CH 41 :MY MICRO ANATOMY AND MICRO DISHONESTY

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

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!