FIRST PROFESSIONAL EXAMS

I arrived early for my Physiology viva. In my hand was Guyton and some notes. I looked around, and I saw anxious faces everywhere. Jovial personalities had turned serious as they studied from highlighted textbooks and notes.
Besides Guytons, there were Ganongs, Best and Taylors and Chatterjis. Some were sitting down on the stairs and the floor; others were standing or pacing anxiously.

Earlier, the written exams come and gone uneventfully for me. I was accustomed to sitting down for three hours and answer essay type questions. It was the Viva that I always dreaded.

When the first student came out after taking the viva, he was mobbed and bombarded with questions. ‘How was it?’; ‘What were they asking?’; ‘How is the External (examiner)?’ ‘Is Prof Nusrat Waqar in good mood?’ Some of us were the ‘message boys’ relaying what was being asked to their respective groups where the ‘knowledgeable ones’ were providing the answers verbatim or looking them up the text books before summarizing the answer for the group. There were some ‘confident ones’ too. They were sitting further away looking at chaotic scene with a relaxed expression.

Agha Arif and Aquil Haider came out after taking the viva and were confident that they had done well. Then my study group friend, Afzal Saeed came out and… he was smiling. ‘How did it go?’ I asked. He told me that the external examiner was very nice. ‘He (external) started the viva pointing to my watch and saying that it was a nice watch. I said thank you. That made me relax and the viva went great after that’.

Soon it was lunchtime and my turn had not come yet. We were told that the viva would resume in about an hour. By now, we had already spent more than four tense hours. We waited and waited, an hour stretched to two and the examiners were not back yet. To this day, I remember the tension of this wait. I know that some of our class fellows are now in academia in Pakistan. If they happen to read this blog, I request them to take steps to change the way visas are conducted, if they have not done already. Perhaps the students can be grouped in a way, that indicate to them the approximate hour of their viva.

Worry, sleep deprivation, exhaustion from sitting, standing and walking had turned my brain into mush by the time my turn came. The external indeed seemed like a nice person. He was smiling. He held out a written exam paper. On the page, there was a diagram of Loop of Henle with arrows indicating what was being excreted and what was being absorbed at various levels. I recognized the writing, it was my own paper! Suddenly, my brain simply switched off. He asked me something about the diagram but I could not understand what he was asking. Noticing my panic- stricken face, he complemented me on how well I had explained the counter current multiplier mechanism in the written and asked me to simply read from my paper. Which I did... like a robot. The sentences coming out of my mouth made no sense to me. What happened subsequently is a blur in my memory, but I know when I came out of that Viva, I was not a confident of passing.

Anatomy viva was much easier, I think because of our experiences with Stage vivas. As I sat down in front of Prof Tuqqaiya, I expected her to start the viva with some bone. Instead, she slipped something flabby in my hand. As I recovered from my shock, I realized that it was a uterus. She asked me about the insertion of the broad ligament. Which luckily, I knew. Soon the viva was over.
As I walked out, and took in a deep breath. O how good it felt! A cool breeze was blowing and I could hear the birds chirping.

HUMAY BHI YAAD HAI-- EXAM PREPERATIONS

Ramzan men Parhai!
Hai Allah Duhai !
By Aamir Ali Chaudhry
This was the Slogan in hostel in those days.
In Hostel "ALL OR NONE LAW" applies as far as studies are concerned.
When the exam date was announced, all of us got very tense. We realized, or were made to realize that we cannot study in such state of mind. Therefore, we (Asim Rehra, Alvi, Nasir Shah, and Ahmed Raza) decided to spend 4/5 days in murree before the start of studies. Alvi declared that his Uncle had a house in Ayubia; he would get the keys from Uncle (in Faisalabad) and would get back in evening. All of us packed our luggage and I accompanied Alvi to Faisalabad to get the keys. It was extremely hot when we were going on GTS but imagination of relaxing in cool breeze of Ayubia was soothing. We went to his Uncles home. I waited outside and he went inside with a smiling face. When he came out, he was no more smiling. Uncle was in angry mood(mode) and he could not gather courage to ask for the house. We had a cup of tea from nearby Khokha. He went in again and came out , then we had Pepsi from the same Khokha. This episode was repeated again and again and our Khokha bill rose higher and higher, until after sunset we abandoned the project of asking for the keys.
We went back to Lahore on some late night bus. The friends were anxiously waiting, outside the hostel with their luggage, ready for Ayubia, .We never told them about our lack of courage and narrated fake story, that the roof of house had fallen in a storm and the house is destroyed etc. etc. .Once their anger subsided (after three years), we told them the whole story.
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Once again a great narration. A good reflection of old golden days. I don't mind sitting the exams again if those days could be brought back. But things don't bundle that way we know.

Love,
Yahya
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Thanks Nauman taking me back to the days that I still cherish,,,,,,whole life was ahead of us at that time and worries were nonexistent. I also belong to the US group and me Shazib and Naveed used to study mostly in the last 2-3 months. I was one of the lucky ones as was living in my own home with lots of people catering to my all desires and still would be studying only as if I was doing my parents and family a great favour. How unthankful and naive I was! Nice to be in touch with the old friends and I don’t remember going on the Mangla trip and now realize that missed a chance of great outing.
Asaad

I CAUGHT THAT FISH AND NICKED THOSE CAKES AND PASTERIES!
By Aamir Ali
Wow. Pervaiz Iqbal told me about your blog about the Mangla Trip a few hrs ago. I enjoyed this a lot. By the way, I caught that fish and not Dr Mansoor! He drove one of the buses (left hand driven blue Iranian bus).
Naveed Yazdani, Saroosh and myself thoroughly enjoyed the cakes and pasteries which we found on the bus. Yes!... we actually nicked those and went into the other bus.
Well girls I am sorry about that…

My Early days at KE
By Asaad Alamgir
My Early days at KE were really very tense. I did not get admission on open merit at KE but migrated from Quad-i-Azam medical college, Bahawalpur . I had no friends to start with except Bilal Bin Khalid who was the only other Aitchisonian to get admission at KE (he was there on open merit).
When we went for the first lecture in anatomy I really thought that it was a mistake coming to KE as I could not understand a word of what was being said and rest of the class was busy taking notes as if it was their mother language. Felt as if all were speaking and understanding this language and I was the odd foreigner amongst them. Maybe this was because I felt as if I did not belong in this elite group and this type of things could only be grasped by people with superior intelligence. I really started having panicky feeling and tried to talk to my cousins who were doctors and they just laughed away at my condition.
I bought new Grays Anatomy and started going through that ocean of foreign literature, words of which really were alien to me but I persisted and on top of it bought Guyton’s Physiology also, and good thing was that I could understand a little bit of this one at least. It also gave me great feeling that I was now reading big impressive looking books and may someday become a great name in the field of science and medicine.
An announcement was made and the first sub-stage was announced…. Felt as if the death penalty was announced for us. That was the time I started taking refuge behind the cigarette smoke, as thought that this would keep me awake because of the nicotine surge in my neurons. A habit that persisted with me for 30 years and I only gave it up 2 years back!
Did not sleep the night before the sub-stage and had shivers down the spine on facing the examiner, don’t remember the name of DEMONstrator who took the exams. I felt as if I went through a boxing match in which I was the punching bag. I only remember that it was a part of lower limb that was being asked and somehow the exam was over in around 10 minutes or so (though it felt like hours).
After a day or so when result was given I was one of the 30-40 who passed and I could not believe what an achievement I had achieved. It relaxed me and I than started to believe that it was not a alien state and that I may survive here and by the grace of god I did, but had to die before each professional and had rebirth after each exams.
It was great to be at KE and I so cherish my time spent there, the hockey matches we played the small skirmishes we had, the jokes we had together and being exposed to the fairer sex though from a distance. Life passes before your eyes and now my children are going through this phase and I pray that all of you enjoy your children growing up like I am doing and wish the best for all of you and your families as well.