Chapter 4 – On Cadaveric dissections and crushes

“Just having a crush, makes it special . . . “

Every medical student tells every non- medico, how he had the bravado and the courage to skillfully dissect cadavers and finally was able to achieve great surgical and anatomical skills. And it doesn’t stop there, the entire incident is described in such a way , that it doesn’t sound anything short of a story directly out of ‘The Arabian Nights’. Well, why shouldn’t we, after all how many people get the experience of removing body fat (one of the most gross things I have come across in the field of medicine till date) , separating nerves and vessels  while the entire DH(Dissection hall) is smelling of formalin. The first memory we have of medical school is that day when we were greeted by the disgusting odour of formalin while entering the dissection hall. I had heard of incidents about students (especially the fairer sex) fainting when they looked at the cadavers, but I think it’s a myth, because the smell is enough to shake many a brave souls.

Being a newly opened institution, initially very few cadavers came in, and us being an over-enthusiastic lot, were already set to rip them apart to take in all anatomy we can, using our newly bought surgical paraphrenalia. Skin, fascia, muscle, fat (even ‘gross’ is an understatement), clotted blood, partially digested food from the gut, everything starts coming out from different tables, and my mind wanders to the bloody gladiator wars from the spartacian era. Maybe Its an exaggeration, but an apt one.

Back in the hostel, being young teenagers who have just started college and that too in India, hostel gossip is reaching new heights, Mehak and I are already a couple if the hostel gossip is to be believed, Durgesh has lost all hopes of hooking up  with a good looking babe from Delhi(one of the common dreams of quite a few guys which got shattered, the moment we realized that our female colleagues have been chosen by the almighty to excel solely  in academics, and nothing else, but academics ), so he has now set his eyes on one of the human looking female forms of our batch – Janet. Harsh is lost in his own world while my roomie Rohan has already found true love in another colleague of ours- Samridhi, the feeling commonly associated with violins playing in the background and starry eyes, though I am sure in his case Punjabi bhangra beats were playing as that’s all he listens to and talks about.

As far as my story goes, Mehak and I have come a long way as school friends, so analyzing the ‘friendship’ from the crowd’s point of view (with a very low IQ, if any !!), we were just meant to be. All thanks to the Vodafone free minutes, I count on her as one of my closest friends and vice versa, hopefully.

Smelling of formalin , Drenched in sweat and baseless medical knowledge,  I was finally gonna call it a day, when I heard Durgesh mutter ‘I Love You’ to janet on the phone. Yes , people do fall in love fast, but expressing their true love over the phone at 1 in the night due to a sudden realization of lack of girls on campus is a different story altogether.