Those enchanted four and half years

Chapter 9

Next day in Physiology practical, we were divided into groups according to roll numbers and given the task of counting blood cells from the slides, with each microscope per group. As I and Arun sat, counting the cells, alternately looking through the microscope, I told him about Amey's visit to the hostel the previous day.

"So that means you had an eventful evening then," he said, echoing my language.

"He was looking great in sky blue tee shirt," I said.

"And what were you wearing?" Arun asked casually.

"Oh my God, I didn't think about this!" I exclaimed.

"What?"Arun looked up.

"I was looking totally messed up! I was wearing an old nightie. I hadn't even properly combed my hair. Oh shit, what might he be thinking about me!" I said.

"If he really loves you, these things won't matter," Arun said, still looking in the microscope.

I thought for a moment. "I hope so," I said. Arun didn't say anything.

That afternoon, we were having lunch in SP.."Did you read the notice?" Avinash asked breathlessly, as he came running from somewhere. "What notice?" I asked. "We have part completion exams from 15th." "What? Exams?" Me, Nayana, Sufee, all were shell shocked. "And syllabus?" Nayana was the first to recover from the shock. "Exams? Syllabus? Oh no...I was still in the phase of celebrating my admission to MBBS!" Sufee cried.

With the declaration of exams, the whole environment suddenly changed. Everyone became a tad serious; no jokes were cracked between lectures or chits circulated during classes. Whenever there would be time, everybody would sink their heads into books. Post college gossip converted to serious trips to the library. We no longer spent evenings chitchatting on the hostel steps. Alarms of various types started going off at various times throughout the night. We all started going to seniors, as was the tradition, to mark what was 'important'.

And the syllabus! ANATOMY – All types of bones, muscles, organs, tendons, glands, arteries, nerves, veins in the body, from head to toe, names of each, their structures, their dimensions, their detailed cellular structure...!

PHYSIOLOGY – How heart pumps blood, how we breathe, how we digest food, how we hear, in short, how our whole body functions!

BIOCHEMISTRY – Carbohydrates, proteins, fats, vitamins, minerals, their thousands of biochemical cycles taking place at the molecular level! The list was unending!

I, Savita and Vibha started studying bones together. Sufee started staying awake the whole night and would bunk college the next day to sleep. Nayana was very cool. She was never tensed. She had a photographic memory. Her books were always clean, without a single marking. But she could always locate what was given where. Her basics were very clear. As a result whenever anybody had any study related problem, she was the 'messiah'. Arun too had clear concepts. We started having doubt clearance sessions during dissection. We all would ask him our doubts and he would clear them all.

As the exam date came nearer, the tension went on building. In tutorials, Ravi Pawar would keep on babbling, flaunting his knowledge. He would purposefully use some rare terminologies to give others tension. He may be very sincere, hardworking, genius or whatever, but he had the irritating habit of showing off. Sufee had named him 'PPKP'. 'Padh Padh Ke Paagal!"

On theexam day, we reached the hall half an hour earlier. I was much tensed and could not concentrate on anything due to anxiety. I sat down near Nayana, so that her cooling effect would cool me down too. As I looked to my right, I saw Miss Wierdo sitting upright in attention, eyes closed, muttering something. Sufee was busy reading from three books at the same time. Just then Arun came and sat next to me."Tensed?' he asked me.

"Very," I replied.

"Don't worry, what are neighbours for?" he smiled at me. That eased some of my tension.

As the exam began, everyone started looking at each other. Half of the terminologies asked in the question paper were new to us.. Miss Wierdo was writing at a lightening fast speed. She even ran to take supplements, to save time. With her every supplement, our heartbeats increased by 10 per minute.Initially the supervisor was very strict and alert, so I wrote whatever I could remember (which was hardly anything!!). After sometime, he went to sit on his chair and started playing with his mobile. The moment this happened, I, Arun, Vivek, Savita and Yash circulated our answer sheets amongst ourselves and copied whatever we could. The whole class did mass copying. All except Miss Wierdo, of course.

After the first paper, my tension eased somewhat. I had no confidence in my study and memory, but I had gained confidence in the art of copying. All three theory papers, we did the same. We just hoped the teachers wouldn't realize that the papers of the five of us were carbon copies of each other!

After three days of theory exams, came the time for practicals or viva-voce. We were all terrified of viva. In theory we could bluff, beat around the bush. But in viva, we would have to face the stalwarts in each subject, and exhibit our knowledge, or rather the lack of it. As we sat outside the Anatomy viva room with terrified faces, I saw Miss Wierdo marching towards the room with a confident glow on her face, when her number was called out. She went like a soldier going for a battle which he was guaranteed to win!

Vivek had great ideas of his own. "The examiner should not lead you, you should lead the examiner. He should not trap you, you should trap him. He should not confuse you, you should confuse him." "And how exactly are we supposed to do that?" Sufee asked challengingly. "Let me explain," Vivek began, "If an anatomy examiner asks you whether a muscle causes adduction or abduction, and you have no clue, just say very confidently 'Sir, it causes ..duction' with a small murmured pause before the word 'duction'. He will hear what he wants to hear. Same with physiology. If the examiner asks you whether a particular maneuver increases or decreases the blood flow to a given organ, just say confidently 'Sir it ..creases', and you are through!"

The viva voce's made us realize how much we had to read, and how much we were lagging behind. All said and done, there's no short cut to success. And this was just the beginning! We had to face 12 such exams within first year itself!