Monday, August 3, 2009

How and Why - did I get became the worm in the apple of health!

I was in my Higher Secondary – 9th standard at Sardar Patel Vidyalaya at Lodhi Estate, New Delhi. (Walking through the Lodhi Gardens and coming out from a gate where World Bank has an office today was a routine exercise.)

Trigonometry (we used to call the exercises as tanning by sins and its coses) and Chemistry were my pet and scoring subjects. Biology, particularly dissecting cockroaches, earthworms and frogs were interesting activities.

Once, we dissected an earthworm and removed its brain. We put it in cockroach’s head! Our biology teacher spanked us orally but we called it The Transplantation of the Brain! This was a couple of years after the first human to human heart transplantation was done by Christiaan Barnard.

While biking back from the school to home, we argued if it is possible to transplant Leyland engine into a Tata Benz bus! Because the Delhi bus service was dismal then but they were TATA Benz buses. Mumbai had Leyland but services were excellent. The hypothesis was: the cause of DTC’s dismalness was the bus engine! At the end of the day - and of 12 golguppe each, we concluded that transplantation was biologically possible but mechanically not and closed the chapter. One of the argument was – you can’t transplant the mercury barometer’s dial to the anerobic baromenter, can we, so shut up. I think peer and unauthentic sanskars of intense, logical but futile debates during the school days were essential to become an mfcite!

I found math and physical sciences as very interesting and scoring but biological ones exciting! The Adolescent Kink retained me in bio though I scored better in HSC in PCM and when testing self in the IIT Entrance Test scored fair. A wrong decision not to go in engineering field landed me in medical.

So, I am here…sometimes weeds also get medical value, isn’t it!

3 comments:

  1. Wow Dhruv! Nice to read your blog. Actually the transplant business reminded me of the same things we used to do in the bio lab - taking organs from one insect and putting them into the other.

    So you studied at Sardaar Patel. Actually my brother in law Ranjit Singh Dua who stays in Green Park now is also from Sardar Patel and should be close to your batch. He is 57 years old.

    Anyway its an inspiring blog you have. Cheers
    Ravi

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  2. And Dhruvbhai it would also be interesting to read a first hand account on how you transformed suddenly from an AFMC grad to a barefoot doc at Dhokavde and Nippani.
    Was it only because you saw the truth in old time school song"I don't like this army's life.oh ma i wan't to go,gee ma I want to go,show me the way to Nippaaani!!!"

    What a pleasant stumbling into your blog!!


    Tushar

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  3. very nice piece
    your memories of school, also resonate into many of ours

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