One Day in August, 1993
Under normal circumstances, juniors heading off to Madras may have resulted in repercussions. Unescorted trips to anywhere, including town, were more than frowned upon but our day trip to Madras is at the request of Devender, the Banner Commitee Head. This makes the trip an "official" one and no noises are made from the suddenly deprived raggers.
The task is to deliver a CD to the WWF office in Madras and catch the evening bus back. We will take the early morning bus from outside the campus. But there is an unsolved problem.
Interns, having truly "been there and done that" have usually left Juniors alone. They are too busy working, partying or doing whatever they do. They live in Aschoff House, a hostel a bit far away from all the action and no one in their right mind will volunteer to land up there on their own.
Pammi is one such Intern. He is a tall strapping Sardar, the only one on campus so far and earlier in the day, he had come across Ashley and me on the Inter-Hostel Road. He was on his Yamaha and had come to drop off some clothes to the IronMan, a tall thin grumpy man who has his Ironing Cart right between Osler and Lister. We talked for a bit, the usual ragging questions about where he was from etc and then he wanted to know who our favourite VJ's (On Channel V) were and we happily invented something.
Ashley likes Nonie and I can't recall anyone else so I say Nonie too. Pammi then tells us to write a one page essay on "Why I Love Nonie".
And this letter has to be delivered to him in person in Aschoff. It's one thing for Interns to leave you alone, but another to walk right into the den. A bit like "Here I am, Take me".
This "Introduction" took place in the afternoon but now it's the middle of the night and we need to get this letter to Pammi, ideally without Pammi and the rest of the Interns) seeing us and eating us for dinner and breakfast. And we need to get on that bus to Madras.
At 2 AM, Ashley and I walk upto Aschoff unmolested and then very carefully and as silently as possible, walk up the stairs, find his room and slip the letter under his door.
And then we run as silently as we can.
As we wait outside the shacks, buses arrive at intervals and pick up passengers by the roadside. Ashley is from Madras but although he can obviously speak Tamil fluently, he can't read it all, and bus destinations being written sometimes only in Tamil, it takes a bit of time for us to figure out which bus is going where.
But I am still euphoric. I am wearing sneakers and jeans, a reason why we were so keen to get out of Aschoff. It feels liberating to be out of campus and into the world. Quite literally, it's an escape, if just for that day. As we enter Madras after a 3 hour bumpy journey, I quite literally feel like a village bum entering a big city.
Ashley lives in T Nagar, a place I have heard of because that's where all the "Brilliant Tutorials" study packages used to arrive from. We land up at his empty flat and Ashley goes off to return the CD while I collapse on his sofa. With time to kill, Ashley gets back and decides that watching porn is the next best step. It's a good idea but 1 minute into the "movie", we're both fast asleep again.
In the evening, we get on a bus and find that there is no sitting room at all. The driver gives us 2 options-sit on the gearbox next to the him or sit on the doorsteps of the open bus door for the entirety of the 3 hour journey. We select doorsteps, 2 of us perched precariously holding the iron rails on either side. Predictably, most of the journey is spent discussing ragging and Anatomy test results.
Part of what makes Anatomy tough at first is that it's full of terms one has never heard before and there is very little logic to it, or that's what it feels like in these early days. There are specific terms used to describe the position of structures relative to one another and it all needs to be visualized in 3D. These terms are sometimes combined to give a better description and an even better headache, for which the only cure is reading.
An hour or so into the journey, the bus suddenly takes a Left turn near Chengelpet and goes off onto some small back roads. I have little idea of what route we are taking but Ashley assures me we will get to Pondy eventually. These roads are fairly empty with scattered trees, fields and bushes-a typical countryside scene.
And then I get a glimpse of the genius of Ashley. He devises a game where we start to relate one tree/bush to another in Anatomical terms. A midline reference is chosen and a cow becomes lateral to a tree. Clumps of bushes lie posterolateral to a telephone pole. Telephone lines change course from posterior to anterior to lateral and eventually, things begin to make some sense.
We spend the rest of the journey stuck on the steps discussing trees and bushes in anatomical terms and of course, it all seems a perfectly normal way to pass the time. The bus eventually reaches Pondy 3 hours later.
Back in the campus, it's almost Spandan time and we're also just in time for the "Grand Dinner"-an end of month feast where the meagre rations turn into something resembling a proper meal.
The "Grand Dinner" is this:
Batura (1)
Chole (some)
Salad (a bit)
Raita (some)
1 piece of Tandoori Chicken /Paneer. (The non veges also eat the paneer by cajoling the "Mess Tambis", which leaves the Veges fuming at times).
Lemon Juice.
Ice Cream (Vanilla, small cup).
A 5 star meal. Accompanied by small doses of ragging.
There is also a big crowd outside the Mess. The Committee List for Spandan has been put up. I scan the list and there it is.
Nishikanta Verma (1st MBBS Jr)-Transport Commitee.
Below the list is a notice:
"All members of the Transport Commitee are requested to come for a meeting in Lister Square at 8 AM sharp".
Signed
Narendran (Head of Transport).
And my first Spandan begins.
Under normal circumstances, juniors heading off to Madras may have resulted in repercussions. Unescorted trips to anywhere, including town, were more than frowned upon but our day trip to Madras is at the request of Devender, the Banner Commitee Head. This makes the trip an "official" one and no noises are made from the suddenly deprived raggers.
The task is to deliver a CD to the WWF office in Madras and catch the evening bus back. We will take the early morning bus from outside the campus. But there is an unsolved problem.
Interns, having truly "been there and done that" have usually left Juniors alone. They are too busy working, partying or doing whatever they do. They live in Aschoff House, a hostel a bit far away from all the action and no one in their right mind will volunteer to land up there on their own.
Pammi is one such Intern. He is a tall strapping Sardar, the only one on campus so far and earlier in the day, he had come across Ashley and me on the Inter-Hostel Road. He was on his Yamaha and had come to drop off some clothes to the IronMan, a tall thin grumpy man who has his Ironing Cart right between Osler and Lister. We talked for a bit, the usual ragging questions about where he was from etc and then he wanted to know who our favourite VJ's (On Channel V) were and we happily invented something.
Ashley likes Nonie and I can't recall anyone else so I say Nonie too. Pammi then tells us to write a one page essay on "Why I Love Nonie".
And this letter has to be delivered to him in person in Aschoff. It's one thing for Interns to leave you alone, but another to walk right into the den. A bit like "Here I am, Take me".
This "Introduction" took place in the afternoon but now it's the middle of the night and we need to get this letter to Pammi, ideally without Pammi and the rest of the Interns) seeing us and eating us for dinner and breakfast. And we need to get on that bus to Madras.
At 2 AM, Ashley and I walk upto Aschoff unmolested and then very carefully and as silently as possible, walk up the stairs, find his room and slip the letter under his door.
And then we run as silently as we can.
As we wait outside the shacks, buses arrive at intervals and pick up passengers by the roadside. Ashley is from Madras but although he can obviously speak Tamil fluently, he can't read it all, and bus destinations being written sometimes only in Tamil, it takes a bit of time for us to figure out which bus is going where.
But I am still euphoric. I am wearing sneakers and jeans, a reason why we were so keen to get out of Aschoff. It feels liberating to be out of campus and into the world. Quite literally, it's an escape, if just for that day. As we enter Madras after a 3 hour bumpy journey, I quite literally feel like a village bum entering a big city.
Ashley lives in T Nagar, a place I have heard of because that's where all the "Brilliant Tutorials" study packages used to arrive from. We land up at his empty flat and Ashley goes off to return the CD while I collapse on his sofa. With time to kill, Ashley gets back and decides that watching porn is the next best step. It's a good idea but 1 minute into the "movie", we're both fast asleep again.
In the evening, we get on a bus and find that there is no sitting room at all. The driver gives us 2 options-sit on the gearbox next to the him or sit on the doorsteps of the open bus door for the entirety of the 3 hour journey. We select doorsteps, 2 of us perched precariously holding the iron rails on either side. Predictably, most of the journey is spent discussing ragging and Anatomy test results.
Part of what makes Anatomy tough at first is that it's full of terms one has never heard before and there is very little logic to it, or that's what it feels like in these early days. There are specific terms used to describe the position of structures relative to one another and it all needs to be visualized in 3D. These terms are sometimes combined to give a better description and an even better headache, for which the only cure is reading.
An hour or so into the journey, the bus suddenly takes a Left turn near Chengelpet and goes off onto some small back roads. I have little idea of what route we are taking but Ashley assures me we will get to Pondy eventually. These roads are fairly empty with scattered trees, fields and bushes-a typical countryside scene.
And then I get a glimpse of the genius of Ashley. He devises a game where we start to relate one tree/bush to another in Anatomical terms. A midline reference is chosen and a cow becomes lateral to a tree. Clumps of bushes lie posterolateral to a telephone pole. Telephone lines change course from posterior to anterior to lateral and eventually, things begin to make some sense.
We spend the rest of the journey stuck on the steps discussing trees and bushes in anatomical terms and of course, it all seems a perfectly normal way to pass the time. The bus eventually reaches Pondy 3 hours later.
Back in the campus, it's almost Spandan time and we're also just in time for the "Grand Dinner"-an end of month feast where the meagre rations turn into something resembling a proper meal.
The "Grand Dinner" is this:
Batura (1)
Chole (some)
Salad (a bit)
Raita (some)
1 piece of Tandoori Chicken /Paneer. (The non veges also eat the paneer by cajoling the "Mess Tambis", which leaves the Veges fuming at times).
Lemon Juice.
Ice Cream (Vanilla, small cup).
A 5 star meal. Accompanied by small doses of ragging.
There is also a big crowd outside the Mess. The Committee List for Spandan has been put up. I scan the list and there it is.
Nishikanta Verma (1st MBBS Jr)-Transport Commitee.
Below the list is a notice:
"All members of the Transport Commitee are requested to come for a meeting in Lister Square at 8 AM sharp".
Signed
Narendran (Head of Transport).
And my first Spandan begins.
Were you never in the L&D committee?
ReplyDeleteNo, looking back, I was never in L&D Committee. I don't know why though. Never took the initiative, was probably too busy drinking....
ReplyDeleteDid take part in some events though
Hey Golu,
ReplyDeleteWasn't Sandeep Singh Kapoor the other Serd in JIPMER by the time you joined. He was one year junior to me. Pammi ofcourse is the 'real McCoy'...