Dishonesty? that too by me? that too in my teens? a very rare thing to happen ! well, let me confess in detail. As most of the people around me know, honesty has been the core competence of my life.
well, we had to study a subject in anatomy known as histology. it meant study of micro anatomy- the microscopic appearance of cell and other body structures.
we had a big basement hall in the dept of anatomy. there was something different about this hall.
the hall was neat and clean. i mean there were no human bodies or its cut open parts or even the museum like specimens! also it smelled clean as there was not a trace of the body preservative formaline in that hall. so what was there in?
the hall had series of microscopes arranged on row of connected tables. there were a few cupboards and things to study was hidden in those cupboards. during the practical of histology, our teacher - dr raibaghkar- would open up the cupboard and get out a wooden brief case from it.
" so today, we will study the muscles of the body." he would say.then, he would open up the wooden case and give the slides to us. we were needed to see them under the microscope. we had to learn to recognize the structure.
" there are three types of muscles in the body. the skeletal muscle- looks red elongated, the smooth muscle -looks spindle shaped with nucleus in the center and the heart muscle- that does not have individual cell wall but it forms a network of cells making a syncitium.. right?.. now see under the microscope and find out which slide you have been given... no noice.."
easy.. wasn't it? just put your slide under the scope and see ! but as you look in, you would see the visual field studded with saffron reddish color with black streaks and spots on it. nothing matched the structures said to be seen! there were some moments of eureka when sir himself would come and show things with a pointer glass. the worst part this was, these slides were to be kept for spot examination! during the examination, we were needed to identify the slide and give the answer within a few seconds before moving to the next spot.
also, we were needed to draw figures in the histology journal with comments.we had to use blue and red pencil to draw the figures. i must admit - though i was very lazy in completing journals, initially i did the job as good as i could. sir used to see the journals and sign it.
after some time, madam dangerwalla became in charge of the histology teaching. she was very ideal and so was very difficult to satisfy with the journal work. she would sit and see our journals in detail.
" who is this roll no 59?" she would speak calmly while we would be struggling with the microscope.
"yes madam, that is me.." vaidya surname used to put me among last students of my batch. i would sit up and go to madan.
"now what is this?" madam would forward my journal and point to a figure drawn by me.
" this is madam, a columnar epithelium.." i would say hiding a fear inside.
" is it? do you know the nuclei of the cell of the columnar epithelium are at the base of the cell? " she would stare and naturally my face would be flat and mind blank !
" you have drawn in center.. this is wrong..go back and correct this. i will see your journal afterwards.." that was the usual story. most of the journals would return with remarks to re do the assigned work with the correction !
it was not that i never tried to reach up to the madam's ideal but somehow it was not my cup of tea! i tried and tried and ultimately stopped writing histology journal. i started avoiding the classes. but this did not solve the problem. rather, it aggravated. that was beacause journal writing was must for each and every student to be eligible for appearing in the external examination.
i was in a bad need of a friend who could push me. tapasvi was already there and in fact he was one of a rare student whose journal was never returned by dr dangerwalla ! but apart from looking at my work what else can he do for me?
luckily i had a special friend who would sacrifice more time for me and do something more. yes, jasmine was ready to draw figures and even write for me! the work had piled up so much i was really tense when she offered to help. i never had got my journal work done by any of my friends till then in my life but i could not resist her offer. she happily took my journal and draw right figures for me and so i was able to show up my journal before time of the examination. that was my micro dishonesty! probably first and last academic dishonesty in whole life by me! [though that does not justify what i did i know!]
however, jasmine could obviously not help in the histology hall and so my struggle with slides and microscope was on. before exam, all batches were given revision. at the time of revision, we were shown all the slides again and again.
"hey neh, do you know how to recognize slide of bladder?" one of my friend asked.
" it has trasitional epithelium" i said promptly.
" you fool! you will never learn!" he smiled " look at this corner of the slide..."
i tried to look in the microscope.
"not there in..my friend! look outside.. can you see a special scratch here?" he pointed the corner. there was a scratch mark there.a 'special marker' of that slide.
" you see this is how you identify a slide of bladder..!" he looked at me with winning smile " you know , one of our senior told me the trick!" the trick was instant hit. many a times students indulged more in finding or encrypting a 'special marker' on the slide.
" but what if they give any other slide of bladder?" i asked an obvious question.
" our anatomy dept have a limited set of slides and the same slides they will use in the examination. in the exam, they will cover the label of the slide but they can not cover such special identification mark! so forget everything ! just remember scratches and marks on different slides! " he had cracked the code completely. but i never liked this idea. it was like cheating. so i never indulged myself in finding special marks on the histology slides.
then ultimately there was a terminal exam. we were taken to the same hall and were given blind labelled slides for examination. dr raibaghkar was the examiner.we were given a few minutes to recognize the given slide.
" now tell me what is your slide?" sir came and stood near one of the student.
" sir i think this slide is of the cardiac muscle.." said the student.
" ok good.." sir said." tell what do you see.."
" there is a syncitium of the cells.."
" that is very good" sir's 'good' added more confidence to the student.
" i also see scattered nuclei .." the student added confidently.
" that is great..very good" sir rarely smiled but i saw him that day. he smiled mischievously.
" sir i see the muscle fibers .." pumped by 'good' plus 'very good' , the student said further.
"ha ha ... ha" sir laughed aloud. just before a second he was praising that guy! he surprised all of us.
" my dear student this is a skeletal muscle and not a cardiac muscle .. ha..ha..ha...!" and he left the table leaving my good friend totally shocked. this was typical of dr raibaghkar. he would never give you any hint during the exam about the right answer. on the other hand he would eat away your exam time by leading you to your gross mistakes.
i really have no idea whether my student friend spoke everything because of any 'special marker' on the slide! well for me, it was a lucky day. i was given slide of the urinary bladder which i could identify by the transitional epithelium..!
well, we had to study a subject in anatomy known as histology. it meant study of micro anatomy- the microscopic appearance of cell and other body structures.
we had a big basement hall in the dept of anatomy. there was something different about this hall.
the hall was neat and clean. i mean there were no human bodies or its cut open parts or even the museum like specimens! also it smelled clean as there was not a trace of the body preservative formaline in that hall. so what was there in?
the hall had series of microscopes arranged on row of connected tables. there were a few cupboards and things to study was hidden in those cupboards. during the practical of histology, our teacher - dr raibaghkar- would open up the cupboard and get out a wooden brief case from it.
" so today, we will study the muscles of the body." he would say.then, he would open up the wooden case and give the slides to us. we were needed to see them under the microscope. we had to learn to recognize the structure.
" there are three types of muscles in the body. the skeletal muscle- looks red elongated, the smooth muscle -looks spindle shaped with nucleus in the center and the heart muscle- that does not have individual cell wall but it forms a network of cells making a syncitium.. right?.. now see under the microscope and find out which slide you have been given... no noice.."
easy.. wasn't it? just put your slide under the scope and see ! but as you look in, you would see the visual field studded with saffron reddish color with black streaks and spots on it. nothing matched the structures said to be seen! there were some moments of eureka when sir himself would come and show things with a pointer glass. the worst part this was, these slides were to be kept for spot examination! during the examination, we were needed to identify the slide and give the answer within a few seconds before moving to the next spot.
also, we were needed to draw figures in the histology journal with comments.we had to use blue and red pencil to draw the figures. i must admit - though i was very lazy in completing journals, initially i did the job as good as i could. sir used to see the journals and sign it.
after some time, madam dangerwalla became in charge of the histology teaching. she was very ideal and so was very difficult to satisfy with the journal work. she would sit and see our journals in detail.
" who is this roll no 59?" she would speak calmly while we would be struggling with the microscope.
"yes madam, that is me.." vaidya surname used to put me among last students of my batch. i would sit up and go to madan.
"now what is this?" madam would forward my journal and point to a figure drawn by me.
" this is madam, a columnar epithelium.." i would say hiding a fear inside.
" is it? do you know the nuclei of the cell of the columnar epithelium are at the base of the cell? " she would stare and naturally my face would be flat and mind blank !
" you have drawn in center.. this is wrong..go back and correct this. i will see your journal afterwards.." that was the usual story. most of the journals would return with remarks to re do the assigned work with the correction !
it was not that i never tried to reach up to the madam's ideal but somehow it was not my cup of tea! i tried and tried and ultimately stopped writing histology journal. i started avoiding the classes. but this did not solve the problem. rather, it aggravated. that was beacause journal writing was must for each and every student to be eligible for appearing in the external examination.
i was in a bad need of a friend who could push me. tapasvi was already there and in fact he was one of a rare student whose journal was never returned by dr dangerwalla ! but apart from looking at my work what else can he do for me?
luckily i had a special friend who would sacrifice more time for me and do something more. yes, jasmine was ready to draw figures and even write for me! the work had piled up so much i was really tense when she offered to help. i never had got my journal work done by any of my friends till then in my life but i could not resist her offer. she happily took my journal and draw right figures for me and so i was able to show up my journal before time of the examination. that was my micro dishonesty! probably first and last academic dishonesty in whole life by me! [though that does not justify what i did i know!]
however, jasmine could obviously not help in the histology hall and so my struggle with slides and microscope was on. before exam, all batches were given revision. at the time of revision, we were shown all the slides again and again.
"hey neh, do you know how to recognize slide of bladder?" one of my friend asked.
" it has trasitional epithelium" i said promptly.
" you fool! you will never learn!" he smiled " look at this corner of the slide..."
i tried to look in the microscope.
"not there in..my friend! look outside.. can you see a special scratch here?" he pointed the corner. there was a scratch mark there.a 'special marker' of that slide.
" you see this is how you identify a slide of bladder..!" he looked at me with winning smile " you know , one of our senior told me the trick!" the trick was instant hit. many a times students indulged more in finding or encrypting a 'special marker' on the slide.
" but what if they give any other slide of bladder?" i asked an obvious question.
" our anatomy dept have a limited set of slides and the same slides they will use in the examination. in the exam, they will cover the label of the slide but they can not cover such special identification mark! so forget everything ! just remember scratches and marks on different slides! " he had cracked the code completely. but i never liked this idea. it was like cheating. so i never indulged myself in finding special marks on the histology slides.
then ultimately there was a terminal exam. we were taken to the same hall and were given blind labelled slides for examination. dr raibaghkar was the examiner.we were given a few minutes to recognize the given slide.
" now tell me what is your slide?" sir came and stood near one of the student.
" sir i think this slide is of the cardiac muscle.." said the student.
" ok good.." sir said." tell what do you see.."
" there is a syncitium of the cells.."
" that is very good" sir's 'good' added more confidence to the student.
" i also see scattered nuclei .." the student added confidently.
" that is great..very good" sir rarely smiled but i saw him that day. he smiled mischievously.
" sir i see the muscle fibers .." pumped by 'good' plus 'very good' , the student said further.
"ha ha ... ha" sir laughed aloud. just before a second he was praising that guy! he surprised all of us.
" my dear student this is a skeletal muscle and not a cardiac muscle .. ha..ha..ha...!" and he left the table leaving my good friend totally shocked. this was typical of dr raibaghkar. he would never give you any hint during the exam about the right answer. on the other hand he would eat away your exam time by leading you to your gross mistakes.
i really have no idea whether my student friend spoke everything because of any 'special marker' on the slide! well for me, it was a lucky day. i was given slide of the urinary bladder which i could identify by the transitional epithelium..!
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