the milk city of india,birth place of amul the taste of india, anand is situated about two hours journey from ahmedabad and about 12 long hours from my home town bhuj. if somehow you missed the rail reservation, the bus route from bhuj to anand was very bad.it could break all your bones and could tear your muscles apart!on top of it,after arriving at anand you needed to catch a rikshaw or something to reach to psmc campus, gokul nagar,karamsad. still about 10 kms from anand. karamsad is famous as the birth place of iron man of india and my hero, sardar patel.
when i started from anand to karamsad in a rikshaw, i saw a big statue of sardar just at the entrance of karamsad village, touching main highway.the campus was roughly 3 kms away from karamsad so my journey continued further on the highway. on the way, first, i noticed a a typical ugly slum on my left side followed by a pond with dirty water( presently, there is sardar patel memorial at the place of the pond).
the wall of the campus started after the pond.soon apartments of the campus were visible. there were two big gates for entry. there was an official bus stop at the gate typically surrounded by tea-laaris and bhajia-wala stalls. there were few small shops on the other side of the highway selling things like paan and biscuits. when i entered the campus, wow, it was a huge one! just after the entry i could see a big four storied cement colored shree krishna hospital right in front of me. there was a small poorly maintained garden just in front of the entry of the hospital(presently, there is shree h.m. patel memorial at this garden).the hospital entry was marked by a big life size statue of lord shree krishna typically holding flute with both of his hands, touching his lips. the hospital was so named because, as someone told me, the donor wanted to keep himself anonymous.donating keeping your name anonymous is considered of highest virtue in hinduism.
by heart beats increased as my rikshaw entered the campus.since i was the only student from kachchh to get admission in psmc, all the batch mates were alien to me.even amongst the seniors, i knew only a few names. one name was setu, originally a nagar from bhuj whose parents lived in our neighborhood when i was 3-4 yr old. the other name i knew was viren, son of iconic pediatrician of kachchh, dr jagdish mehta. that was all.to put it in simple words, it was a whole new world for me. how would i get friends? how would i get adjusted to new environment? i had left a whole world of loving friends in bhuj- shanti, divyang, suresh, mitesh, nilesh to mention a few. how could i forget my first love kalpesh? i loved him so much.in fact, whatever i read in my 12 std, i did it in hope of getting a rank near him and to be with him in the college years! but that could not happen. he got admission somewhere else in some other branch. i really missed him so much.
and what about girls? can you believe this,apart from my early childhood play mates, i never had any girl friend in bhuj! i studied in boys' school throughout except up to 4th std. so practically girls in the class was something causing mixed feelings of apprehension and excitement for me.how would i talk with them? would i be able to win some good girl friends? a question that can perspire any young boy!
would we freshers be ragged? some one told me ragging was more common in medical colleges.what kind of ragging would be? a thought of it passed through my spine. was something horrible to happen with me? i hated ragging like almost all freshers. what would i do when i was all alone? was a hell waiting for me out there?
my father believed i was very fussy for food.i had strong likes and dislikes.what kind of mess would i have? i hoped at least it to be reasonably clean. i was like, if i wanted to live and to study, i had to eat whatever was available.i never was in search of heaven.
my thoughts were interrupted as the riksaw progressed in. after about half a kilometer, i could see a big building still under construction. that was supposedly the college building.the rikshaw passed by the building. the campus was green.a big play ground was seen on the way to the boys' hostel.the road was passing between the college building and the playground.there were lots of mango trees marking the periphery of the ground. the college building was very big. i was thrilled. it was my dream college! how could it be unrecognized by the MCI?
some one told me psmc had good teachers.when you are from a small town like bhuj, you automatically become a pet student of your teachers if you are a bit brighter than your counter parts! the status is suddenly lost when you enter a medical college.my situation same way, became up side down as naturally all my co students had scored more than me in 12th std and so i was second last to get admission in whole of my new class. what would happen to my academics?would it be possible for me to pass mbbs? i heard of some prof shrivastav headed the deptt of anatomy and was very strict.
my medium of teaching was to change from gujarati to english all of sudden.though that was not a concern for me as i learnt spoken English well before entering the medical college by reading news papers and listening to BBc radio when i was in 11th std.my concern was, how would i read big thick books of 1st mbbs? i hated reading.
the main donor of the college was the akshar purushottam sect of shree swaminarayan sub sect of hinduism.pramukhswani was the name of the head of the sect and so the name of the college- pramukhswami medical college. although i never was a devotte, rather a critic of some of the techings of bhagwan swaminarayan, he somehow indirectly played a vital role in my education! my school in bhuj was run by the local swaminarayan mandir(and was a boys' school only) and now this was my college erected with huge sum of donation by akshar purushottam sanstha! probably i never would have been a doctor without them! it was managed by shree charuttar arogya mandal then headed by respected shree h. m.patel. he was sardar patel's right hand at the time of partition of india and pakistan. there after, he also remained finance minister in janata govt of morarjee desai. he was known for his administrative capacity and principled politics.when he was there, i was assured, we never would need to worry for the recognition of our college by the MCI.
my rikshaw headed further and i saw a big decent building at the other end of the playground.wow!that was the ladies hostel.a few tiny dolls were seen from that far! the road further entered in tall thick jungle of eukeliptus trees. lastly, we reached the boys' hostel- amidst the tall trees,it was four storied cement colored building.it was to be my new home for next four and half years at least!
i took my luggage out and paid the rikshaw wala. as i looked around, there were few bikes parked at the entrance. must be belonging to students whose parents had a lot of money. to my surprise, the entry to the hostel had no gate that could be locked! even, i did not find any chowkidaar. as i entered inside,i saw farms on the open side of c shaped hostel building.( c was closed afterwards to make present building).
the hostel room cost some hard earned 1200 bucks per month to my middle class parents. they were happy as i got my seat on my own merit and not on donation. i also believed whatever i do i should do it on my own merit and not on donation.to this expense, add my mess bill and routine expenses including costly STD phone calls to home.that was quite an amount.
i was allotted room no 15 on the ground floor.this was very first time, i met tapasvi, one of my room partners. he was a tall guy with spects and nascent mustache then! his hairs were curly.
"hello, i am neh from bhuj" i extended my hand to him "we are to be room mates.."i added as i shake hands.
"we are to be good friends.."he welcomed me with big smile showing dimples on his cheeks.
"oh sure!" and a contract was unknowingly signed for lifetime! you never know when you get best friends in your life.believe it or not, there are hardly any reasons to be best friends. it just happens so.
the hostel room was a big one about 20x14ft. there ware three cots and three study tables put alongside the cots. we had a big balcony facing the jungle of trees.we were provided with three cupboards- one for each student. the hostel was built afresh and we were probably the first occupants of the room no 15. the cleaning was done before the allotment.
the partner i met afterwards was biren. he was from gandhinagar, capital of gujarat, near ahmedabad. he was last to get the admission to our mbbs class.
our college was truly a village medical college, far away from city. the campus was very big and green, spanning roughly 4 kilometers from one end to the other.
before telling the story further, let me ask you:can you imagine a world without mobiles? we have lived in such a world then! in fact, it was era of prime minister rajeev gandhi's dream of communication revolution just growing fruits. it was because of efforts of sam pitroda, a great gujarati technocrat, we had luxury of public telephone booths allowing us to make costly long distance calls to our homes! but the nearest such booth, believe me, when i joined the college, was about 5 kms away from the hostel in karamsad village.
how weird the world was! after reaching the booth,one needed to be a part of a long queue.it was really so!
in the evening, i called on my parents from such a booth. i also called my elder sister neha, at m. p shah medical college, jamnagar. she cared a lot for me and was worried about me as i was all alone to this alien medical college from bhuj.
" so what are names of your room mates?" she asked after some routine talk.
" biren and tapasvi." i said
"tapasveee....you mean a girl is your room mate?" she almost screamed on the phone!
" no! no!" i laughed." his name is tapasvi. it might sound like a girl's name because of 'vee' but he is a boy!"
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