav was a very good physician devoting time to activities of the health circle.

dr mehta's push gave us capacity, strength and determination to do what we really wished. he nurtured our tender feelings. it was because of him , we could meet some great people like vinay charul, daxaben-anilbhai-rashmibhai, dr ketan zaveri, dr shreedhar, dr anurag bhargav.they all were great inspiration for us ( and stll they are! they all need separate chapter for proper introduction.)

of course, not every thing about dr mehta's personality i liked. he was a staunch devotee of shree swaminarayan bhagwan. he had great zeal to read and to follow the holy book written by bhagwan shree swaminarayan, the shiksha patri. live me alone, i never even liked to go to any temple. some of his ideas were simply away from my routine reasoning. even if working vigorously in the villages, he would not eat anything from the market. leave the market, he would not accept any kind of food from the homes of the villagers- not even as a reciprocation of love shown by the villagers to him! he used to keep chana and peanuts in his pocket. that was the only thing he used to eat while working hours in the villages.

most strange part of his personality, however, was not this. even though he had master degree in preventive medicine, to our gross surprise, he was against the routine vaccination! this was completely weird! it was digestible if an illiterate villager refused the vaccination but when you know everything about vaccines and the diseases prevented by vaccination, how could you refuse it? still, he did. probably that had some strong religious reasons beyond my comprehension.

but still, could you stamp dr mehta a half mad man like some of my seniors? just because he dressed differently?just because he had some ideas to work for the poor? just because he was religious? for those who work for some change in the society, probably had to face such a strong criticism some time in their life. history is full of such so called half mad people which has contributed enormously to betterment of our daily lives. to my perception, dr mehta was one of such person. his dedication, determination and truthful nature was unquestionable.

dr mehta remained teacher, guide and a good friend for life time for all of us.

CH 27 : THE ENCOUNTER

2011-09-01T04:53:00.002+05:30

Most of the professors in our college, especially in 1st mbbs, were typical professors. They had a specific way of dressing, usually, wearing suit and tie, nicely ironed, well polished shoes, and tidy haircut and always clean shaved. As for example, take dr mazoomdar, head of deptt of the physiology. He was seen in suit and ties most of the times and used to speak mostly in English. He had a halo around him. When he taught, his body language was like any professor teaching since ages! We also had seen real professors like dr s d nishith, an ex army man, teaching physiology.

Our dean was dr gulati, a pharmacologist, a very serious man,was always seen well dressed. His expressions some how appeared a bit concerned and tense. He had big spectacles with thick plastic frame. I never met him, rather may be because of his halo, some how, never dared to meet him. Our vice dean was dr rey, again an ex army man,who even though serving in medical college, probably still believed himself in the army! He had typical army like way of dressing and talking. I had to meet him couple of times for getting my identity card signed.

Barring a few, most of the teachers were unapproachable for a simple student like me. May be, it was because they were from different cultural background or mostly because my perception was so. for me and probably most of the other students, it appeared, professor of medical college meant a highly polished English speaking suit tied person.
however, if there are no surprises, it is not the life! It was a routine afternoon lecture of preventive and social medicine[psm], a subject disliked by most of the students. Usually, dr arya, who dared to teach richettesia (an organism somewhere between the viruses and the bacterial world, mainly responsible for trachoma, infection of eyes) in the very first lecture of PSM, used to come to teach us, I mean, to bore us with the subject.

However, since it was necessary to attend at least some 70% of the lectures to be eligible to give exams, the class remained mostly full in even such boring lectures. We were expecting dr arya in his routine professor’s suit, but that day, an odd man, rather, a highly odd professor entered our class.

He was lean thin and of average height. He was not in suit, neither he wore shoes, rather, even his chappals were not polished! He was dressed simply in shirt and pants. He probably did not care to do in-shirt. He had simple plastic framed spects and there was a big swaminarayan tilak on his forehead. His Hairs were immersed in hair oil. He looked more like swaminarayan devotee than a professor!

“ mitro”, to our surprise, he started in gujarati as he climbed the stage! “ maru naam dr rajesh Mehta chhe. (my name is dr rajesh Mehta).” And he continued in gujarati “ friends, can you all tell me why did you choose to become a doctor?”
He asked a very basic question. Probably a soul searching one for all of us.the class was a bit taken for a surprise.

“ when you did choose, you must have thought of about this. I really am interested to know about it. Can we go for a simple exercise?” his eyes were on all of us. “ I am giving you options. You choose from them and tell me.” The class responded silence as the agreement .

“ these are the choises… first, to earn a lot of money, secondly, to earn and to serve the society, thirdly to work and to see the god… be honest.. this has nothing to do with either your curriculum or exams..” and he started asking from the first bench onwards.

Almost all students chose the second option. but many of honest students emphasized on good earning too that made dr. Mehta happier. For me, money was not important at that time, I must confess. And my idea was mainly to serve the masses for which I left my much liked physics and engineering career while choosing branch at the time of counseling after routine 12 std exam results.

As far as seeing god, no way! Even a half believer at that time, I never had a zeal to encounter god. if suppose, i some how saw god, what difference would it make to others?would it improve their lives anyway? It probably was not important to see god but was important to care for his creation as I believed at that time.
So, for me too, it was the second option when was asked.
“ I really am happy. Almost all of you are truthful.do you know with what dream i entered the medical college?” Said dr mehta, looking deeper in his own heart.”i entered medical college dreaming to be a humble servant of villagers and poor people. through their service, i wanted to realize god. i dreamed myself going to interior villages on my own bicycle carrying essential medicines in a small box! friends, this dream, in a way , has not changed even today." he looked on our faces, unknowingly appealing some where inside." Ok let us now move to the subject..” he paused a bit before starting.

" do you know there are thousands of people getting dreaded disease like cancer just because of tobacco chewing? do you know so many deaths can be prevented just by saying 'no' to alcohol?....yes..probably all of you know this fact." he continued further in his unimpressive voice and un polished gujarati. "we need to spread this message to our people. we can go to people and tell them the facts,educate them and their lives can be saved."

"sir" suddenly i stood up. "sir how to convince those which already are addicted to alcohol or tobacco?"

" you can tell them the ill effects and tell them that they would die if the continue to their bad habits." dr mehta tried to convince me first.

"sir, such people would say they would die someday even otherwise. why not to first enjoy the life by all bad and good ways and then die?"as the students listened the discussion, i cited one of the basic argument of all the addicts. sir could not reply for a moment.

to this,whole of the class clapped!probably the claps were for my argument.this was very first time when whole of the class showered claps for me. i was a bit flattered and felt like winner. dr mehta raised his hand to stop the noise of the clapping students.after about a minute, when noise lessened, he said "you can tell them they would die an early, slow and painful death."

i sat down and dr mehta continued with teaching.this man was really a weird one! could you imagine such a doctor? he was not at all worried for the way he appeared to MBBS class and even to his own counter parts. no one asked us the basic question that he asked.and why should he be interested in asking such a question? may be he just wanted us to introspect. or did he really had something in his mind? when he spoke of his dream, i felt probably that was my dream too. though his voice was not impressive but was really truthful and was perceived directly from his heart.

at the end of the lecture, he said, "if some one from you is really interested in serving the poor, they can come to a small friend circle we have created. we have named it 'the health circle'. we meet every week and we go to nearby slum and do different health activities. i invite only those who really are interested. this activity is not going to help you in any of your exams. it will eat away your time rather. so you are welcome only if you really are determined ." and he left the class.

CH 26 : WELCOME PARTY:A SECRET REVEALED!

2011-09-01T04:50:00.002+05:30

arrival of new batch remains ceremonial in any college. since ours was a rural college, away from the city atmosphere, we had advantage and disadvantage of being alone. we were like a small village where every one knows each other in detail! addition of 100 new students every year added new strength and flavor to the campus. seniors were,naturally, interested in juniors to make new friends and add to their groups.for the boys of the campus, a batch was perceived beautiful when there were more beauties in it!

to show and to prove how the ideal introduction of the freshers should be, it was our dream to organize an introduction party for our junior batch. we could not arrange it for our immediate junior hardik's batch but we could do it for the next batch.(vasu, chaula, chavli,kanuji).our way did not include any ordering, questioning or forcing anything. we wanted our junior students to come on stage, give their introduction and perform any item of their choice.that could give a chance to show their talent.demoralizing them in front of the audience or making them feel low by commenting very absurd was not a part at all.

at the same time, routine ragging was going on despite our opposition. from those happenings, everyday, some news used to trickle about the juniors. there was one girl which threatened seniors with police because her father was a policeman! one other girl was very smart and also fearless. it was heard,her quick answered made the seniors speechless!

one of the boys was taken to the terrace and was made to sleep on the floor in burning sunlight. we opposed that type of ragging. and so we had quarrel with our seniors as i mentioned in my previous blog.on the other side, some of the boys had no fear of ragging whatsoever!

whole of our batch took the responsibility of the event.we already were meeting every Thursday. we used that platform to organize welcome party for the junior batch. the best part of any of our program was, we never invited any so called big people like dean, heads of the deptts or professors to our events. so the events remained highly personal and liberal for all. also, we never used money for any event. a fine evening was chosen for the event. our batch mates invited all the juniors with a great zeal.

to our surprise, the juniors were very much talented.there were good number of stage performers.soon there was list of students who wanted to present something on the stage apart from routine introduction. everything seemed so smooth. but it was probably peace before a storm!

"whatever you say or do, we are going to teach a lesson to a girl in the program." one of my good friend warned me." that girl is over smart. she feels she can handle anything. we have decided to pull her legs when she comes to stage. we will not let her perform!" surely, they had the news from the routine ragging about that girl!

"that can spoil our event. i urge you to not to do any thing that ruins everything!" i requested. they laughed at my point nastily.
"neh, we promise to not to spoil everything but we definitely do something that the girl remembers for the life!"the red light was from the most mischievous group of our batch but we had no choice. i told the situation to my friends. since we never invited the big heads in any event, the events had to be self disciplined. we felt we should handle the situation as it arises. so despite this, we went on organizing the event.

the day came and we assembled in our lecture hall. we had a very big lecture hall having capacity of about 500 people.the hall was full with the spectators.there was no space to even stand in the hall.the bunch of the students which warned us also took their position. the noise of the students subsided as jasmine shah started announcement. if i remember, beji and anish were also managing the stage. juniors were warmly welcomed by our batch.

the juniors started performing. what would happen when that girl comes on the stage? that was the question repeatedly striking my mind. the event was smooth and all were enjoying the performance on the stage. i saw that girl sitting with her friends in the audience waiting for her turn. she was a fair lady, had boy cut hairs and European eyes.she looked a bit fatty and doll like. Would it be possible for her to perform? only time could tell. at the most she might have to leave the stage, or we might be forced to take some action on our batch mates. still, it was a matter of worry.

the performers mesmerized with their talents one by one.chaula madhavi and vasu sung nice songs as i remember. there were many more performers including vimpal, shikha, chavli, ronak, jeet.(correct me and add to this please)

finally, name of the "over smart" girl was announced increasing my heart beats. i really was afraid as any mischief could hurt her a lot on one part and could spoil relations amongst us on the other part. also, our ideal way of taking introduction of the junior batch was at a stake. now, this is what i remember perfectly- the boys started making noise with the announcement. who would save her? i thought.

to my surprise, the girl gracefully climbed on the stage and introduced herself.her hight was less. i felt as if she was not at all deterred by the noise and shouting by the boys.she confidently went on the stage and started speaking. as she started, the shouting increased, but she probably was made of iron. she was speaking as if the mischief makers did not exist at all! the way she spoke, all the boys against her simply were over ruled! all had no choice but to stop the shouting! her confidence was far more greater than any mischief makers would have thought of! she nicely performed dance with her friends crushing all the expectations of my good friends like a big bulldozer.

i simply was speechless.the girl was none other than soniya! hats off to her!practically she ragged all the seniors. the event was a grand success.

CH 25 :RAGGING JUNIORS?

2011-09-01T04:49:00.000+05:30

(i must admit that even after having bitter relations with some of the seniors in those days, after wards, almost all helped us and became good friends. it was just difference of opinion at that time. i must remember sanjeev rao and sajan nayar at this point.)

when our immediate junior batch arrived, we were just adjusting ourselves in the campus because that batch arrived within just six months of our admission to pramukhswami medical college. but since we had grown a bit, we had our own ideas of first time interaction with the junior batch. memories of our own ragging was afresh. we, especially, hemant, tapasvi and myself were highly against routine way of ragging.bimal, vimal, anish, kapil were with us.

when the new batch arrived, ragging re started like a routine college ceremony. some of the boys were made to do things which were highly demoralizing. it all disturbed us a lot and we felt ashamed of being senior students and doing nothing to stop this madness. even some of our good friends turned bad raggers as they became seniors.the girls' hostel was also not an exception to such activities.( beji, one of our best friend, was considered a good ragger. i still do not know for what reason!)

hemant being a highly idealistic man, complained about all of this to the authorities. naturally many of our seniors disliked his action. we had some good and fearless seniors like jagdish soni and amiruddin kadri to be on our side. there were some good teachers who wished to see good culture in our college. notably, dr rajesh mehta and dr bhalendu vaishnav.

it was not surprising to find most of the seniors and even our batch mates against our anti ragging ideas. while some of them just enjoyed ragging the juniors, others rationalized their actions in name of "good introduction leading to good friendship". some students had feelings of revenge translating into repeating what they suffered as freshers like mother in laws seen in tv serials! we saw our own batch mates, which were highly against ragging at the time of our batch's ragging, turning raggers when they become seniors. some wanted to rag just to prove themselves superior and authoritarian, while others believed to do such duty to save the culture of the college.

A few had an argument that since the world was full of bad people and experiences, they were just preparing their juniors for such a world by ragging them badly! they simply wanted to make the juniors bold. so in their opinion, they were doing a great social work!

we felt ragging an in human and cowardly act in which a group of seniors would order some weird and demoralizing actions to a helpless fresh junior.

but to our surprise, many of the teachers had pro ragging ideas. some of them used to ask seniors " teach some good manners to your juniors!" so, made up of such a students committee,even after hemant's official complaint, the authorities did nothing to prevent ragging. thus , in a way we were in a great minority and figures of dislike in the campus.

however, there was something more to happen. one day just when i was going to college, rao, our student leader,stopped me near the boys' hostel staircase.

"what do you believe you are? we are not going to tolerate you... understood?" he really was unhappy.i had no answer. he gave me a staring look for a few seconds and climbed the stairs making noise of his foot steps.

even today, i am not knowing, whether there was any relation of the following event with what rao said.

for some reason, hemant had to go to his home for a few days. at one good evening, i and tapasvi just were entering the boys' hostel. we were stopped by some strange looking outside boys.

"hey you both! stop here. are you friends of that white boy hemant?" one tall boy inquired. "where is that (...)!"
"what is wrong? he has gone home" i replied.

" he has assaulted our sister. tell that (....) we will break all his bones if we find him!" he warned us "take this as our last warning. tell him to behave well or we will create hell of his life... ok?". they went away.

hemant mis behaved with a girl? no one on this earth could believe that! in fact he was a boy never interested in any of the girls of the college or outside(except one- with whom he married afterwards.) he never spoke a single good or bad word for any of the girls.

it was very clear to us that the out side boys just wanted to have some point to start the quarrel. it was easy to blame any college boy for such a reason. any one would be furious to such a false accusation.

when he came back, we decided to not to let him go anywhere alone. he was a fearless man and nothing could deter him from what he was doing. despite threats, he continued to work against ragging. later, in his own secret ways, he met the leader of those strange boys and resolved the issue as far as i remember. they were locals from karamsad and were told to give threat to us, especially hemant.

since we were the minority, our movement probably could not do much in our perception. but definitely, it created a firm opposition to raggers which had effortless dominations till then. (only, students of our junior batch, chavli, kanuji, hardik, padhiyar,sejul can comment more on the impact of our opposition)

i remember taking introduction of some of my junior friends in my own way. sejul was one of them i still remember. i do not know how he remembers this event or if at all he has the memory!

i met him at old boys' hostel in bimal's room. bimal, not a flagship anti ragger but definitely a humanitarian, was talking to sejul and rajul. he asked me to have some word with sejul. i remember requesting sejul to come for a walk with me and we talked on the way. i asked about his native and interest, told about mine. we also talked about our hobbies and i offered him friendship which he accepted and remained so till date.

some of our seniors asked us a genuine question. " boys, if you are against the present way of introduction, how senior batch should interact with the freshers? the must be some way. or there will be no interaction between the batches at all. what kind of culture do you want in the college?"

But we had ready made idea- we wanted to arrange an introduction party to our junior batch. the idea was to invite all of the juniors to the function and let them perform on the stage any thing of their choice. our batch was already meeting every Thursday.so the idea clicked.(see my next blog story)

CH 24 :CONNED BY GIRLS?

2011-09-01T04:46:00.000+05:30

CONNED BY GIRLS?

[kindly hit "like" button if you like The story]

Any medical college class is blessed with at least 50% population of girls! So was ours. Our engineer counterparts were very poor ! they hardly had a few girls in whole of the campus. If you want to really feel “the ground impact” of reverse sex ratio, just visit any engineering college campus! Our campus was colorful that way. Also, there were many couples in every batch, making our campus lively real college campus.

Every corner of our college corridors was mostly occupied by one or other couple. You could see the senior batch’s couples happily riding on bikes, chatting under beautiful mango trees, walking holding hands late night on our no traffic campus roads, eating together in the mess, reading side by side in the library, or sometimes some couples were seen in dark corners and deep eucalyptus jungle of our campus.

Heena, my classmate, sometimes used to say jokingly “ I really am fed up with these couples. No corner, no tree, no reading place is without them! They are creating indirect pressure on all of us!!”

Our seniors rightly named our campus mini Switzerland. It really was that in all the aspects- beautiful, near the heart of the nature, away from routine life of a city, perfect for romance! Chemistry of our magical campus also started to have its own spell on our batch.

Sameer, one of my good friends, was a tall, handsome, stylish and fair boy of my batch. Also, he was my dissection and lobby partner. Because of late admission, a girl was added to our dissection batch- margi. She was a frank and friendly girl. She used to talk a lot with all of us. as seen in our films, after meeting on dissection table, shortly sameer and margi fell in love. They got wholehearted support from almost all the batch mates. while Their union was matter of celebration for all of us, Their news created a shock wave in the campus because they were just 1st MBBS students! Some people were really not happy with the news as margi was from a hindu family while sameer was a muslim. However, I must say, they made a perfect couple ! soon, their families agreed to their decision and they became the first official couple of our batch!

From our senior batches, there were number of couples. A surprising fact about all the couples was, we had never heard any break up at that time! The couples were respected by all, even the teachers. The couples were graceful. I must remember priya and GD at this point. They were icons for us.

For me, naturally, the subject of love was more of human rights than a personal one! Like in any college, There were many boys in line looking for perfect love. All had their own way of presentation. Some were stylish, some were impressive. I must admit I never was part of the line but at the same time I was not completely averse to it.

To my perception, I was an average boy, un stylish, non impressive. Most of the time, I used to wear khadi clothes. i Never used anything more than a routine soap, not even shaving cream! Khadi gave me probably a staunch gandhian look. Was not this enough to be a repellent for fair sex? Add to this my inclination towards one of the most hated subject by elite class and most of the medical students - social work and community medicine! My portfolio was still not over. I was one of the most irritant student of the class as I used to ask many questions to the teacher when everybody else wanted to complete the class. despite my un ending queries, I neither was a ranker nor was a scorer of my class. rather, I hardly was able to clear the routine exams…. nothing impressive! I wasn’t a sportsman. Skating, cricket, swimming, table tennis even chess, carom – I knew nothing. Yes, I was a bathroom singer and a half poet! I never had a bike. leave the bike, in fact, I did not know how to drive even a gearless scooter like kinetic!

As our first terminal exam approached, I started reading the subjects my way. On the day of the exam, we went to big lecture room of our new college building. We were given seats and the examiners started distributing the question paper. The exam was of anatomy. It was my habit to not to read the whole question paper and start answering it. Hilariously, I used to write whatever I knew at length- so my short notes looked assay and assays appeared like short notes! I never used to see the clock while answering. It was foolish, I accept, but It was routine for me to sacrifice couple of compulsory questions as I used to write everything including the optional questions!

When I was trying to prepare myself again for such “heroic” blunder, suddenly , I noticed a crying girl in the class. I gazed there and saw a girl crying and telling something to our tutor and supervisor, dr rakesh Gandhi.

Dr Gandhi, being a perfect teacher, was talking empathetically with the girl. He persuaded something and within about 10 min, the girl again sat down for exam. Why should one cry at all for such a terminal exam? Was it as important as life? Even if you fail, there was not much to loose as it was only a terminal exam.. It sounded ridiculous to me. ( at that time I was not aware that the crying spells just at the time of exam were awaiting to create hell for me in future!)

When result was out, despite coming from gujarati medium school, that girl scored the highest, while I hardly passed. In our class, she used to sit on the first batch vigorously noting down probably everything spoken by the teacher. While I used to ask questions in the class, she never did that.

I had very little information about her as heard from others. She did not stay in the hostel. She was a local coming from vallabh vidya nagar. While I was sharing third rank with shantilal in my v.d. high school’s 12th std class and was second last to get in the medical curriculum, getting admission only at psmc, Some one said she stood first in anand district 12th exam and was getting admission in all the medical colleges of Gujarat. She opted for psmc only because it was near to her home. I came to psmc all the way from bhuj because I wanted not only to be a doctor but also wanted to learn independent life. She used to wear thick minus glasses. She also was the shortest girl of our class. she was the youngest too as some one told me. I was the oldest.

She used to come to college on her kinetic Honda. Mostly, she was seen with beji and anu, on her back seat while driving in the campus. I never had spoken to her.
Once just after the class, she asked me “ hey neh, how come you ask so many questions in the class?”
“Just like that….you know..” I fumbled. She smiled and went away. She was jasmine.

For my college day’s poetry, Good friends like vimal used to encourage me in those days( as today!). vimal was kind enough to share my poems with his like minded friends. Also, he used to read my poems to jasmine.
One day, just after our anatomy dissection class, jasmine was out side the hall waiting for some one. I casually said hi to her.
She said “ your writings are nice, neh! I like them. you are a good writer..”
“ when you stand in front of sun, your shadow will appear far bigger than what you are!” I told jasmine “ it is because you are kind enough to praise me.” thus, gradually, our friendship got tuned in!

Soon after, jasmine became an uncontested 1st ranker of our class. the second number usually lagged far behind her tally of marks. There never was neck to neck competition for her. Competition practically started from the second rank onwards in our class!

Jasmine was very good comparer on the stage and she had natural capacity to keep the audience spell bound. She could handle the whole college mob with microphone in her hand. Her voice was as sweet as honey. I witnessed her capacity in our college function ‘brain wave’. She used to win extemporary public speaking competitions. She did contest in a personality game conducted by dr hegde and gave tough competition to raju panjwani, the 1st winner.

Our Thursday meetings were probably best place for our interaction where jasmine and anish used to be the default announcers.

Amongst the three, jasmine, beji and anu, beji was not only talkative but also naughty. Her gestures and behaviors were sometimes difficult enough to interpret. She was able to create a slippery and mysterious land of her own. Probably she liked to be of such sort.
Jasmine was very transparent that way and anu was a bit narcissistic.

One day, beji and jasmine came to me and tapasvi.
“ hey, can you be a part of our group?”
I, hemant, tapasvi and bimal used to hate the groups. We believed in friendship with all. Groups were perceived against our discernment of equality. They also had same way invited ramesh, a ranker of our class.
However, I and tapasvi felt there was nothing wrong in being good friends wether you name it a group or not.

“ that is ok. But we dislike groups. We will be good friends…”said tapasvi. They both looked happy.
“ so we are to meet at college terrace today evening. Is that understood?” ordered beji.and we agreed.

Back at the hostel, when hemant heard the news, he ridiculed us. “ girls and girls! You have fallen prey to them! Lattu thai gaya ne!”
“ hemant what is wrong with just friendship with like minded peoples? You name it a group or not. You also may join with us.” but hemant was staunch enough in his ideas as always.
“do you know neh, one of your group member had proposed to a boy while singing poem!! Now you are going to be part of such a group! Ha ha ha!” he made mockery of us. ( note : hemant was wrong. He had misinformation.)
That was not all. Bimal also had a very strong opposition. “ you have betrayed our ideas neh!” he said unhappily “ now you will do everything that we hated till date. I never can be part of such activity”

Still, they could not deter us from “joining” the group. We met on the terrace of the lecture hall.
CONNED? i still am searching the answer!!.... :))

CH 23 :STORY OF A SPECIAL DONATION SEAT

2011-09-01T04:41:00.002+05:30

[this is a true story of a girl student of pramukh swami medical college, heard from a very authentic source. Obviously, the true names have been changed..]

When dr.joshi passed out from the medical college, before about half a century, there hardly were any doctors in the area he chose to practice. Dr. joshi could have been a money making machine like others. But he had a different mission. He believed in providing medical service to the poor people around him first. Money was a pure by product of his service. Day or night, winter or summer, dr.joshi was always there to serve his patients.

Soon, he became very popular in his area. The public around him recognized his services. One day, when he was busy in his clinic, a young vibrant sadhu rushed in his chamber.

“doctor, can you please come to visit my guru? He is very sick and is not able to come here…” said the sadhu breathing fast.

“ ok. Where is your guru?” dr.joshi was ready to serve as always.
“just a few kilometers from here..but I have come with a car. We can come back as soon as possible.” said the sadhu .

Dr.joshi took his emergency bag and went along with the young sadhu. Soon, they reached. the guruji was really very sick. The guruji was none other than shri yogiji maharaj from akshar purushottam sect of swaminarayan. Dr.joshi examined yogiji maharaj and prescribed medicines. Dr.joshi’s knowledge of medicine worked again like in his hundreds of patients and after a few days, maharaj became normal.

Then it became routine for the young sadhu to come to dr.joshi and escort him to his guruji whenever it needed. Guruji was very happy with his services and he blessed the doctor every time.

Years passed by. Dr.joshi almost forgot the incident but his selfless services continued. Meanwhile, dr.joshi became father of a beautiful daughter…meena. From his busy practice, he always would find time to play with his beloved daughter. She grew like the princess of fairy tales. She Not only was intelligent but also she was very studious. It became very clear to friends and family around her that one day she would become a doctor like her father. She also wanted to be a doctor. Dr.joshi was also very sure of meena’s academic performance. Soon , meena passed out her 10th std exams with flying colors, adding ambitions to her father and the family.

But life is full of surprises. Even after her genuine efforts, meena could not score the required marks needed to enter a medical college. She just missed it by a few numbers.

The dream appeared broken.

“ dr.joshi, is only because of bad luck that meena could not score in 12th std exams. Why can not you send her to pramukhswami medical college on a donation seat?” some of the friends suggested.
“ no. I can not do this. If she wishes to be a doctor, she has to be on merit. A doctor has to be meritorious.” Dr.joshi had his own ideas.
“ do you really believe that those who have scored few marks more than meena are far better than her? There are 10 donation seats. If you do not try for meena, they are to allot it to some one else with may be even far lesser marks than meena. Would it be good for the society?” at last after much more persuasion dr.joshi agreed to try for a donation seat at pramukhswami medical college karamsad.
“dr.joshi, don’t you remember your services to yogiji maharaj years back? Major donation to pramukhswami medical college is from them. You can remind them while you represent. They are the final authority for all donation seats.”

“oh. That was decades back. Who would remember that.? And shri yogiji maharaj has passed away years back.” dr.joshi was skeptical.

However, in whole of his life, dr.joshi never asked any favor from any one around him. It was really very difficult for him to go to some one and request. But this was different as it was related with life and career of his beloved daughter.

Dr.joshi finally convinced himself to go to pramukhswami maharaj and request him for a donation seat for meena.
“ in which words should I request? Will they listen to my request? Or they just will not let me represent? Would it be prudent to remind them of my services to yogiji maharaj?” dr.joshi had flood of thoughts in his mind on the way to meet the swamiji.

Finally, as per the appointment they reached the place to meet and request shri pramukhswami maharaj. Dr.joshi felt nervous more than he ever felt in his tough medial exams. His heart really beated fast.

As they entered the hall, they saw pramukhswami maharaj sitting graciously in front of them. Some one started introducing dr.joshi to swamiji.
“ he is dr.joshi from…”

swamiji stared at dr.joshi and to his and all other’s surprise, stood up from his seat !
“arre joshi saheb tame?”he was none other than the young vibrant sadhu who used to escort dr.joshi in the car to shri yogiji maharaj!!

Nothing more is remaining to end the story!

CH 22 :COLLEGE SECRETS :WINE (AND KETAMINE) HAS TRUTH !

2011-09-01T04:39:00.002+05:30

WINE (AND KETAMINE) HAS TRUTH!

(I was not an eye witness of this incident but I am putting it here as was told to me… making minimal factual changes like changing true names)

Nishant was a real macho in our college. No one would dare to go near him. His speech was loud and clear. He walked like a tiger in the college corridors. He had a bike matching his body image. He used to wear a weird type of goggles when riding bike. Those weird goggles probably were a benchmark for him.

But this was not all. He was from a rich family and had everything a boy would desire to have. Rather, he could give everything a girl would desire from a boy. No doubt, he was a leader of our college.

“DO you know nishant? Girls of our class are dying on you.” Vikrant, his best friend told him one day when they were on the way to the library late evening.
“Yes I know…” he gave a flat answer not looking at vikrant.

“But probably I know whom you like the most.” Vikrant had something more to say. “I saw you staring at her many times... in fact you go to library just to find a seat near her. Am I right?”
Last few words were enough. Nishant stopped.
“What do you mean?”
“You know what I mean... you can not hide your feelings from me, good friend!” surety and affection in vikrant’s voice were enough to melt down the college tiger. There was silence for a few seconds before nishant opened his heart.
“You are right….apeksha… she is the only thing in the whole world I desire...” he stared deep in sky and continued “whenever I see her expressive black big eyes I forget everything. When she puts her golden skinned hand in her silky hairs, I get simply lost in her thoughts. Her smile gives me a zillion watt current. When she passes by, my heart stops beating. Faatko chhe yaar!”
“You are in love man! Go and tell her... what you are waiting for?” vikrant directly said what he wanted to. “You are a macho man. This is the time to prove it!”
“It is not that easy friend. I feel she has probably feelings for me but how can I be sure for that? If I confess prematurely then she may turn away from me. Many a times, still, I try to open up my heart to her but my brain becomes numb and my heart feels like failing at such times…”

“May be… if you wait for sometime, she may confess and make things easy”

Soon after, nishant’s choice became buzz of the campus. Every one was surprised how a man like him felt helpless when it came to confessing love to a girl! Probably all the boys knew nishant’s choice. The information also leaked to the girls very soon. For nishant, it was like…

Patta patta butta butta haal hamara jane hai,
Jane na jane GUL hi na jane baaag to sara jaaane hai!

In fact whenever some one referred to that girl, he used to use words like “nishant wali". Still, it remained impossible for nishant to go to her directly and open up his heart until a special incident.

Despite boasting healthy body, nishant had some anatomical problem in the nose. Because of this, he had a lot of problem in breathing at night. Finally the ENT surgeon decided to operate him for that.

A day was fixed for surgery. The operation was a small procedure. But it needed a general anesthesia.
“Hello nishant…I am to give anesthesia and you will sleep within a few seconds. Do not worry. There will be no pain at all...” the anesthetist gave him routine advice. Nishant was injected with a latest molecule available at that time. Soon, the procedure to correct the anatomical defect was started.

All friends of nishant were out side the operation theatre. Since ours was a small campus, every one knew about the operation. The procedure lasted for a few minutes. But mean time, gradually, whole of the nishant’s class gathered outside the theatre, including all girls.

At last nishant was out from OT. He was shifted to a recovery room on a stretcher. Whole of the class followed his stretcher. Everyone wanted to wish him early recovery.

Nishant looked half drowsy. His eyes were still closed.

“Hey nishant, how are you buddy?” some one asked.

In response, without opening his eyes, nishant just nodded his head. Everyone was happy to see him recovering from anesthesia.

Suddenly nishant started shouting.

“ APEKSHAAAA…….APEKSHAAAA….. I LOVE YOU!” everyone including apeksha was shocked by nishant’s shouting!

A confession which seemed very difficult even in private was made in public by nishant laboring under effect of the drug. The drug injected to nishant was the same that presently is used by forensic experts for narcoanalysis.

The effects of drug were known at that time also. It removes all controls and inhibitions on the subconscious mind. It was some one’s serious mistake that let the whole class to enter the recovery room when our tiger was recovering.

However, this story had a sad end. Since even after this incident, apeksha never showed any interest in nishant.

( fresh note: soon after our marriage, i had personal experience with this anasthetic molecule, ketamine, when i was injected with the same for a short procedure at resp dr ajay vyas's hospital. dr vyas, being friendly and jolly, purposefully asked me whom i love. i spoke jasmine's name at that time! )

CH 21 :SECRETS OF BOYS’ HOSTEL : TIFFIN BOMB ?

2011-09-01T04:31:00.000+05:30

SECRETS OF BOYS’ HOSTEL : TIFFIN BOMB ?

Bhargav, my classmate and lobby partner was very witty and he had a lot of sense of humor. After the college, we used to have routine discussions on many topics. Bhargav told us many jokes and one liner.

“You know Neh, any movement on this earth by any creature is because of one of the three main reasons- fear, food and female.” Standing at my room’s door, as he used to, bhargav revealed one of the basic rules of nature.

“Yes bhargav! You are right. But every creature ultimately needs female!” added biren.

“No yaar, all three what bhargav said are basic motive and you can not compare them” tapasvi was clear about his idea.

“See man, As far as we are concerned, we fools study because of fear of failure which might deprive us from getting food and probably also might starve us from female in future! So ultimately- damn female!” biren was some times unbeatable in argument.

Think of a situation when you see all your friends in other branches enjoying their college days bunking almost every lecture, enjoying films now and then and have a lot of time to spend for chit chat. At the similar times you, carrying load of books in big bag on your back, are every week trying to get through hell of vivas and exams. Karamsad was a kind of a lonesome place because it was a village and was away from city. Even if one wished to entertain oneself with routine collegian stuff, there were no such facilities nearby. Still, there was an open air theatre ‘jalaram’ mostly showing cheap gujarati movies and a few tea-pakoda cabins outside the collage gate. So arguments, counter arguments and discussions were big part of our daily entertainment programme.

There was no escape from this situation at least for students like me as my home was far away from karamsad. However, my friends from ahmedabad and baroda had great escape every week. That movement to home also had a component of food and female.

On Saturdays ,you would find most of the students going to the college with big bags on their back carrying clothes to get washed, empty dabbas to be refilled with home made food(breakfast), and books perhaps to read (which never happened at home for most of the boys!).
Females, well, were the extra attraction at journey. It was nice time for the boys and girls to interact in the train. Like my room mate tapasvi and lobby partner jasmine shah, many of my friends were seen surrounded by gopis in the train. Still, there were many ‘left outs’ from having such luxury. Some of them had better ideas. They used to sit on the top berth of the train compartment, making sure to watch ‘birds’ from the height ensuring their eyes to reach unreachable places.

The students would sprint back to PSMC on Monday. They would come rushing, throw their bags in the hostel room and would run to the college. But Mondays were also special for other reason. Most of the students would bring breakfast from home, given in enough amounts so that they can use it for the whole week. However the tasty items from home hardly lasted a day or two. This was because the items were shared with all others.
No one ever taught us ‘sharing is caring’ but it was very natural for all the students. Amdavadi and barodian students perhaps contributed greatest to this tradition as they went home almost every weekend, negating very much ‘amdavadi haramjaadi’! For this reason, hardly any one’s cupboard was left out with any stuff within couple of days. Even lobby partners were called to taste any new items from home.

However, there were exceptions. One chap in nursing hostel [the temporary boys’ hostel in our time] was very clear about his policy. He straight forward used to say, ‘my mother has sent all this for the week and she said not to share this with any one’. Accordingly he used to push his head in his cupboard daily morning so that he could enjoy it all alone for the whole week! His partners, stunned at his behavior initially, gradually accepted that.

Related to food, the following story was told to me by others in the hostel of PSMC. It was claimed true but I can not claim the same. Obviously, I have changed the true names of the said real characters. However apart from the presentation, the said facts are kept as they were told to me...So I start with following scene…

“Hello friend! Welcome back to hostel...” Jagesh was greeted as he returned from home after a few days leave

Jagesh, busy in arranging his luggage back to his cupboard, simply nodded yes.

“Guys, I also have returned today from home. My mother has sent nice home made kachori, ganthia and laddus for all of us. Come here! Join us Jagesh!” Jagesh’s room mate maheep invited jagesh.

“Tasty! May I get one more kachori?” Balu, third room partner, eating with Jagesh admired “you can have surti items from my bag. Get them out.” He added.

This was usual scene anywhere in the hostel. But for jagesh, the sharing was unilateral phenomenon.

“What have you brought Jagesh?” sniffing something tasty, maheep was eager.
“Nothing guys! It was difficult to bring any thing from that far.” joining the laddu party after arranging his luggage, Jagesh negated.

“Tell us man! We saw you eating something from your cupboard last time you returned from your home! You gave the same today’s answer that day also. Is it that you dislike to share?” Balu had a sneaking suspicion. His observation was substantiated my many other lobby partners too. And that was repeated every time whenever Jagesh returned from his home.

“Oh! Not at all, why should I behave like that? You both are my fast friends.” chewing kachori, Jagesh explained in muffling voice.

“May we check you cupboard?” now maheep became intrusive.
“No no! No need. There are only clothes and books. Don’t you believe me?” Jagesh said as he completed the last laddu.

“Ok we believe you.” And soon the party was over.

Jagesh went to bathroom.

“Maheep let us do something for this liar. It would have been fair on his part if he told us the truth .but I feel, this guy is simply a liar” Balu was sure about the smell from Jagesh’s luggage.
“But how can we screw him?” maheep scratched his head.
Balu thought for a while.

“Yes! I have an idea…listen …” and thus a plan was hatched. To jagesh’s great misfortune, balu was one of the greatest mischief makers of their batch.
That day, when Jagesh went to library, a green signal was given not only to maheep but also to some of the lobby partners.

“Come on guys! Break open the cupboard. This special party is sponsored by none other than our great room mate Jagesh!” announced Balu.

Within a few minutes the lock was broken and within seconds to that all friends found the much sought treasure – Jagesh’s hidden banquet!

“Balu was right! Jagesh is a complete liar!” throwing the treasure to friends maheep said. “Ask others to join the feast. We alone can not complete these all”
The feast was grand. Not because the food stuff was very tasty but perhaps the stolen stuff was tastier or more over, the taste of ‘tit for tat’ was beyond capacity of the group’s taste buds!

Soon, everything was over. The cupboard was re arranged and closed. Every one dispersed just to eagerly wait for the scene when Jagesh returned from the library.

“Hey maheep, my cupboard is wrecked by some one! Who did this?” shocked by the broken lock Jagesh’s tongue slipped “and which rascals ate my whole week’s breakfast?”

“What breakfast?” assuming innocence maheep said “you did not bring any eatables from home. You told us today morning. Didn’t you?”

Sensing the trap, immediately Jagesh had to save himself “oh yaar! I forgot there was nothing here. You are right.”

Maheep gestured his eye to Balu and gave a winning smile. “Jagesh just make sure your books and clothes are not stolen”

Not understanding how to react to this situation, Jagesh answered “they are very much ok”

Every participant cupboard raider had a great laugh that night. But this was not the end. There was some thing more to happen.

Jagesh was not taking his meals at the student mess. His Tiffin used to come from karamsad. Many a times, tired Jagesh would come from the college in after noon and would find his tiffin empty! And no one would be ready to reveal the identity of the robber despite Jagesh’s marathon efforts at inquiry.

Routinely, a maid would come to take back all the empty tiffins. She would clean the tiffins so that they could be re filled and re sent at evening.

On one bad day for Jagesh, a maid came with his tiffin and she said she wanted to have word with him. As soon as she saw him she greeted him with a load of surtis! This was totally unexpected on Jagesh’s part! Puzzled and stupefied, Jagesh could not figure out what went so wrong with the maid. The discourse lasted until all the rage of the maid transformed to her choicest surti. Naturally, all others enjoyed the episode. After much of persuasion and explanation from Jagesh’s side consisting mainly words like “I do not know, I have not done this, I am sorry,” and gestures of apology, the maid was convinced to continue her services for him.

It was obvious for maheep to ask Balu about his role in this incident. Balu smiled. Gestured with his eye and whispered “today, I not only ate his tiffin but also put a tiffin bomb back in it!”
“What?”
Balu’s eyes sparked mischief as he said:
“A condom”

CHAPTER TWENTIETH :SECRETS OF BOYS' HOSTEL : FOOLS WITHOUT APRIL

2011-09-01T04:29:00.000+05:30

well friends, i was trying to write about our awesome experiences at panchvati slum with dr rajesh metha. but 1st april reminded me some events in our hostel. so over to hostel room no 19 new boys' hostel, psmc campus!

i have had little chance to mention something about my room partner biren, i mean, biru dada to put it more correctly! myself, tapasvi and biren remained room partners from day one to throughout our mbbs years.biren was from gandhinagar and his father was a govt servant. his complexion was a bit dark like me and was little short than me in height.he had typical amdavadi speech.while tapasvi was a giant, myself and biren were thin and lean weighing hardly some fifty kilos at that time.

biren used to speak very less-only when needed.but he had sound knowledge of the world he was living with. while i and tapasvi were living in our own dream world sometimes, biru was always in real world.far more practical.

"you know neh, why we all do study?" once he asked me.
" so that we be doctors."i answered wondering why he asked such a question.
"oh really? you mean is that the goal?" he really had something in his mind.
"what else?" i scratched my head.
"see, i can prove something else.' he smiled. okay, now he would reveal the secret.
"neh, you study and you will be doctor after sometime. so what next will you do?" he said.
"i will get some good job and will practice." i had a plain answer.
"and then? no plan to earn some money?"
"naturally, i will earn my salary."
"is that all? what next?" he was playing game.
"that is all...and then...." nothing more i could think.so i said"probably i will marry"- "yess! thats it!" he promptly interrupted my answer with sparks in both of his eyes.
" so neh, you have learnt a lesson. we all study ultimately to marry." he laughed and folded both his hands to make a heart shape and again spoke loudly "ULTIMATELY TO MARRY....!"

biren never used to hide his innate feelings despite speaking less. he had stuck a big cut out of his favorite heroine on his cupboard.he used to goto his home gandhinagar every week and used to bring a lot of tasty breakfast and college gossips especially about girls to share with us.

one late evening, when biren, myself and tapasvi were chatting in our room no 19 after routine tasteless dinner, one of our good friend entered our room. biren was sitting on a study table with support of his hands behind, while i was sitting on my cot and tapasvi was in his chair.
"whats up friends?" our friend appeared very happy somehow that day.
"nothing yaar, just chatting" i answered.
"hey biren, what is there near your left hand?" our friend asked biren pointing to a small glass bottle having some white crystals inside.
"you mean this?" biru swiftly lifted the bottle in his hand and pretended to examine it very carefully by taking it near his eyes. "this is...salt. simple salt." he stretched the word salt five times the normal.
" i think there is sugar in it."our good friend opined as he neared biru.
" hey man, do not try to taste it" biru hid the glass bottle with his hand behind him as if it was something like sugar admixed with real diamond powder.
"oh really? see, i cannot be fooled like this. i know it is sugar and you are teasing me." said our good friend.
"why should i lie to you? this is saaalt and i am not giving it to you at any cost."biru started controlling the mind game.

"you give me and i will prove myself." a bit agitated, out good friend rushed to the bottle.biru transfered the bottle from one hand to the other ans stretched that hand away from our good friend. our good friend tried to snatch the bottle, the struggle went on for a few seconds.
"ok ok.."said biru ultimately "you won. there is sugar in the bottle. i will give it to you but for god's sake, do not taste it!" biru threw his last yorker of the mind game.

our good friend, because of biru, had become so desperate to prove himself, grabbed the glass bottle from biru's hand.he opened it within milliseconds and threw the white powder directly in his wide open mouth.

ouch!! his mouth was full of salt! the muscles of the face of our good friend were stretched to all possible directions to make a horrible look of his face which we never would forget!!

at another occasion, one of our good friend was boasting a lot about himself and to his gross misfortune,biru heard it. all of us including some of our lobby parters were there in our hostel room no 19. our room was something about 20*12 ft spacious with the cots and three study tables.from the balcony, we could see jungle of our eukeliptus trees. it was beautiful scene.

i have forgotten the exact topic of conversation, but our good friend was boasting about himself being a real man.
"man, you have to stand up for the cause you feel if you are a real man! i do it and face the world.i never step back. a real man like me can shape his own future in his own way! i tell you, only a few man like me are having such capacity." he was preaching all of us as how a man should behave and how should he make himself.
biru listened to his version of being a man for a few minutes.then, without looking at our good 'real man' friend, said in a plain voice " see man, i do not understand whatever you are saying about yourself. the world will believe you a man only when you have something really between your two legs!"

"hey do you mean i don't have it?" suddenly our good friend's attention shifted to the unexpected attack.all of us were just stunned by biru's attack.
" i never said that but what i said is an ancient fact.i will have reasons to believe you otherwise, if you don't have that." my good friend was sucked in the argument.

"leave this! i can prove i am a man anytime" now our friend was almost screamed.
"oh really? how can we believe you? if you ask me, i will not believe anything without proof." still biru was purposefully looking away from our good friend just to drive him mad!

'you have your chance today to prove.prove it the way i tell you" what biru was up to? asking him to strip naked or something in front of all of us? i could not believe it!

"why should i prove it to you? who are you?" our good friend's face was seen grossly irritated

"relax man! i am nothing."biru chuckled " if you wish, you can prove or otherwise.."

"-what otherwise?"our good friend stood up in excitement almost to attack biru.
"hey if you hit me that is not going to prove you a real man..."biru went a step back. " see....otherwise all these friends of ours will have chance believe what i believe right now for you..!" pointing a finger to all of us biru said

our good friend gazed us. we all probably looked serious to him. his face also turned serious.

"okay, what should i do?" he asked biru accepting the challenge.

"nothing. just show it!"
"show what?"
" the vital masculine part of your body that you are missing in my opinion!" biru was a cold blooded killer!

"no. that never can happen" he resisted almost screaming.
" see friends? i am right!" biru smiled.
"no! "he shouted " i am a real man!"
"then prove it!"
our good friend was highly agitated and was breathing fast. he looked desperate to prove himself.
"okay,okay..calm down... i have a suggestion.. "all looked biren with eager faces. what suggestion?
"you can show that to me in private and i will tell all the friends if you are a real man."

our good friend seemed puzzled but for him, i guessed, the suggestion was better than to strip in front of all of us.

"come on!" biru swiftly opened the door to balcony. still looked puzzled, our good friend went to biru and the door was closed.what was happening?

after couple of minutes,as we waited eagerly, the door opened.

"he really showed me!" exclaimed biru. " i never expected you such a fool!" biru told our good friend.
he looked very confused and depressed. his face blushed red. we could not stop laughing as we saw him.

" i really do not know" our good friend probably spoke to himself as grasped his head with both of his hands and threw his loose body on one of the cot. "why i did this at all? why did i listened to biru at all? but why me?"

what a mind game biru could play and win and could make fools without April!

CHAPTER NINETEENTH: A PIECE OF CLOTH ?

2011-09-01T04:19:00.000+05:30

A PIECE OF CLOTH ?

At one age the world is black and white for you. Your heroes are clear and so are the villains. The confusion starts as the age advances. The thickness of gray belt in between the black and white world increases ultimately to engulf most of the black and white area as you grow. When you are young and tender, your definition of patriotism would also be black and white. Thus it was our firm belief - If you are a true patriot, you must hoist your national flag with due respect.

When we found out no one was going to hoist the national flag on 15 august in our college, it was shocking to most of the batch mates. For all of us, doubtlessly, the dean office was black

“How is this possible?” I exclaimed. “Ours is such a big medical college, still, the college authority has not even cared to make a pole for the purpose!”

“We must do something for this” supported tapasvi.

“Not possible, yaar! Today is 14. It will not be possible for us to arrange everything in such a short time”

The fact was exposed just on the 14 august. There never had been any flag hoisting before. The dean office perhaps never thought of celebrating the event. And possibly no one from our senior batches demanded the celebration.
An immediate meeting of our batch was called to crack the matter. Almost all agreed to do whatever possible to hoist the tri color Indian national flag.

Kapil, vimal, bimal, tapasvi, biren and all other friends were very zealous and fanatical for flag hoisting.

“Let us rush to khadi gram udyog to buy a flag” suggested kapil

“Damn it! It is already evening and the store would be closed. No flag - no hoisting!” said vimal looking at his wrist watch, expessing his anger for being late. We were hopeless. We did not have pole at first place and now even not the flag!
“I have one idea...” suddenly a spark flashed in bimal’s eyes. “Let us get the tri color cloth from the market and we can ask any tailor to make a flag for us”
“That is good idea. But what about the ashok chakra?” vivek had doubts.
“That we can draw with our own hand!” suggested ketan finally resolving the problem.

“So boys! Let us run…!”

The over zealous boys made teams and all took different responsibilities. One team rushed to anand to fetch the tri color cloth. Another one went to karamsad to ask the tailor to open his shop in emergency to join the cloth to make the flag. The girl’s team started inviting the seniors and the teachers.

I and tapasvi went to dr. shishir Gandhi, asst. prof. of medicine and head of student’s committee.

“Is this so?” dr gandhi was really surprised “are you sure? Do we not have even a single pole to hoist the flag in our college?”

“Yes sir. But now we want to hoist the flag tomorrow. Kindly install one pole in emergency” we requested from the depth of our heart. Looking at the young enthusiastic boys, dr. Gandhi probably realized the urgent need for pole.

“ok.ok. but can you suggest the place? I can immediately ask workers to install” he assured.

“Yes sir .the easiest and most feasible place is just on the top of the college entrance.” We suggested. Dr Gandhi saved our hearts. He immediately sent a worker along with us.

We jumped on the top of the college entrance and showed the place. The work started immediately. – Hurray! What an achievement!

Next step was to invite some proper person to do flag hoisting. Since the dean was out of the station, we requested dr. mazoomdar, head of the deptt Of physiology, to hoist the flag.
“Sir you must wear Gandhi topi to salute the flag”

“GANDEE topi? Yes. I will arrange for that” sir spoke with his atypical speech agreeing to our demand.

In mean time our friends back at hostel got the tri color cloth sieved from the tailor (tailor’s house and shop was just beside sardar patel’s birth place, karamsad). They had other problems.

“Can any one tell me? How many lines are there in ashok chakra? 18? 22? 24?” bimal was confused. “If the flag is not properly made, we can not hoist such a flag. It would be rather an insult to the nation.” He expressed fear. We had to search our memories back to school days.

“I am sure the number is 24. I surely remember our text book of the ‘nagreek shashtra’! ”asserted kapil confidently and the work started. Bimal and the team worked al most over night and made a beautiful ashok chakra in the centre of the flag. The flag was ready late at mid night. Every one was tired but no one was feeling so. Finally the flag was shining – even in our tender hearts. We all were amazed as how beautiful our national flag looked. Was it because we made it by our own?

The next issue was how to fold the flag so that it opens properly at the time of hoisting. I had some idea. But we rehearsed the process to avoid any fiasco in the morning.

Now everything was ready. All of us really felt we have done our best to see that their beloved mother land is duely respected in our college on the Independence Day.

Thus came the auspicious morning of the first 15 august of the college. Every one- teachers, seniors, juniors, clerical staff - gathered in front of the college gate. We did not have loud speakers, decorative materials, costly flowers but we definitely had the zeal and enthusiasm to respect the motherland, amounted more than any thing that money could buy.

The ceremony was completed in a few minutes. A few of the people like kadri did not turn up. Later, he gave his clear opinion that weather to come or not for flag hoisting could not amount to his patriotism.

Hemant, my close friend and a real patriot, was out of station on the 15th august. When he returned from his home and heard the entire story, he really felt unhappy.

“Did you make the flag with ideal measurements? No. damn you fools! The flag must be of proper size. Otherwise it is not the national flag at all! You have hoisted only a piece of cloth!”

“But hemant. Just look at the way every one worked together overnight. Look at the emotions attached to that piece of cloth made by us. It makes that cloth as precious as the national flag.” But I never could convince him for this. Perhaps till today!

CHAPTER EIGHTEENTH : THE FIRST ELECTION..

2011-09-01T04:17:00.000+05:30

“I am to represent the oppressed, the least heard and the neglected ones. It is my humble duty to work for them and see that they are given equal importance and rights. You have many sophisticated people around you which forget simple ones. This never can be tolerated. We must rise to the occasion and do what is right. It is my humble request to vote keeping this in your mind….”- whom did you hear? Gandhi? Ambedkar? V.P. singh? Indira? Wrong! This was my best friend bimal chhaya! Obviously there was election of class representative (CR) and bimal was one of the contestants.

This was the first ever election in our batch. For interaction with the college authorities and the seniors, we badly needed a CR. The name was not the unanimous. So we opted for the election.

There was general agreement about the election officers – me and ketandada. We were given the responsibility to conduct the operation smoothly and honestly. The venue was the lecture hall.

Though bimal had huge support from anish, sandeep, hemani, girish, kamlesh, kapil and most of the boys from the old boys’ hostel, he lacked clear support from the girls’ hostel side. The opponent had good rapport with the girls. He also had advantage of general acceptance amongst the new hostel’s boys and the seniors. He was none other than jasmine shah.

“No election should go uncontested …and so I stand here in front of you.” Said bimal. Very true principally. He was very good friend of all of us and especially mine. He banked on our votes. On the other hand, jasmine shah was from our hostel and he too was a good friend.

“See I am not against bimal. But we have lived in the same hostel and at this moment it is my right to get support from you all friends.” Jasmine was clear in demanding our votes.

For me, on personal front, it was a great dilemma. Bimal was 100% sure of my support and it was difficult to not to vote for him. Jasmine was with me since days of ragging. He had very good organizing skills.

Jasmine was lucky enough to have almost full support from the girl’s of our class. He had great opportunity and skill to communicate with the girls while routine weekly traveling to Ahmedabad. He and tapasvi were known as kanhaiyas of our batch, as they were seen surrounded by gopis of our class in the train! They both could talk hours together with the girls sparking giggles! Bimal, though a good communicator, also a weekly traveler to Ahmedabad like jasmine, was probably seen as extra sincere man not fit for being popular figure amongst girls.

Some batch mate even created issue of dominance. “If we support bimal, the students from the old boys’ hostel would dominate us since bimal belongs to that hostel. Do you want this to happen?”

“Bimal has very good command on English. He can present our batch anywhere be it the college authority, seniors, juniors or outside the college.” A small point raised by some.

Just a day before the day of voting, jasmine came to our room.

“Neh, I know you are very close to bimal. But we belong to same hostel. Give me a promise that you will vote for me tomorrow. I really need your support.” He demanded clearly.

“He is right neh. The issues raised by bimal are not the real ones. He sees himself as a savior of the oppressed. That is not true.” Said tapasvi.

Few moments were very distressing for me. How would bimal feel? Deceived? Was it right to support bimal on hypothetical issues?
“So neh, what have you thought?” my thoughts were interrupted by jasmin’s query. He knew very well if I say yes to him that would be 100%.

“Ok.” I made up my mind. “I promise I will vote for you” very difficult decision.

Soon after this, bimal arrived to confirm my support.
“So man, you are to vote for me. Right?” he straightly asked me. For a moment, I had no answer. I could have given false reply or a political statement but I had to be truthful.

“Sorry bimal, just before a few minutes, I promised my vote to jasmine” said I fearing strong rejection from bimal.
To my surprise, he smiled a bit, did not utter a single word of dislike but said “but this is not going to come in way of our friendship…ok?”

How blessed I was to have such a wonderful friend as my buddy! Even when I clearly denied my support, he supported and nurtured our friendship.

As the day of election arrived, we all met in the lecture hall for voting.

I and ketan shah had prestigious duty of conducting the election smoothly and honestly. There were no any external observers of the process.

Bimal knew I was to vote against him.

The voting was smooth and as expected, jasmine shah was declared the winner and so he became our first CR. Savior was not saved….

CHAPTER SEVENTEENTH : WE DID START THE FIRE!

2011-09-01T04:13:00.000+05:30

WE DID START THE FIRE

“Groupism” was a word that triggered feeling of dislike in general amongst most of us. But as the time passed, students of our batch started recognizing other students of their match. Formation of formal and informal groups started. Some groups were based on native place; some were based on like mindedness, while some were based on economical status.

Since bimal believed in equality of all human beings, he was heavily against formation of any group and he had very strong feelings against any "groupism". He was a strong critic of group celebration of events like bithdays. So his was a kind of “no group” group!

Principally, it sounded good to believe in equality and no group theory. But on long run, groups were inevitable like anywhere in society. Not only it gave sense of belonging but also it gave social security and educational support in some cases.

So within a few months, our batch subdivided in small groups.

One group was of students from north Gujarat consisting of sandeep, paresh and friends. That was one of the most mischievous groups. Other one was of students from saurashtra consisting ketan, vimal, kapil, vivek and friends. Then we had biju, samir, pragnesh, ketam dhabu’s group. Kintur, sanjay, saddam (sorry for forgetting true name of the good friend!) and friends formed another powerful group.

As far as girls were concerned I remember ripal -jayashree and friend’s group; kama and nilam’s group; jasmine anu beji’s group; nilpa-zarna’s group.

We, I and tapasvi, were probably in “no group” group! However, hemant, tapasvi and I became very close friends soon and ours was informal group.

Thus almost all got settled after initial few months.

One day kapil came to us and suggested “friends let us celebrate 31 dec!” It was a welcome idea. Everyone agreed. The venue of the party was the old boys’ hostel that was actually a nursing hostel previously. All were invited to the boys’ hostel including the girls!

Kapil, vimal, bimal, anis, bau, sandeep, paresh, mines, ketens etc all friends really worked hard to make the event memorable.

They did not have any fund for decoration. I still remember the boys used their table lamps to create lighting effects. I really can not say why they looked so gorgeous. The glamour of the first party of our batch was in our hearts and minds, I guess.
That night of 31 dec was cool and chilling. we needed sweaters. The enthusiasm of the party was in full swing. Table lamps were fitted on the windows of the rooms of the round hostel giving a very special hue to the party.

Boys from the other hostel, including me , hemant, biren and tapasvi reached early. When everything was ready, our special guests arrived—girls of our batch!! They walked in the boys’ hostel like little brook with all the beauty but minimal sound….

Anish was the uncontested anchor of our batch and so was jasmine! Soon the party started. First, there was presentation from the students. I was an average stage performer and this was very first time when I decided to speak in front of whole of my batch. Naturally I was a bit nervous and my heart rates were high. Despite low temperature of the atmosphere, I was sweating. Soon, anish announced my name and I stood up gadhering all the courage I had! I presented a comedy poem written by me “darling baarmi pass chhu” . The poem compared a girl with scientific gujarati terminology jargon of 12th std's various subjects. I remember only a line “wal lolak jewi tari chaal chhe!” but jasmine has contributed following from her robust memory…

Darling, baarmi pass chhu….ડાર્લિંગ બારમી પાસ છું...

Mithiline blue jewo tari ankho no rang chhe’
Pan hay! Sathe sefrinine jewo gusso pan sang chhe!

Hay mari jau aa kasherukao ne mekhlao(sanskrut name for spine, shoulder and pelvic girdles) par,
Wal lolak jewo taro chalwano dhang chhe!

Shunya watawaran na dabane ne 25 ansh tanpane,
Sodium ne pani ni prakriya sho aapno aarambh chhe…(when water and sodium are mixed at room temparatue and at normal atmospheric pressure,their chemical process gives blast!)

My poem was hit. (or still i wish to believe that!).

Kamlesh had hidden skill of break dance.he gave superb performance.
Many other students gave their performance. but I really do not remember at this moment.[can any one add ?]But the item that swept our hearts was a song by vivek jagat vimal pragnesh and friends… “we didn't start the fire…!” ( the photo is recently uploaded by jayshree on facebook). We all were moved by the rhythm and words of the song. It really touched our hearts.

Sharp at 12night lights were turned off to mark arrival of the new year. Spell of darkness mesmerized all of us. The new year at last arrived. Immediately after a few minutes lights were on. Few students danced….but most of us were just observers, like me.That was because such type of party, especially of new year was a complete new experience for most of us.The black out for a while at mid night was unknown experience for a pure gujju student like me. However girls made themselves safe knowingly or unknowingly, by gathering in their bunch closely, as clock approached 12.yet, I am sure that black out must be exciting for all by just knowing presence of girls in vicinity, at midnight, in total black out.Except for twinkling presence stars above…

The party was a milestone for our batch. The photo of “we did” was said to be hottest one to be sold after the party both amongst the boys and the girls. (There were no girls in the group that sung “we did” but still many girls bought the photo. There was rumor that many girls had their dream boy in the photo!)

detail info on the song... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_Didn%27t_Start_the_Fire

you can play the real song by billy from above link

CHAPTER SIXTEENTH :...BUT FRIENDS ARE FRIENDS!

2011-09-01T04:07:00.000+05:30

…BUT FRIENDS ARE FRIENDS!

Though tapasvi and hemant were (and are) my best friends, sometimes I hesitated to put my ideas in front of them. I had fear of rejection. I never could withstand rejection of my ideas especially by near ones. After a few months of first MBBS, I had one spark of such an idea. I was not extrovert but was able to speak with my batch mates. To give reality to my idea, one day, without telling tapasvi and hemant, I went to the other boys’ hostel.

‘Whether would my batch mates welcome my idea? If they welcome my idea, how will I explain keeping aside tapasvi and hemant? What would I pursue to tapasvi and hemant if my idea falls out as a big fiasco? What if any highly intelligent friend directly rejects my idea? And what about girls? I did not have any `girlfriends. Who would convince them? Any way if my idea clicks then everyone in the class would remember for lifetime. So I should give myself a chance’. These were the thoughts storming my mind when I was on the way to the “nursing hostel” – the other boys’ hostel.

To put forward my idea, I met ketan dada, bimal, anish, pragnesh, vimal, chirag, charan, alpesh, dhabuwala, rasik, girish, sandeep, kapil, and other friends.

“Friends, ours is a big batch of 100. I was wondering since few days about whether we can get to gather in our lecture hall in the evening time. Every one from us can come to the stage and present something... May it be a song, a joke, a story, or we can have some discussion on some current topic. Some one can even deliver an academic lecture. We have a lot talented friends which already are able to storm the stage. But our purpose should be to give chance to those which never have performed on the stage. No one should be left out. This will not only help us boosting our confidence level in general but can also help us in presenting ourselves better in the exam vivas.” I told my friends in the nut shell.

“But what about microphone system and do we need to put some money to keep going?” some friends were skeptical.

“In my opinion, we do not need any money but we need ourselves and our will to keep going. We may ask dr nishith (our warden and Prof of physiology) to provide us the keys of the lecture hall after the college hrs” I suggested.

Surprisingly, nothing terrible happened. In fact it looked as if I stole everyone’s thought. My idea was welcome! Well, back at my hostel, I had to face the two terrible! As expected, since our campus was like a small village, tapasvi and hemant heard about my suggestion from the mess.

“Very unfair neh!” I was greeted with clear dislike on their face. “You say we are your best friends… you behave otherwise! We heard from some one that you are planning some kind of weekly meeting of the batch with the others… can’t you tell us first?”

“I should have... but I could not. I feared you both would reject my idea and would not let me present it to the other batch mates. So first I tried to get green signal from the others. I am sorry for my distorted perception about your support and reaction…” I tried to explain in best possible way. After much explanation and persuasion, I could possibly able to get them on my side.

Thus, soon, our meetings started – every Thursday. The deptt of physiology co operated fully. They gave us keys of the big lecture hall without any hesitation.

Our meetings lasted about an hour after the college hrs. There were many enthusiasts in our batch and initially there was no problem in getting the number of performers. We even repeatedly requested our ‘silent’ friends to come on the stage and present something in front of all.

I remember once beji bombarded a whole lecture on a topic of physiology! Probably that lecture was on physiology of pain, if I remember correctly. Girish had good collection of haiku. Anish used to be our announcer. Jasmine also used to do that job nicely. As our meetings became a regular event, it started getting popular. Even our seniors like GD and setu became our guests to encourage us. The remarkable thing about the show was neither did it consume a single penny from any one’s pocket nor we used any funds from the college. It was proved beyond doubt that our programme can go on without money.

Once upon a time, we could not get keys of the lecture hall. So we immediately decided to shift to the vast terrace of the PSMC. Bimal and jasmine were the announcers, if I remember correctly, and hemant presented some extra boring collection on news paper wedding ads!
Our meetings provided us a base to welcome our new junior batch ( Madhvi, vasundhara, sonia’s batch) in a unique way. I need to write a separate story for that interesting event. Also, election of our 1st CR was done in our meeting without any regulatory authority from the college.

Sometimes the meeting had very hot discussions. I remember a discussion on the topic of killing frogs for routine experiment in the deptt of physiology. Every one expressed their views against such killings, but pragnesh had to say something else and just after his speech, the meeting boiled like a volcano! Kapil and friends became very furious and wrote slogans on the walls of the deptt of physiology. (More at :)

The meetings provided a good base for all of us to interact. Once bimal said “Neh, if these meetings become regular campus activity, we will pass this tradition on to our junior batches. Our batch would be remembered as the pioneer of these meetings forever.”

But that dream was never to come true. As the time passed, stage became monotonous. Those which loved to perform performed always and the shy ones remained shy. Despite our forceful efforts to get them on the stage, they never turned up! Secondly, some students started their groups and so most of them became least interested in the class meetings. We lost the initial charm eventually.

But this was not the logical end of the meetings.

So a time came when tapasvi and hemant had something harsh to say.

“Neh, we meet every week but have you ever thought whether you people could do anything which you claimed to do at the beginning? We do not see any simple student on the stage!” hemant was truthful but his words were sharp enough to be painful.

“See, hemant, we tried our best to do that. You know this very well. We are successful to an extent. I agree it is not the way we wished. But if the silent students do not come on the stage, even after repeated requests, what can be done?” I had nothing more to say.

“Nothing! But you all failed! That is the truth…”

“Yes ... hemant is right. There are only a few students which come to stage and these meetings are only for them!” tapasvi also supported hemant. “We have decided to raise this issue in the very next meeting...”

Both of my best friends were against me. However, many others were on my side. Before the next meeting, everyone was informed about special presentation by hemant and tapasvi.

I do not remember much about the last meeting, but hemant stood up and started speaking and then there was chaos! That was the end.