CH 37 : MY FIRST HOTEL VISIT

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

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...!

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!!