CH 38 : A STRANGE ANATOMIST

[ 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

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!]