“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way…..

-Charles Dickens: A Tale of Two Cities

In August 1985, a bunch of students arrived in Sevagram. Sevagram was, and still is, a small village. Those were the days when technology had not hit Sevagram. Students used hero pens, camel gum, geometry boxes, and Natraj pencils in the schools. Teachers used chalk and blackboard to teach, researchers typed their manuscripts on typewriters, students wrote letters on postcards and inland letters, and telegrams and trunk calls was the only media for long distance urgent communications. The postman was the most sought after person in the hostels- hand written letters brought unbridled joy to the students. No computers, no emails, no mobiles, no digital cameras and no pen-drives. The batch went through the usual rites of passage- a fortnight at Gandhiji’s ashram, discovery in dissection halls, lecturers in Anatomy hall, and experiments in Physiology and Biochemistry labs. A year-and-half quickly slipped past, and the batch crossed the first hurdle- first MBBS.

It was in the spring of 1987, that the batch began its clinical rotations. And over the next three years teachers got to know the stuff the batch was made of: students who were perfect archetypes of the new age medical students- primarily non-conformists, rebellious and iconoclastic, ever eager to challenge dogmas, confront with authorities, and question traditions. This was the batch in which every student was an idiot: I Do It On my Terms. Or to borrow a phrase, this batch gave Idiot a new meaning: the intrinsically Intelligent, Downright smart, Inimitable, Original and Talented medical student. The batch questioned outmoded customs, chose to live life on its own terms and took roads less travelled by. Witty and wild, these students refused to become cogs in the wheel.

For a student to be in the good books of a medical teacher, he must be compliant, obedient and adherent. The batch of 1985 was different. In the college councils, the teachers would discuss the ways and means to discipline the irrepressible idiots of the batch. Some professors could barely conceal their angst: “These students have contempt for authority, they show disrespect to their elders…. “These young students think of nothing but themselves. They have no reverence for teachers or old age. They are impatient of all restraint. They talk as if they alone knew everything and what passes for wisdom with us is foolishness with them…”

Years later, I discovered that someone in Socratic era (three centuries BC) had used exactly similar words to describe adolescents in Athens!

Had Chetan Bhagat or Rajkumar Hirani spent just a few days in the boy’s hostel in late eighties with the batch of 1985, they would have left Sevagram with enough material to script an exciting Bollywood pot-boiler. The batch did not need a certain Amir Khan to tell it that students need to (a) follow their heart and shouldn’t compromise in doing what their heart says (seven nuptial knots tied within the batch); (b) chase excellence and success will come looking for them (look at the extraordinary professional accomplishments of the batch); or (c) believe what they should do (leaving medicine and practising full time politics).

This December, 42 students from the batch of 1985 visited their alma mater. The occasion was batch reunion. Although two decades had slipped by since they had left MGIMS, the passage of time did not diminish their love and affection for their teachers. The batch made special efforts to invite teachers who had touched and shaped their lives. The batch told stories about teachers who influenced and inspired them. The anecdotes they shared were touching, amusing and even entertaining. I was touched by the love and affection the batch showered on its teachers. As usually happens during a batch reunion, nostalgia was thick in the air: Those days, many students said were “the best days of their lives.”

We learnt during the introduction session that the 1985 alumni had distinguished themselves on the professional as well as social worlds. A third of them were abroad, quite a few were serving sick and poor in remote hilly areas and few had taken public health as a career. What makes this batch truly extraordinary, however, is its commitment for social causes and support for innovative way to enrich life in villages around Sevagram. Several alumni were conscious of the role the institute played in shaping their careers. “We owe our success in life to the education that we received at MGIMS and values that we imbibed here, they said. We gained so much more than just an education from our college, so it is imperative that we try to give as much back to our alma mater.” I reproduce below excerpts from an email an alumnus from this batch wrote to me:

“I feel very strongly about socio-economic inequalities especially with respect to opportunities- it is the same in every part of the world- the widening difference between haves and have nots- it is worse in some countries than others. Empowering individuals through education and job opportunities is the key to any initiative to eradicate future poverty. The villages in and around Sevagram and Wardha are very close to my heart. I wish to contribute in some way to empowering the next generation of villages surrounding Sevagram. I also want to start an old age home for old, destitute villagers in Wardha district. The two will be together and the aim is to make itself sustaining. ….The desire to give back and to make a difference in the lives of those communities that unknowingly taught me so much about life means a lot to me and is very close to my heart.”

I spent a sunny December morning with about a handful of students – and their families- in a village near Sevagram. I could feel that those words came straight from the heart. Several batch mates were more than willing to invest their time and efforts to ensure that these ideas translate into realities. Ulhas has described elsewhere in a reunion souvenir how this batch is funding and sustaining innovative programs that will greatly improve the sanitation and quality of life in a few villages around Sevagram.

I salute this batch: very warm-hearted, incredibly humble, responsive to unvoiced needs of poor and sick people, and genuinely interested in making a visible change in villages around Sevagram.

May its tribe grow!