FROM COCKROACH TO FROG TO CADAVER

Ahmed Ali Aziz
1st Year MBBS

I still remember the 2nd floor biology lab in GCU when my biology teacher told me that we are going to dissect the cockroach today and I asked him this stupid question that broke out a roar of laughter in the class that “sir kia ye lateral cuts laganay k liye is cockroach ko haath main pakarna zaroori hai”?

I, Ahmed Ali Aziz, who at the age of 17 found it so hard to even squash a cockroach with a 90 kilo burdened chapel under his feet, would now hold a cockroach in his hands…….., well that really was terrible. Given two cockroaches on a wooden board I remember I gazed at those two black –arthropods surrounded by 4 common pins for almost 30 minutes. Roaming around the lab and seeing everyone getting over with their dissection poured in some courage in me and I finally started with my work.

And then you know it was fun, real fun. Exposing the interior structure not knowing exactly what it is and then arguing with each other, nai yaar ye gizzard hai. O nai idiot gizzard yahan ho hi nai sakta ye hai gizzard Dissecting a cockroach should have made me brave enough to squash one but since it was a dead cockroach I dissected and at 19, I am still afraid of squashing a living cockroach.

And three months later we had to dissect this frog. But his time things were different. When the teacher initially warned us “ O bhai ye aik hi frog hai chay(6) bachoon kay paas. Is ko aap ne kharab kia tou bas phir aur koi frog nahi milay ga”. The very next moment we had our frog on the wooden board in front of us and we were even hesitating to nail it for the fear that we might nail it wrong.  when one of the group members said “ chal yaar
shuru kartay hain” the rest of the five reply “ O ther ja yaar. Pehle doosru karnay de phir hum shuru kartay hain.' But in the end it is the teacher who did dissection first and everyone followed KYUN KE BHAI YE AIK HI FROG HAI CHAY BACHOON KAY PAAS.

And now in King Edward. I remember the first day of dissection at KE. Thought that everybody would be pushing each other to do the honors, but that wasn’t the case. Instead, everyone was eager to put his hands on first. And doing dissection in KE is extreme fun. You’ve got some most talented brains around you who come up with the most awesome suggestions.

And that moment when everyone is pushing to get his head in and then confusing this word dissector with digestor many times. And then host of opinions nai aise karo. O yaar aise nai karna tha aise karna hai. O nae yaar sab ghalat ho… dissector kholo koi and all that. And then while you are dissecting these comments are common like, aahista aahista karo, dehaan se karo vessel na kaat dena, o bas itna kafi hai, yahan bhi cut lagao, o yaar apne ganday haath mujhe na lagao, yaar thora aagay ho jao, yaar thora peechay ho jao, thora side pe ho jao and in the end someone says SAB PEECHAY HO JAO LIGHT AANE DO.

And then finally an artery appears. And the news spreads like fire. Oe artery nikal aae hai. Kahan hai mujhe bhi dekhao. People rush from other tables to see the artery. And then continues a series of suggestions, Ye anterior thoracic artery hai, Nai anterior kahan se aagai ye posterior hai, O nai bhai ye lateral hai, and then a fool like me says O YAAR YE ARTEY HAI HI NAE.  That moment and a dozen eyes stare at you. And the very next moment you apologize and agree with it being an artery.

Currently done with the pectoral region we the First Year are looking forward for more knowledge and fun with the cadavers.