CHAPTER EIGHTEENTH : THE FIRST ELECTION..

“I am to represent the oppressed, the least heard and the neglected ones. It is my humble duty to work for them and see that they are given equal importance and rights. You have many sophisticated people around you which forget simple ones. This never can be tolerated. We must rise to the occasion and do what is right. It is my humble request to vote keeping this in your mind….”- whom did you hear? Gandhi? Ambedkar? V.P. singh? Indira? Wrong! This was my best friend bimal chhaya! Obviously there was election of class representative (CR) and bimal was one of the contestants.

This was the first ever election in our batch. For interaction with the college authorities and the seniors, we badly needed a CR. The name was not the unanimous. So we opted for the election.

There was general agreement about the election officers – me and ketandada. We were given the responsibility to conduct the operation smoothly and honestly. The venue was the lecture hall.

Though bimal had huge support from anish, sandeep, hemani, girish, kamlesh, kapil and most of the boys from the old boys’ hostel, he lacked clear support from the girls’ hostel side. The opponent had good rapport with the girls. He also had advantage of general acceptance amongst the new hostel’s boys and the seniors. He was none other than jasmine shah.

“No election should go uncontested …and so I stand here in front of you.” Said bimal. Very true principally. He was very good friend of all of us and especially mine. He banked on our votes. On the other hand, jasmine shah was from our hostel and he too was a good friend.

“See I am not against bimal. But we have lived in the same hostel and at this moment it is my right to get support from you all friends.” Jasmine was clear in demanding our votes.

For me, on personal front, it was a great dilemma. Bimal was 100% sure of my support and it was difficult to not to vote for him. Jasmine was with me since days of ragging. He had very good organizing skills.


Jasmine was lucky enough to have almost full support from the girl’s of our class. He had great opportunity and skill to communicate with the girls while routine weekly traveling to Ahmedabad. He and tapasvi were known as kanhaiyas of our batch, as they were seen surrounded by gopis of our class in the train! They both could talk hours together with the girls sparking giggles! Bimal, though a good communicator, also a weekly traveler to Ahmedabad like jasmine, was probably seen as extra sincere man not fit for being popular figure amongst girls.

Some batch mate even created issue of dominance. “If we support bimal, the students from the old boys’ hostel would dominate us since bimal belongs to that hostel. Do you want this to happen?”

“Bimal has very good command on English. He can present our batch anywhere be it the college authority, seniors, juniors or outside the college.” A small point raised by some.

Just a day before the day of voting, jasmine came to our room.

“Neh, I know you are very close to bimal. But we belong to same hostel. Give me a promise that you will vote for me tomorrow. I really need your support.” He demanded clearly.

“He is right neh. The issues raised by bimal are not the real ones. He sees himself as a savior of the oppressed. That is not true.” Said tapasvi.

Few moments were very distressing for me. How would bimal feel? Deceived? Was it right to support bimal on hypothetical issues?
“So neh, what have you thought?” my thoughts were interrupted by jasmin’s query. He knew very well if I say yes to him that would be 100%.

“Ok.” I made up my mind. “I promise I will vote for you” very difficult decision.

Soon after this, bimal arrived to confirm my support.
“So man, you are to vote for me. Right?” he straightly asked me. For a moment, I had no answer. I could have given false reply or a political statement but I had to be truthful.

“Sorry bimal, just before a few minutes, I promised my vote to jasmine” said I fearing strong rejection from bimal.
To my surprise, he smiled a bit, did not utter a single word of dislike but said “but this is not going to come in way of our friendship…ok?”

How blessed I was to have such a wonderful friend as my buddy! Even when I clearly denied my support, he supported and nurtured our friendship.



As the day of election arrived, we all met in the lecture hall for voting.

I and ketan shah had prestigious duty of conducting the election smoothly and honestly. There were no any external observers of the process.

Bimal knew I was to vote against him.

The voting was smooth and as expected, jasmine shah was declared the winner and so he became our first CR. Savior was not saved….

CHAPTER SEVENTEENTH : WE DID START THE FIRE!

WE DID START THE FIRE

“Groupism” was a word that triggered feeling of dislike in general amongst most of us. But as the time passed, students of our batch started recognizing other students of their match. Formation of formal and informal groups started. Some groups were based on native place; some were based on like mindedness, while some were based on economical status.

Since bimal believed in equality of all human beings, he was heavily against formation of any group and he had very strong feelings against any "groupism". He was a strong critic of group celebration of events like bithdays. So his was a kind of “no group” group!

Principally, it sounded good to believe in equality and no group theory. But on long run, groups were inevitable like anywhere in society. Not only it gave sense of belonging but also it gave social security and educational support in some cases.

So within a few months, our batch subdivided in small groups.

One group was of students from north Gujarat consisting of sandeep, paresh and friends. That was one of the most mischievous groups. Other one was of students from saurashtra consisting ketan, vimal, kapil, vivek and friends. Then we had biju, samir, pragnesh, ketam dhabu’s group. Kintur, sanjay, saddam (sorry for forgetting true name of the good friend!) and friends formed another powerful group.

As far as girls were concerned I remember ripal -jayashree and friend’s group; kama and nilam’s group; jasmine anu beji’s group; nilpa-zarna’s group.

We, I and tapasvi, were probably in “no group” group! However, hemant, tapasvi and I became very close friends soon and ours was informal group.

Thus almost all got settled after initial few months.

One day kapil came to us and suggested “friends let us celebrate 31 dec!” It was a welcome idea. Everyone agreed. The venue of the party was the old boys’ hostel that was actually a nursing hostel previously. All were invited to the boys’ hostel including the girls!

Kapil, vimal, bimal, anis, bau, sandeep, paresh, mines, ketens etc all friends really worked hard to make the event memorable.

They did not have any fund for decoration. I still remember the boys used their table lamps to create lighting effects. I really can not say why they looked so gorgeous. The glamour of the first party of our batch was in our hearts and minds, I guess.
That night of 31 dec was cool and chilling. we needed sweaters. The enthusiasm of the party was in full swing. Table lamps were fitted on the windows of the rooms of the round hostel giving a very special hue to the party.

Boys from the other hostel, including me , hemant, biren and tapasvi reached early. When everything was ready, our special guests arrived—girls of our batch!! They walked in the boys’ hostel like little brook with all the beauty but minimal sound….

Anish was the uncontested anchor of our batch and so was jasmine! Soon the party started. First, there was presentation from the students. I was an average stage performer and this was very first time when I decided to speak in front of whole of my batch. Naturally I was a bit nervous and my heart rates were high. Despite low temperature of the atmosphere, I was sweating. Soon, anish announced my name and I stood up gadhering all the courage I had! I presented a comedy poem written by me “darling baarmi pass chhu” . The poem compared a girl with scientific gujarati terminology jargon of 12th std's various subjects. I remember only a line “wal lolak jewi tari chaal chhe!” but jasmine has contributed following from her robust memory…

Darling, baarmi pass chhu….ડાર્લિંગ બારમી પાસ છું...

Mithiline blue jewo tari ankho no rang chhe’
Pan hay! Sathe sefrinine jewo gusso pan sang chhe!

Hay mari jau aa kasherukao ne mekhlao(sanskrut name for spine, shoulder and pelvic girdles) par,
Wal lolak jewo taro chalwano dhang chhe!

Shunya watawaran na dabane ne 25 ansh tanpane,
Sodium ne pani ni prakriya sho aapno aarambh chhe…(when water and sodium are mixed at room temparatue and at normal atmospheric pressure,their chemical process gives blast!)

My poem was hit. (or still i wish to believe that!).

Kamlesh had hidden skill of break dance.he gave superb performance.
Many other students gave their performance. but I really do not remember at this moment.[can any one add ?]But the item that swept our hearts was a song by vivek jagat vimal pragnesh and friends… “we didn't start the fire…!” ( the photo is recently uploaded by jayshree on facebook). We all were moved by the rhythm and words of the song. It really touched our hearts.

Sharp at 12night lights were turned off to mark arrival of the new year. Spell of darkness mesmerized all of us. The new year at last arrived. Immediately after a few minutes lights were on. Few students danced….but most of us were just observers, like me.That was because such type of party, especially of new year was a complete new experience for most of us.The black out for a while at mid night was unknown experience for a pure gujju student like me. However girls made themselves safe knowingly or unknowingly, by gathering in their bunch closely, as clock approached 12.yet, I am sure that black out must be exciting for all by just knowing presence of girls in vicinity, at midnight, in total black out.Except for twinkling presence stars above…



The party was a milestone for our batch. The photo of “we did” was said to be hottest one to be sold after the party both amongst the boys and the girls. (There were no girls in the group that sung “we did” but still many girls bought the photo. There was rumor that many girls had their dream boy in the photo!)


detail info on the song... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_Didn%27t_Start_the_Fire

you can play the real song by billy from above link

CHAPTER SIXTEENTH :...BUT FRIENDS ARE FRIENDS!

…BUT FRIENDS ARE FRIENDS!

Though tapasvi and hemant were (and are) my best friends, sometimes I hesitated to put my ideas in front of them. I had fear of rejection. I never could withstand rejection of my ideas especially by near ones. After a few months of first MBBS, I had one spark of such an idea. I was not extrovert but was able to speak with my batch mates. To give reality to my idea, one day, without telling tapasvi and hemant, I went to the other boys’ hostel.

‘Whether would my batch mates welcome my idea? If they welcome my idea, how will I explain keeping aside tapasvi and hemant? What would I pursue to tapasvi and hemant if my idea falls out as a big fiasco? What if any highly intelligent friend directly rejects my idea? And what about girls? I did not have any `girlfriends. Who would convince them? Any way if my idea clicks then everyone in the class would remember for lifetime. So I should give myself a chance’. These were the thoughts storming my mind when I was on the way to the “nursing hostel” – the other boys’ hostel.

To put forward my idea, I met ketan dada, bimal, anish, pragnesh, vimal, chirag, charan, alpesh, dhabuwala, rasik, girish, sandeep, kapil, and other friends.

“Friends, ours is a big batch of 100. I was wondering since few days about whether we can get to gather in our lecture hall in the evening time. Every one from us can come to the stage and present something... May it be a song, a joke, a story, or we can have some discussion on some current topic. Some one can even deliver an academic lecture. We have a lot talented friends which already are able to storm the stage. But our purpose should be to give chance to those which never have performed on the stage. No one should be left out. This will not only help us boosting our confidence level in general but can also help us in presenting ourselves better in the exam vivas.” I told my friends in the nut shell.

“But what about microphone system and do we need to put some money to keep going?” some friends were skeptical.

“In my opinion, we do not need any money but we need ourselves and our will to keep going. We may ask dr nishith (our warden and Prof of physiology) to provide us the keys of the lecture hall after the college hrs” I suggested.

Surprisingly, nothing terrible happened. In fact it looked as if I stole everyone’s thought. My idea was welcome! Well, back at my hostel, I had to face the two terrible! As expected, since our campus was like a small village, tapasvi and hemant heard about my suggestion from the mess.

“Very unfair neh!” I was greeted with clear dislike on their face. “You say we are your best friends… you behave otherwise! We heard from some one that you are planning some kind of weekly meeting of the batch with the others… can’t you tell us first?”

“I should have... but I could not. I feared you both would reject my idea and would not let me present it to the other batch mates. So first I tried to get green signal from the others. I am sorry for my distorted perception about your support and reaction…” I tried to explain in best possible way. After much explanation and persuasion, I could possibly able to get them on my side.

Thus, soon, our meetings started – every Thursday. The deptt of physiology co operated fully. They gave us keys of the big lecture hall without any hesitation.

Our meetings lasted about an hour after the college hrs. There were many enthusiasts in our batch and initially there was no problem in getting the number of performers. We even repeatedly requested our ‘silent’ friends to come on the stage and present something in front of all.

I remember once beji bombarded a whole lecture on a topic of physiology! Probably that lecture was on physiology of pain, if I remember correctly. Girish had good collection of haiku. Anish used to be our announcer. Jasmine also used to do that job nicely. As our meetings became a regular event, it started getting popular. Even our seniors like GD and setu became our guests to encourage us. The remarkable thing about the show was neither did it consume a single penny from any one’s pocket nor we used any funds from the college. It was proved beyond doubt that our programme can go on without money.

Once upon a time, we could not get keys of the lecture hall. So we immediately decided to shift to the vast terrace of the PSMC. Bimal and jasmine were the announcers, if I remember correctly, and hemant presented some extra boring collection on news paper wedding ads!
Our meetings provided us a base to welcome our new junior batch ( Madhvi, vasundhara, sonia’s batch) in a unique way. I need to write a separate story for that interesting event. Also, election of our 1st CR was done in our meeting without any regulatory authority from the college.

Sometimes the meeting had very hot discussions. I remember a discussion on the topic of killing frogs for routine experiment in the deptt of physiology. Every one expressed their views against such killings, but pragnesh had to say something else and just after his speech, the meeting boiled like a volcano! Kapil and friends became very furious and wrote slogans on the walls of the deptt of physiology. (More at :)

The meetings provided a good base for all of us to interact. Once bimal said “Neh, if these meetings become regular campus activity, we will pass this tradition on to our junior batches. Our batch would be remembered as the pioneer of these meetings forever.”

But that dream was never to come true. As the time passed, stage became monotonous. Those which loved to perform performed always and the shy ones remained shy. Despite our forceful efforts to get them on the stage, they never turned up! Secondly, some students started their groups and so most of them became least interested in the class meetings. We lost the initial charm eventually.

But this was not the logical end of the meetings.




So a time came when tapasvi and hemant had something harsh to say.

“Neh, we meet every week but have you ever thought whether you people could do anything which you claimed to do at the beginning? We do not see any simple student on the stage!” hemant was truthful but his words were sharp enough to be painful.

“See, hemant, we tried our best to do that. You know this very well. We are successful to an extent. I agree it is not the way we wished. But if the silent students do not come on the stage, even after repeated requests, what can be done?” I had nothing more to say.

“Nothing! But you all failed! That is the truth…”

“Yes ... hemant is right. There are only a few students which come to stage and these meetings are only for them!” tapasvi also supported hemant. “We have decided to raise this issue in the very next meeting...”

Both of my best friends were against me. However, many others were on my side. Before the next meeting, everyone was informed about special presentation by hemant and tapasvi.

I do not remember much about the last meeting, but hemant stood up and started speaking and then there was chaos! That was the end.