CH 28 : MARU JIVAN ANJALI THAJO!

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

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!

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?

(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)