“Is that a Yes or a No?”
It was some time between 3 and 4 pm, when I usually took a siesta after a busy day at college. That particular day, I was about to sleep when my phone buzzed. I tried to ignore the buzzing at first, thinking it was some forwarded message but the buzzing didn’t stop, indicating an incoming phone call. I checked the screen with hazy eyes (I was about to sleep, so I was not wearing my glasses). It was a call from home. I silently prayed: Let it not be some bad news; after all, it was not the usual time for my parents to call. I picked up the call with apprehension. After the usual niceties, my father asked me a simple question. If you get admission in SIMS, will you go there? It was not the best time for me to make a potentially life-changing decision but I just went with my instinct and said, Yes I will.
That’s how my relationship with SIMS started. I had not made it to the list of selected candidates in the first merit list for Public Medical Colleges in Punjab. Tired of waiting and in anticipation for the worst possible outcome, my parents got me enrolled at Wah Medical College, a private medical college located in Wah Cantt. I reached there a few days after the session had begun but it was quite fascinating to be in a medical school after all. Wah Medical College may have been a private medical college but they had quite good academic standards and a good campus, things that even many public sector medical schools do not possess. I had gotten well with the folks in my class and the hostel. The place was very serene and beautiful, as well as being within 20 Km distance of my high school(Cadet College Hasan Abdal) so I didn’t feel a lot of change in the surroundings. I had experienced dissection, the first sub-stage, the first bio-chem test, the labs and camaraderie with seniors, i.e. the things that are quite fascinating/daunting for a freshman in medical school. I also had the good fortune of getting a role in the College magazine society where I spent a very good time with my seniors. In short, I was quite settled at Wah Medical College for almost one and a half month when I got this call from my father. I felt very uncomfortable leaving a place that I took a liking to, and going for an unknown destination. After some fare-well parties and well-wishes, I left WMC and came to Lahore on 15th of February, 2007.
After a long journey, me and my mother reached the Birdwood Hostel at around 6 p.m. It was about to go dark and even in that semi-darkness I could see the shabbiness of the house that was supposed to be my hostel at SIMS. The warden escorted us to the room I was supposed to live in. Upon entering that room, the smell of worn-socks mixed with cigarette smell and the typical ‘bachelors’ hostel stink’ hit my brain. Another problem was that in a single room, I was supposed to be the fifth person thereby congesting the space. I felt sick in my stomach upon seeing that and secretly hoped that it was a hoax or something. Sadly, it was not.
My first night in B-12 hostel, Birdwood road, consisted of a little bullying/sarcastic ragging by a 2nd year student,and a ragging session with my own class fellows acting as though they were seniors. It was not worse than my expectations and I was relieved after my classmates finished the ragging when I sang to them “Tumhain Dil Lagi bhool Jani pare gi” using my pillow as an imaginary-harmonium. The next day, more surprise/dismay was in store for me when I walked to the college building to attend the classes. At first, I couldn’t believe my eyes as my “new” college consisted of some really historic buildings that were shabbier than the hostel. After sitting through the lectures, I practically gave up. It felt like committing the biggest mistake of my life. I had left the comfy hostels and neat buildings of WMC to come to THIS.!!! I immediately called my father and asked him not to get my clearance from WMC as I wanted to go back from this mess. He was quite circumspect and told me that it was quite difficult, my mother though said that she would try to convince my father.
This is precisely how my journey at SIMS started. Things have changed a lot since then. We got a brand new campus, the merit gets higher each year and at least some Rickshaw-wallahs now know about SIMS. I still retain memories from my time and this is just a first glimpse of how things used to be. Watch this space for more of the same.
(Abdul Majeed is a SIMS Alumnus, from the 2006-2011 Batch. He was editor of the Urdu Section of College Magazine and writes for The Friday Times and Dawn Urdu thes days).
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