Dear VR,
You joined the college almost a month late, by then I was already thinking of quitting my studies. There were 14 students in the last batch and Shaz and I were the only girls and when you joined Shaz and I were pretty ticked off that you were a guy. We wanted a girl!
I was not the kind of student who came back to the hostel each day and studied. I was the kind of student who was busy reading novels each evening and hence I was the only student in the batch who had no idea what was going on at the dissection hall.
Then you came along. Because you joined late, you also had a lot to catch up on. You and I were the two Dr T loved to use as the ‘role models’ for the rest of the class.
I remember how you had to stand next to our skeleton model as part of punishment for the whole duration of dissection. 2 hours!
You were a tough nut, cause that day right after the class was over, you came to get your books from the desk we shared and asked me if I wanted to go to the canteen, I admired your guts.That 2 hours of standing next to the skeleton in front of the whole class was nothing but a standard practice for you.
You gave me hope.
Each time I got in to trouble, you would invite me for coffee as if getting in to trouble was a routine matter!
You didn’t stay at the campus and like me you were never a morning person. How many times we snuck in for the morning rounds!
We shared a mutual hatred for Dr. Bala’s classes and how he caught us drinking coffee in the hospital canteen. That trip to the Principal’s office was pretty interesting.

You scored the second highest mark for anatomy and I scored the highest mark for Physio that year. You so very badly wanted me to get good marks for Anatomy and how many times you sat with me and tried to explain surface anatomy to me. I didn’t want to get good marks for anatomy. I just wanted to pass.I knew my attitude drove you nuts.

My roll number was 143 and you were 141. After your viva, you always stayed back for me to finish my viva. because we were the last few students in the last batch, it was pretty lonely to be the only girl in the whole dept during viva..So when you stayed back, it was a relief. I never asked you to stay back. You just did it.

You described Arjun and I are as dynamite and match stick and you were sure I was the dynamite.

the first year I begged you to tell me when is your birthday. You always said, you didn’t believe in birthdays, yet you gave me a card on my birthday.
Remember how I gave you a card on your birthday in 1990?
You asked me so many times how I found out.
It was pretty simple. I paid Narayana swamy 10 rs to check your records!! It was not that difficult!

You never spoke about your parents. They never came to the campus for a visit and I guess we got along well because we shared a lot in common.
But you never could see what I saw in story books. That was our major difference. I tried so many times to get you to read. You were adamant..Now that I think, you were as adamant as I was when I didn’t want to study anatomy.

It hurts knowing that you actually felt there was no need to live. It hurts knowing that you became a mere number in the statistics.
I will never know why.
But I hope you knew..that you were my friend..that I adored you and that I probably wouldn’t have survived the medical college years if it wasn’t for you.
I miss you.
Dynamite