THE FIRST OF THE STORMS

Amsha Ilyas (ex first year)

So fina-a-a-aly, after what seemed like ages, the sea is once again calm, quiet and peaceful at the end fo the worst storms of all time. No...a hurricane actually.  Umm… but a tornado would sound more legit…… anyhoo

YES PEOPLE! The horrifying-four monthed-skull throbbing-eye soring-hair falling-acne growing-fat

gaining-puking-hibernating-gumshuda Prof season is finally over! Phew! Yay, hurray…we made it alive…celebrations  ( lets just neglect the dreaded walk to Patiala almost a month from now, shall we) . And now, many of us these days are trying to rediscover whatever little remained of our non-medical life. *sighs*

Battered and drenched completely by this nightmare of a storm, I think back to how I steered my way out of it. Mates, the journey has been quite ugly!

January 2014. Aah! We are all young, naïve, innocent and harmless little creatures, (think first year), absolutely in complete awe of the “keeemuu royalty” that surrounded us. Behold! The first ever substage! Many have been eagerly awaiting it. I remember myself, sitting in the corridor, hopelessly trying to make some sense of “walls of axilla”, when a senior (bless her soul) passes by. She gives me good advice. And just before she leaves  “Beta! Abhi tou aap ne prof bhi dena hae”. And it dawns upon me….the horror was yet to come!!!

Well gradually, I learnt to switch off my brain at the mention of such sinful talk. On the panicky nights before every substage/test, my friend used to say “imagine the night before our professional…what would it be like?” (no thank you sister, keep your wild imagination inside your head please). And our dear seniors wouldn’t miss any chances of mentioning this monster to us. At all such circumstances….I would shut my conscience up, smile and walk on.

The whole year went by perfectly.

Then suddenly one day, things started changing…..(insert evil music in the background). People started making use of this unspeakable word more often during conversations, the class group was flooded with syllabus-related posts and even the good guys had turned over to the “dark side” (the world of theetas), people started disappearing from social networks, some people mysteriously went missing (and I strongly suspect that some of them had been kidnapped for a certain period of time). But it was not until after I arrived from summer break that I sensed the signs of the coming storm….

“The corridors are all filled with pendulums moving back and forth and low hummings of some unknown, primitive alien language. People who would gossip for hours now steal their glances from me and suddenly disappear from the scene. “How are you” was replaced with “how’s the preparation going?”. And the biggest of all the signs….those whom I had never before seen with a book the whole year are fretting about what “little” course they had covered”.

Suddenly it dawns upon me…. ‘OH MY GREAT GOD!!! This is actually happening! I make a run for it. Reach my room, sit down, on the bed, take a deep deep breath and…. I PANIC! “So the time that was prophesized has come at last”, said many mocking voices I had heard all year.

So eventually, all of us pulled ourselves together. We went into hibernation, like the Cullen family used to on sunny days. (Mark my words, I am no twilight fan! This-is-just-a-metaphor). The storm rose to its peak and we Kemcolians did what we’re all best at = “study hard”. Chai was the breakfast, lunch, dinner.  No showering sir, not anymore. We discovered new maneuvers for studying and using our brain powers. The only break was the half an hour lunch in between.

At the end, we bore many gashes and marks from this great battle. Umm let’s see..... a certain degree of baldness, acne, adipose here and there, dark circles, back aches, more acne, bad stomachs and yes of course….the hairy business. People were barely recognizable and I could swear even the girls grew mustaches. but hey, who cares, brains is the new beauty, right?

aftermath of prof.1

Alas! The storm finally subsided. A good friend of mine says, “at the end of a difficult time, we can’t remember its intensity”. You remember how hard it was, but you can’t “feel” that same intensity later on. Get it! Yeeeah….I figured not. Oh just thank the Lord you’re done with it. And yes… Always have faith in Allah but never forget, you need to have faith in yourselves too! J

aftermath of prof.2