In the previous weeks, I wrote a story about how a single slap robbed me of my self-confidence for life.
The girl, whose father complained about misconduct, was very intelligent. Many anticipated she would rank first in the school. However, when the results were announced, it was revealed that my marks surpassed hers by a significant margin. Not only did I top the school, but also my district.
That set off a chain of events.
51. Khalsa College
One weekend, shortly after I began Year 11 at the same school where I completed Years 9 and 10, a group of distinguished gentlemen in suits arrived at our doorstep. They were professors from Khalsa College, the alma mater of my grandfather, where my father had also pursued his education. Among them were heads of departments in Botany, Zoology, Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics, and English.
As part of a recent initiative by the college's new principal, they were scouting for talented students from across the district to rejuvenate the institution's reputation and attract top-tier scholars.
They extended me an offer of tuition-free education along with a generous stipend to enroll in college instead of continuing my studies at school.
This was the proudest moment in my father's life. His daughter was being scouted to join the esteemed college with a stipend. Many of the professors sitting in our lounge room had once been students of my grandfather. It felt as though life had come full circle. The very institution that had shaped my grandfather and father was now poised to shape my destiny.
Without hesitation, we accepted their offer and enrolled in the college. My parents facilitated the process by opening a bank account where the stipend was deposited.
52. Our First TV
Around this time, my father agreed to buy a television set. He was resisting it because he thought TV would interfere with our studies. Since both my brother and I had done our matriculation and shown responsibility towards our studies, we were allowed to have some fun.
Little did he know how wrong he would be. It was during this time that we discovered Pakistani dramas (a refined and tasteful alternative to Western soap operas). I got hooked. While television programming wasn't available twenty-four hours a day back then, certain dramas would extend into the late hours of the night. Instead of keeping up with my college coursework, I found myself keeping up with the latest episodes of these dramas.
Early on in my college studies, I quickly learned that once you fall behind, catching up becomes an insurmountable challenge. That's precisely what happened to me. Also, I discovered my own academic limitations. While I excelled in analysis and comprehension, I struggled immensely with memorization, particularly when it came to the numerous definitions in Physics. While I thrived in subjects like Chemistry and Botany, my performance in Physics and Mathematics left much to be desired.
English posed its own set of difficulties. Despite being a proficient essay writer in my mother tongue (Hindi), I found it challenging to replicate the same level of skill in English. Looking back, I now understand that our exposure to spoken and written English was limited, primarily (mainly confined to textbooks) however, at the time, it was a source of considerable embarrassment for me that my English proficiency lagged behind.
All these factors, coupled with a dwindling sense of self-confidence, culminated in dismal marks in Physics, Mathematics, and English during the mid-term exams. While it would have been easy to attribute my struggles to television consumption, deep down, I knew that my complacency and lack of strategy in addressing my academic challenges were the true culprits.
53. PMT (Pre-Medical Test)
I remember the little remark as clearly as if it happened yesterday. I was friends with the daughter of the head of the Botany department (he succeeded my grandfather). We were walking in the college compound when her father walked into us and broke the latest news. The State government had announced an entrance exam (called PMT, Pre-Medical Entrance Test) to be carried out for entrance to all state Medical colleges. Ours would be the first batch to go through this exam. "Which means your end-of-year score won’t matter but the ranking from the entrance exam will determine whether you get a seat in a Medical college," he said.
Upon hearing this, I couldn't help but ponder how one could possibly prepare for such a comprehensive test covering all five subjects. A silly notion crossed my mind - all my friends and I were going to fail the exam, thereby thwarting our aspirations of becoming doctors or engineers as our parents had hoped. This belief took its roots deep into my psyche.
We were afforded a month to prepare for the test. With no prior training or knowledge of its format, I had no idea how to prepare for it. As we sat down for the exam, we were presented with a question paper containing ten questions, two from each subject, requiring descriptive answers akin to those in a standard exam. I must admit, the questions were not that difficult, and had I prepared for them the night before, I would have answered them well. But the answers were not in my short-term memory and I did poorly.
But then came the biggest surprise of my life. All my friends got into the Medical College. Except me.
After that, I availed myself of two more chances to clear the entrance exam, but each subsequent exam became tougher. The questions became multiple-choice or required short precise answers and their number increased first to 100 and then 150. I prepared well the second time, but when I couldn’t get through the third year, I didn’t care. I just sat to satisfy my parents.
54. Medical College
I enrolled in a standard Bachelor of Science program, majoring in Botany, Zoology, and Chemistry, without a specific career goal in mind. With no external pressure to excel, and with most high-achieving students opting for Medicine, I once again found myself at the top of the class.
During this time, a neighbor's son, who had recently completed his MBBS, introduced me to a new field: Biochemistry, a subject exclusively taught in Medical colleges at that time. He explained the exciting research opportunities available in Biochemistry and the possibility of obtaining a license to operate my own blood and biochemical testing laboratory.
Intrigued by this prospect, I decided to repeat a year of studies and pursue a Bachelor of Biochemistry degree at the same Medical college attended by my friends studying Medicine. This move made me a year junior to them, but I loved the subject. Alongside Biochemistry, I delved into Physiology and Human Anatomy. With only ten students admitted to the course, we joined the larger group of 150 MBBS students to study all three subjects.
Once again, I found my stride. I excelled in both my Bachelor's and Master's degrees, ultimately securing second place in the university rankings.
55. Frogs
In the first year of Physiology, we conducted experiments involving muscle twitching in pithed frogs, inspired by Galvani's renowned experiment. Galvani famously passed an electric current through the exposed leg of a deceased frog, causing it to twitch, thus demonstrating the presence of a biological electrical current.
We were divided into groups of four students, each with assigned tasks. I was tasked with catching the live frogs from a bucket and stunning them with a wooden hammer—a duty none of the other girls would do, after the debacle that happened with one of the girls.
During one session, a girl from our group attempted to retrieve a frog from a bucket full of alive frogs. She found the slimy surface so repulsive, that she loosened her grip and allowed the frog to escape. It caused mayhem in the whole lab as it jumped around before hiding under a bench.
Next time when I went to get the frog, a male student assisted me by seizing the frog by the neck and handing it over. Summoning an unexpected courage, I swiftly struck the frog on its head with the wooden hammer, rendering it unconscious. I became a hero in my group. After that, it became my job to get the frog other girls would proceed with the rest of the experiment.
56. Mills & Boon Novels
One summer vacation during my bachelor's studies, another neighbor brought her granddaughter to our home to introduce her to me as a companion. She was from Delhi and was visiting her grandparents for the summer. She was studying Engineering and was a very smart girl.
"What Mills and Boon book have you read recently?" she inquired after we had exchanged details about our studies and hobbies.
"What's Mills and Boon?" I asked, genuinely puzzled.
"Don't you know about Mills and Boon novels?" she responded, evidently surprised.
"No," I admitted, feeling embarrassed.
"Come to my home, I'll lend you one," she offered.
I followed her to her grandmother’s home and she lent me two Mills and Boon novels she had just finished reading.
I read them and was instantly hooked. That was my introduction to romance novels and, indeed, English literature in general. Though I never crossed paths with that girl again—she likely deemed me too backward to engage with—I remain forever indebted to her. After those initial two novels, I delved into numerous other Mills and Boon titles along with romance novels from various other publications. I discovered shops that sold second-hand English novels at a fraction of the cost which further fueled my newfound passion.
Following Mills and Boon, I ventured into the works of Danielle Steel, Harold Robbins, Robin Cook, Alistair MacLean, and Irving Wallace.
Reading became both a compulsion and a solace. At that time, I hadn't yet discovered writing; instead, reading nourished my imaginative mind with a wealth of diverse narratives. Looking back, I recall how stories would spontaneously form in my head, and I'd indulge them to a certain extent before discarding them. In my mind, I entertained five characters akin to the Famous Five, embarking on unimaginable adventures. Yet, I never entertained the notion of transcribing their exploits onto paper.
57. The Golden Temple
I was in the final year of my Master's degree when rumors began to circulate about Sikh militants transforming the Golden Temple into a fortress. The Golden Temple is the holiest shrine of Sikhs and the city of Amritsar was developed around this shrine. Sant Bhindranwale, a preacher and Sikh fundamentalist, had made it his headquarters and was adopting increasingly violent tactics. Girls at college told me that one of our friend's fathers, a retired Major General from the Indian army, was aiding them in building bunkers to attack armed forces if they attempted to enter their holiest place. Many other ex-army personnel like him were also assisting the militants.
Terrorist activities had been ongoing in Punjab for years. It began in September 1981 when the chief editor of a newspaper was shot down in his home for his coverage of militant activities. This was followed by a surge in random attacks by Sikh terrorists on civilians in markets and other public places. They would abduct young Hindu girls in broad daylight, rape them, and leave them on the streets. I was instructed not to leave the house unless absolutely necessary. Sikh terrorists would stop buses in remote areas, line up, and shoot Hindu passengers. The streets and roads in the city were empty after eight o'clock at night. In 1984, the central government imposed the President's rule (direct rule) on Punjab to give more power to law enforcement agencies.
In June 1984, the Prime Minister made the tough decision to send army troops to the Golden Temple to oust Bhindranwale and his supporters. A fierce battle occurred within the temple complex on the night of June 4. Both sides underestimated each other. The militants thought the army, if they entered the compound of the temple, would do so on foot and they would be easily able to shoot at them from the roof of the complex. The army used tanks and armored vehicles. The army thought that with the help of sophisticated artillery and commandos, it would only take them a few hours to capture all the militants. It took them more than 14 hours.
We could not hear anything from our place, but people who lived in the inner city heard the bomb shells and saw the fireworks in the night sky with bated breath. We were not so worried about what was happening at that moment but what would be the aftermath of all that. Would there be a real bloodbath in the streets just like in 1947 when Pakistan was created?
The next morning, we finally started getting some news. The President, who was a Sikh himself, visited the temple. His visit was telecast in the evening news. Twelve thousand people were killed in the operation, including Bhindranwale. One of my, who was a doctor and appointed for the post-mortem, said that dead bodies were piled up in groups of a hundred and burned using petrol. There was not enough wood to give them individual burials.
No one knows how Pakistan succeeded in motivating Sikhs to turn against Hindus. Two communities had been living with for generations. Sikhs originated from Hindus to fight the atrocities of Muslim rulers just 500 years ago. Hindu mothers would raise their first son as a 'Sikh' to sacrifice him for the nation. Hindus and Sikhs are really intermingled, with marriages between the two communities so common. And here they were turned against each other for political gain.
That’s all from me this week.
See you next Friday.
Your stories are fascinating! Thank you so much for sharing.
I enjoy your stories and also learn about your culture which is enlightening.