ADIE 5

Circumspection is very important in life - at times we all need to take a look around us to see where we stand today in comparison to where we stood yesterday or where we will be tomorrow. So many years have gone by but memories are still disturbingly vibrant - as if you can touch them or better relive them. In our first year life was good again - as a class the incidence with M taught us - 'never become too serious with studies and career'. Whatever happens, happens anyway.
The dissection hall remains in my memory as if it was yesterday - I still can smell the pungency of formalin.I still remember the face of the body that we dissected throughout the year and cut in to pieces to understand the nuances of human body . It was young, partly bearded, moon-face, I imagine probably from the minority, I wonder why he never got a formal burial - why nobody claimed him in death. I remember the first few week I would feel the chill on the back of my neck when I would walk the long corridor of hostel II top floor to go to the bathroom and walk back in midnight. The corridor light would be chronically off and you could almost imagine some one walking silently just by your side. Once physiology classes started that indeed became more interesting - my partner was a sweet girl from Shillong - very nice looking, mild mannered intelligent and cultured. She eventually turned out to be a very good friend throughout our stay in SMC. I have not seen her since my last day in SMC, I heard life was not good to her -marital troubles and all - I wonder where she is now. On the first day of learning how to do blood counts, each of us were expected to do the needle prick on our partner's hand; when I attempted to practice that on D's hand in my nervousness I had really stuck the needle deep in her finger and she cried out in great pain. Later that spot got badly infected thanks to my sterile technique and I felt so sorry till it healed. We had a Dr. R who turned to be my father's ex-student and that earned me a lot of attention from him. He was a good teacher but eccentric and bitter with life. I hated him for the attention that he bestowed on me. He did not have any children and lived in a quarter near the hostel - students joked at him all the time and I would join the crowd but always felt sorry for him. Physiology got in to my heart and I would scare my batch mates by instant recital of the coagulation cascade. I am sure my batch mates hated me for the showmanship ; little they would know that every morning just after dawn I would get up on the hostel terrace and mug up and recite the entire coagulation cascade till I memorized it. Needless to say I quickly rose to eminence in the class. Our Anatomy professor was a new comer fron Nepal - so one day he asked me to see him in the room and asked me if I could help his class XI daughter to prepare for her medical college entrace classes.. One day I did go to his home , met the girl - she was utterly dumb, and almost imbecile in her academic efforts. The arrangement did not work out and gradually I excused myself out of this but that was a vital career mistake. I never got more than the passmark in the anatomy exams and he almost failed me in the finals but for intervention from the external whom I impressed with my description of the human thalamic centers. Later D and few other girls who scored very high marks in the anatomy finals did tell me that the professor did ask them as well and despite their utter disgrace they continued to tutor his daughter. The girl never got in to medical college. The professor used to drive an old Austin - in my fifth year during the social week his car's windshield was smashed and there was a strong rumor that I instigated it. Indeed I did not.

Soon it was time to go for a picnic - you know the fun - winter morning, a dilapidated bus, and time to go to Jatinga. Things happened on that day.