MEMORIES DOWN THE LANE

 

           MBBS Batch of  1970, Trivandrum Medical College

On a lazy morning in came the humbler toned message
Requesting scribblings for the next meet of our batch,
Two short of four dozen years, thrills never in assuage
Did plunge into a pensive mood for my poetical hatch.

Thoughts stir my decaying neurons, indeed no backups
Those days of tension and cheer, still linger and afresh  
What to write, where to start were the initial hiccups,
Nothing to boast, but the desire to ruminate, no hush.

Greeted by the ever articulate biochemist, and smart,
Calling out two hundred names, every morn, in rhythm
The stench of formalin soaked cadavers took us apart,
Pithed amphibians, defeating us too often in tandem.

Crossing the first of three hurdles, indeed a nightmare,
Our eyes all over the microscopes, under tutors watch
Mixtures, aspirins measured, learning the drug so rare,
The legacy of jurisprudences and post mortems in watch

Clinics in the last hurdle, indeed a litmus test of caliber,
Diseases of the eyes followed by medicine and surgery
Study of community medicine boring, oh! It’s a tall order
Knowhow of pregnancy, childcare signing off itinerary

Basic degree now in hand, parted ways, for glory search,
Meeting individually, rarely, in profession, and in tweets
We lost some forever, natures’ routine manhunt search,
We pray for stronger, closer ties, longing for these meets.

A few missing links, we pray they be healthy, sans strife
Message is loud and clear, we need these missing links,
We live only once, let us meet oft in the dusk of our life,
Bring them all yearly too, regularly till the last lid winks.