The document recounts personal experiences and anecdotes from a medical student about life in a boys' hostel during their MBBS years, focusing on friendships and humorous incidents, particularly involving a character named Biren. It further explores themes of ambition, love, and the pursuit of meaningful actions, as well as the impact of a mentor, Dr. Mehta, who inspires students to serve underprivileged communities. The stories combine humor, life lessons, and reflections on the characters' growth and aspirations as future doctors.

1. MY FIRST MBBS
the white rainbow
neh

2. MY FIRST MBBS
the white rainbow
neh

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4. those who inspired me...
my wife jasmine and writer chetan bhagat

5. Contents
SECRETS OF BOYS' HOSTEL : FOOLS WITHOUT 1
APRIL
MARU JIVAN ANJALI THAJO! 8
THE ENCOUNTER 15
WELCOME PARTY:A SECRET REVEALED! 20
RAGGING JUNIORS? 24
CONNED BY GIRLS? 29
WINE (AND KETAMINE) HAS TRUTH ! 36
READING …. IS THAT NEEDED? 41
STORY OF A SPECIAL DONATION SEAT 46
!st GIRL I MET IN THE COLLEGE... 50
SAVIOR NOT SAVED! 56
...BUT FRIENDS ARE FRIENDS! 60
BAPTISM 66
WE DID START THE FIRE......! 69
JUMMA…..WHO WAS HE? 74

6. JASMIN SHAH 82
THE MESSY MESS AND EATING GAMES 86
KILLING SCIENCE: WE, THE WHISTLE BLOWERS 92
SECRETS OF BOYS’ HOSTEL : TIFFIN BOMB ? 98

7. SECRETS OF BOYS' HOSTEL : FOOLS WITHOUT APRIL
April 01, 2011
well friends, i was trying to write about our awesome experiences at
panchvati slum with dr rajesh metha. but 1st april reminded me
some events in our hostel. so over to hostel room no 19 new boys'
hostel, psmc campus!
i have had little chance to mention something about my room
partner biren, i mean, biru dada to put it more correctly! myself,
tapasvi and biren remained room partners from day one to
throughout our mbbs years.biren was from gandhinagar and his
father was a govt servant. his complexion was a bit dark like me and
was little short than me in height.he had typical amdavadi
speech.while tapasvi was a giant, myself and biren were thin and
lean weighing hardly some fifty kilos at that time.
biren used to speak very less-only when needed.but he had sound
knowledge of the world he was living with. while i and tapasvi were
living in our own dream world sometimes, biru was always in real
world.far more practical.
"you know neh, why we all do study?" once he asked me.
" so that we be doctors."i answered wondering why he asked such a
question.
"oh really? you mean is that the goal?" he really had something in
his mind.
"what else?" i scratched my head.
"see, i can prove something else.' he smiled. okay, now he would
1

8. reveal the secret.
"neh, you study and you will be doctor after sometime. so what next
will you do?" he said.
"i will get some good job and will practice." i had a plain answer.
"and then? no plan to earn some money?"
"naturally, i will earn my salary."
"is that all? what next?" he was playing game.
"that is all...and then...." nothing more i could think.so i
said"probably i will marry"- "yess! thats it!" he promptly interrupted
my answer with sparks in both of his eyes.
" so neh, you have learnt a lesson. we all study ultimately to marry."
he laughed and folded both his hands to make a heart shape and
again spoke loudly "ULTIMATELY TO MARRY....!"
biren never used to hide his innate feelings despite speaking less.
he had stuck a big cut out of his favorite heroine on his cupboard.he
used to goto his home gandhinagar every week and used to bring a
lot of tasty breakfast and college gossips especially about girls to
share with us.
one late evening, when biren, myself and tapasvi were chatting in
our room no 19 after routine tasteless dinner, one of our good friend
entered our room. biren was sitting on a study table with support of
his hands behind, while i was sitting on my cot and tapasvi was in
his chair.
"whats up friends?" our friend appeared very happy somehow that
day.
"nothing yaar, just chatting" i answered.
"hey biren, what is there near your left hand?" our friend asked biren
2

9. pointing to a small glass bottle having some white crystals inside.
"you mean this?" biru swiftly lifted the bottle in his hand and
pretended to examine it very carefully by taking it near his eyes.
"this is...salt. simple salt." he stretched the word salt five times the
normal.
" i think there is sugar in it."our good friend opined as he neared
biru.
" hey man, do not try to taste it" biru hid the glass bottle with his
hand behind him as if it was something like sugar admixed with real
diamond powder.
"oh really? see, i cannot be fooled like this. i know it is sugar and
you are teasing me." said our good friend.
"why should i lie to you? this is saaalt and i am not giving it to you at
any cost."biru started controlling the mind game.
"you give me and i will prove myself." a bit agitated, out good friend
rushed to the bottle.biru transfered the bottle from one hand to the
other ans stretched that hand away from our good friend. our good
friend tried to snatch the bottle, the struggle went on for a few
seconds.
"ok ok.."said biru ultimately "you won. there is sugar in the bottle. i
will give it to you but for god's sake, do not taste it!" biru threw his
last yorker of the mind game.
our good friend, because of biru, had become so desperate to prove
himself, grabbed the glass bottle from biru's hand.he opened it
within milliseconds and threw the white powder directly in his wide
open mouth.
3

10. ouch!! his mouth was full of salt! the muscles of the face of our good
friend were stretched to all possible directions to make a horrible
look of his face which we never would forget!!
at another occasion, one of our good friend was boasting a lot about
himself and to his gross misfortune,biru heard it. all of us including
some of our lobby parters were there in our hostel room no 19. our
room was something about 20*12 ft spacious with the cots and
three study tables.from the balcony, we could see jungle of our
eukeliptus trees. it was beautiful scene.
i have forgotten the exact topic of conversation, but our good friend
was boasting about himself being a real man.
"man, you have to stand up for the cause you feel if you are a real
man! i do it and face the world.i never step back. a real man like me
can shape his own future in his own way! i tell you, only a few man
like me are having such capacity." he was preaching all of us as
how a man should behave and how should he make himself.
biru listened to his version of being a man for a few minutes.then,
without looking at our good 'real man' friend, said in a plain voice "
see man, i do not understand whatever you are saying about
yourself. the world will believe you a man only when you have
something really between your two legs!"
"hey do you mean i don't have it?" suddenly our good friend's
attention shifted to the unexpected attack.all of us were just stunned
by biru's attack.
" i never said that but what i said is an ancient fact.i will have
reasons to believe you otherwise, if you don't have that." my good
4

11. friend was sucked in the argument.
"leave this! i can prove i am a man anytime" now our friend was
almost screamed.
"oh really? how can we believe you? if you ask me, i will not believe
anything without proof." still biru was purposefully looking away from
our good friend just to drive him mad!
'you have your chance today to prove.prove it the way i tell you"
what biru was up to? asking him to strip naked or something in front
of all of us? i could not believe it!
"why should i prove it to you? who are you?" our good friend's face
was seen grossly irritated
"relax man! i am nothing."biru chuckled " if you wish, you can prove
or otherwise.."
"-what otherwise?"our good friend stood up in excitement almost to
attack biru.
"hey if you hit me that is not going to prove you a real man..."biru
went a step back. " see....otherwise all these friends of ours will
have chance believe what i believe right now for you..!" pointing a
finger to all of us biru said
our good friend gazed us. we all probably looked serious to him. his
face also turned serious.
"okay, what should i do?" he asked biru accepting the challenge.
5

12. "nothing. just show it!"
"show what?"
" the vital masculine part of your body that you are missing in my
opinion!" biru was a cold blooded killer!
"no. that never can happen" he resisted almost screaming.
" see friends? i am right!" biru smiled.
"no! "he shouted " i am a real man!"
"then prove it!"
our good friend was highly agitated and was breathing fast. he
looked desperate to prove himself.
"okay,okay..calm down... i have a suggestion.. "all looked biren with
eager faces. what suggestion?
"you can show that to me in private and i will tell all the friends if you
are a real man."
our good friend seemed puzzled but for him, i guessed, the
suggestion was better than to strip in front of all of us.
"come on!" biru swiftly opened the door to balcony. still looked
puzzled, our good friend went to biru and the door was closed.what
was happening?
after couple of minutes,as we waited eagerly, the door opened.
"he really showed me!" exclaimed biru. " i never expected you such
a fool!" biru told our good friend.
he looked very confused and depressed. his face blushed red. we
6

13. could not stop laughing as we saw him.
" i really do not know" our good friend probably spoke to himself as
grasped his head with both of his hands and threw his loose body
on one of the cot. "why i did this at all? why did i listened to biru at
all? but why me?"
what a mind game biru could play and win and could make fools
without April!
7

14. MARU JIVAN ANJALI THAJO!
March 23, 2011
it was not only me, my best friends tapasvi and hemant both were
also touched by dr rajesh mehta.
"tapasvi, i intend to go to dr mehta's weekly meetings. will you join
me?" i asked tapasvi. though hailing from ruthless darbar
community, tavasvi's make up was all different.though tall and
powerful, he had very soft heart and was very emotional. he was a
son of a famous poet,writer and director shree indu puwar. probably
he and hemant were my only friends which could understand some
of my odd ideas and emotional outbursts.
"yes neh, definitely we will go together. hemant also would like to
come." i was almost sure of that.dr mehta casted a kind of magical
spell on us.hemant, son of a medical officer, dr. ghanshyam shah,
working at an interior village gothwa, was fanatically charged with
emotions to serve the underprivileged. his family originally lived in
today's pakistan before partition. on sundays when all others,
including tapasvi, were gone home, i and hemant used to enjoy our
solitude.many a times we had hot discussions for burning issues of
our people. we would agree most of the times and some times not.
we highly depended on each other to bring our ideas to action.
when we discussed, he used to be very emotional. i remember one
such night,when we had a very hot discussion. there was some dis
agreement at a point. after fierce arguments, no one could
convince. it all culminated in deep silence ultimately. after a few
minutes i saw tears rolling by hemant's eyes.that made my eyes wet
8

15. too. that disagreement was the greatest agreement made between
two friends!
some of our seniors were already going to dr mehta's health
circle.some had gone just for their curiosity. naturally different
persons had different view points for dr mehta " that weird doctor?
what he feels is he? his dressing and way of talking just irritates me!
i never can accept such a doctor." said one of our seniors.
" you will spoil your time for nothing. he will take you to nearby slum
and ask you to serve! he is a kind of half mad man.if you join him,
you will also be like him! people laugh behind all those who go to his
meetings!" another opinion from a senior.
"see, going to slum for service, talking about countrymen and how
to uplift their life....all sounds sooooo good! but in reality what
difference would it make to crores of such poor people? does he
believe he can change the world just by this? i don't believe him!"
some had more rationalized version to spell their negativity for dr
mehta's activities.however, apart from a few such strong critics,
most of the students, even if not going to his meetings, had respect
for dr mehta and his activities.
on the day of meeting,there was nothing much to discuss amongst
ourselves. we all three went there. the meeting was in our college
building at a small garden of deptt of PSM. some students from
medical college and some girls from the nursing college were sitting
folding their legs making circle on the lawn.it was evening time after
the college hours. dr mehta was also in the circle.he looked nothing
9

16. different than in the class room.somehow i felt very soothing there.it
was as if my hidden wish to do something for the poor was about to
be granted. there were no any formalities. soon, dr mehta closed his
eyes for prayer.from the way he sung, it was obvious he was not a
singer but you could feel he could sing from his heart. all others
joined him to complete the chorus. i remember only a few lines of
that prayer presently.
jeevan anjali thajo maru jivan anjali thajo!
bhukhya kaje bhojan banajo, tarasya nu jal thajo!
( but i got full prayer from the net and copied it here!)
ssss sssss ssss !
sssss ssss sssss ssss !
sssssss ssss ssss ssss, sssssssss ss ssss;
sssss:sssssss ssss ss’sss ssss sss s sssss!
sssss ssss sssss ssss !
ssss sssssss ssss ss sssss sss ssssss;
10

17. sss ssssss sssss sssss ssss sssss ssss!
sssss ssss sssss ssss !
ssssssss ssss ssss sss ssss sssss ssss;
ssssss ssssssss ssssssss sssss sss sssss !
sssss ssss sssss ssss !
ssssss sssss ssss sss ssssssss ssss;
sssssss ssss ssss ssss ss sssss ssssss!
sssss ssss sssss ssss !
sssssss sssss
11

18. the prayer churned our heart. it reflected our emotions soaring high
at that time.it could wet corners of our eyes. but to be emotional was
not everything. that emotion had to transform to a definite action.
probably, i felt, dr mehta was able to give us that chance.
"friends, we have some new friends with us today" said dr mehta
pointing to us." can you please introduce yourself?"
" tapasvi puawar from ahmedabad."
" hemant shah from visnagar"
"neh vaidya from bhuj"
"ok ...let me tell you something about this activity. health circle is a
like minded friends group interested in doing activities which could
help those who are in need.routinely , we go to nearby slum and run
a clinic from them.we provide them free drugs.we also do preventive
activities in the community. we believe in holistic medicine and
rational use of drugs. we believe all human beings equal may they
come from any religion, social or economic status. we have equal
respect for all the religions. we want youngsters who believe in
humanity and are determined to work for the change in the society."
thus our journey with dr mehta started. it was because of him, we
could meet several good friends like kp, ragnesh, neeraj pandit,
chavli, kadri, uma sister, meghna sister and many more. how could i
forget jagdish soni? a gem of the persons i ever had met. he turned
to be a true friend forever. dr. bhalendu vaishnav was a very good
physician devoting time to activities of the health circle.
12

19. dr mehta's push gave us capacity, strength and determination to do
what we really wished. he nurtured our tender feelings. it was
because of him , we could meet some great people like vinay
charul, daxaben-anilbhai-rashmibhai, dr ketan zaveri, dr shreedhar,
dr anurag bhargav.they all were great inspiration for us ( and stll
they are! they all need separate chapter for proper introduction.)
of course, not every thing about dr mehta's personality i liked. he
was a staunch devotee of shree swaminarayan bhagwan. he had
great zeal to read and to follow the holy book written by bhagwan
shree swaminarayan, the shiksha patri. live me alone, i never even
liked to go to any temple. some of his ideas were simply away from
my routine reasoning. even if working vigorously in the villages, he
would not eat anything from the market. leave the market, he would
not accept any kind of food from the homes of the villagers- not
even as a reciprocation of love shown by the villagers to him! he
used to keep chana and peanuts in his pocket. that was the only
thing he used to eat while working hours in the villages.
most strange part of his personality, however, was not this. even
though he had master degree in preventive medicine, to our gross
surprise, he was against the routine vaccination! this was
completely weird! it was digestible if an illiterate villager refused the
vaccination but when you know everything about vaccines and the
diseases prevented by vaccination, how could you refuse it? still, he
did. probably that had some strong religious reasons beyond my
comprehension.
13

20. but still, could you stamp dr mehta a half mad man like some of my
seniors? just because he dressed differently?just because he had
some ideas to work for the poor? just because he was religious? for
those who work for some change in the society, probably had to
face such a strong criticism some time in their life. history is full of
such so called half mad people which has contributed enormously
to betterment of our daily lives. to my perception, dr mehta was one
of such person. his dedication, determination and truthful nature
was unquestionable.
dr mehta remained teacher, guide and a good friend for life time for
all of us.
14

21. THE ENCOUNTER
March 17, 2011
Most of the professors in our college, especially in 1st mbbs, were
typical professors. They had a specific way of dressing, usually,
wearing suit and tie, nicely ironed, well polished shoes, and tidy
haircut and always clean shaved. As for example, take dr
mazoomdar, head of deptt of the physiology. He was seen in suit
and ties most of the times and used to speak mostly in English. He
had a halo around him. When he taught, his body language was like
any professor teaching since ages! We also had seen real
professors like dr s d nishith, an ex army man, teaching physiology.
Our dean was dr gulati, a pharmacologist, a very serious man,was
always seen well dressed. His expressions some how appeared a
bit concerned and tense. He had big spectacles with thick plastic
frame. I never met him, rather may be because of his halo, some
how, never dared to meet him. Our vice dean was dr rey, again an
ex army man,who even though serving in medical college, probably
still believed himself in the army! He had typical army like way of
dressing and talking. I had to meet him couple of times for getting
my identity card signed.
Barring a few, most of the teachers were unapproachable for a
simple student like me. May be, it was because they were from
different cultural background or mostly because my perception was
so. for me and probably most of the other students, it appeared,
professor of medical college meant a highly polished English
speaking suit tied person.
15

22. however, if there are no surprises, it is not the life! It was a routine
afternoon lecture of preventive and social medicine[psm], a subject
disliked by most of the students. Usually, dr arya, who dared to
teach richettesia (an organism somewhere between the viruses and
the bacterial world, mainly responsible for trachoma, infection of
eyes) in the very first lecture of PSM, used to come to teach us, I
mean, to bore us with the subject.
However, since it was necessary to attend at least some 70% of the
lectures to be eligible to give exams, the class remained mostly full
in even such boring lectures. We were expecting dr arya in his
routine professor’s suit, but that day, an odd man, rather, a highly
odd professor entered our class.
He was lean thin and of average height. He was not in suit, neither
he wore shoes, rather, even his chappals were not polished! He
was dressed simply in shirt and pants. He probably did not care to
do in-shirt. He had simple plastic framed spects and there was a big
swaminarayan tilak on his forehead. His Hairs were immersed in
hair oil. He looked more like swaminarayan devotee than a
professor!
“ mitro”, to our surprise, he started in gujarati as he climbed the
stage! “ maru naam dr rajesh Mehta chhe. (my name is dr rajesh
Mehta).” And he continued in gujarati “ friends, can you all tell me
why did you choose to become a doctor?”
He asked a very basic question. Probably a soul searching one for
all of us.the class was a bit taken for a surprise.
16

23. “ when you did choose, you must have thought of about this. I really
am interested to know about it. Can we go for a simple exercise?”
his eyes were on all of us. “ I am giving you options. You choose
from them and tell me.” The class responded silence as the
agreement .
“ these are the choises… first, to earn a lot of money, secondly, to
earn and to serve the society, thirdly to work and to see the god…
be honest.. this has nothing to do with either your curriculum or
exams..” and he started asking from the first bench onwards.
Almost all students chose the second option. but many of honest
students emphasized on good earning too that made dr. Mehta
happier. For me, money was not important at that time, I must
confess. And my idea was mainly to serve the masses for which I
left my much liked physics and engineering career while choosing
branch at the time of counseling after routine 12 std exam results.
As far as seeing god, no way! Even a half believer at that time, I
never had a zeal to encounter god. if suppose, i some how saw god,
what difference would it make to others?would it improve their lives
anyway? It probably was not important to see god but was important
to care for his creation as I believed at that time.
So, for me too, it was the second option when was asked.
“ I really am happy. Almost all of you are truthful.do you know with
what dream i entered the medical college?” Said dr mehta, looking
deeper in his own heart.”i entered medical college dreaming to be a
humble servant of villagers and poor people. through their service, i
wanted to realize god. i dreamed myself going to interior villages on
17

24. my own bicycle carrying essential medicines in a small box! friends,
this dream, in a way , has not changed even today." he looked on
our faces, unknowingly appealing some where inside." Ok let us
now move to the subject..” he paused a bit before starting.
" do you know there are thousands of people getting dreaded
disease like cancer just because of tobacco chewing? do you know
so many deaths can be prevented just by saying 'no' to
alcohol?....yes..probably all of you know this fact." he continued
further in his unimpressive voice and un polished gujarati. "we need
to spread this message to our people. we can go to people and tell
them the facts,educate them and their lives can be saved."
"sir" suddenly i stood up. "sir how to convince those which already
are addicted to alcohol or tobacco?"
" you can tell them the ill effects and tell them that they would die if
the continue to their bad habits." dr mehta tried to convince me first.
"sir, such people would say they would die someday even
otherwise. why not to first enjoy the life by all bad and good ways
and then die?"as the students listened the discussion, i cited one of
the basic argument of all the addicts. sir could not reply for a
moment.
to this,whole of the class clapped!probably the claps were for my
argument.this was very first time when whole of the class showered
claps for me. i was a bit flattered and felt like winner. dr mehta
18

25. raised his hand to stop the noise of the clapping students.after
about a minute, when noise lessened, he said "you can tell them
they would die an early, slow and painful death."
i sat down and dr mehta continued with teaching.this man was really
a weird one! could you imagine such a doctor? he was not at all
worried for the way he appeared to MBBS class and even to his
own counter parts. no one asked us the basic question that he
asked.and why should he be interested in asking such a question?
may be he just wanted us to introspect. or did he really had
something in his mind? when he spoke of his dream, i felt probably
that was my dream too. though his voice was not impressive but
was really truthful and was perceived directly from his heart.
at the end of the lecture, he said, "if some one from you is really
interested in serving the poor, they can come to a small friend circle
we have created. we have named it 'the health circle'. we meet
every week and we go to nearby slum and do different health
activities. i invite only those who really are interested. this activity is
not going to help you in any of your exams. it will eat away your time
rather. so you are welcome only if you really are determined ." and
he left the class.
19

26. WELCOME PARTY:A SECRET REVEALED!
March 10, 2011
arrival of new batch remains ceremonial in any college. since ours
was a rural college, away from the city atmosphere, we had
advantage and disadvantage of being alone. we were like a small
village where every one knows each other in detail! addition of 100
new students every year added new strength and flavor to the
campus. seniors were,naturally, interested in juniors to make new
friends and add to their groups.for the boys of the campus, a batch
was perceived beautiful when there were more beauties in it!
to show and to prove how the ideal introduction of the freshers
should be, it was our dream to organize an introduction party for our
junior batch. we could not arrange it for our immediate junior
hardik's batch but we could do it for the next batch.(vasu, chaula,
chavli,kanuji).our way did not include any ordering, questioning or
forcing anything. we wanted our junior students to come on stage,
give their introduction and perform any item of their choice.that
could give a chance to show their talent.demoralizing them in front
of the audience or making them feel low by commenting very
absurd was not a part at all.
at the same time, routine ragging was going on despite our
opposition. from those happenings, everyday, some news used to
trickle about the juniors. there was one girl which threatened seniors
with police because her father was a policeman! one other girl was
very smart and also fearless. it was heard,her quick answered made
the seniors speechless!
20

27. one of the boys was taken to the terrace and was made to sleep on
the floor in burning sunlight. we opposed that type of ragging. and
so we had quarrel with our seniors as i mentioned in my previous
blog.on the other side, some of the boys had no fear of ragging
whatsoever!
whole of our batch took the responsibility of the event.we already
were meeting every Thursday. we used that platform to organize
welcome party for the junior batch. the best part of any of our
program was, we never invited any so called big people like dean,
heads of the deptts or professors to our events. so the events
remained highly personal and liberal for all. also, we never used
money for any event. a fine evening was chosen for the event. our
batch mates invited all the juniors with a great zeal.
to our surprise, the juniors were very much talented.there were
good number of stage performers.soon there was list of students
who wanted to present something on the stage apart from routine
introduction. everything seemed so smooth. but it was probably
peace before a storm!
"whatever you say or do, we are going to teach a lesson to a girl in
the program." one of my good friend warned me." that girl is over
smart. she feels she can handle anything. we have decided to pull
her legs when she comes to stage. we will not let her perform!"
surely, they had the news from the routine ragging about that girl!
"that can spoil our event. i urge you to not to do any thing that ruins
21

28. everything!" i requested. they laughed at my point nastily.
"neh, we promise to not to spoil everything but we definitely do
something that the girl remembers for the life!"the red light was from
the most mischievous group of our batch but we had no choice. i
told the situation to my friends. since we never invited the big heads
in any event, the events had to be self disciplined. we felt we should
handle the situation as it arises. so despite this, we went on
organizing the event.
the day came and we assembled in our lecture hall. we had a very
big lecture hall having capacity of about 500 people.the hall was full
with the spectators.there was no space to even stand in the hall.the
bunch of the students which warned us also took their position. the
noise of the students subsided as jasmine shah started
announcement. if i remember, beji and anish were also managing
the stage. juniors were warmly welcomed by our batch.
the juniors started performing. what would happen when that girl
comes on the stage? that was the question repeatedly striking my
mind. the event was smooth and all were enjoying the performance
on the stage. i saw that girl sitting with her friends in the audience
waiting for her turn. she was a fair lady, had boy cut hairs and
European eyes.she looked a bit fatty and doll like. Would it be
possible for her to perform? only time could tell. at the most she
might have to leave the stage, or we might be forced to take some
action on our batch mates. still, it was a matter of worry.
the performers mesmerized with their talents one by one.chaula
madhavi and vasu sung nice songs as i remember. there were
22

29. many more performers including vimpal, shikha, chavli, ronak,
jeet.(correct me and add to this please)
finally, name of the "over smart" girl was announced increasing my
heart beats. i really was afraid as any mischief could hurt her a lot
on one part and could spoil relations amongst us on the other part.
also, our ideal way of taking introduction of the junior batch was at a
stake. now, this is what i remember perfectly- the boys started
making noise with the announcement. who would save her? i
thought.
to my surprise, the girl gracefully climbed on the stage and
introduced herself.her hight was less. i felt as if she was not at all
deterred by the noise and shouting by the boys.she confidently went
on the stage and started speaking. as she started, the shouting
increased, but she probably was made of iron. she was speaking as
if the mischief makers did not exist at all! the way she spoke, all the
boys against her simply were over ruled! all had no choice but to
stop the shouting! her confidence was far more greater than any
mischief makers would have thought of! she nicely performed dance
with her friends crushing all the expectations of my good friends like
a big bulldozer.
i simply was speechless.the girl was none other than soniya! hats
off to her!practically she ragged all the seniors. the event was a
grand success.
23

30. RAGGING JUNIORS?
March 04, 2011
(i must admit that even after having bitter relations with some of the
seniors in those days, after wards, almost all helped us and became
good friends. it was just difference of opinion at that time. i must
remember sanjeev rao and sajan nayar at this point.)
when our immediate junior batch arrived, we were just adjusting
ourselves in the campus because that batch arrived within just six
months of our admission to pramukhswami medical college. but
since we had grown a bit, we had our own ideas of first time
interaction with the junior batch. memories of our own ragging was
afresh. we, especially, hemant, tapasvi and myself were highly
against routine way of ragging.bimal, vimal, anish, kapil were with
us.
when the new batch arrived, ragging re started like a routine college
ceremony. some of the boys were made to do things which were
highly demoralizing. it all disturbed us a lot and we felt ashamed of
being senior students and doing nothing to stop this madness. even
some of our good friends turned bad raggers as they became
seniors.the girls' hostel was also not an exception to such activities.(
beji, one of our best friend, was considered a good ragger. i still do
not know for what reason!)
hemant being a highly idealistic man, complained about all of this to
the authorities. naturally many of our seniors disliked his action. we
had some good and fearless seniors like jagdish soni and amiruddin
24

31. kadri to be on our side. there were some good teachers who wished
to see good culture in our college. notably, dr rajesh mehta and dr
bhalendu vaishnav.
it was not surprising to find most of the seniors and even our batch
mates against our anti ragging ideas. while some of them just
enjoyed ragging the juniors, others rationalized their actions in
name of "good introduction leading to good friendship". some
students had feelings of revenge translating into repeating what
they suffered as freshers like mother in laws seen in tv serials! we
saw our own batch mates, which were highly against ragging at the
time of our batch's ragging, turning raggers when they become
seniors. some wanted to rag just to prove themselves superior and
authoritarian, while others believed to do such duty to save the
culture of the college.
A few had an argument that since the world was full of bad people
and experiences, they were just preparing their juniors for such a
world by ragging them badly! they simply wanted to make the
juniors bold. so in their opinion, they were doing a great social work!
we felt ragging an in human and cowardly act in which a group of
seniors would order some weird and demoralizing actions to a
helpless fresh junior.
but to our surprise, many of the teachers had pro ragging ideas.
some of them used to ask seniors " teach some good manners to
your juniors!" so, made up of such a students committee,even after
hemant's official complaint, the authorities did nothing to prevent
25

32. ragging. thus , in a way we were in a great minority and figures of
dislike in the campus.
however, there was something more to happen. one day just when i
was going to college, rao, our student leader,stopped me near the
boys' hostel staircase.
"what do you believe you are? we are not going to tolerate you...
understood?" he really was unhappy.i had no answer. he gave me a
staring look for a few seconds and climbed the stairs making noise
of his foot steps.
even today, i am not knowing, whether there was any relation of the
following event with what rao said.
for some reason, hemant had to go to his home for a few days. at
one good evening, i and tapasvi just were entering the boys' hostel.
we were stopped by some strange looking outside boys.
"hey you both! stop here. are you friends of that white boy hemant?"
one tall boy inquired. "where is that (...)!"
"what is wrong? he has gone home" i replied.
" he has assaulted our sister. tell that (....) we will break all his
bones if we find him!" he warned us "take this as our last warning.
tell him to behave well or we will create hell of his life... ok?". they
went away.
hemant mis behaved with a girl? no one on this earth could believe
26

33. that! in fact he was a boy never interested in any of the girls of the
college or outside(except one- with whom he married afterwards.)
he never spoke a single good or bad word for any of the girls.
it was very clear to us that the out side boys just wanted to have
some point to start the quarrel. it was easy to blame any college boy
for such a reason. any one would be furious to such a false
accusation.
when he came back, we decided to not to let him go anywhere
alone. he was a fearless man and nothing could deter him from
what he was doing. despite threats, he continued to work against
ragging. later, in his own secret ways, he met the leader of those
strange boys and resolved the issue as far as i remember. they
were locals from karamsad and were told to give threat to us,
especially hemant.
since we were the minority, our movement probably could not do
much in our perception. but definitely, it created a firm opposition to
raggers which had effortless dominations till then. (only, students of
our junior batch, chavli, kanuji, hardik, padhiyar,sejul can comment
more on the impact of our opposition)
i remember taking introduction of some of my junior friends in my
own way. sejul was one of them i still remember. i do not know how
he remembers this event or if at all he has the memory!
i met him at old boys' hostel in bimal's room. bimal, not a flagship
anti ragger but definitely a humanitarian, was talking to sejul and
27

34. rajul. he asked me to have some word with sejul. i remember
requesting sejul to come for a walk with me and we talked on the
way. i asked about his native and interest, told about mine. we also
talked about our hobbies and i offered him friendship which he
accepted and remained so till date.
some of our seniors asked us a genuine question. " boys, if you are
against the present way of introduction, how senior batch should
interact with the freshers? the must be some way. or there will be no
interaction between the batches at all. what kind of culture do you
want in the college?"
But we had ready made idea- we wanted to arrange an introduction
party to our junior batch. the idea was to invite all of the juniors to
the function and let them perform on the stage any thing of their
choice. our batch was already meeting every Thursday.so the idea
clicked.(see my next blog story)
28

35. CONNED BY GIRLS?
February 09, 2011
CONNED BY GIRLS?
[kindly hit "like" button if you like he story]
Any medical college class is blessed with at least 50% population of
girls! So was ours. Our engineer counterparts were very poor ! they
hardly had a few girls in whole of the campus. If you want to really
feel “the ground impact” of reverse sex ratio, just visit any
engineering college campus! Our campus was colorful that way.
Also, there were many couples in every batch, making our campus
lively real college campus.
Every corner of our college corridors was mostly occupied by one or
other couple. You could see the senior batch’s couples happily
riding on bikes, chatting under beautiful mango trees, walking
holding hands late night on our no traffic campus roads, eating
together in the mess, reading side by side in the library, or
sometimes some couples were seen in dark corners and deep
eucalyptus jungle of our campus.
Heena, my classmate, sometimes used to say jokingly “ I really am
fed up with these couples. No corner, no tree, no reading place is
without them! They are creating indirect pressure on all of us!!”
Our seniors rightly named our campus mini Switzerland. It really
was that in all the aspects- beautiful, near the heart of the nature,
29

36. away from routine life of a city, perfect for romance! Chemistry of
our magical campus also started to have its own spell on our batch.
Sameer, one of my good friends, was a tall, handsome, stylish and
fair boy of my batch. Also, he was my dissection and lobby partner.
Because of late admission, a girl was added to our dissection batch-
margi. She was a frank and friendly girl. She used to talk a lot with
all of us. as seen in our films, after meeting on dissection table,
shortly sameer and margi fell in love. They got wholehearted
support from almost all the batch mates. while Their union was
matter of celebration for all of us, Their news created a shock wave
in the campus because they were just 1st MBBS students! Some
people were really not happy with the news as margi was from a
hindu family while sameer was a muslim. However, I must say, they
made a perfect couple ! soon, their families agreed to their decision
and they became the first official couple of our batch!
From our senior batches, there were number of couples. A
surprising fact about all the couples was, we had never heard any
break up at that time! The couples were respected by all, even the
teachers. The couples were graceful. I must remember priya and
GD at this point. They were icons for us.
For me, naturally, the subject of love was more of human rights than
a personal one! Like in any college, There were many boys in line
looking for perfect love. All had their own way of presentation. Some
were stylish, some were impressive. I must admit I never was part
of the line but at the same time I was not completely averse to it.
30

37. To my perception, I was an average boy, un stylish, non impressive.
Most of the time, I used to wear khadi clothes. i Never used
anything more than a routine soap, not even shaving cream! Khadi
gave me probably a staunch gandhian look. Was not this enough to
be a repellent for fair sex? Add to this my inclination towards one of
the most hated subject by elite class and most of the medical
students - social work and community medicine! My portfolio was
still not over. I was one of the most irritant student of the class as I
used to ask many questions to the teacher when everybody else
wanted to complete the class. despite my un ending queries, I
neither was a ranker nor was a scorer of my class. rather, I hardly
was able to clear the routine exams…. nothing impressive! I wasn’t
a sportsman. Skating, cricket, swimming, table tennis even chess,
carom – I knew nothing. Yes, I was a bathroom singer and a half
poet! I never had a bike. leave the bike, in fact, I did not know how
to drive even a gearless scooter like kinetic!
As our first terminal exam approached, I started reading the
subjects my way. On the day of the exam, we went to big lecture
room of our new college building. We were given seats and the
examiners started distributing the question paper. The exam was of
anatomy. It was my habit to not to read the whole question paper
and start answering it. Hilariously, I used to write whatever I knew at
length- so my short notes looked assay and assays appeared like
short notes! I never used to see the clock while answering. It was
foolish, I accept, but It was routine for me to sacrifice couple of
compulsory questions as I used to write everything including the
optional questions!
31

38. When I was trying to prepare myself again for such “heroic” blunder,
suddenly , I noticed a crying girl in the class. I gazed there and saw
a girl crying and telling something to our tutor and supervisor, dr
rakesh Gandhi.
Dr Gandhi, being a perfect teacher, was talking empathetically with
the girl. He persuaded something and within about 10 min, the girl
again sat down for exam. Why should one cry at all for such a
terminal exam? Was it as important as life? Even if you fail, there
was not much to loose as it was only a terminal exam.. It sounded
ridiculous to me. ( at that time I was not aware that the crying spells
just at the time of exam were awaiting to create hell for me in
future!)
When result was out, despite coming from gujarati medium school,
that girl scored the highest, while I hardly passed. In our class, she
used to sit on the first batch vigorously noting down probably
everything spoken by the teacher. While I used to ask questions in
the class, she never did that.
I had very little information about her as heard from others. She did
not stay in the hostel. She was a local coming from vallabh vidya
nagar. While I was sharing third rank with shantilal in my v.d. high
school’s 12th std class and was second last to get in the medical
curriculum, getting admission only at psmc, Some one said she
stood first in anand district 12th exam and was getting admission in
all the medical colleges of Gujarat. She opted for psmc only
because it was near to her home. I came to psmc all the way from
bhuj because I wanted not only to be a doctor but also wanted to
32

39. learn independent life. She used to wear thick minus glasses. She
also was the shortest girl of our class. she was the youngest too as
some one told me. I was the oldest.
She used to come to college on her kinetic Honda. Mostly, she was
seen with beji and anu, on her back seat while driving in the
campus. I never had spoken to her.
Once just after the class, she asked me “ hey neh, how come you
ask so many questions in the class?”
“Just like that….you know..” I fumbled. She smiled and went away.
She was jasmine.
For my college day’s poetry, Good friends like vimal used to
encourage me in those days( as today!). vimal was kind enough to
share my poems with his like minded friends. Also, he used to read
my poems to jasmine.
One day, just after our anatomy dissection class, jasmine was out
side the hall waiting for some one. I casually said hi to her.
She said “ your writings are nice, neh! I like them. you are a good
writer..”
“ when you stand in front of sun, your shadow will appear far bigger
than what you are!” I told jasmine “ it is because you are kind
enough to praise me.” thus, gradually, our friendship got tuned in!
Soon after, jasmine became an uncontested 1st ranker of our class.
the second number usually lagged far behind her tally of marks.
There never was neck to neck competition for her. Competition
practically started from the second rank onwards in our class!
33

40. Jasmine was very good comparer on the stage and she had natural
capacity to keep the audience spell bound. She could handle the
whole college mob with microphone in her hand. Her voice was as
sweet as honey. I witnessed her capacity in our college function
‘brain wave’. She used to win extemporary public speaking
competitions. She did contest in a personality game conducted by
dr hegde and gave tough competition to raju panjwani, the 1st
winner.
Our Thursday meetings were probably best place for our interaction
where jasmine and anish used to be the default announcers.
Amongst the three, jasmine, beji and anu, beji was not only talkative
but also naughty. Her gestures and behaviors were sometimes
difficult enough to interpret. She was able to create a slippery and
mysterious land of her own. Probably she liked to be of such sort.
Jasmine was very transparent that way and anu was a bit
narcissistic.
One day, beji and jasmine came to me and tapasvi.
“ hey, can you be a part of our group?”
I, hemant, tapasvi and bimal used to hate the groups. We believed
in friendship with all. Groups were perceived against our
discernment of equality. They also had same way invited ramesh, a
ranker of our class.
However, I and tapasvi felt there was nothing wrong in being good
friends wether you name it a group or not.
“ that is ok. But we dislike groups. We will be good friends…”said
34

41. tapasvi. They both looked happy.
“ so we are to meet at college terrace today evening. Is that
understood?” ordered beji.and we agreed.
Back at the hostel, when hemant heard the news, he ridiculed us. “
girls and girls! You have fallen prey to them! Lattu thai gaya ne!”
“ hemant what is wrong with just friendship with like minded
peoples? You name it a group or not. You also may join with us.”
but hemant was staunch enough in his ideas as always.
“do you know neh, one of your group member had proposed to a
boy while singing poem!! Now you are going to be part of such a
group! Ha ha ha!” he made mockery of us. ( note : hemant was
wrong. He had misinformation.)
That was not all. Bimal also had a very strong opposition. “ you
have betrayed our ideas neh!” he said unhappily “ now you will do
everything that we hated till date. I never can be part of such
activity”
Still, they could not deter us from “joining” the group. We met on the
terrace of the lecture hall.
CONNED? i still am searching the answer!!.... :))
35

42. WINE (AND KETAMINE) HAS TRUTH !
January 20, 2011
WINE (AND KETAMINE) HAS TRUTH!
(I was not an eye witness of this incident but I am putting it here as
was told to me… making minimal factual changes like changing true
names)
Nishant was a real macho in our college. No one would dare to go
near him. His speech was loud and clear. He walked like a tiger in
the college corridors. He had a bike matching his body image. He
used to wear a weird type of goggles when riding bike. Those weird
goggles probably were a benchmark for him.
But this was not all. He was from a rich family and had everything a
boy would desire to have. Rather, he could give everything a girl
would desire from a boy. No doubt, he was a leader of our college.
“DO you know nishant? Girls of our class are dying on you.” Vikrant,
his best friend told him one day when they were on the way to the
library late evening.
“Yes I know…” he gave a flat answer not looking at vikrant.
“But probably I know whom you like the most.” Vikrant had
something more to say. “I saw you staring at her many times... in
fact you go to library just to find a seat near her. Am I right?”
Last few words were enough. Nishant stopped.
“What do you mean?”
36

43. “You know what I mean... you can not hide your feelings from me,
good friend!” surety and affection in vikrant’s voice were enough to
melt down the college tiger. There was silence for a few seconds
before nishant opened his heart.
“You are right….apeksha… she is the only thing in the whole world I
desire...” he stared deep in sky and continued “whenever I see her
expressive black big eyes I forget everything. When she puts her
golden skinned hand in her silky hairs, I get simply lost in her
thoughts. Her smile gives me a zillion watt current. When she
passes by, my heart stops beating. Faatko chhe yaar!”
“You are in love man! Go and tell her... what you are waiting for?”
vikrant directly said what he wanted to. “You are a macho man. This
is the time to prove it!”
“It is not that easy friend. I feel she has probably feelings for me but
how can I be sure for that? If I confess prematurely then she may
turn away from me. Many a times, still, I try to open up my heart to
her but my brain becomes numb and my heart feels like failing at
such times…”
“May be… if you wait for sometime, she may confess and make
things easy”
Soon after, nishant’s choice became buzz of the campus. Every one
was surprised how a man like him felt helpless when it came to
confessing love to a girl! Probably all the boys knew nishant’s
choice. The information also leaked to the girls very soon. For
nishant, it was like…
Patta patta butta butta haal hamara jane hai,
37

44. Jane na jane GUL hi na jane baaag to sara jaaane hai!
In fact whenever some one referred to that girl, he used to use
words like “nishant wali". Still, it remained impossible for nishant to
go to her directly and open up his heart until a special incident.
Despite boasting healthy body, nishant had some anatomical
problem in the nose. Because of this, he had a lot of problem in
breathing at night. Finally the ENT surgeon decided to operate him
for that.
A day was fixed for surgery. The operation was a small procedure.
But it needed a general anesthesia.
“Hello nishant…I am to give anesthesia and you will sleep within a
few seconds. Do not worry. There will be no pain at all...” the
anesthetist gave him routine advice. Nishant was injected with a
latest molecule available at that time. Soon, the procedure to correct
the anatomical defect was started.
All friends of nishant were out side the operation theatre. Since ours
was a small campus, every one knew about the operation. The
procedure lasted for a few minutes. But mean time, gradually, whole
of the nishant’s class gathered outside the theatre, including all
girls.
At last nishant was out from OT. He was shifted to a recovery room
on a stretcher. Whole of the class followed his stretcher. Everyone
wanted to wish him early recovery.
38

45. Nishant looked half drowsy. His eyes were still closed.
“Hey nishant, how are you buddy?” some one asked.
In response, without opening his eyes, nishant just nodded his
head. Everyone was happy to see him recovering from anesthesia.
Suddenly nishant started shouting.
“ APEKSHAAAA…….APEKSHAAAA….. I LOVE YOU!” everyone
including apeksha was shocked by nishant’s shouting!
A confession which seemed very difficult even in private was made
in public by nishant laboring under effect of the drug. The drug
injected to nishant was the same that presently is used by forensic
experts for narcoanalysis.
The effects of drug were known at that time also. It removes all
controls and inhibitions on the subconscious mind. It was some
one’s serious mistake that let the whole class to enter the recovery
room when our tiger was recovering.
However, this story had a sad end. Since even after this incident,
apeksha never showed any interest in nishant.
( fresh note: soon after our marriage, i had personal experience with
this anasthetic molecule, ketamine, when i was injected with the
same for a short procedure at resp dr ajay vyas's hospital. dr vyas,
39

46. being friendly and jolly, purposefully asked me whom i love. i spoke
jasmine's name at that time! )
40

47. READING …. IS THAT NEEDED?
January 12, 2011
READING …. IS THAT NEEDED?
My maternal grandfather gangaram bhai varu was a gandhian and
played pivotal role to establish baal mandirs in kachchh. My
paternal grand father krishnalalbhai vaidya was an English teacher.
My mother was a secondary school teacher and she taught
Sanskrit. Thus I hail from families of teachers. My father was
professor of economics at Porbandar College for a few years.
Despite all this, my father was and still is highly against school
education. He believed in natural learning and hated sending crying
child forcibly to school.
I faintly remember visiting once a baal mandir run by my nana. That
horrifying memory consists of crying children all around me!
However, all were taken to visit our famous garden khengar park
and were given breakfast there.
First official attempt to send me school, of course against my
father’s will, was made by my mother, when I was 6yrs old. Nanalal
master’s Gujarati primary school was nearby my home and I was
sent along with virbai, our maid, who cared for me like my mother.
It was really difficult to face the new world at the school where
everyone had to obey the commands of teacher. There were other
children like me, some comfortable, some crying but all strangers to
me! For child like me, everything remained in my control at home.
This world was up side down! It frightened me. I remember shouting
41

48. name of virbai every 5 min to get her help in getting out of the new
weird experience. Virbai was made to sit near my class by my
parents. The scary experience lasted till I was given back to virbai
after a few cry filled minutes! I never went to school there after!
At last, when I was 9yrs old, my mother finally decided to send me
school. Since I was late, 1st standard needed to be skipped. I had
to pass an exam to directly enter 2nd std. I remember some person
from education deptt took my exam. He was really unhappy with my
mother since despite being teacher herself, she did not send me to
school in due time. My mother told him that I was her child and it
was none of the officer’s business to see when I am sent to school!
So, the horrifying experience re started. Sanjay patoliya, ravindra
travadi, darshan rana were my batch mates. They were very
comfortable in the class. My mind was always occupied with fear of
being scolded by teacher or teasing by the other children.
Practically, it never happened.
My father always wished to be against the system and so I was
highly irregular in school. I never studied or did home work properly
at my home. My mother used to give help in my home work (I hated
from my heart!) which mostly consisted of “pada”. Now and then, I
had letters from my parents citing reasons for not attending the
school and not doing home work!
But since I was 2 years older than my batch mates, I was better at
studies. Even in bigger standards, I never studied and read for
exams at home like other children around me. Several times my
42

49. parents had to present medical certificates so that I could appear in
annual exam! I never liked school and lessons.
I do not remember I ever have studied at home. My father used to
give only two advises- “school n jajo” “lesson n karjo”. Thus
whatever was taught in my class room I used to use it in exams. I
never went to separate tuition classes except for mathematics in
10th and 12th std.
Weird, but I got admission to a medical college despite all this. I
confess it as my sheer luck! The college was a totally new world for
me where I was advised to read by not only the teachers but also
the batch mates. It was my firm belief that one should not read the
books and learn everything with help of lectures and practical
classes using little bit of the “common sense” and questioning
teacher. I used to ask a lot of questions especially in physiology
classes while all other students were bored with my questions!
On entry to the college, I had fantasy to acquire great knowledge.
For me, library was not a place for reading the texts, but to get
some deeply hidden knowledge buried in the journals and the big
thick books of various subjects in distant corners of cupboards. As I
remember, I used to get into the journal section when I had not even
slightest idea about those black long descriptions tagged with some
“ET al”s! Though it sounds ridiculous today but I used to open up
thick books of psychiatry and neurology from haunted cupboards in
those days!
Our library was a nicely designed one. It had two floors. The
arrangement was such that three students could sit on one side of
43

50. table, separated by partition. I used to see my seniors reading very
seriously the texts of medical subjects. Library was usually a silent
place for reading but some girls used to enter with heavy sandals
making noise of their steps announcing their entry .some boy would
start tapping the reading table harmonically with the steps of the girl
and the whole library would join that tapping. This was followed by a
wave of laugh and usually termination of reading!
I get very violent sneezing. Sometimes in library, my sneezing used
to disturb the reading session especially when it was near 10pm,
the time of closure of library!
Initially I tried to manage vivas and exams without reading. But
gradually it became clear to me that except for physiology, all other
subjects were just tons of information without much use of logic. So,
one was not left with any choice but to read.
Thus on exams, I forced myself to read but the efforts were mostly
futile. My reading was diverted more towards stuffs unimportant for
exams. Most of my friends were from good schools and had good
understanding of how to read for exams.
One of our friends had habit of reading the texts aloud or with
murmuring. He was named “gun gun” that stuck to him through out
mbbs!
Library was not the only reading place for us. Many students liked to
read in the college corridors and the steps of the lecture halls. Some
could be found reading under the trees of our beautiful campus.
I found even better place to read. Since ours was a rural medical
44

51. college, our hostel was surrounded by farms. I used to walk and
read in the farms. Till today, when I remember red nucleus, retculo
endothelial system, optic radiation etc, I remember those beautiful
farms where I used to read. There were many eucalyptus trees in
our campus and many students liked to read there.
It was only after meeting jasmine my approach for reading changed
to professional one. She had capacity to know and to plan what to
read, when to read and especially how to revise before exams. She
had great sense of smelling the important questions to be asked in
exams. Also she had enormous capacity to analyze the question
paper and predict the marks. It is only because of her I got through
not only the mbbs but also though pre pg exams.
.
45

52. STORY OF A SPECIAL DONATION SEAT
November 29, 2010
[this is a true story of a girl student of pramukh swami medical
college, heard from a very authentic source. Obviously, the true
names have been changed..]
When dr.joshi passed out from the medical college, before about
half a century, there hardly were any doctors in the area he chose to
practice. Dr. joshi could have been a money making machine like
others. But he had a different mission. He believed in providing
medical service to the poor people around him first. Money was a
pure by product of his service. Day or night, winter or summer,
dr.joshi was always there to serve his patients.
Soon, he became very popular in his area. The public around him
recognized his services. One day, when he was busy in his clinic, a
young vibrant sadhu rushed in his chamber.
“doctor, can you please come to visit my guru? He is very sick and
is not able to come here…” said the sadhu breathing fast.
“ ok. Where is your guru?” dr.joshi was ready to serve as always.
“just a few kilometers from here..but I have come with a car. We can
come back as soon as possible.” said the sadhu .
Dr.joshi took his emergency bag and went along with the young
sadhu. Soon, they reached. the guruji was really very sick. The
46

53. guruji was none other than shri yogiji maharaj from akshar
purushottam sect of swaminarayan. Dr.joshi examined yogiji
maharaj and prescribed medicines. Dr.joshi’s knowledge of
medicine worked again like in his hundreds of patients and after a
few days, maharaj became normal.
Then it became routine for the young sadhu to come to dr.joshi and
escort him to his guruji whenever it needed. Guruji was very happy
with his services and he blessed the doctor every time.
Years passed by. Dr.joshi almost forgot the incident but his selfless
services continued. Meanwhile, dr.joshi became father of a beautiful
daughter…meena. From his busy practice, he always would find
time to play with his beloved daughter. She grew like the princess of
fairy tales. She Not only was intelligent but also she was very
studious. It became very clear to friends and family around her that
one day she would become a doctor like her father. She also
wanted to be a doctor. Dr.joshi was also very sure of meena’s
academic performance. Soon , meena passed out her 10th std
exams with flying colors, adding ambitions to her father and the
family.
But life is full of surprises. Even after her genuine efforts, meena
could not score the required marks needed to enter a medical
college. She just missed it by a few numbers.
The dream appeared broken.
“ dr.joshi, is only because of bad luck that meena could not score in
47

54. 12th std exams. Why can not you send her to pramukhswami
medical college on a donation seat?” some of the friends
suggested.
“ no. I can not do this. If she wishes to be a doctor, she has to be on
merit. A doctor has to be meritorious.” Dr.joshi had his own ideas.
“ do you really believe that those who have scored few marks more
than meena are far better than her? There are 10 donation seats. If
you do not try for meena, they are to allot it to some one else with
may be even far lesser marks than meena. Would it be good for the
society?” at last after much more persuasion dr.joshi agreed to try
for a donation seat at pramukhswami medical college karamsad.
“dr.joshi, don’t you remember your services to yogiji maharaj years
back? Major donation to pramukhswami medical college is from
them. You can remind them while you represent. They are the final
authority for all donation seats.”
“oh. That was decades back. Who would remember that.? And shri
yogiji maharaj has passed away years back.” dr.joshi was skeptical.
However, in whole of his life, dr.joshi never asked any favor from
any one around him. It was really very difficult for him to go to some
one and request. But this was different as it was related with life and
career of his beloved daughter.
Dr.joshi finally convinced himself to go to pramukhswami maharaj
and request him for a donation seat for meena.
“ in which words should I request? Will they listen to my request? Or
they just will not let me represent? Would it be prudent to remind
them of my services to yogiji maharaj?” dr.joshi had flood of
48

55. thoughts in his mind on the way to meet the swamiji.
Finally, as per the appointment they reached the place to meet and
request shri pramukhswami maharaj. Dr.joshi felt nervous more
than he ever felt in his tough medial exams. His heart really beated
fast.
As they entered the hall, they saw pramukhswami maharaj sitting
graciously in front of them. Some one started introducing dr.joshi to
swamiji.
“ he is dr.joshi from…”
swamiji stared at dr.joshi and to his and all other’s surprise, stood
up from his seat !
“arre joshi saheb tame?”he was none other than the young vibrant
sadhu who used to escort dr.joshi in the car to shri yogiji maharaj!!
Nothing more is remaining to end the story!
49

56. !st GIRL I MET IN THE COLLEGE...
October 28, 2010
[This chapter should have been written probably at the beginning of
my series of blog. Since the matter is very personal to me, I took
some time to finally make it public. It is my humble effort to show
tender emotions of a teen- myself. Till date the true story was
hidden from even some of my best friends.
You go to college and on very first day you meet a cute girl. She
comes near you just to give you a nice slap for the way you looked
at her. At the end, same girl would fall terribly in love with you and
ultimately you have to win her rescuing her from villain. Such goody
goody stories are for Hindi masala movies. Real college life is,
naturally, very different and it unfolds itself on its own. Following
true story is about me and the first ever girl I met in my college.
Name of the girl is to remain a secret!]
When I was traveling all the eleven and half hour journey from bhuj
to anand by ST bus for the first time, I felt my body was not left with
a single painless bone and muscle before I reached! Still, after
reaching anand, I had to search for bus to karamsad.
The bus was about to reach and I was looking for help.
Just about 2-3 seats from my seat there was a girl talking something
about psmc that made me attentive like a street dog!
‘Should I ask her how to reach psmc?’ I thought. She was
50

57. completely unknown to me. If she was going to psmc, she could be
from my senior batch or she could be my own batch mate. It was
not that I was shy but still it needed good amount of courage to
initiate talk! Reasons for that were very obvious.
Back at home, in my home town bhuj, I had quite a few girls as
playmates in my childhood. However, after reaching teens,
unfortunately, there was no good friendship with any of the girls
because there were no girls around me! It was not surprising
because from 5th std onwards till the 12th std, I studied in exclusive
boys schools.
Let me open up a secret... some of my school friends, shanti,
premal, chintan, chande used to sit on a bench near jubilee ground
in the evenings just for bird watching! Naturally, there were many
birds in bhuj which liked them to be watched. My friends used to sit
on the bench and I used to sit on my grandfather’s bicycle (my bike-
you know!!) keeping my back towards the road where the birds used
to pass. Kalpesh, my dearest friend of school days (and even till
today) used to give me genuine company by keeping his back also
towards the road.
As any bird passed, I could see turning of heads of my friends 180
degree en masse! However, I kept myself away from this sacred
activity, (which probably our ancestors did for centuries with equal
zeal!) for some strange reasons. Firstly, I feared, a girl could drive
me mad if by chance I start liking any! Secondly, I never wanted to
be cheated by good looks. And lastly, I had label of “good boy”! (So
I do not know any popular names of the birds of our times at bhuj.) I
51

58. was sometimes targeted by my friends for the same reason.
However same friends used to put me forward if some
communication was to be done with any girl. (“Tara man ma paap
na hoyne! Tu barabar wat kari shakish...”). At occasional school
science fairs, I used to ask many questions to all contestants
including the girls amongst them. To my queries, most of the girls
used to get confused. My friends used to enjoy that. Apart from
these sporadic communications, there was total blackout.
But the situation turned different as I passed 12th std and entered a
medical college. As I felt, good looks could no longer deceive me
and “good boy” should have good girls as friends, I decided to have
good friendship with the girls of my class. And now, probably, it was
the time to go mad for anyone if heart demanded!
Again, let me talk about the girl in the bus. She looked an average
college girl with boy cut hair and spects. Her looks made it sure she
was from a decent family. This all gave me courage to speak with
her.
“hello! Are you by chance going to psmc?” I directly inquired.
“oh yes… I recently got admission.” Her reply fuelled my
confidence.
“so we probably belong to same batch. I also am going to psmc. I
am from bhuj. My name is neh”I introduced myself.
“nice to meet you” she said honestly. I really felt happy inside as I
could talk nicely with her.
“ I do not know how to reach karamsad. Can you tell me?” I put my
52

59. query as we got down from the bus.
“oh sure. Come with us. there is separate bus station for vallabh
vidyanagar and we may get connection to psmc from there.” She
happily guided me to the destination and I followed.
I thought I really was successful in communicating and creating
base for friendship. Nothing more was expected. I was happy. No
one can imagine how a “virgin” boy like me would feel from such a
small incident. It was like starting of new journey of life, first breeze
of self confidence.
If this happened to my friends like jasmine shah or tapasvi, it was
nothing very special. They had very good capacity not only to
communicate but also to befriend the girls. But I never was like
them and the small meeting took a special place within me.
I never had any more expectation from the little communication I did
with that girl. I only expected a good beginning of friendship giving
me confidence and opportunity to communicate more with the other
girls of my batch. Wasn’t that quite legible?
Within a day or so, I saw that girl again! She was going somewhere
and incidentally I was on the same way behind her. She probably,
as faintly I remember, had some of her friends with her. I felt I
should talk. Rather, I was eager to initiate talk!
“Hello…!”Sure of response, I said over confidently.
She was few steps away from me. However, she was walking
silently with her friends. But she did not respond. I lost a bit of my
53

60. confidence but the very next moment, I felt probably she might have
not heard me well.
“Hello there…!” now I spoke with some anxiety. Again there was no
response. She did not even look back! She kept walking. I felt she
wanted to neglect me. Was that really true? Was she avoiding me?
Such questions mounted in my mind and wiped away all of my
confidence to talk with the first girl I met in my college.
I do not know what happened afterwards. But I was hurt. The blow
was severe. The severity was such that I never took any chance to
talk with any girl of my class again. I kept myself away from the
girls. My mind was full of fear of rejection. It was not that I did not
talk with the girls at all, but I talked only whatever was extremely
needed. I never tried to befriend with any of the girls. College world
became somewhat gloomy for me for those initial few months.
Though there was a big dent on my heart I was otherwise normal
and even I could hide this fact from my best friends like tapasvi and
hemant. So no one probably ever noticed what happened to me!
Was that fair to not to talk with me even after my brief introduction
and repeated attempts to talk with her by me? How could one be so
rude? She could at least have told me hi or could have given me a
smile. Or she should not have talked with me at the first occasion at
the bus station only.
However, some angles had to come to rescue me! Notably, one of
them, Margi, one of my dissection partners in anatomy classes
unknowingly did that job. She was a very talkative (and still is!) girl.
54

61. She would not stop talking till you respond. Then there was
namrata-Cool calm and gentle girl sure of her goals. Shilpa was not
our dissection partner but she used to come now and then on our
table to chat with our team in name of seeing “good dissection”.
As time passed, I met beji, naughty and a bit narcissist, very
conscious of her. Jasmine, studious and innocent, anu, looked and
behaved more like a school than a college girl. I can not forget my
good friend heena, himani, jayshree and ripple. All of them treated
me normally.
Gradually, like the river water smoothes all the dents of the stones
as it passes gently shaping the stones over the time, my wound
healed by all the angels I met afterwards.
Years later, the lady that met me in the bus became good friend of
ours. Jasmine told her my story. She really was surprised. She did
not even notice the small incident that took place a few years back
that gave me a scar. Her behavior was purely unintentional. She
never wanted to hurt any one. She was really sorry for whatever
happened that day and afterwards.
After these many years, above story is just to smile about.
55

62. SAVIOR NOT SAVED!
October 17, 2010
“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
56

63. 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?”
57

64. “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
58

65. 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….
59

66. ...BUT FRIENDS ARE FRIENDS!
October 12, 2010
…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
60

67. 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?”
61

68. “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
62

69. 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
63

70. 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
64

71. 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.
65

72. BAPTISM
September 28, 2010
BAPTISM
Switzerland was the name given to our campus not only because it
was beautiful , but also it was like a small Island away and cut off
from the main land. When we entered the college, there were only
three more student batches in the campus. Our campus thus was a
small village. Campus buzz used to spread like fire in no time!
For entertainment, there was nothing nearby. There was one open
air theatre, especially for people of nearby villages, at karamsad
which used to show typical gujarati films. Good theatres were at
anand, about 8kms away from our campus.
I and tapasvi both never liked hindi masala movies. But when
college friends ask you to join, it is really difficult to resist.
On one fine evening after the sunset, I and tapasvi decided to join
other friends on their way to anand to a movie theatre. There was
some action movie somewhat of our taste. As we went to the gate
of our shri Krishna hospital, we found our friends jumping in a big
truck of amul dairy!
“hey ! what are you doing? Can’t we get any rikshaw?” one of my
friends asked the other.
“forget it! Just get in!”
66

73. It was a big tata truck full of milk canes. We all climbed rapidly onto
back of the truck to discover a new way of transport! Truck started.
The noice of the engine was hardly heard at the back. We felt like
flying on alladin’s carpet! We were free to walk on the milk canes. It
was about 20min journey. The charges were cheaper too. We
reached our destination soon.
After this ride, to go for a movie became triple enjoyment for us: ride
the truck, watch the movie and forget the vivas and texts back at
campus.
On one such ride, I remember, I sat On the top of the driver’s cabin.
It was winter and the air was so cool that I developed numbness
and tingling on all of my face.
There was never any bad accident, as far as I remember, with any
one only because of sheer good luck. However, One of my
classmate jani had fracture femur while traveling sitting aside the
rikshaw driver.
One day, I and tapasvi were bored enough and we desided to go to
anand for a good action English movie. To choose the movie, we
were asking our friends their reviews. Because when you spend
money for entertainment, you ought to get full return!
“planning to go to a movie?” suddenly a voice interrupted us. the
voice was of a famous figure from our senior batch (mail me and I
will tell you the name!).
67

74. “yes…we want to see a good action movie..” we revealed our
choice.
“ hmmmm….” Taking his fingers close to his chin, in his typical
style, he gave a thought to our choice. “Why don’t you choose
sirocco today?” he suggested ultimately.
“ Is it a good action movie?” we wanted to confirm
“ oh sure. Marvelous.” He gave final assurance.
We both took joy ride from the main gate and reached the theatre in
hope of entertaining ourselves with a good action movie.
As soon as we entered the main gate of the theatre, we saw the
hoarding of the movie.
“ Loook tapasvi this isn’t any action movie…it appears an adult
movie.” I exclaimed to tapasvi as we never had seen such thing in
our lives! For a moment, we stared each other probably waiting for
the other to say ‘let us go back’. But it did not happen! Probably in
back of our minds we were searching justification to go in the
theatre to see the unseen and the forbidden.
“ we have come this far…we can not go back.” Tapasvi had the
courage to follow the instinct. we went to box office with beating
heart. Both of us constantly looked around fearing some known
persons noticing us.
This was very first time we saw such a movie!
68

75. WE DID START THE FIRE......!
September 07, 2010
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
69

76. (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.
70

77. 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….
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,
71

78. 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…
72

79. 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
73

80. JUMMA…..WHO WAS HE?
August 24, 2010
(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
74

81. 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.”
75

82. “ 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.
76

83. 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…!”
77

84. 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
78

85. 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.
79

86. 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…”
80

87. 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….
81

88. JASMIN SHAH
May 30, 2010
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?”
82

89. “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
83

90. 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
84

91. very well..!” explained jasmine.
85

92. THE MESSY MESS AND EATING GAMES
May 02, 2010
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
86

93. 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
87

94. 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.
88

95. 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
89

96. 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.
90

97. “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.
91

98. KILLING SCIENCE: WE, THE WHISTLE BLOWERS
April 22, 2010
KILLING SCIENCE: WE, THE WHISTLE BLOWERS
While practical classes of anatomy were full of excitement initially,
practical classes of physiology were much like our 12th standard
laboratory classes. Our physiology laboratory initially was in the old
college building.
We were, in the beginning, taught usual blood counts, how to
recognize different cells in the blood in microscope and principles
behind such tests.
All this was done manually. But from where did the blood sample
come? Naturally we had to do the tests on our own blood. This was
a bit painful procedure.
“Today, we are to perform total white cell count. We will tell you how
many micro liters of blood are needed, how to see them under the
microscope and how to count the white cells. But first of all, you ask
your friend to get your blood sample from your ring finger.” Looking
at our herd, our tutor announced.
They made such a big college. Could not they arrange a few blood
samples for the tests? Oh man, thought of getting pricked was
painful. But there was no escape. Kamlesh was my partner in first
practical in physio lab.
92

99. He took the lancet and got strong hold of my ring finger. I looked
helplessly to him. He smiled. Though kamlesh was very lean and
thin, he looked like demon to me at that moment! Ouch! He gave a
nice deep prick. Was it really that painful or my fear made me feel
that way? I could not say. Tip of my finger became red with blood. I
felt as if kamlesh got the blood deep down from my bone! I could
count my heartbeats at the pricked tip of finger due to pain.
(Though, this was not the part of practical learning!) I picked the
pipette and draw required blood in it.
Same event was probably repeated at each table. Some boys
rendered such ‘gentle’ services to girls. Pragnesh was notoriously
very well known for this.
It was really amazing to see one’s own white cells under the
microscope. I really forgot the prick.
When the main new building of our college was ready, like other
departments, the physio deptt soon was shifted to the new building.
We had luxury of two labs there. One was for human physiology
and the other was an animal experiment lab.
In our 12th class also we were forced to study live frogs. That was
really very cruel. The frogs were dumped in chloroform and were cut
open to study finally leaving them for death. Students were
supposed to see the different live systems of the dying poor
creature. I really still do not under stand the logic of doing such a
cruel exercise in name of science. Honestly, those lab experiments
neither contributed to increase my knowledge of biology nor they
93

100. helped in slightest way to understand human machinery. But that
was in the syllabus. We had to do that.
Here in physiology, such experiments went a step further. The deptt
had a separately maintained animal house outside the college.
Different types of animals were kept there to be slaughtered in
name of research and science.
Since chloroform had bad effect on nervous system, the frogs were
required to be ‘pithed’, keeping their nervous system intact for
study. Can you guess how cruel the procedure was? Prof harsoda
used to do that. He would hold a live frog in his left hand firmly and
then would take an instrument that looked like ice cutter in right
hand. The sharp point was pushed between the eyes of the frog and
then the instrument was rotated destructing the connection of brain
with the spinal cord, keeping the poor animal ‘intact’ for study. Just
compare this with the fear of small prick we humans fear usually!
To bear this all, one had to cut off one’s sensory system from the
brain. NO one could see such cruelty except under fear of exam!
There was one experiment to show us normal heart activity and
effects of different drugs on heart muscle. We had to cut open the
thorax of the frog, insert a pointed hook at the tip of the frog’s
beating heart and then to attach that hook to a drum assembly to
take a graph.
There was a special place, a smoking zone, in the lab where special
papers were given smoke so that a graph could be recorded on
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101. them. I felt such obsolete experiments required more such 18th
century technique for recording graph.
Apart from mercilessly killing the frog, we were not required to
handle other animals.
(Not mentioning some of the teachers!). I do not remember any of
my classmates enjoying such experiments. Almost all of us hated
that.when i saw this very first time, i felt deep pain. i left the lab and
went to the chamber of the head of the department of physiology.
Dr. Mazoomdar was in his chair.
"may i come in sir?" I asked in low voice.
"yess. Khomme in" sir replied in his deep typical voice." yess neha,
why do you appear so disturbed?"
my face was perhaps enough gloomy to be read.
"Sir...I wanted to ask.." I was squeezing all my strength to speak up.
i paused.
"Ask what?" Sir had to speak after 10 seconds pause.
"Sir.. can't we stop killing frogs?" At last i was able to speak.
Sir looked in my eyes and probably read them well.
"See neha, this is part of your physiology learning. In any science,
no one can believe whatever is written in books. One has to see
that all directly, keenly observe it and most importantly re prove it...
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102. So here you see whatever is written in your physiology
textbook...you understand?" sir was really sympathetic and truthful
on his side.
"Sir but many facts are established since decades now. Till how
long we need to repeat and reprove and reprove again?" i had my
own argument.
Sir smiled " Might be some student may find something new from
these experiments some day and may change our understanding of
old facts.." He explained the ideal certificate to kill the frogs and
other animals mercilessly in as humane voice as possible.
I wanted to ask how may students in his career did he see which
revealed something new in his MBBS practical killer classes. But
there was no point in argument.
" Any way neha...you go to hostel and rest well" Looking at my bitter
face ,sir ultimately suggested.
Some of my friends were very sensitive to the issue. I remember,
especially kapil, vimal, vivek, jayesh, were really furious on this
issue. They explained their feelings to the whole batch. We were
further disturbed by the fact told by a servant in the physio deptt. He
told our HOD of physio deptt wanted him to catch dogs of our
campus so that experiments could be carried out personally by the
HOD.
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103. So, our batch decided to boycott the practical classes. This
movement lasted for a few weeks. Some of the students of our
batch, as I remember, wrote slogans on pillars of the physio deptt
expressing their anger on the cruelty.
I do not remember whether we were successful in stopping such
practical but I do not remember giving exams of similar practical.
Afterwards, as we all know, because of efferts of maneka Gandhi,
such experiments were stopped all over the India. Our batch tried to
do the same long before maneka Gandhi did!
(I would be glad if any one can add to this event)
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104. SECRETS OF BOYS’ HOSTEL : TIFFIN BOMB ?
April 10, 2010
SECRETS OF BOYS’ HOSTEL : TIFFIN BOMB ?
Bhargav, my classmate and lobby partner was very witty and he
had a lot of sense of humor. After the college, we used to have
routine discussions on many topics. Bhargav told us many jokes
and one liner.
“You know Neh, any movement on this earth by any creature is
because of one of the three main reasons- fear, food and female.”
Standing at my room’s door, as he used to, bhargav revealed one of
the basic rules of nature.
“Yes bhargav! You are right. But every creature ultimately needs
female!” added biren.
“No yaar, all three what bhargav said are basic motive and you can
not compare them” tapasvi was clear about his idea.
“See man, As far as we are concerned, we fools study because of
fear of failure which might deprive us from getting food and probably
also might starve us from female in future! So ultimately- damn
female!” biren was some times unbeatable in argument.
Think of a situation when you see all your friends in other branches
enjoying their college days bunking almost every lecture, enjoying
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105. films now and then and have a lot of time to spend for chit chat. At
the similar times you, carrying load of books in big bag on your
back, are every week trying to get through hell of vivas and exams.
Karamsad was a kind of a lonesome place because it was a village
and was away from city. Even if one wished to entertain oneself with
routine collegian stuff, there were no such facilities nearby. Still,
there was an open air theatre ‘jalaram’ mostly showing cheap
gujarati movies and a few tea-pakoda cabins outside the collage
gate. So arguments, counter arguments and discussions were big
part of our daily entertainment programme.
There was no escape from this situation at least for students like me
as my home was far away from karamsad. However, my friends
from ahmedabad and baroda had great escape every week. That
movement to home also had a component of food and female.
On Saturdays ,you would find most of the students going to the
college with big bags on their back carrying clothes to get washed,
empty dabbas to be refilled with home made food(breakfast), and
books perhaps to read (which never happened at home for most of
the boys!).
Females, well, were the extra attraction at journey. It was nice time
for the boys and girls to interact in the train. Like my room mate
tapasvi and lobby partner jasmine shah, many of my friends were
seen surrounded by gopis in the train. Still, there were many ‘left
outs’ from having such luxury. Some of them had better ideas. They
used to sit on the top berth of the train compartment, making sure to
watch ‘birds’ from the height ensuring their eyes to reach
unreachable places.
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106. The students would sprint back to PSMC on Monday. They would
come rushing, throw their bags in the hostel room and would run to
the college. But Mondays were also special for other reason. Most
of the students would bring breakfast from home, given in enough
amounts so that they can use it for the whole week. However the
tasty items from home hardly lasted a day or two. This was because
the items were shared with all others.
No one ever taught us ‘sharing is caring’ but it was very natural for
all the students. Amdavadi and barodian students perhaps
contributed greatest to this tradition as they went home almost
every weekend, negating very much ‘amdavadi haramjaadi’! For this
reason, hardly any one’s cupboard was left out with any stuff within
couple of days. Even lobby partners were called to taste any new
items from home.
However, there were exceptions. One chap in nursing hostel [the
temporary boys’ hostel in our time] was very clear about his policy.
He straight forward used to say, ‘my mother has sent all this for the
week and she said not to share this with any one’. Accordingly he
used to push his head in his cupboard daily morning so that he
could enjoy it all alone for the whole week! His partners, stunned at
his behavior initially, gradually accepted that.
Related to food, the following story was told to me by others in the
hostel of PSMC. It was claimed true but I can not claim the same.
Obviously, I have changed the true names of the said real
characters. However apart from the presentation, the said facts are
kept as they were told to me...So I start with following scene…
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107. “Hello friend! Welcome back to hostel...” Jagesh was greeted as he
returned from home after a few days leave
Jagesh, busy in arranging his luggage back to his cupboard, simply
nodded yes.
“Guys, I also have returned today from home. My mother has sent
nice home made kachori, ganthia and laddus for all of us. Come
here! Join us Jagesh!” Jagesh’s room mate maheep invited jagesh.
“Tasty! May I get one more kachori?” Balu, third room partner,
eating with Jagesh admired “you can have surti items from my bag.
Get them out.” He added.
This was usual scene anywhere in the hostel. But for jagesh, the
sharing was unilateral phenomenon.
“What have you brought Jagesh?” sniffing something tasty, maheep
was eager.
“Nothing guys! It was difficult to bring any thing from that far.” joining
the laddu party after arranging his luggage, Jagesh negated.
“Tell us man! We saw you eating something from your cupboard last
time you returned from your home! You gave the same today’s
answer that day also. Is it that you dislike to share?” Balu had a
sneaking suspicion. His observation was substantiated my many
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108. other lobby partners too. And that was repeated every time
whenever Jagesh returned from his home.
“Oh! Not at all, why should I behave like that? You both are my fast
friends.” chewing kachori, Jagesh explained in muffling voice.
“May we check you cupboard?” now maheep became intrusive.
“No no! No need. There are only clothes and books. Don’t you
believe me?” Jagesh said as he completed the last laddu.
“Ok we believe you.” And soon the party was over.
Jagesh went to bathroom.
“Maheep let us do something for this liar. It would have been fair on
his part if he told us the truth .but I feel, this guy is simply a liar” Balu
was sure about the smell from Jagesh’s luggage.
“But how can we screw him?” maheep scratched his head.
Balu thought for a while.
“Yes! I have an idea…listen …” and thus a plan was hatched. To
jagesh’s great misfortune, balu was one of the greatest mischief
makers of their batch.
That day, when Jagesh went to library, a green signal was given not
only to maheep but also to some of the lobby partners.
“Come on guys! Break open the cupboard. This special party is
sponsored by none other than our great room mate Jagesh!”
announced Balu.
102

109. Within a few minutes the lock was broken and within seconds to that
all friends found the much sought treasure – Jagesh’s hidden
banquet!
“Balu was right! Jagesh is a complete liar!” throwing the treasure to
friends maheep said. “Ask others to join the feast. We alone can not
complete these all”
The feast was grand. Not because the food stuff was very tasty but
perhaps the stolen stuff was tastier or more over, the taste of ‘tit for
tat’ was beyond capacity of the group’s taste buds!
Soon, everything was over. The cupboard was re arranged and
closed. Every one dispersed just to eagerly wait for the scene when
Jagesh returned from the library.
“Hey maheep, my cupboard is wrecked by some one! Who did
this?” shocked by the broken lock Jagesh’s tongue slipped “and
which rascals ate my whole week’s breakfast?”
“What breakfast?” assuming innocence maheep said “you did not
bring any eatables from home. You told us today morning. Didn’t
you?”
Sensing the trap, immediately Jagesh had to save himself “oh yaar!
I forgot there was nothing here. You are right.”
Maheep gestured his eye to Balu and gave a winning smile.
“Jagesh just make sure your books and clothes are not stolen”
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110. Not understanding how to react to this situation, Jagesh answered
“they are very much ok”
Every participant cupboard raider had a great laugh that night. But
this was not the end. There was some thing more to happen.
Jagesh was not taking his meals at the student mess. His Tiffin
used to come from karamsad. Many a times, tired Jagesh would
come from the college in after noon and would find his tiffin empty!
And no one would be ready to reveal the identity of the robber
despite Jagesh’s marathon efforts at inquiry.
Routinely, a maid would come to take back all the empty tiffins. She
would clean the tiffins so that they could be re filled and re sent at
evening.
On one bad day for Jagesh, a maid came with his tiffin and she said
she wanted to have word with him. As soon as she saw him she
greeted him with a load of surtis! This was totally unexpected on
Jagesh’s part! Puzzled and stupefied, Jagesh could not figure out
what went so wrong with the maid. The discourse lasted until all the
rage of the maid transformed to her choicest surti. Naturally, all
others enjoyed the episode. After much of persuasion and
explanation from Jagesh’s side consisting mainly words like “I do
not know, I have not done this, I am sorry,” and gestures of apology,
the maid was convinced to continue her services for him.
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111. It was obvious for maheep to ask Balu about his role in this incident.
Balu smiled. Gestured with his eye and whispered “today, I not only
ate his tiffin but also put a tiffin bomb back in it!”
“What?”
Balu’s eyes sparked mischief as he said:
“A condom”
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