A Must Read for all Medicos

This is just a fictional pen picture of life in a Medical College , Resemblance to any college or any particular student living or dead may not be purely co incidental . But certainly no pun intended.

Have a quick read and post u r feedbacks, that'll keep more coming from my side......here's the link to my personal blog.

http://sunnydays-funnyme.blogspot.com/2010/01/mbbs-morality-factor.html

love always

Biswarup

nutty memories

hi

friends!

sorry to have been out of touch for so many days.i assure you that this wont happen again.Iand we all ought to be in touch with scintillans as a part of our identity specially of the golden days that we have spent and are spending at smc .Today i am adding few nostalgic lines from my memories.hope to hear from those who can revive them from their archives.

1) " kochi kochi murgir chanagulo dekhlei amar pran chotfot kore"

bujhecho kalu?

can you guess the statement is made by whom?pls reply to me.

2):amar nam aj theke bhiku bhai(one sip !)Ei ! aaj theke mare bhiku bhai bole dakbi!

any guesses, readers?

3)spp:My friends are culprit! reply:NO ! you r the culprit!

dear friends can you guess the respondent?

4)Dilai !?switch dilai?!and it was followed by an explosion that plunged the auditorium hall to darkness.this great man needs to be identified

i will be back soon with many more such nutty memories! bye

biplab

The Legendary Romance

It was a star studded night of around early 1998. The evening round of bustling crowd of medicos was starting to fade away from the common room with the boys retiring to their respective rooms ,the preparation of the whole night study by the smarter ones were just on the way ,my eyes seemed to be bit dreamy and dozing off to a sweet episode of nap,suddenly I was awaken by a thump on my door.
With a presumably irritated mood as i opened the door.the huge round face(?moon face)of Dr.aapee was there grinning in front of me.Being a senior to me he carried some natural amount of respect which I always maintained with him.thus although in an unhappy mood, I welcomed him.
"Welcome dada!what pleasant wind brings you here? "

Without answering he came and flopped down on my poor cot which cried in pain at once!(he was 110 kgs at that time).His face seemed to be in a very curious expreesion of pleasure and confusion as he was brandishing a coloured envelope in his hand as if it was a sword meant for victory!
"So whats the news dada?any special msg in the cover?!" altough i said in a joke but he seemed to be fired up on it! As he stretched a broad grin on his face and said "ya ,my dear ultimately the great news has come!I think i have done it!"
"But dada what's it?pls tell me".i cann't wait any longer in suspicion!
The broader became his smile the dreamier became his eyes .the glow reached the highest climax on his face as he uttered "dear i am in love"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The initial ecstasy gave way to a smile of contentment on aaypees face as he held the envelope close to his heart(?huge mass of jumbled lipoid tissue) and invited me to have a go at it! I could hardly resist my self in an inquisitiveness to see who was the peculiar lady to be attracted to the collosal person and i peeped over his shoulders to find a typical page out of some professional love letter pad!(Those pads were in high demand those days!!).Closer to my eyes Icould see the handwriting which looked like that of a lady , three full pages expressing love and affection to a degree which was almost unbelivable to me! I could not convince myself that really there was someone who would dare to come closer to aapeye's bone breaking stucture and to see the name signed on it i was even more astonished.It was timmy!the newly admiitted medico with chubby chicks and dimple chin ! All of us had enjoyed praising her smooth and supple appearence during the freshers day!Now she had fallen in love so soon that to with the great aaypee?!! It took me several minutes to digest the idea of it! As soon as i was able to come out of the room i burst into laughter running into the next room where Dr.gim was fast asleep (?due to the blessings of potpot baba i guess) i shook him violently ,helpless,withlaughter.but he was fast asleep!After two kicks delivered hard on to his side he opened his dreamy eyes.It took me 10 minutes to get the whole thing into his brains.And to my surprise, he didnt seem to be astonished as i was! Only what he asked was to show the letter to him which was no easyjob.Aapyee would not part with it at any cost!However i resoved to try to get a copy out of him as i strode back to my room jumbled with a lot of questions in my mind on the whole issue.

(Dear friends! pls send your comments on this effort of mine to keep me boosted for the further episodes.thanks ,and see you soon)

Can you remember him?

Can you remember him? Waiting for few nostalgic comments from readers.

ADIE 6

I am back from vacation - was in India and Silchar and got to see SMC again. Sat in the library for about half an hour and chatted with staff. Went up to the hostels - the canteen is closed - wondered where the guys have their breakfasts now a days, hostels are pretty much unchanged. Too many motor cycles parked in the hostels. Called up at least a quarter of my batch mates on the phone including my ex-girlfriend - spoke to her after almost 20 years. Everybody sounded quite upbeat in SMC - things apparently have improved at least marginally.

I am not sure. If I have my way - I will recommend radical changes. First privatize the medical services, admission should be through an all-India competitive exam - no quotas. The medical teaching faculty should be paid at least INR 100,000 per month and upwards but no private practice allowed. Would get investors to put in at least INR 100 crores, would upgrade the hospital, hostels. All faculty, students and possibly ancillary staff should have living accommodations within the faculty. For medical services, all patients should be charged competitive rates at par with city nursing homes. Those who can not afford - based on income would receive subsidized care. Will sell mandatory health insurance to the population in Barak valley and beyond - for example pay an annual premium of INR 5000 for the family and get comprehensive high-quality health care at SMC year-round with appropriate deductibles.

Will try to market health facilities to patients in neighboring states and Bangladesh. Open centers of excellence for cancer , diabetes, cardiac diseases and radiology amongst others. Would strengthen postgraduate education tremendously, add postgraduate nursing education - would negotiate with US/UK for supplying quality doctors/nurses (like TCS in software). Would invite multinational pharmaceuticals to initiate industry sponsored drug trials. SMC would be autonomous administratively as well as financially.

At the least would paint all existing buildings with plastic paint that does not get mould and refurbish the Medicine and Surgery ward bathrooms.

Someday optimism will pay. New beginings will come.

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.

ADIE 4

Sorry for being MIA for so many days. Too many things going on - grants, deadlines, new home buying, the new Harry Potter movie - and planning the upcoming trip to India.

Anyways, where was I? In the first few weeks of being in SMC. So rapidly came along the first evaluation in anatomy. By that time we have jelled in a little bit more, made introductions and the initial buds of long-lasting friendships were forming. There were more girls in my dissection group than boys and after languishing in the periphery for few days, I quickly realized that if I read a little bit of anatomy from a good book the evening earlier, I could command some respect in the next afternoon and lots of attention from the girls. So, I gradually became the lead dissector in the group and enjoyed the favor of attention. Same thing did not happen to my roommate M, who was a little shy; one day he was turned out because he was seen carrying the Gray's anatomy in the dissection room and our demonstrator shouted at him as the 'mass of confused protoplasm'. Anyways, then came along our first evaluation with 'palm dissection'. All were stressed out with all the longus and brevis tendons but some took it very seriously including my roommate M. On the evening prior to the evaluation which was slated for noon next day - few of us spent trying to clear the confusion of palm anatomy for few hours but did not make much headway and then proceeded to the canteen for our dinner. My roommate stayed behind immersed in study. I went to another room after dinner and spent more time gossiping with the other group of friends whose evaluation was on 'perineal anatomy' and you can pretty much guess the jokes. At 11 PM I came back to my room , saw my roommate still studying - he had got his dinner delivered to the room; I told him that I did not think any of us are going to do well and it does not really matter in the long run and he should relax and go to sleep. He said he will in about a hour - one more chapter to go through. I, however, went to bed and within a few minutes was in deep slumber. Now I wonder how could I sleep in that small room with all the lights on - but we were young at that time. I woke up at about 3 AM in the morning with loud thuds on the door - it was a November cold night - walked up to the door and saw it was half open and the guard standing there. He asked me where is your roommate? I said he is sleeping on the other bed under the net and we both looked - M was not there.
The guard rushed me to the tennis court on the ground floor and in the twilight I saw a heap lying on the floor - moaning with my name in a very labored fashion.

M died next day about noon time - he had jumped from the terrace, had multiple visceral trauma including a ruptured spleen and liver and the femoral heads smashing in to the pelvis. Our evaluation was deferred indefinitely. The whole class silently cried for nearly a week. I changed the hostel and came to live permanently in hostel II. I met his parents later during his last rites - and I still remember his father's last words to me - stay in touch - you are M for us now onwards. I never met them again til date but I do make a point to remember him at points of interest in my medical career even now. I mentally share my successes and failures with him - he had chosen to share his room with me. I still wonder what was it that killed him- stress, depression, inability to cope with the shortcomings, or an odd-ball malfunctioning neurotransmitter masquerading as a chance thought .

bhoooot!

Bachaaaaaaaaaaaaooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Aspine chilling cry awakened the sleeping inmates of boys hostel no I in a december night.Too weary of all the daily chores some of them dragged their way through the corridor to peep below in the dark ness from where the sound seemed to have come.

In the fog what could be seen was a commotion in front of chakraborty's canteen ,where the busky voice of chakraborty was resounding!"kita hoiche!bolen bolen!"And so on!In a frenzy we rushed to the spot to find !!!!!!!!

The most quire appearences i have ever seen.our greaaaaat! SPP(ekhon londone thaki!)was holding hard to the huge belly of chakraborty (pressing against his huge one)and shivering bitterly !only thing that we could gather was one word that slipped out of his dry and trembling tongue!!!!!!bhooooooooooooooooot!!!!!! bachaaooooooo!!!!!!!!

All of us looked very much shaken in such surroundings specially in the midnight such thought itself is very frightening indeed!

But a distinct naughty and mischievious smile hung to the lips of the four dhamakians who seemed to have found it rather amusing indeed!

After all had recovered from the initial spate of horror, the dhamakians chose to retire to their respective rooms.But spp was inconsolable ! None could persuade him for coming back to the same grip of terror thats still fresh in his mind! So what was so horrifying!? Well, back in his room, the sight was indeed curious. Two bundles of fire was seen hanging on both sides of the balcony facing the woods near the hostel!!!!!!!!!!!! on lots on keen and precise enquiry it was known that one local witch!(called :thola ray)had given the bundles to spp to protect him from those evil spirits(pishach)that were troubling him of late in his room! Very frequently, as spp was fast asleep in his room ,bones of dead animals kept flighing in his room and buckets full of blood!!!!(Actually kumkum from tinali) kept being splashed in his room, giving him a very horrible time! he had tolerated all of these and as soon as the owl shreiked near his balcony he would shiver in mind(pecha pecha ! bacha!).You could find him knocking some inmates door often at midnight requesting a refuge for the night!if asked , why r u afraid!he replied, aaaa nana ! Aami bhut bhoi pai na!asole eka achi to! tai! his naughty room mate also never came to his rescue and he kept on decreasing weight in his tummy day by day! Suddenly one day there was a proposal from his roommate and other in mates, which seemed to be a remedy to him! planchetteeeee!!!!!!!!

In that horrifying evening, all six of us gathered around a ghostly lamp on a table. Whole room was dark as hell! In front of the trembling stature of spp all of us were trying hard and fast to keep the supernatural spirit appeased, (so that he doesn’t become blood thirsty!)of which spp had appeased us many times of.! The medium being roommate of spp, was very anxious to invite the spirit within himself! And to our horror and? (?Pleasure)the spirit arrived soon after showing a series of teeth at spp and growling in a inanimate tone!" youuuuuuuu!dareeeee,touch my shadow!!!”(Dear readers! bhoot doesn’t have a shadow!) this silly mistake was even over looked by spp as he prayed for mercy to the spirit. Severely sweating out of fear. one of us had

to continue the conversation on behalf of him and pray to the spirit to know what was the remedy for this anger of his!Somewhat appeased at our sincere prayers the spirit seemed to be little cooled down (the medium was getting tired of acting) and he demanded a feast from spp as the fine for his misdeeds (which misdeeds? I couldnt understand till date)The feast was to be arranged at hostel in the dhamaka block itself! spp (known to be a great miser)at once accepted it and prayed for mercy !!!!!!!So, mercy was granted after the final order of the spirit! the feast should havae "payas"in it! ssp agreed immediately and started preparing for it.So the day had come for all of us! the whole dhamaka block was overflowing with enthu and pious endeavour of spp who was in the best of his form with a mark of sandalwood paste(tika) on his forehead ! we were all gathered for the kirtan party and our tantrik AD was busy recording all the sounds possible from the event!(luckily for spp there was no mobile camera and the digicams were not so cheap otherwise we could have presented a video show on it!) "however the recordings in the cassette of AD are still there in the name of "abhisopto ratri" and to say the truth, spp had totaly been under the spell of bhoot ;so much that he was indeed very sincere regarding the kirtan and all of us had enjoyed the feast that night at dhamaka! We had so many feasts after that but this feast was to be remembered for ever after for all of those who have seen it! Anyway the culmination of bhoot was no smooth for us bcause being afflicted by spp's fear for the bhoot some one of our seniors had broken the news to him about the whole event! And dear readers! Ssp had vowed since that date that if ever my or DR s.p (his room mate)'s children came under his claws in any medical college of india he will never allow them to pass in their life time. I tell you my dear friends i am still afraid of spp for this cause bcause he is supposed to be back from abroad after getting a huge wealth, and who knows may achieve a very important position in the medical faculty in our state! Then the time has come for us to hide from spp, both us and our children! Anyway it was great sharing those days with you. And I would heartily apologize for any left out and if i have hurt anybody in the course of this funny episodes,

Can you remember me? - 2

Dwellers of Boys’ Hostel must have known two Nikhils for long years – one is Nikhil Chinnappa, Video jockey of MTV select (presently super select) fame who has been ruling the show for years and transformed from a malnourished lad to a well built man.The other is equally famous Nikhil Das ,canteen jockey of Chakrabortyda’s Canteen.He was famous for his mental calculator in keeping audits of canteen and could never sublime his urge for adding 50 paisa ( for a cup tea ) in your account everytime you entered canteen. Years together we had seen him through the port hole, his favourite corner in canteen as a passport size image, but folks it was really surprising to see him in full stature because of his huge tummy, he had always tucked behind the wall. He also fancied hairstyles that were innovative & catchy & could have given even Nikhil chinnappa a run for it. Presently he runs his own setup in basement of BH-2. He becomes very nostalgic when he gets around with old hostel like us and lements on his past memories, saying…”sir, aajkaal sab badly gese,aager moto manush aar nai”

Remember me?

Namaskar Aigga ! chinte parsoin ni ! Aami SUMA alias harendra suklabaidya.official dhobi cum dry cleaner(?) cum part time singer (shyama sangeet only) of SMCH. “khandhe loiya kaporer jhuli, raat barotay dukan khuli”- I never turn up before midnight.For my odd timing I was once bashed up by a gang of dacoites who snatched awaymy favourite bicycle & tied me to a pole.
I have specialized in discolouring colourful cloths & inter changing of ones cloth with others. However I penalise by supplying shidol chatney & bidis (whenever you need it most – exam times) to my offended patrons. Not always I am paid in cash, sometimes my valued patrons deal in kind ( Sildenafil….agra)
Considering every pros & cons of my business, I am very much satisfied with my profession & patrons but have only one unfulfilled dream……………Ish! Girls hostel er kapor gula Jodi paitam!!

Adie 3

Let me tell you about those days in SMC. Things were quite different then and now. Space was a big constrain so much so that the pre-clinical and para clinical departments were housed in hostel II so that hostel had only 1.5 floors available for students and doctors. The anatomy and physiology departments were in the first (ground) floor and Phrama and SPM were in the second floor. Often the sweet pungent smell of formalin from the anatomy department would float up in the night air to the 4th floor where inmates would be - but everybody would get used to it eventually. If you are in the first 2 floors in hostel I, particularly on the inside quarters hovering over the badminton court, you could see who is coming and going in to these departments and some would wait for the pretty ones to pass by for a hidden look. The canteen was in the same place as I believe it it is now - the food was tasty but of low quality nutrition. One would become very quickly immune to the special strains of giardia and amoebae that I guess would be ubiquitous.

The two hostels had their own mess - often competing for members. It was kind of cool to eat in hostel I mess but live in hostel II or vice versa. The mess would be run by two hostel inmates usually picked from second and fourth year. At the end of the month, the mess manager and secretary were obligated to give a feast and their reputation depended on it. The quality of food was probably below par- brown rice, often to gooey to eat, daal in 3 layers : the top layer of water , the second layer of excess turmeric extract and the third solid layer with rocks and stones. Fish steaks were more like chips and there was a very peculiar odor of all the odd-mixtured spices that I never tasted again in my life elsewhere but would instantly recognize even two decades later. An option to eat out in a nearby shack came up little later but was more expensive and proabbly less clean and was strongly discouraged by the not-much-feared hostel super. We were young and we ate voraciously.

Our routine in the first year was to get up at 715, and attend classes from 8 to 10 AM and then again from 12 to 4 30 PM in physiology lab and anatomy dissection room. Our first classes started within a week joining SMC. One of the first classes was on chemistry which was little disappointing but we took it in our stride. We had two madams, they were very good and friendly and I still remember their notes on the sulpha drugs, that the whole class mugged up and for a while became our 'hello' substitute. The real first Medical college class was on Physiology and Professor P gave us such a beautiful introduction on homeostasis.

I have trained in Medicine for eternity (often repeating) from 1981 continuously to 2000 (can not give you the details - will break my anonymity) I have been to all the big and biggest institutions in India and the world , have heard lots of good medical teachers give lots of path-breaking lectures, but one thing I feel everyday, the basic training in Medicine that we received in SMC was excellent and has stood by me all these years. Nowhere else the teachers when they taught were so motivated with a personal touch. I hope that is still true.

Going back to the old days. There were two buses which would shuttle employee and students to and from the city. They were icons by themselves. Many miles and many uncouth repairs behind them, they were legendary for their ability to be there for us; we used call the smaller one a Boeing and the larger but more often sick one the Concorde. They would run from the boys' hostel at 5 PM and you have to do a complex mental math to sit on the right seat so that when the bus stopped at the Ladies hostel you will have an empty seat by yourself to offer - you get the point. However, when we would return from the city at 8 PM, I always chose the most front seat by the left side of the driver, lean over the wind-shield and would close my eyes and feel the entire body of the bus shaking in such relaxing frenzy while speeding on the pot-holed road from the city back to SMC, as I would dream and stare on to life. I heard those two buses met their deserved death sometime in the late eighties. They were good friends -lots of sweet memories- I grew up with them!

Adie's Story II

Today is Thursday morning. I have a brief respite from work - one of my patients did not turn up because her insurance did not authorize the visit. I was initially thinking to do something but decided to continue to write my story.....

So, on the second day I had to chose hostel between I and II (although I was local - I opted for the hostel to have 'independence') and at that time was approached by a batch mate to ask if I could be his roommate. He said his father knew my family and since I was such a good studious (I always cultured that outward impression although I was not exactly that way) boy his father wanted him to room with me. He did promise access to all his books and anatomy bones (that he already bought new and fresh direct from Calcutta). I was interested coming from mid-middle class family I was reluctant to go back to my father and ask for more money to buy stuff but besides that the deal was clinched when he mentioned that his mom likes to cook for him and prepared food from home is very likely to take care of the hostel inadequacies, i went for the deal. As you will see M will leave an indelible impression on my life by turn of events.
Sorry I need to go.... the staff found another patient for me - 93 year old lady with belly pain.

ADIES STORY-I

(The writer graduated from Silchar Medical College in 1986-87 & now practising in a reknowned hospital in USA.He sent us the following story of his time in SMCH, which will be subsequently followed by more interesting ,exciting relevations of his days in SMCH & will be published in SCINTILLANS in coming days.He chooses to be annonymous and he is posting his story under the pen name"ADIE" -Editor

"Hi, Partha, took your advice created a gmail account just to add some bytes to the SMC blog. This is indeed a very useful endeavour and I must congratulate you for your hard work to pull SMC up to the 21st century. As you could probbly tell that I graduated out of SMC in 1986-87 and since then moved on with life. I am currently in the US and in the best medical institution of the world. Have achieved whatever I wished for in life. However, one aspect bothers me a lot- could not do much for our Alma mater. So may be we could share some old stories, some fun amd and also, some probably unnecessary advice for you guys who has a full life ahead. A story that probably does not need to be told. But who cares so long the bliss of anonymity exists!
I will tell my story in parts and pieces: put that in the blog; May be with a title 'Adies story"-Adie)



1981 was a hot summer. I passed out of the local college with good marks but was very frustrated and discredited in my own image for not being able to secure a position in the pre-university exams. Although my innate weakness in Math contributed a lot to that I squarely blamed it on the Assam agitation which devoured one year of my life without any achievement. So many of us gave to the leaders of AASU and AGP one year of our valuable life but achieved so little. So I was frustrated, looking for a career but not sure what to do. I enrolled in a REC in West Bengal but that did not work out - was about to board a train to Dhanbad to get in to the Indian school of Mines but my omniscient uncle deflated the urge - he did predict way out at that time the Petroleum engineering is a dying science and i could not envision myself hunting for black gold in the recess of deep mine.. So after all the options of going to a technical college gradually went away - I realized with much dismay that I am stuck to SMC, the local medical college that did not even count in my top 20 career choices. I remember the day of the interview - I gave the interview at GMC and the panel asked why do I want to go to SMC. Although I wanted to answer them that I really do not want to go to SMC, the Principal of SMC volunteered saying that that was because Silchar was my hometown.

So there I was in SMC. I remember walking off the city bus in a maroon bell-bottom pant and check shirt on a warm October day morning and walking in to the SMC campus with the newly stitched white apron tucked under my elbow - very uncertain and quite reluctant. Eventually we were led on to meet the famed Laskarda who did a give a small introductory speech and eventually we were led in to the library. A gr op of girls and boys were all huddled there , doing their paperwork. There was a dominant group of few girls from Shillong with their westernized English accent that made rest of us a little nervous. I did find few local boys from the GC college and stuck to them mostly. Later we went to the Anatomy department in hostel II with all the inmates leering at us and making some stupid comments. Although girls were their main target many of them did not have the courage to really do anything to the girls so we rapidly became the innocent by-standers. I was pulled in to a room in hostel I where one long-standing dada was becoming a little virulent. So when I casually mentioned that I am a local boy and have my own 'adda' in Prem Tola he immediately backed off and started asking me about girl contacts in the city. I had none but pretended to be the exact opposite way and we someway became friends. By the third day, I was evolving to be the local group leader and started ragging our own batch-mates in not so subtle way and by the fifth day was bold enough to approach the girls from Shillong........ contd.