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.
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!]
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!]
