Those four and a half‘

“Hum deewano ki kya hasti,

hain aaj yahan kal vahan chale,

masti ka aalam sath chala,

hum dhool udate kahin aur chale...”

I remember distinctly the first day on this campus; it was the 30th of June 2006 and guess what my first lesson in sawangi was SAVE WATER... IT IS PRECIOUS. because the tap would never work the way it should. It wasn’t the wardens' mistake though; it was not the 'water hour'.. heh heh

Our curriculum was to start on the Doctors' day. It was the first time I had put on An apron and dude it gave an entirely different feel. Yes, it was eternal, felt as if were already one. Those were the days when we started day dreaming of ending up like a Harrison, Davidson, Braunwald or maybe a Trehan, owning a multispecialty hospital of the the size of John Hopkins or Sloan Catterine ... don’t we all do it?!

Back to the hostel by five, entered mess, and felt some eyes menacingly staring at us. Seniors, but we used to call them "Sir", partially by respect, mostly by fear. By the way... the anti-ragging norms weren’t so strict back then ... Back then we used to dance without songs, entertain our "sirs" with dialogues like 'Basanti, in kutto ke saamne mat nachna'. Life wasn't so bad after all ... Infact, I thought, it was much more fun ... And ofcourse in the end, we kinda enjoying ragging.

Those were the days when we used to go to anatomy dissection hall, and feel like fainting, but never did due to fear of falling on the Cadever...! Travelling with bone sets was always fun, as they were useful in scaring the hell out of co passengers.

Then came GFC, the college looked like a  newlywed  bride, it seemed so, specially, as it was supposed to be a season of love for us, everybody putting on their best apparels, for there was so much to do in those 10 days , that we would spend the rest of the year in the hope of seeing the next GFC.

And then there is the JNMC library... in front of the lib there would always be a fashion ramp... With people like me spending more time analyzing  those who walk on it and rate them appropriately than studying inside..
Exam times are a sight to see in Sawangi. It's amazing and amusing, how suddenly the whole world appears to be so much interested in books. We scholars would spend our day and night studying just to avoid flunking. But eventually when the results were out  some dreams were shattered into million pieces and some were made. Frankly speaking to the remaining, just like me,it didn't really matters... Ha Ha Ha !!! 

A specialty of Sawangi is that, time passes so quickly that at the end of the session, you realise that dude an year has already passed since we got admitted here. And we always realise what semester we are in by the books we read. suddenly one day, we are the senior most batch. It felt as if it were just yesterday we were munching one of the michel and ravi bhau’s sandwiches at sagar for the very 1st time ...

Have heard people cry when they come here, heard them say in first year that they hate this place. I do not quite disagree with them, after all leaving home is a big deal ... However, after having studying in this place for 4.5 years, i myself say that i have fallen in love with Sawangi. College life, as our elders always told us, is the best part of your life ...

As an intern i now understand why ...

I realise the fear of losing my friends, my home of last four and half years, the dangerous aveneues which lie ahead where my friends would not always be there to buck me up, nobody to tell right from wrong. In real life, there are actually no second chances.

I would like to rewrite the lines to describe from what we were when we came to what we have become when we are leaving. Hope you will understand

Hum deewano ki ho gayi hasti,

they kal yahan aaj na jaane kidhar chale,

masti ka aalam tham sa gaya ,

hum dhool mein ud kahin aur chale…

Cheers to Sawangi….

Kumar Utsav , 2006 batch