...and then there was light!
well cliched start? any story has to have a beginning and no matter what you may try it will end up sounding dumb. no frills. the story goes thus.
march 27, 2002. in the living room of my flat in salmiyah(that's in kuwait for those of you who didnt know), amidst raging tempers were being made certain choices which were forever going to change what i was to do. so here i was at the crossroads. finished school and now what? i had just finished the boards and had to choose. was it to be engineering, medicine or a friend interest in economics? well the applications had gone out to the american universities and there was nothing much to hear for sometime to come. so it was iit or manipal or some government college in andhra pradesh. and every once in a while the prospect of st stephen's in new delhi. in the heat of the argument about whether i was to choose electrical engineering or applied physics, or whether it was going to be madras or bombay, i burst into tears. it had been close to four years since i gave up the unmanly act of crying in front of others. but hell, here i was trying to choose things i didnt want to do. i want to do medicine and medicine only. i am not going to apply anywhere else, i yelled. and with that came to an end prospect of any other college anywhere.
march 29,2002. rohit came by place just as i was about to go buy some toothbrushes
and stuff from the co-op. we talked and ate at burger king. nothing much left to say. i probably was the first one to pack my bags and leave town, though not for college.
april 2002. at the kakatiya academy in hyderabad for a short term training course, i met some people who would one day become some of my closest buddies. it was great time of careless existence.
july 18, 2002. this day i gave up my chance to attend the 5th best medical college in india. manipal. i had friends going there. i wanted to go there. but holding that $18000 draft in my hands while my father told me he would support me in any decision i made, i told him to fax manipal that i wasnt going to be joining their college.
mind you this day, this moment of my life should be red flagged. dad was in favour of
rmc and had enough doctors backing him up that it was the right thing to do. i was 17, $18000 was a lot of money and i had no strong reasons to opt for manipal. so i played safe, went with daddy's word. dont blame me. i saved him $45000 in the deal.
the next three months were torture. i had friends going to colleges which if listed would inspire a copyright suit from the usnews rankings. i mean here we had stanford, princeton, columbia,uiuc, austin and the likes. i still didnt know which college i was going to. i was waiting for the notifications appear in the papers regarding admissions into government medical colleges under the nri quota in ap. and it was last week september by the time i saw it.
october 22,2002. it was 7 in the morning and i was already at the office of the dir. of medical education, the venue for our counselling as they called it. i was going to be allocated my placement this day. but 7 am? well it was good time for me. if you are indian and may be hindu with parents who do astrology stuff you would know. anyway it was one of the longest days of my life. after hours of waiting, fighting, fidgeting, small-talking, i was finally given my seat in rangaraya medical college, kakinada. it was my first choice and i was ranked third among the nris so it didnt take long.
destiny had been twsited. i never had imagined even for a second as a joke that
i would be doing medicine in india, leave alone kakinada. the following days were all about packing, shopping and briefing. my dad had a lot to talk about before i went off to, where was that, kakinada.
october 25, 2002. vishaka express arrived on platform one of samalkot railway station. and there to attend college in a town still 15 km away, alighted a simple soul in the company of his grandparents.
well cliched start? any story has to have a beginning and no matter what you may try it will end up sounding dumb. no frills. the story goes thus.
march 27, 2002. in the living room of my flat in salmiyah(that's in kuwait for those of you who didnt know), amidst raging tempers were being made certain choices which were forever going to change what i was to do. so here i was at the crossroads. finished school and now what? i had just finished the boards and had to choose. was it to be engineering, medicine or a friend interest in economics? well the applications had gone out to the american universities and there was nothing much to hear for sometime to come. so it was iit or manipal or some government college in andhra pradesh. and every once in a while the prospect of st stephen's in new delhi. in the heat of the argument about whether i was to choose electrical engineering or applied physics, or whether it was going to be madras or bombay, i burst into tears. it had been close to four years since i gave up the unmanly act of crying in front of others. but hell, here i was trying to choose things i didnt want to do. i want to do medicine and medicine only. i am not going to apply anywhere else, i yelled. and with that came to an end prospect of any other college anywhere.
march 29,2002. rohit came by place just as i was about to go buy some toothbrushes
and stuff from the co-op. we talked and ate at burger king. nothing much left to say. i probably was the first one to pack my bags and leave town, though not for college.
april 2002. at the kakatiya academy in hyderabad for a short term training course, i met some people who would one day become some of my closest buddies. it was great time of careless existence.
july 18, 2002. this day i gave up my chance to attend the 5th best medical college in india. manipal. i had friends going there. i wanted to go there. but holding that $18000 draft in my hands while my father told me he would support me in any decision i made, i told him to fax manipal that i wasnt going to be joining their college.
mind you this day, this moment of my life should be red flagged. dad was in favour of
rmc and had enough doctors backing him up that it was the right thing to do. i was 17, $18000 was a lot of money and i had no strong reasons to opt for manipal. so i played safe, went with daddy's word. dont blame me. i saved him $45000 in the deal.
the next three months were torture. i had friends going to colleges which if listed would inspire a copyright suit from the usnews rankings. i mean here we had stanford, princeton, columbia,uiuc, austin and the likes. i still didnt know which college i was going to. i was waiting for the notifications appear in the papers regarding admissions into government medical colleges under the nri quota in ap. and it was last week september by the time i saw it.
october 22,2002. it was 7 in the morning and i was already at the office of the dir. of medical education, the venue for our counselling as they called it. i was going to be allocated my placement this day. but 7 am? well it was good time for me. if you are indian and may be hindu with parents who do astrology stuff you would know. anyway it was one of the longest days of my life. after hours of waiting, fighting, fidgeting, small-talking, i was finally given my seat in rangaraya medical college, kakinada. it was my first choice and i was ranked third among the nris so it didnt take long.
destiny had been twsited. i never had imagined even for a second as a joke that
i would be doing medicine in india, leave alone kakinada. the following days were all about packing, shopping and briefing. my dad had a lot to talk about before i went off to, where was that, kakinada.
october 25, 2002. vishaka express arrived on platform one of samalkot railway station. and there to attend college in a town still 15 km away, alighted a simple soul in the company of his grandparents.
