CHAPTER XXIV EXTENDED ‘BOARDERSHIP’ AT THE RMCH, RANCHI

Chapter XXIV

Extended ‘Boardership’

at the Rmch, Ranchi

            In four rooms, I covered more than four years at Ranchi, tenure equivalent to an undergraduate course. I left Ranchi from the same room where I had come one day, drawing a full time-cycle of life.

            Living with youngsters makes you younger. I had been feeling a neo-studentship through their talks, be of medical or others.

            The faces were many but facie was one — medico. It was the same at Darbhanga too. They were same youthful and enthusiastic but the same pitiful they were, if amenities and food were considered. The boys were running on the sword’s edge to get through the course and to get employment or satisfaction in life.

            Yet, it was a bit different from Darbhanga. Single-seated rooms had made students more studious and less social but the boys lacked the results of discussion on medical topics. I think two-seated rooms in the hostels are the best for the undergraduates. For seniors, single-seated is O.K. but planners had hardly experienced the pros and cons.

            ‘Casteism’, sine-die closures, ragging, etc. were as common as they were at the DMC. Even at the RMC, once I found a boy was criticizing Principal Prof. P.V.P. Sinha’s stern attitude against ragging.

            When I used to visit the RMC during 1980-82, I remember students were so much fond of songs that they used to go to mess with transistors. I saw students with it even in the bathrooms of the DMC. This craze had gone down like that of the use of a neck-tie, all over the country since 1970s.

            But the little mess-boys were in the same pathetic conditions. I remember in the DMC, some kids were carrying tiffin-carriers for babus in even knee-deep stagnant water. Tiffin-carriers were touching the water as well as the knees of those youngsters.  I appreciate the change in the attitudes of medicos. The events of beating mess servants or boys have definitely declined.

            Toilet is the index of the sanitation of any place. Its negligence speaks   the negligence of their health by the future health care-takers. In the DMC, college authorities had provided colour TVs but in the RMC, boys had to purchase it by contribution.

            I wondered, if medicos ever thought over the plight of persons as cobblers, vendors, washer men, mess servants, news-paper hawkers, etc. whenever sine-die closures happened  on account of the feudal politics, many a time provocated by teachers as well.

            Energy among medicos is enormous. Why not devote it to better work? The sectarian approach has no end. Your patient will have no caste. If one is interested to delve in ‘casteism’, let us think the whole medicos as a caste. The division of castes was based on the virtues and vocations of the individuals.

            Personally, I learnt more from the medicos in my extended boardership at the RMC  as I was probably more mature to appreciate the things. I also tried my best to reciprocate by any service possible, be it in the academic discussions or in advising a suddenly ill student and or any other help, but they had given me far more than I could have returned. The love is stunted if not reciprocated by honour and I received it from all quarters, even from those who were not labelled as good. I think good/bad is a relative term and if one can have wisdom, any Ratnakar can become Balmiki.

            Naming the boys in contact is difficult; yet, I can recount a few, as they are important for my own future records and memory. Vijay Raj, Rajkumar Sharma, Shailesh, Ashok, etc. were first to be known along with Dewanand, Krishna Kanchan, Satyarthi, Gyan and Vijay. Later, I found myself encircled by Rajeev, Arvind, Pankaj, Arvind Ojha and lately  by Manoj, Bibhuti, etc. as good workers of the NMO team. Girls were equally active in the NMO- Reena’s boldness; Kanchan’s steadiness and Sanjana’s conviction in her will remain indelible memories. They also nurtured my sister Bindu for a pretty long time in their hostel.

             I thought the reliever of my long boadership would probably be Suhash and Satish, shouldering the NMO’s responsibility to allow me to live as one in exile.

            I had witnessed a long career as a worker in hostels. When   I was admitted in 1973 in the DMC, I used to work with Dr. C. N. Gupta, an MD (Path.) student, now at Chapra and by the time I left the RMC,

Fig. 29 -Workers of the NMO, Ranchi, on Bariatu Firing Range Hill for Makar Sankranti festival, 13.1.1987__ Dr. K. K. Sharma Devendra, Dr. Dewanand Prakash, Pankaj Kumar, Arvind Ojha, Arvind Kumar, Subhash Sharma, Bibhuti, Satish, Shashank Kanchan, Sharad, Vijay Raj, Rajeev Pathak, Pankaj Karan, Suhash Tetarway, Ramesh Thakur, Surendra Kumar, Anil Shrivastava.

Fig. 30 - Workers of the NMO, Ranchi in a medical camp.

1989 batch medicos were equally known to me and thus from 1965 batch to 1989, some 14/15 batches, a marathon record in two institutions.

            By 1989, if the DMC teachers were more known to me, the RMC students knew me more, even more than many of their own seniors.

I felt, I was well assimilated in and was acclimatised to the gul mohar (Delonix regia) trees. The statue of Dr. Rajendra Prasad would also testify for me as a boarder of the RMCH in the Heaven.