Tuesday, August 24, 2010

CHAPTER FIFTEENTH :JUMMA…..WHO WAS HE?

(followin chapter is written after full permission of concern party. With full respect to jumma...)

JUMMA…..WHO WAS HE?


“oh boy! What are you doing?” you have no choice but to exclaim when you suddenly see something unusual.

“Can't you see? I am waving my shirt towards the girls’ hostel!” said the boy continuing his unusual activity. He had stripped off the shirt and was waving it standing in front of the girls’ hostel .
“but why are you doing this? there is no point to be half naked early morning in front of girls’ hostel.”

“abe yaar, my friends challenged me. They said no one have guts to do this in front of the girls' hostel. they say It can ruin the impression on girls. I told them I can do this…hell with the impression. Ha…..ha…ha…!” he gave laud winning laugh.
Really, any one in 1st MBBS would be very conscious for his impression on girls. One would do anything beyond his usual behavior just to “impress”. But this boy was different than others in our class. He was not at all concerned about his impression on girls.

Most of the boys, however, had only few ways to impress. Such ways routinely included a clean shave, tidy good clothes and soft low tone speech with the fair sex. Some of the boys used sprays and powders to get rid of their own body odors. There were no mobiles to impress. It was era of bikes but only few fathers could afford such luxury for their son. So, only a few boys had bike at that time. Some boys were really over conscious and sometimes imparted their knowledge of “how to” to poor fellows like me. It included not only how to dress, do in-shirt, how to speak and not to speak but also how to walk! I really was not able to follow any of their instructions.

But there were so called bajarang groups which not only kept distance from girls but also kept away from boys inter mingling with girls groups. Few boys were pitiable as they were forced to be bajarang groupers may be due to some personal reasons.

However, I must admit, the boy I am talking about was not at all bajarang. In fact, he had very good skill of communicating with girls. When few girls asked him about his unusual waving of shirt , he proudly told them how he won the bet!

The boy had joined the college late as he was given admission after re shuffle. He was a fair, bit small in height, with a pointed nose some what fatty and looked short in front of some of the tall girls of our batch. He used to dress himself fairily well but he had habit of scratching his head now and then on different issues and problems so his blond hairs were never set well. When some one commented “ yaar why don’t you keep your hairs fine at place? It is only your hairs that spoil your tidy looks.”

“ Man, think of a dining table in perfect shape. Think of flowers perfectly in middle of table. Now some one comes and throws the flowers disturbing the perfect tidiness of the table…now tell me..which table will look beautiful…the perfect tidy or the table with flowers thrown?...” He smiled “same is true with my un tidy hairs..!”

His spects were big covering most of his face and his eyes looked bigger behind the plus lenses of his spects. He was gifted a loud speaker instead of voice box by nature. His pitch was also very different than all of the boys. When he passed by the girls’ hostel, he was clearly heard even at the rooms on top floor.
Some girls used to comment “ this boy’s mother would really be a blessed one.”
“ Why?”
“ aarre she never would worry for whereabouts of his son. She could hear him even from a kilometer while her small son was playing!”
He was also a nagar by caste like me. As he joined late he was made our dissection partner. We soon became good friends.we shared many common interests like gazals- he was a mad fan of jagjeet singh while i was fan of gulam ali and ahemad hussain mohmad hussain. I had (and still have) great respect for mahatma and he also had the same. Being nagar was somewhat special for him and that was a point to tease my best friend-tapasvi- a darbar.

“ tapasveeee…listen… I am nagar and neh is also nagar, thus we ought to be good friends. Do you know tapasvi? We Nagars are inborn intelligent people!” to this tapasvi would reply with lot of dislike on his face “ Do you know? You are originally greeks. Alexander abandoned you in India. - Useless leftovers! You all should be sent back to Greece so that we original Indians live in peace!”

But this was only to tease tapasvi. In principal he believed all humans equal and so he never kept distance from any one in the college. He spoke with all and soon became a popular figure in class. He used to speak any thing and used to do many mischievous acts to entertain his friends.

He had good command on spoken English. Many a times, I used to imitate a reporter using my hand as microphone to ask questions on various subjects to him. To my query, he would give a big lecture in American English imitating himself as a big world leader! Not surprisingly the 1st fishpond awarded to both of us was "class na Buddhao (aged and older people)"

He used to get depressed in small matters. "buddhao" was such a thing.

" Be yaar neh , since we don't talk rubbish and behave maturely, some one has written such word to show his or her envy...don't you think so?" at such times he had typical whinning voice.

On the dissection table, I used to try to dissect even very small structures. To this he would make a serious face and would say “ neh , I will come to your funeral and will tell everyone there that this doctor was a very sincere man. He has seen even minute nerves of the superficial skin!!...ha….ha…..ha…!”

Despite his popular acts, he was very sincere in studies. His handwriting was beautiful. He used to make good notes not only in class lectures but also in hostel while reading. He used to study a lot and so he soon became ranker of our class. There were students who used to hide their “precious" notes from others even in routine times so that no one could get advantage of their hard work except themselves. But this was not true with this boy. He believed in healthy competition, He would give best of his notes even if you demand it just before exams . Not only that, if you ask him to teach anything, he would try his best until you are satisfied.

Despite being genuinely honest , there was one paradox in his behavior. He was from ahmedabad and it was routine for him like many other students to rush to home every Saturday. He would board the train at anand railway station but would never buy a ticket! Like many of my friends, to travel WT was a kind of thrill for him. He was caught for a couple of times and had to pay the penalty!

He had very clear idea about love and marriage. While many boys were dying to “fix” themselves with the girl of their choice, he was not at all interested in such activity. There were a few couples in our campus.

“ see neh, To fall in love is real childish and immature act. No one should do this while studying. This can ruin life of both.” On query of his ideas on marriage he would proudly say “ Just Think of delight and joy of a nagar successful man in his 60s getting a qualified doctor as a groom for his beautiful daughter … Nagar boys should not waste themselves in out caste. I will never do that…”

A song “ jumma chumma de de” was very popular at that time and he also liked that song very much. He used to sing that song kakophonically in hostel and in college as much as some of his friends started calling him “jumma” !

One day he came to me with mystery on his face. He seemed in a graet problem. There was a post card in his hand.
“ Neh , can you believe this?” he gave me the card.

Some one had written “ dear jumma how are you? I am one of your old school mate and I really miss you --your old girl friend

the letter was addressed to “jumma” with his room number and surname!

“ Really surprising!” I exclaimed “ Now popularity of your nick name has crossed the walls of our campus!”

“ Neh , firstly I have churned my brain but I do not remember any such girl friend of mine in school days who would write such letter. Secondly, who would have told her my campus nick name? can you think any thing?”

“ Look …the stamp on the card is of anand only. So some one has posted this letter at anand post office. Can you remember any such girl?” I investigated further.

He typically scratched his head. “ I really do not remember…”

“Think on this dear friend! Ask your old school mates . they might give you a clue…”
I adviced. The card was written with green scetch pen.

As usual the letter became talk of our small town. The boy never kept anything secret. Not even such personal letters. He showed the letter to all the friends and tried to solve the mystery. His frantic efforts lasted for about a week but all in vain. There was not a clue at all.

When he was tired of the issue , one day I told him “ yaar the letter you are investigating was written by me.”
“you!!” he was shocked “ I never can believe such a good friend of mine can fool me like this! I refuse to believe this..”

“ This is the truth . I sincerely apologize with my confession…” I told him how alone I hatched the plan to fool him. I also showed the secret marks on the post card made by me.

His face was serious. “okay..” he took a deep breath. He was really hurt. I looked to his eyes . I really went a bit more than needed. I should have told him the truth when he came to me very first time.

He thought for a while. “ any way neh… i forgive you….but I really felt betrayed…”


As he said, he really did forgive me and our friendship remained the same even after this incident. There were few more such acts by me even after this incident but he has forgiven me everytime….

Sunday, May 30, 2010

CHAPTER FOURTEENTH:JASMIN SHAH

JASMIN SHAH

During our initial time of ragging and adjustment, jasmine shah was our natural partner as he lived in our hostel like only a few others from our batch. No doubt, stress makes relation stronger in short time-thus our friendship grew within no time. Jasmine was frank, witty and practical. Also, he had all qualities of an amdavadi. We used to go to buy things from karamsad and anand together.

Jasmine and tapasvi puwar, my best friend, had a few things common. Both were from amdavad, both used to rush to home on Saturdays, and both had distinct skill to communicate with girls! To other’s envy, both were seen surrounded by girls at college and at their routine journey to amdavad.

However, tapasvi had a typical rajpoot-ek ghaaa ne be katkaa- temperament while jasmine was a real baniya.

On one fine evening, when tapasvi had just sat down to start his dinner, jasmine came.

“Hi tapasvi!” he looked in witty mood. “Hey yaar, I wanted to make a serious suggestion for you…”

Not interested in any kind of joke, tapasvi plainly asked “what?”

“What if I call you by name puwarbhai ? he..he..he..” jasmine laughed on his own words.
“What did you say?” tapasvi’s voice and eyes changed.

Jasmine could not recognize that change of tone perhaps.

“I said tapasvi is a bit plain name without any note of respect. Don’t you think puwarbhai is a better name for you?” jasmine liked to tease tapasvi.

“I say stop this nonsense.”warned tapasvi

“Or what ? puwarbhai? All girls would love this name!!”

Next moment, tapasvi took his tiffin full of shaak daal and –wow- unexpectedly threw it towards jasmine!! Somehow jasmine was able to save him from that sudden attack. Sensing high temperature of tapasvi, jasmine ran away from the scene. After this incident,He never suggested ‘puwarbhai’ for tapasvi again….!

The throw of full tiffin made a permanent mark on wall of our hostel room no 19. The mark was seen till we completed our internship! But this incident had never any permanent effect on jasmine and tapasvi’s relations.


Jasmine was not happy with the fact that there was one girl in class having similar name. Whenever we needed to write his name, he insisted on us to spell his name as
J A S M I N and not jasmin E!

“Neh, can you please come to my room?” One evening after the college hours jasmine requested. “ I have a small problem and no one but you can help me solving that” he flattered me. Accepting the appraisal swiftly, I walked behind him to his room.

“ I have a difficulty in one question of physiology.” I liked physiology as a subject the most and I used to ask and answer a lot (maybe right or wrong!) in the physiology class of dr mazoomdar. The subject was quite near to my first love- physics. As I entered, I noticed jasmine’s room was full of my other friends and they all looked curious to our activity. I felt the question must be such that no one from them could solve them and so I - dr neh- was called to give the final answer!

“What is the issue?” taking gyton, our heavy textbook of physiology in hand from jasmine, I inquired.
“Can you read this line?” jasmine made me sit on a chair with those words.

----dhaff!! I was on the floor with the book in my hand and the broken chair on me! From subject expert, I was suddenly reduced to a subject of a practical joke! Everybody laughed.

“neh today we made so many fools sit on this chair and fall. Every one was tricked here asking them different things. We could not think any plan to get you on this chair. So finally I thought your love for physio and a bit of flattering words could work….and it worked very well..!” explained jasmine.

Sunday, May 02, 2010

CHAPTER TEN:THE MESSY MESS

THE MESSY MESS AND EATING GAMES

May I ask you a direct question? What is importance of taste and flavors in your life? Have you ever lived at least 15 days without food of your choice? I guess, like me, most of us think we can greatly compromise on taste of food and live. It is not a big deal. One has to eat to live and not live to eat…huh?

Take a challenge. Come to our student mess and eat for a couple of days only, I mean, go to any student mess run by contract system and then look in your mind. Definitely you would find a great change!

In the new class room of the college, students had to face stresses of medical studies with hell of vivas and exams now and then, out side the classes there were challenges of living alone in the hostel making new friends, and when their stomach demanded fuel to take on the world with all such problems, the students had to face one more challenge-the special food of student mess!

The mess was, none the less, one of the great places for student interaction. You would get all kind of campus news and gossips there. The activity would start daily in morning with breakfast and tea. However, I hardly went to the mess in the morning for that luxury as I belonged to a group of rare human variety which hated even smell of the tea! The activity was highest in the 10pm night tea party. (I have heard a lot about 10pm tea but I never had been there, so I expect others to comment on that.)

After a session of torture of lectures we were set free to fill the stomach in the afternoon at about 2pm. The time was such, function of our brains were taken up by hungry stomach. Even if you blind fold our eyes, urge from stomach would take us directly to the mess building. The building was situated between nursing hostel and the old boys’ hostel.

Mostly we were greeted there by raju bhai, the mess contractor. There were enough tables and seats but sometimes we had to wait for the turn. The service was usually prompt. The servants there were uniformly ugly. But eyes did not see that when stomach demanded its due.There were many servants but rameshbhai was perhaps most popular as he was very fast in serving rotis. One would hear ‘e ramesh….e rameshbhai…’etc as soon as one entered the mess. The kitchen was a ‘sacred’ area and no one was allowed there.

The menu was usually same. We were served roti, rice, gujarati daal (with jaggery) Punjabi daal(same as gujarati but without jaggery) onion salad, papad , sabjee of potatoes called sooki bhaaji and buttermilk. Even though each item had its own negative merit, roti was standing out more on negative side. It was made in such way and such a flour; it needed both of our hands to tear it off. I wonder weather it would have been easier if we tried to use the bone cutter to cut and tear the roti! Moreover, it was smeared with a kind of sticky oil they claimed it to be ghee. After anatomy practical class, one needed to rub off the formalin in order to eat and after eating one had to wash off the pungent oil- so called ghee!

Wednesday and Sunday were special for mess. On Wednesday we were served bits of apples, few grapes and bits of banana in milk containing probably 50% of water, making a special dish called fruit salad. Sundays were the days for feast. Our friends from nearby cities would flee to their home, leaving us alone to enjoy the feast. Apart from deep fried and oil soaked items, we were served sweet dish of gulab jamun on Sundays. Some of the students were having voracious appetite and they would challenge each other with number of gulabjamuns they eat. Since my stomach could hardly bear 5-7 gulab jamuns, I really envied those students which had capacity to eat and digest 70-80 gulab jamuns! (Some one can tell me the highest record of gulabjamun eating competition!) However, I could take good amount of routine food in those days and my good friend bimal used to say “Abe e macrophage (A kind of big whit cell having great capacity to eat micro organisms) …now its enough! Get up and wash your hands!”


All the messes, including ours and those at vallabh vidya nagar, as a general rule, were remaining closed on Sunday evening, giving us compulsory chance of eating outside. Karamsad was not much developed when we were there. We had to go to vallbh vidya nagar or anand on Sunday evenings to fill the stomach. Apart from dhabas and gallas, there were only two good hotels in vvn- avre and avkool.

We gujaratis are world’s most fanatic vegetarians. I also am such. We would not eat even cakes and pastries containing egg! We would not like to kill any animal for our food but we might sacrifice ourselves on the dining table eating oil rich dishes! Gujarati jains and swaminaraniyans would not take onions and garlic even. However, in theory, I never ever had opposition for non vegetarians, since I believed all lives equal be it veg or non veg.

Most of my friends were veg., however, samir was a non vegetarian. He usually would go to his home every week like other amdavadis. But one Sunday, due to some reason the stayed back with us. We both went to karamsad that evening to eat something from laari-gallas there. He chose to eat non veg.

The laaris were situated on the highway connecting karamsad anand and vvn. He chose one cheap laari selling non veg stuff, just for fun. As we sat down on the table, samir ordered an item. I did not know what it was, but within minutes, it was ready. This was very first time in my life I saw some nonveg stuff. The place was fairly unhygienic and there was typical non veg smell in the atmosphere irritating my pure vegetarian nose. As I saw the dish, a fresh medical student living in me recognized few of the anatomical structures in it.
“Hey samir, let us play a game.” I proposed.
“What game?”
“You go on eating and I will give commentary on what you are eating.”
“But what game?” He said.
“Despite hearing my commentary, you should not stop eating…whatever kind of ugly words I use.” I explained the single rule.
“Ok” he smiled and agreed and picked up the first morsel. “this is easy man!”

“Now... Samir starts eating...” I initiated my running commentary. “ He picks up one bone that looks like a part of thoracic rib…he looks at the lower groove from where the neuro vascular bundle passes….he takes it in his mouth and sucks the bone marrow of the rib…is that tasty?”

Giving me smiles in between, samir was enjoying my commentary and the food.

“Samir now picks up a muscle bundle… separates the fibers … and they are gone in his wide open mouth. He also takes now the blood admixed with spices with the spoon.”

Samir was a jolly guy and he had a great sense of humor.

“There is some round small globe like object in his spoon…he looks at it to decide from where to eat. It has a cord like structure attached… he picks it up from the cord….takes it to his mouth…. The structure is difficult to identify… perhaps it is a testicle with a cord attached to it...”

“What?” My last words had immediate effect on samir. He took his hand swiftly away from his mouth in lightning speed. He stared at the stuff for a moment.

“Oh yaar, it really seems one!” he threw the part back in the dish.
“I genuinely feel so.” I gave my honest opinion.
“Neh, I am feeling nausea.” He stood up very next moment. “I may vomit…let us go...”

The game was over.