Would you like to be ragged? Or rather, let me ask more relevant question – would you like your son or daughter be ragged ? Imagine a herd of senior students ordering weirdest possible commands to a few helpless fresher. Most of us would agree against it but when given chance to rag any one, it would be hard to step back !
On very first day, I happened to meet setu just at the entrance of the boys’ hostel. He looked a nice handsome fair guy like some hero of English movie.
‘hello setu bhai..” I was behind him and my words made hin turn around.
“oh, hi ! are you nehal?” he had soft voice. “from bhuj?”
“yes..” I was happy as he recognized me. “ I like to be called neh”
“ okay neh, is everything fine?”
“ fine. Just got my room allotted.” I said
“ so?” he paused a bit “ let me tell you there will be introduction by seniors but no one would harm you. I mean, just customary…” he smiled and continued “this things are for few days. Everything will be normal there after…okay? Not to worry..” -but what abnormal will remain till then? a question just went back from my lips. I could not ask. Probably my confidence was that low or may be I feared facing truth. Setu looked at me as I nodded my head.
“ nice meeting you setubhai” I said.
“nice meeting” he said.
Just after entering college, we heard there would be some kind of introduction of all of the fresher. my talk with setu confirmed it. Might it be ragging or whatever, we had to face it. When you are not left with any choice, just enjoy the situation.
We had two boys’ hostel. I was given accommodation in the new main hostel while most of the boys of our batch were accommodated in a small hostel just near the nursing hostel. We were very few at new boys’ hostel. All the new comers were given rooms at the ground floor of the big 4 storied hostel building. All the other rooms were occupied by our seniors.
Our immediate neighbors were samir , prakash and bhargav from room no 14. just at the entrance of the hostel a room was allotted to jasmine, biju and hemant of our batch. Remaining boys were given rooms at the small hostel near the nursing hostel.
You know, Stress makes friends faster. So was with us. we were stressed with the new environment and within no time, we became good friends. There were groups amongst the students. One was group of students from north Gujarat, one from saurashtra,one was probably headed by achal and one was headed by gaurang desai or GD as all called him.
Some of the my batch mates were lucky as enrollment to a group was automatic from the place the belonged. They at least enjoyed some mental immunity for ‘introduction’. For us, tapasvi, me and biren, there was no such group.
However, there was big group of kachchhi students at vallabh vidya nagar – india’s city of colleges. But physically it was about 5 kms away. There no kachchhi students in our college.
Shanti, my best friend from bhuj, had taken admission to BVM eng. College vallabh vidya nagar. Some how, he smelled issue of ragging in our college and when i was going to mess for lunch on very first afternoon, he and some of his friends arrived on bicycle from vvn. At that tine, the college was functioning at the guest house near the quarters of the hospital staff.
“ hey nehal, hows going?” he rushed his bicycle to me and stopped scratching both of his legs on the ground.
“ oh man, you?” I exclaimed “ I never expected you at this time” he was perspiring
“ any problem?” he asked hurriedly. “ hey friends! Come here! He is my friend nehal I told you about. Tell his seniors to keep away from him.” Shanti turned to his friends and shouted. His new friends came near me. They parked the cycles.
One of my seniors that probably shanti’s friend knew, happened to pass by.
“hello there!” one boy waved hand to him. He stopped.
Shanti and his friends took me to him. He was a full sized man with very big spects add to that soda bottle thick glasses and broad plastic frame.
“ hi! How are you?” said my friend.
“ oh fine. Whats up?” he looked at all of us and probably understood why I was presented to him.
“ he is our friend nehal. he has Just entered your college. Can you please take care of him?” he gave a wry smile and looked at me as if I was a worth less worm.
“ that is ok.’ He said in dry voice. From his body language, it was clear he disliked the request. Who would like to ruin all the fun of ragging by swearing protection of an unknown worthless lad?
“its nothing like this here.” he said keeping his eye purposefully away from me. “ but ask him to wish his seniors.” – wish? What wish? What did he mean by that? “ tell him to wish good morning sir, good afternoon sir, good night sir whenever he encounters any senior.” He elaborated for my benefit and emphasized word ‘sir’.
It was okay saying good afternoon to any senior of any one-but Sir? Like Indian and Africans used to call their English bosses ? how insane? But I had no guts to argue that to my mr big spects senior. I hated but I nodded my head.
“ that is ok. How is everything?” shanti’s friend probably could see that they could not help the situation and so cut short the conversation.
“fine. Anything more from my side?” mr big spects shook hands with shanti’s friends. Perhaps shanti could also read the situation and so turned to me immediately as soon as my senior was gone.
“ hey nehal, tell me if anything goes wrong with you. I will bang these rascals.” I knew him very well. He really meant it. (even today, if something goes wrong me I know he will be there to bang the world with his own capacity!). I told him I could handle my life here and asked him to not to worry. They were in hurry and so went like a storm as they came.
As the day passed, campus was increasingly filled by words “ good evening SIR…! Good afternoon SIRRRRR…..!” etc. while some of the seniors responded with an arrogant smile but some even not felt it necessary to respond at all. for most of juniors, it was more like practical joke on them. For me it was something I disliked to do but I had my own version while sating it- I used to do namaste along with! Just to add Indian tinge to it ! I could see irritation in eyes of some Yankee seniors as I folded my hands to them.
But the real work of seniors started after the sunset.
“ some one is calling us on the first floor for intro.” One of my friends informed.
What would they do? Would just Ask our names and places we belong? ask Hobbies? It did not look that simple. Probably they would bully us as well. Or might be , they order us to do something funny. Or worst, they might command us to smoke or drink as seen in films I thought. We all probably hated the situation but when you are a fresher, you are not left with any choice but to obey orders of the seniors.
We forced ourselves to walk toward the room of the seniors.
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
CHAPTER TWO: A GIRL AS MY ROOM MATE!
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!"
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!"
CHAPTER ONE: TRAIN TO PSMC
For me, it was very first chance to do everything all alone. i mean, i never had gone any where alone till that day. The challenge was not only to go but rather to stay and study MBBS at shree pramukhswami medical college for five long years ! the college was said to be a rural medical college, still to get recognized by the medical council of india. today, when i look back, it looks like a dream for me. how did i get in the MBBS?
though firstly,I never wanted to be a doctor because i hated mugging up biology as a subject. secondly, Physics always fascinated me. it was my first love.my childhood memories are full of play with magnets, lenses and paper airplanes. my dream was to be a physicist or an aeronautical engineer.can you really believe? i wanted to be part of indian space research program! but after my result of 12th std,things turned such way, i got an option of becoming a doctor. tinted with feelings of patriotism, i and my best friend shanti often had hot discussions as to what to choose and why.i remember standing on the road to our tuition class early morning spending hours in such discussions! believe it or not, my parents never even suggested as to what should i become in life.. they wanted me to choose a career whatever i liked.
from the discussions, i felt, deeper down in me, there was an urge to work directly with the people,to help them in their daily lives. i was always moved and fascinated with teachings and life of mahatma gandhi. mahatma was an unbeatable hero for me.(and he is even today). surely, he played his part to make me a doctor!
an engineer can work wonders for the people but could he ever have chance to touch the hearts of people directly? i guessed, it was only a doctor that could do so. i knew, a physicist could save and enrich lives of thousands by designing remote sensing satellite. but he would remain in office for most of the time away from the masses. so if i really wished to be helpful to the masses directly and to touch their hearts i ought to be a doctor. to be a doctor to save life was like becoming an angel.
i also remember some emotional, lonely and tearful moments thinking about people in need of medical help.there are only a few times in whole of your life when you are left alone with yourself.people say whenever you want to make any big decision of your life, follow your heart more than your brain. boys usually do not cry but imagination of people dying without medical help made me forget my gender during those moments.
thus, gradually my heart changed my mind in favor of becoming a doctor.of course, to get in the medical college was not sure for me! despite all my emotions, there was a trap. that was because, my merit number in merit list of gujarat state was near about 1000. there was no any pre medical test at that time. students, based on their merit of 12th std were given choice to choose either medical or engineering.My rank was a tricky one because total medical seats in the state were around 1000 at that time. so, it was not sure whether would i get admission in a medical college.
for admission process to be transparent,there was central admission committees- one for medical, other for engineering. students were asked to come of counseling on different dates according to their rank. after 12th std, when you know you were to get a good branch, definitely, you would feel something special.
when we reached the L D engg. college ahmedabad for counseling, there was huge crowd of parents and students. fate of all of us was to be decided that morning. we were taken to a big class room and were made to sit in front of a big black board showing details of seats already filled up and remaining in different medical and engg colleges of the state.the data was updated after each counseling.this was very helpful for all the parents and the students.
for me, as my elder sister neha studied mbbs at m p shah medical college jamnagar, it was my first choice. but damn! the college was full far before my turn! there was only one college that showed vacancy when i studied the black board - the pramukh swami medical college karamsad- a new medical college still to be recognized by medical council of india. technically, it meant, if you do mbbs from that college, you were just a medical graduate and would not be allowed to practice as a doctor out side gujarat. but who wanted to go out side gujarat? me? never. also, there was no facility of doing post graduation there. so what great difference would it make? i would remain an mbbs doctor only. fine. still, i would be a doctor at least!
my tension and heart beat increased as i saw last 2 mbbs seats remaining at psmc and some 50 odd students to go before my counseling! beat it, my dream seemed shattered! my next choice was mechanical engineering at shree birla vishvakarma maha vidyalay vallabh vidya nagar. i would at least be an enggg.i thought. there was tension.each passing minute appeared an hour to me! any of two students would choose to be doctor and the game would be over. but as the counseling progressed, those 2 magical seats remained untouched.probably no one from those 50 odd students wanted to take risk of joining a medical college that still was to be recognized by the medical council of india. if i wanted to be a doctor that was the only choice left for me.
lastly, my merit number was announced. 2 seats in psmc remained as it were before! my dream finally was to become a reality. i stood up.i was in zabba and pajamas. i was taken where the committees were sitting.I was warmly welcomed by the admission process team. the head of the committeemen was dr mankad, as some one told me. he had big spects and was looking at the list when i entered. i had not seen him before, but i could make him out because he was sitting at the centre.
"Yess young man!" he looked at me from his spects and gave me a huge smile." you are getting a medical sear at karamsad and a mech engg. seat at BVM vallabh vidya nagar. what is your choice?"
i really was so happy.without thinking for a second, i replied " medical sir!"
‘A doctor will never wear zabba pajamas..!”dr mankad smiled again.“you are getting seat at psmc karamsad is that ok?” i nodded yes. i never would forget dr mankad. any one could see love for students in his eyes.he was so caring even in that meeting of a few minutes.
soon the paper work was over and confirmation letter was given to me. bingo!i rushed outside to show it to my parents.
as I said, I was the second to board the train to medical, last was biren Gandhi…later on to be biru dada..! However I did not know, a whole batch, so called engg. Batch was to board the train after re shuffle.
So, there came the rainy day and I was stubborn enough to stop my parents to come with me to psmc as I wanted to face it all alone...
My train from bhuj to anand stuck up somewhere near nadiyad because of heavy rain. After a few hrs of disturbed journey I ultimately reached anand and karamsad.
After some clerical work, I went to doctors’ qtrs. Dr . nishith was the rector..a tall hansome military figure! He told that I had been given room in the big hostel[other than nursing] and names of my room mates were
Biren Gandhi
Tapasvi puwar..
though firstly,I never wanted to be a doctor because i hated mugging up biology as a subject. secondly, Physics always fascinated me. it was my first love.my childhood memories are full of play with magnets, lenses and paper airplanes. my dream was to be a physicist or an aeronautical engineer.can you really believe? i wanted to be part of indian space research program! but after my result of 12th std,things turned such way, i got an option of becoming a doctor. tinted with feelings of patriotism, i and my best friend shanti often had hot discussions as to what to choose and why.i remember standing on the road to our tuition class early morning spending hours in such discussions! believe it or not, my parents never even suggested as to what should i become in life.. they wanted me to choose a career whatever i liked.
from the discussions, i felt, deeper down in me, there was an urge to work directly with the people,to help them in their daily lives. i was always moved and fascinated with teachings and life of mahatma gandhi. mahatma was an unbeatable hero for me.(and he is even today). surely, he played his part to make me a doctor!
an engineer can work wonders for the people but could he ever have chance to touch the hearts of people directly? i guessed, it was only a doctor that could do so. i knew, a physicist could save and enrich lives of thousands by designing remote sensing satellite. but he would remain in office for most of the time away from the masses. so if i really wished to be helpful to the masses directly and to touch their hearts i ought to be a doctor. to be a doctor to save life was like becoming an angel.
i also remember some emotional, lonely and tearful moments thinking about people in need of medical help.there are only a few times in whole of your life when you are left alone with yourself.people say whenever you want to make any big decision of your life, follow your heart more than your brain. boys usually do not cry but imagination of people dying without medical help made me forget my gender during those moments.
thus, gradually my heart changed my mind in favor of becoming a doctor.of course, to get in the medical college was not sure for me! despite all my emotions, there was a trap. that was because, my merit number in merit list of gujarat state was near about 1000. there was no any pre medical test at that time. students, based on their merit of 12th std were given choice to choose either medical or engineering.My rank was a tricky one because total medical seats in the state were around 1000 at that time. so, it was not sure whether would i get admission in a medical college.
for admission process to be transparent,there was central admission committees- one for medical, other for engineering. students were asked to come of counseling on different dates according to their rank. after 12th std, when you know you were to get a good branch, definitely, you would feel something special.
when we reached the L D engg. college ahmedabad for counseling, there was huge crowd of parents and students. fate of all of us was to be decided that morning. we were taken to a big class room and were made to sit in front of a big black board showing details of seats already filled up and remaining in different medical and engg colleges of the state.the data was updated after each counseling.this was very helpful for all the parents and the students.
for me, as my elder sister neha studied mbbs at m p shah medical college jamnagar, it was my first choice. but damn! the college was full far before my turn! there was only one college that showed vacancy when i studied the black board - the pramukh swami medical college karamsad- a new medical college still to be recognized by medical council of india. technically, it meant, if you do mbbs from that college, you were just a medical graduate and would not be allowed to practice as a doctor out side gujarat. but who wanted to go out side gujarat? me? never. also, there was no facility of doing post graduation there. so what great difference would it make? i would remain an mbbs doctor only. fine. still, i would be a doctor at least!
my tension and heart beat increased as i saw last 2 mbbs seats remaining at psmc and some 50 odd students to go before my counseling! beat it, my dream seemed shattered! my next choice was mechanical engineering at shree birla vishvakarma maha vidyalay vallabh vidya nagar. i would at least be an enggg.i thought. there was tension.each passing minute appeared an hour to me! any of two students would choose to be doctor and the game would be over. but as the counseling progressed, those 2 magical seats remained untouched.probably no one from those 50 odd students wanted to take risk of joining a medical college that still was to be recognized by the medical council of india. if i wanted to be a doctor that was the only choice left for me.
lastly, my merit number was announced. 2 seats in psmc remained as it were before! my dream finally was to become a reality. i stood up.i was in zabba and pajamas. i was taken where the committees were sitting.I was warmly welcomed by the admission process team. the head of the committeemen was dr mankad, as some one told me. he had big spects and was looking at the list when i entered. i had not seen him before, but i could make him out because he was sitting at the centre.
"Yess young man!" he looked at me from his spects and gave me a huge smile." you are getting a medical sear at karamsad and a mech engg. seat at BVM vallabh vidya nagar. what is your choice?"
i really was so happy.without thinking for a second, i replied " medical sir!"
‘A doctor will never wear zabba pajamas..!”dr mankad smiled again.“you are getting seat at psmc karamsad is that ok?” i nodded yes. i never would forget dr mankad. any one could see love for students in his eyes.he was so caring even in that meeting of a few minutes.
soon the paper work was over and confirmation letter was given to me. bingo!i rushed outside to show it to my parents.
as I said, I was the second to board the train to medical, last was biren Gandhi…later on to be biru dada..! However I did not know, a whole batch, so called engg. Batch was to board the train after re shuffle.
So, there came the rainy day and I was stubborn enough to stop my parents to come with me to psmc as I wanted to face it all alone...
My train from bhuj to anand stuck up somewhere near nadiyad because of heavy rain. After a few hrs of disturbed journey I ultimately reached anand and karamsad.
After some clerical work, I went to doctors’ qtrs. Dr . nishith was the rector..a tall hansome military figure! He told that I had been given room in the big hostel[other than nursing] and names of my room mates were
Biren Gandhi
Tapasvi puwar..
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