A Medical Trip

Hi there!

I can’t seem to rest my feet at one place at all. No matter how many times I decide to shut myself in my room, for a month at least, and work, and then come out with dark circles under my eyes and a long, straggly grown beard like Tom hanks in Cast away, it doesn’t work. Well for the better good I suppose.
I was in Bailhongal, Karnataka these last two days. My friend Dr. Vishwajit, who is in his second year studying B.A.M.S, insisted for me and Tany to come and visit him, see his college and all. So we went very early in the morning (which seldom happens). It is a 2 hrs ride on the groovy NH4 down south to Belgaum (where we had breakfast – Medu Wada – in a hotel named ‘Tumkur Tatte’) and then half an hour to Bailhongal. It is a small town having a single main road and attached lanes. We couldn’t understand what was what there because of the language. We couldn’t even understand the bus destinations as it was only written in Kannada. ‘Zilebi’ language is what we call it. No offense but I don’t understand a single word of it. (They write Zerox for Xerox :-)

By the way, does anyone like Cadbury’s Crackles better than the plain one? I do. I like crunching munching while writing :-)

So we met. We talked walked (a lot actually as there is no ‘in-city’ transport available) and spent some good time. We visited a temple of lord ‘Sai Baba’ and it was great. You know the ambiance you get inside the structures like a temple. The aroma of purity and sanctity. At the midnight, we went to vishwajit’s college, Shree Gangadhar Viraktmath Ayurvedic Medical College and Research Centre, just for fun. It is huge with nearly 128 gallery arches on the building. A big Playground, a school and ITI inside the campus. We sat there in the dead silence feeling like ghouls under the Neem tree. Watching the structure and wondering if we can go inside to those long passageways, creepy classrooms and empty patient beds where many were cured but some could have died. And we knew, as Vishwajit told us, that there is a dead Body inside the dissection room up the 3rd floor. We came back soon.

As we opened the lock of the room where we stayed that night, Vishwajit went in first, took out his old bicycle and said that he’ll be back with a skull, and rolled. After 5 minutes or so he brought a Real Human skull in a white polythene bag dangling on the handle of his Bicycle.

He had almost entire set of Human skeleton in his closet and now brought the skull. It was the first time I took a human skull in my hand and scrutinized. My first thought was – ‘Only if I could’ve got this when I used to draw anatomy extensively’. And then the second thought – ‘Oh my God, Oh ma God….. It would have been a person before. A living breathing Human!’  We spread out the entire bone set on the floor and started arranging it. Vishwajit did it right way finally as we were all putting the radius and ulna under the femur bone and tibia fibula beneath the humerus. And then we looked and stared at it with a creepy silence. We exchanged bemused glances and decided to put it back inside. I have a feeling that our ‘Doctor ‘friend was smiling on us.

 

 

The next day we went to the College. And the tour began. Do you know Mercury? We die instantly if we eat it, right? But in Ayurveda Mercury is heated at about 600 C for 3 days and the patient then eats it to cure the diseases. Ayurveda is the only place where mercury is used for therapy. I didn’t know that! I saw the original 9 Gems, right in front of me. Diamond and ruby and all. I was tempted to steal them honestly. We played with Deer antlers and saw Deer Musk. Wow! It smelled wonderful. I got to see all the Organs of the human body (the real ones kept in glass containers) and also babies. Twins too.  I wondered again if I would have been there and had so much reference to sketch from! Then in toxicology department we saw snakes and scorpions and in Shalakya (surgery) department we learned about human diseases. Then there were other departments like Swasthvrutta, Paedriatic and physiology where we learned about other stuff. Sorry I don’t remember the proper names though. And then it was on the Top floor we went. There was only one room in use and every other was empty. It was creepy up there even in the broad daylight. It was . . . . The Dissection Room!

Vishwajit specially got the keys with significant efforts to show us this particular room. As he said last night, “there is a Dead body up there!” He opened the door and we went in. It was gloomy and the light was sneaking in through the pane less windows. And suddenly it smelled awful. I looked around but I could only see some stretchers and dissection table were spread out around the corner. I took a snap and went in. There was a big white tank kept behind those tables in the far corner like we have on our terrace for water. I knew. Vishwajit slowly opened the lid and there it was. A dead body of a man around 30 years of age immersed in a kind of clear transparent liquid called Formalin. We were stunned. Horrified. His skin was all torn up and his right hand was removed and dissected. It was a month old body and we could see his insides. There was a rope tied to his neck and his foot. Vishwajit told us it was to pick him out of the water and keep him on the table to dissect and study. He then grasped the rope which was attached to his neck and pulled. The body rose and we were like petrified. Words fail me guys. I don’t know why I am writing ‘his’ and not ‘its’ but it just feels weird. For Doctors, it’s a subject. It is a reference. It is ‘it’. And it should be that way as to say. I took some snaps but I am afraid I can’t show you. I can’t put them here. I don’t want to put them here anyway. 

So that was it. The college tour was great. We strolled through their plantations where every plant and tree has an ID card… hehe! Later in the evening we talked about our old college days and the stupid, wild and free fun we used to have . . ah . . those days! And then, we left!