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

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! )

CHAPTER TWELVE: READING …. IS THAT NEEDED?

READING …. IS THAT NEEDED?

My maternal grandfather gangaram bhai varu was a gandhian and played pivotal role to establish baal mandirs in kachchh. My paternal grand father krishnalalbhai vaidya was an English teacher. My mother was a secondary school teacher and she taught Sanskrit. Thus I hail from families of teachers. My father was professor of economics at Porbandar College for a few years. Despite all this, my father was and still is highly against school education. He believed in natural learning and hated sending crying child forcibly to school.
I faintly remember visiting once a baal mandir run by my nana. That horrifying memory consists of crying children all around me! However, all were taken to visit our famous garden khengar park and were given breakfast there.

First official attempt to send me school, of course against my father’s will, was made by my mother, when I was 6yrs old. Nanalal master’s Gujarati primary school was nearby my home and I was sent along with virbai, our maid, who cared for me like my mother.

It was really difficult to face the new world at the school where everyone had to obey the commands of teacher. There were other children like me, some comfortable, some crying but all strangers to me! For child like me, everything remained in my control at home. This world was up side down! It frightened me. I remember shouting name of virbai every 5 min to get her help in getting out of the new weird experience. Virbai was made to sit near my class by my parents. The scary experience lasted till I was given back to virbai after a few cry filled minutes! I never went to school there after!

At last, when I was 9yrs old, my mother finally decided to send me school. Since I was late, 1st standard needed to be skipped. I had to pass an exam to directly enter 2nd std. I remember some person from education deptt took my exam. He was really unhappy with my mother since despite being teacher herself, she did not send me to school in due time. My mother told him that I was her child and it was none of the officer’s business to see when I am sent to school!

So, the horrifying experience re started. Sanjay patoliya, ravindra travadi, darshan rana were my batch mates. They were very comfortable in the class. My mind was always occupied with fear of being scolded by teacher or teasing by the other children. Practically, it never happened.

My father always wished to be against the system and so I was highly irregular in school. I never studied or did home work properly at my home. My mother used to give help in my home work (I hated from my heart!) which mostly consisted of “pada”. Now and then, I had letters from my parents citing reasons for not attending the school and not doing home work!

But since I was 2 years older than my batch mates, I was better at studies. Even in bigger standards, I never studied and read for exams at home like other children around me. Several times my parents had to present medical certificates so that I could appear in annual exam! I never liked school and lessons.
I do not remember I ever have studied at home. My father used to give only two advises- “school n jajo” “lesson n karjo”. Thus whatever was taught in my class room I used to use it in exams. I never went to separate tuition classes except for mathematics in 10th and 12th std.

Weird, but I got admission to a medical college despite all this. I confess it as my sheer luck! The college was a totally new world for me where I was advised to read by not only the teachers but also the batch mates. It was my firm belief that one should not read the books and learn everything with help of lectures and practical classes using little bit of the “common sense” and questioning teacher. I used to ask a lot of questions especially in physiology classes while all other students were bored with my questions!

On entry to the college, I had fantasy to acquire great knowledge. For me, library was not a place for reading the texts, but to get some deeply hidden knowledge buried in the journals and the big thick books of various subjects in distant corners of cupboards. As I remember, I used to get into the journal section when I had not even slightest idea about those black long descriptions tagged with some “ET al”s! Though it sounds ridiculous today but I used to open up thick books of psychiatry and neurology from haunted cupboards in those days!

Our library was a nicely designed one. It had two floors. The arrangement was such that three students could sit on one side of table, separated by partition. I used to see my seniors reading very seriously the texts of medical subjects. Library was usually a silent place for reading but some girls used to enter with heavy sandals making noise of their steps announcing their entry .some boy would start tapping the reading table harmonically with the steps of the girl and the whole library would join that tapping. This was followed by a wave of laugh and usually termination of reading!

I get very violent sneezing. Sometimes in library, my sneezing used to disturb the reading session especially when it was near 10pm, the time of closure of library!

Initially I tried to manage vivas and exams without reading. But gradually it became clear to me that except for physiology, all other subjects were just tons of information without much use of logic. So, one was not left with any choice but to read.

Thus on exams, I forced myself to read but the efforts were mostly futile. My reading was diverted more towards stuffs unimportant for exams. Most of my friends were from good schools and had good understanding of how to read for exams.

One of our friends had habit of reading the texts aloud or with murmuring. He was named “gun gun” that stuck to him through out mbbs!
Library was not the only reading place for us. Many students liked to read in the college corridors and the steps of the lecture halls. Some could be found reading under the trees of our beautiful campus.
I found even better place to read. Since ours was a rural medical college, our hostel was surrounded by farms. I used to walk and read in the farms. Till today, when I remember red nucleus, retculo endothelial system, optic radiation etc, I remember those beautiful farms where I used to read. There were many eucalyptus trees in our campus and many students liked to read there.

It was only after meeting jasmine my approach for reading changed to professional one. She had capacity to know and to plan what to read, when to read and especially how to revise before exams. She had great sense of smelling the important questions to be asked in exams. Also she had enormous capacity to analyze the question paper and predict the marks. It is only because of her I got through not only the mbbs but also though pre pg exams.
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