We are the Batch of 1978 or also known by the acronym ‘BOSE’. Every batch in CMC is unique and we are no less as I will elaborate further in this article.
Our entry into the haloed halls of the Christian Medical College, Vellore was on the 17th of July 1978. In the centre the Janata government was in power. The first non Congress government to rule India since independence. The Prime Minister was Mr. Morarji Desai an ardent advocate of temperance, vegetarianism and auto urine therapy. His famous treatise to this form of treatment describes his early morning walk in his lawn barefooted, allowing the dew to percolate into his system through the soles of his feet. Then going to the squat toilet and cupping his palms for a perfect ‘mid stream clean catch’ of the first urine of the day and drinking it directly from his palms. There must be something in this therapy because he lived to the ripe age of 99.
The Health Minister, Mr. Raj Narayan was a former wrestler turned politician who was dubbed as a ‘giant slayer’ because he defeated Mrs. Indira Gandhi in her pocket burrough of Raebareilly. He left his mark on Vellore by donating the famous ‘white elephants’, one which was parked outside CHAD and the other outside RUHSA. Some of you may remember them as large white mobile clinics with the basic facilities installed in them. However they were mostly unsuitable for the rough and narrow rural roads, hence were mostly parked. Because of their size and colour and of course utility or rather lack of it, they got the apt moniker of ‘White Elephant.
The state was ruled by the AIDMK party and the Chief Minister was a former film star, who had many monikers one of them ‘Makkal Thilagam’ or people’s King, Maradurur Gopalan Ramachandran Menon or MGR. He had instituted the mid day meal scheme for school children which was very successful. He again was an advocate of temperance and hence Tamil Nadu was a dry state when we joined. If you wanted to drink you had to go to Chitoor or buy army canteen booze from ‘Devil’. The Devil incarnate was the friendly neighborhood illegal booze seller who would come knocking on your door with a Hercules XXX army rum bottle inside an army stocking, “Saar Rumm wanum Saar!” and he would pull down the stocking just enough to display the label on the bottle.
There was also an Amma near Otteri who distilled some real vile, vomit green stuff. Stored in a matka and dispensed in old bottles. We had a New Year’s party with that vile brew and needless to say some vomited, some passed out, some became emotional and confessed their undying love for a class girl. One continued to vomit the next day and was admitted in the hospital with Hepatitis A. Luckily no one was condemned to a life with a white cane!
MGR also declared the year we joined that medical education should be in the Tamil language. When a team of medical teachers approached him and tried to explain the logistic difficulties, especially translating all the text books into Tamil. He retorted by producing an ancient Sidda treatise and said “If in ancient times it could be written in Tamil, why should it be a problem now?”
There was a lot of apprehension especially amongst the non Tamil speakers but luckily enough it remained a politician’s election promise and like all election promises it was never seriously followed through.

Let me elaborate some points of our unique points.

1. We were the first batch to have the fee hike to ₹3000/-. The Batch of ’76 paid ₹800/- and the Batch of ’77 paid ₹1500/- but it was doubled for us. I believe it still remains frozen at that princely sum. Though inflation has eroded its royal sheen and made it a more plebeian figure. Our seniors used to refer to us as the 3000 batch and they protested on our behalf even before we had joined. Nice of them because they were not affected.
2. We were the last Batch at least the men to face the 3 days initiation ritual. After our Batch the administration put their foot down and banned the 3 days initiation. It started with the ‘Last Supper’ and ended with the Ducking in the pond. During those 3 days there were no classes and mornings started with group exercise, roll in the mud and getting ducked after appealing to God for rain. The rest of the day was spent in amusing our fagmasters and in the evening amusing the Hostel.
3. We had the least number of intra class fixtures or fixtures per say. Whatever fixtures intra or inter class took place, happened at the very end. Of course with some exceptions. You knew when someone was fixed when the Watchman came shouting down Edward Gault drive, “So and So Saar! “ and So and So would peek out of his room, “Enna Watchman?” “Phone call Saar!” And the Hostel will reverberate with shouts of “De! De! Steady So and So.” Then he would begin to spend a large amount of time on the other side of the road. In SA Hall, in the library and of course in the bushes. We had a Principal who would go for a nightly constitutional along with a 6 battery torch and shine it into the bushes. Took pleasure in being a killjoy.
4. We were the last Batch to write the first year exam. The Batches after us never faced the fear of getting failed on a whim of a teacher and the prevailing 3 strikes and you are out rule. All of you may not know that in those days the rule was if you failed 3 times in the first year then you had to leave the course. After the first year you had the freedom of failing as many times as you wished. There were some who took their time leaving. Uptil that time only one person had managed to fail thrice and coincidentally he was from my home town of Nagpur.
5. The first Batch to have the women bused back to the safe confines of Women’s Hostel during our COP (Community Orientation Programme) in Mottupalayam rather than stay in the village. Because in the previous Batch 90% got fixed during the COP. The administration thought there’s too much Kaadil in the village air so segregation of the sexes was safer. The boys spent the nights sleeping on the floor in a thatched hut and had Kullu and Kalli for dinner while the girls had the luxury of their Hostel rooms and saapdu. We had a Bridge playing set in our class and JP was an ardent Bridge player. He used to land up after dinner to play bridge with them. One of the boys got disturbed by the lights and talking in our hut. He got up to agitate and reached for his spectacles but when he put them on, he saw JP and immediately went back to sleep, with his back turned to the players.
We were supposed to go around the villages sing health education and awareness songs in Tamil composed by Mardmuthu the Tamil communicator in Chad. They were mainly about measles vaccination. We were supposed to bathe the children and apply anti scabies ointment on them in that way educate the villagers on prevention. Then we had to go from house to house interviewing people and collecting data as per a proforma. The questions included their opinion on the medicinal herbs, ‘Sotkataray and Nochuthorai’. I recently discovered one of them is Aloe vera. We also made a soakage pit by digging a hole in the ground and filling it with broken pieces of bricks. This overflowed on the first day of use. We used a cement outline of a squat toilet placed over a pit, surrounded by burlap as toilets. Once our sojourn was over the cement slab removed and the pit was filled up with mud. We tested the purity of well water by a Horrocks apparatus. And when the girls had left swam in the same well in our birthday suits until we discovered that there were snakes in the well. All this was to lead by example. Hopefully we were good examples!
6. We were the first Batch to stage a march past during our first term Biostatistics exam.
Biostatistics was not a University subject but since it was considered useful for us in the future, especially if we planned to do research. It was taught as an additional subject. We were all provided a pink coloured book with ghostly white illustrations on the cover as a course book. My book was disfigured by a class mate by writing the moniker of a class girl on every page and the cover. He presumed I was in love with. I won’t reveal the name suffice to say we were in that precarious age when we were in love with the idea of being in love.
The lectures were pretty boring and as I remember they were held in the biostatistics department near the library. Dr. P.S.S. Sunderao and his minions would teach us the ‘measures of central tendency’. These were really beyond me and only B. Venkatesh appeared to be comprehending. No wonder he did research on ‘The gateway theory of pain’, during MBBS and now of course has many papers to his name.
The motto of CMC was corrupted by our seniors from “Not to be ministered unto, but to minister”, to “Not to be conned but to con”. And our seniors were very serious about this ministry. Before the terminal exams we were told by our seniors that it is a tradition not to complete the biostatistics exam and to wear fancy dresses, submit your papers early and have a march past in the SA Hall. Each ace con senior would give his spin to what earlier batches had done. One said “we all chanted biostatistics F.O. as a marching beat!” And of course the term tradition was mentioned a number of times. We by then were used to the fact that tradition had an important role in the CMC.
During one of the terminal examinations I think it was Chemistry the Second Seniors came marching up the steps of the SA Hall in a single file, they marched along the balcony facing Women’s Hostel, chanting loudly “left-right” and then turned right, again right, then left and out via the staircase to the library.
The biostatistics exam was the last exam after which we were going home for the first time since joining CMC. We prepared ourselves for the exam by wearing lab coats. Many carried alarm clock in their pockets which was set to ring within 15 minutes of the start of the exam and further 15 minutes intervals. There was a litter of kittens in Men’s Hostel, probably Thomas the mascot of Men’s Hostel had fathered them. He was called Thomas because he was supposed to belong to a senior of the same name and he proved that cats have 9 lives by surviving a fall from the Supertop with only a mild limp. A Super Senior had thrown him in a fit of frustration.
Another classmate put one of the kittens in his lab coat pocket and also wore the lab coat along with the hanger, so you could see the hook protruding out behind his neck. Another classmate had a pair of stripped knee length stockings which he wore displaying the stripes prominently.
Now the exam started and the silence was punctuated by the shrill sound of an alarm clock. The invigilator, a relatively junior person did not know what to do. He would go up to the person and note down his name. Then the final alarm clock went off and then most of the boys submitted their answer papers and assembled near the staircase. After we had assembled in adequate numbers we marched down the same route as our seniors did, circumambulated the hall, chanting, “Biostatistics F.O.”. The invigilator noted down as many names as possible and chose the tallest and most prominent, as the ‘leader’. ‘Leader’ was written against his name.
Then we all went back to the Hostel and had a good laugh. Meanwhile Andrew from the Principal’s office, more popularly known as Vice Chancellor came beaming down the Gault drive. “Dr. Job wants to see all of you Saar.”, he said with a smile. Immediately we all ran helter-skelter, I remembering exiting Men’s Hostel via a gap due to a missing bar in the bogs. In first year I was thin enough to squeeze through the gap, final year I was too big. We decided to go to the Katpadi station and wait for our respective trains.
During the holidays a letter arrived addressed to my father from the Principal’s office, stating broadly, “Do you know your ward was involved in an incident of indiscipline and the authorities take a very serious view of this.” My father being a principal himself knew boys will be boys and laughed it away. He however penned an appropriate reply stating that I had received the necessary dressing down from him.
On returning to college after holidays we were all summoned to the Principal’s office. I remember my inquisition with Dr. C.K. Job. He minced no words and came straight to the point, “why did you do it?” I mumbled something vaguely about being told it’s a tradition. “Tradition!” he said almost having an apoplectic fit, “do you know this is the first time such an incident has happened!”
7. We were the last Batch where the administration permitted a large number of us including yours truly to be provisionally admitted despite our mark lists not being available. They gave us 15 days time and I suspect it was more due to sympathy for ‘Terry’ Tee Seng Kiong because he had secured admission in 1977 but had to leave because his Malaysian school certificate was not recognized by Madras University. He went to Trivandrum and appeared from 12th from there but like me his results were not declared when we appeared for interview. The next year anyone not having their marklist was shown the exit and the next on the waiting list was called. So you guys narrowly missed not having the BOSE in it’s present composition.
8. We joined at a time when there was a change of Principals. DR. A.S. Fenn the outgoing principal was easy-going but the incoming principal Dr. C.K. Job was strait laced. He also believed in a strict curfew time of 12 midnight for the girls, because “after 12 passions would rise.” I wonder whether the word passions was used euphemistically. He was not in favour of ‘Discos’ which had become another tradition post any party. The parties were also more frequent. After each batch giving the Freshers a welcome party, the Freshers were supposed to give a return party. He stopped the return parties cutting down on the number of parties. The parties consisted of activities to get to know each other and also party games like ‘shrinking islands’ designed bring people real close…… in proximity at least. During the last half an hour of the party, the lights were dimmed and the music played loud and the dancing began, which was frequently interrupted by an emissary from the Principal’s office.
9. We had 3 Sunils in our class, Sunil Agarwal, Sunil Datta and Sunil Thomas Chandy. Sunil Agarwal was called Dariwallah Sunil by Dr. Theodore due to his hirsute appearance. Dr. Theodore or Teddy as he was popularly known taught us Zoology. Whenever chick embryo was mentioned he would say “This reminds me of Chickmagalur and the impending bye elections from there. Hopefully Mrs. Gandhi will win.” Mrs. Indira was standing from the safe constituency of Chickmagalur. Anthonysamy or popularly known as Botanysamy taught us, what else! Botany. Dr. James Verghese who taught us Chemistry was Jimmy but Dr. Rose who taught us Physics remained Dr. Rose. Mrs. Rose or Ma Rose taught us English.
10. We had 6 Johns in our Batch, John Mathew, John Christo, John Alexander, Sajiv John, Philipose John and Jones (Johns) Kurian. They inhabited the block John of Men’s Hostel along with the other John’s of Men’s Hostel and the John was just nearby.
11. We must be only Batch who had a Sri Lankan Tamil, who neither sang nor played a musical instrument and what is really sacrilegious, did not play cricket.
12. Needless to say we never won an interclass music competition. So in our final year we decided to give the bathroom and wannabe singers a chance. Lacking in talent, ‘kaaykoo’ songs were chosen like Dr. Freud, the words of the song went like this,

“ Oh it happened in Vienna, not so very long ago,
When not too many folks were getting sick
That a starving young physician tried to better his position
By discovering what made his patients tick

Oh, Dr. Freud, oh, Dr. Freud
How I wish that you’d been differently employed
For the set of circumstances sure enhances the finances
Of the followers of Dr. Sigmund Freud

He forgot about sclerosis, but invented the psychosis
And a hundred ways that sex could be enjoyed
He adopted as his credo, “Down repression, up libido”
And that was the start of Dr. Sigmund Freud “

Then for the Gumbal there was Changiz Khan. I am sure you don’t want to know the lyrics because it went like” Ohhhf! Aaah!…. Chang! Chang! Changiz Khan” and in the rest in gibberish.

During the impact in first year we spoofed on the fact that superheroes wear their underwears over their tights. This looks cool in comics but in real life it looks, to put it politely comic!
The men’s hostel had a co-operative store where you could buy the essentials and one of them were, underwear/jocks/jattis/chaddis! The ones popular in our times were manufactured by the TTK conglomerate under the brand name of Tantex. Keeping in mind the taste of the people who liked to add colour even in to their inner wear which was not normally displayed. It came in a rainbow choice of colours, a veritable VIBGYOR!
Since these unmentionables could not be washed by the dhobi. The risk of contacting the ‘Dhobi’s itch’ and having and irresistible desire to scratch there. Hence they were washed in the sink of the bogs and strung out to dry in front of the room. Seven different colours for seven days of the week. Some however extracted extra mileage from the them by wearing them inside out.
Getting back to the Impact, one of our classmates noticed an Indigo jock strung outside a class mate’s room in the slums. By frequent washing the indigo had faded to a purple. Architang! The idea of the Ghost who walks in purple Tantex jocks was born. He borrowed the jocks from the owner who lent it without even giving a thought as to why would anyone want to borrow jocks!
The Impact began with a darkened stage and a prop on stage, then suddenly out jumped a figure from behind the prop. He was a masked man, wearing purple tights and over the tights he wore ‘purple Tantex Jocks’ and he was none other than the ‘Ghost who Walks’ Phantom. He danced a jig singing “Devil O’ my Devil, where the Hell are you my Devil” (Devil is Phantom’s Dog sorry wolf, by the way, not to be mistaken for the other Devil). He really made and impact.

We followed tradition to the hilt by climbing every mountain surrounding CMC. First was the pimple called college hill, then Toad Hill and finally Kailash. The Kailash marked an unique adventure in the life of one of our classmates. He did not wake up in time to join the gang. When he got up he hired a bicycle from Bagayam and cycled to the base of Kailash hoping to catch up with the rest of the gang. Then he began his solo ascent up Kailash and got completely lost. He had not carried anything with him hoping to catch up with the gang, so he was dehydrated and hungry. He spotted a grazing cow and was so desperate that he attempted unsuccessfully to drink milk directly from the udders. He was really in a desperate shape when a good Samaritan in the form of a Cattle Herder picked him up and carried him on his shoulders to his hut and lay him down on a cot. Our friend had limited knowledge of Tamil and could only mumble to the herder, “Passi! Passi!”, miming the act of eating with his left palm and right hand. The good Samaritan shared with him their humble repast and helped him get back on the road to the base of Kailash.

The men had superior numbers and hence voting powers and since there were no fixtures we were not influenced by the residents of the other side of the road. This voting power came in handy when the venue of class picnics had to be decided. Pondy was a very popular choice with the men for obvious reasons and unpopular with the women for the same reasons. The men prevailed due to superior numbers.
It was during a picnic in Pondy the choice of which the girls opposed vehemently but lost in the hand count. The day was spent on the beach wetting our toes and we split in the evening going to various restaurants for dinner. Two of our classmates went to a Vietnamese restaurant for dinner and consumed 250 ml of Old Monk Rum between the them. They returned to the parked Silver and Blue bus early and waited for the rest of the crowd to return. One felt nauseous and suffocated inside the Silver and Blue and the other had dozed off. Waking up his sleeping friend he told him that he was going to the roof of the bus to get some fresh air. The drowsy friend mumbled incoherently his consent. So he climbed onto the roof and lay down taking in the fresh sea air and fell asleep. Next thing he remembers is being woken up by a classmate and being “We have to go, everyone was searching for you.” On climbing down he discovered what had transpired, when everyone had returned they found him missing and no one knew where he was. There was a desperate manhunt until his friend woke just long enough to tell them that he was sleeping on the roof.