28/09/2025
CHRONICLES OF THE ‘COVID BATCH’
Happiness knew no bounds when the merit list of RMU was displayed. Each one of us knew that, in a couple of years’ time, we’ll have ‘Dr.’ as a title with our names because ‘naam hi kaafi nahin hai’! Secondly, MBBS from a government medical college carries even more prestige as compared to the same degree from a private one. Thirdly, the integrated modular curriculum was something that RMU boasted of and it brought many Lahori high-achievers all the way to Rawalpindi. So, with high hopes, the session for Batch 48 started.
OTB is a nice campus. There’s the multi-purpose ground (as it was formerly called) that has undergone ‘multi-purpose renovations’ throughout the past four years, it has multiple uses – sports in the Sports week and serving as a place for the biennially held ‘annual’ dinner to name just two – and has been renamed multiple times. Currently, it’s called ‘RMU sports complex’; one day, it might have some reference to Olympics added to its name! Then, there is the Latif Auditorium behind which seniors get a chance to ‘interact’ with the new batch, the ‘couple’ tree under which we found either boys or girls at a specific time and not couples, the café, the lecture halls, boys hostel, fossa, pseudo and the list goes on… And don’t forget the constant construction work—it seems like the workers will end up spending more time in OTB than we did!
Ragging of first year students is, unfortunately, a norm and many people fail to understand why it’s done or why do they do it. Respect isn’t something you can demand—it’s something you earn. Nevertheless, there were so many supportive seniors as well who have guided us through the thick and thin of MBBS so far. From the guidelines for each module to tips for the proff exams, their support has been instrumental in making things easier for us. In this regard, Sanaullah bhai’s PDFs require special mention; the exams of 4th year couldn’t have been better without them!
During the first two years of MBBS, we had three main subjects and, hence, interaction with three departments. Scattered in our timetable were some ‘free’ classes as well (they were called clinical lectures back then)! We enjoyed the liberty to bunk them. However, now the attendance policy has been modified to account for those lectures as well and I feel sorry for my juniors.
In the three departments – anatomy, biochemistry and physiology – there were so many different personalities. And we remember each member of our faculty differently.
There wasn’t anything unusual with the Biochemistry department. Dr. Tehmina was a motherly figure, supportive of students. She retired when we were in second year and Dr. Aneela became the HOD; nothing was wrong with her as well. However, I do remember some of the SGDs of Biochemistry. In the early mornings, when half the class was caught between sleep and wakefulness, Dr. Faiza would walk in and make it crystal clear: “Presentation dou warna poori class ko absent mark kar doon gee”!
Guyton was self-explanatory in Physiology and the subject could’ve fared well without the slides (that were mostly a copy-paste of Guyton). Dr. Samia would blend philosophy, ethics, literature... and ‘maybe’ some physiology—all in a single lecture. The department, however, was never complete without Dr. Kamil, the king! Neither did we understand what complexities he taught, nor could we answer his questions in the viva. But he never asked us not to make noise in his lectures, he never crossed any proxies in the SGDs and he never failed anyone in the vivas. That was why we liked him. Lastly, who can forget the lectures of Dr. Farid… or, rather, let’s leave him alone for the time being!
In comes the anatomy department. There was seldom a lecture of Dr. Ayesha in which she didn’t mention her children; now that she is the HOD of the department, her boys must be the celebrities of OTB! Then there was a person who headed the anatomy department as a legend and retired as a legend as well: Dr. Tehzeeb. In second year, he taught us Embryology. After we had exhausted the 30 minutes’ attention span for the hour-long lecture, he’d say: “ab ghor say sun’na, pehli kaam ki baat karnay laga hun”! Come the Proff vivas and he would tell us:” bas chappal pehen kar external ko viva denay na jaana, baaqi mein dekh loon gaa”! And he really meant it. The viva of the toughest subject was never a big deal because of him. Lastly, there was another legend in the same department: Dr. Gaiti. She will be remembered as a person who was always in an elated mood. A person who can crack jokes even while teaching the boring subject of gross anatomy definitely deserves an exceptional farewell; Dr. Gaiti got that upon her recent retirement.
For someone who does not know, we’re the ‘COVID batch’ (a label that’s given to us by our worthy teachers). In the early days after the pandemic, a teacher would ask us a question from the bibliography of a ‘far-flung’ chapter in a book only she had. And when we’d fail to answer, she’d say: “Oh I forgot you’re the COVID batch”! We couldn’t have asked China to release the virus later, Ma’am.
Our classes were held online for a major portion of the first half of 1st year. In those online classes, one could hear all kinds of ‘tunes’ in the background – the voice of someone selling vegetables, that of someone gathering scrap… Sometimes, the teachers’ ‘threats’ to trace the trouble-monger would help and sometimes the hullabaloo would continue till the end of the class.
A person familiar with gross anatomy will understand our plight when we had to take anatomy classes on MS Teams. I’d wonder how a demonstrator was able to show the greater tuberosity, the lesser tuberosity and the bicipital groove all on his hand while describing the humerus. My train of thoughts would be interrupted when one of my attentive batchmates would say: “Sir bone nazar nahin aa rahi”!
The weather changed from winters to summers and then to autumn. One module exam was followed by the other until we had appeared in six of those exams. Then came the Send ups and the Proff exams. When I sit to recollect all that we’ve been through in the 4 years at RMU, I conclude that the first year was the best one as far as the exams were concerned.
At the start of second year, we had become seniors. The route to the labs that we once avoided for fear of seniors was the one we now freely followed. Be it Fossa, Pseudo, the couple tree or any other spot at OTB, nobody stopped us to ask “mera naam pata hai” (as if we were in NADRA). OTB was ours! The boys hostel was still an exception, obviously.
Except for the Sports Week, the time in second year wasn’t much different from that we spent in 1st year. Studies, especially anatomy, had become even more difficult. However, ‘parhna nahin hai tou doctor kiun ban rahay ho’. In a medical college, you’re at the mercy of the policies and the way of teaching of the decision makers and the faculty. So were we.
The Sports Week was something new for us in the second year. Since our immediate seniors hadn’t experienced the Sports Week themselves, we approached their seniors to get a know-how about the event. All they had to say was that ‘Sports week mein sports kay ilawa sab kuch hota’. They were right in the sense that, during the Sports Week, there are a number of different activities. However, there are sports competitions as well, in the week preceding the Sports Week.
After six more modules, we were ready for the second proff exams. This time, the criteria was changed and we had to clear the exams subject wise. In 1st year, we cleared them block wise. 3rd Proff exams had new surprises in store for us: firstly, the pattern of the exams was something that we experienced for the first time in the examination hall. Secondly, when the result was announced after what seemed an eternity, our batch was surprised to see that the total marks were 1549.29 instead of the usual 900 marks! And, in the revised result, all students who cleared the exams scored marks correct up to 3 decimal places. How all those decimals were calculated is a top secret that, even after the lapse of a year, still remains a mystery! In 4th year, we are told that we have to clear each subject separately in a block exam. While we don’t know what lies ahead of us for the final proff exams, we do know that it’ll, once again, be something different because ‘the only constant is change’ and ‘rok sako tou rok lo tabdeeli aaye gee’.
In OTB and even in NTB so far, the even class of batch 48 has always envied the odd class. And there are two solid reasons behind it. Firstly, in the summers, the even class would be on the top floor of the Lecture Hall complex without ACs and the odd class would be on the ground floor in a fully air-conditioned hall. Then, in NTB, Chacha Latif of Lecture Hall 2 would never allow a proxy even if one would offer him a pack of ci******es! On the other hand, Hafiz sb of Lecture Hall 1 needn’t be asked before marking a proxy. So, while students in the even class struggled to maintain the required 80% attendance (sometimes even requesting a waiter at Al-Jazeera to take classes in their place), students of the odd class didn’t have the slightest issue.
After our second proff, we stepped into NTB, and immediately noticed a huge shift. The greenery and spaciousness of OTB had been replaced by the more confined and suffocating atmosphere of NTB. There’s just one green area in front of NTB and that’s the RMU Park. (Don’t look into the literal meaning of a ‘park’ because it’s just a name and there’s nothing in a name!). In that ‘park’, when one ward entered for a group photo, the other had to patiently wait outside for its turn!
Secondly, the lecture halls of NTB were very different from those of OTB. We were accustomed to the foam on the benches in OTB. In NTB, the benches were of wood making an absolute 90 degrees angle with the back that was of wood as well. From Monday to Thursday, ward rotations saved us from a ‘prolonged exposure’ to those benches and what we experienced was only a tingling sensation; on Fridays and Saturdays, it was a 'full-blown sciatica'! Also, in NTB, the boys cafeteria is a ‘smoking zone’. If 5% of the boys in NTB are active smokers, 50% are passive smokers. Now that we were in NTB, we definitely longed for a visit to OTB… ‘teri yaad aayi tere jaanay kay baad’.
In 3rd year, the difference was that we got to go to the wards. For someone who’s genuinely interested, there is so much more learning in the wards as compared to that in the lectures. And for someone who’s exactly the opposite, wards were still a blessing (at least until the attendance policies became stringent): never mind the ward; have a good sleep and then come to NTB for classes at 11 a.m.! Patients who give detailed histories to 3rd year students (who know nothing and many patients know this as well) do deserve praise. And the teachers in the wards are really supportive as well. In a nut shell, ward rotations offer a completely different learning environment.
There were three main subjects in 3rd year and hence there is a concise mention of the three respective departments: pathology, pharmacology and forensic medicine. There was one more subject as well: Behavioural sciences. Count it or don’t, that’s absolutely your choice because it isn’t a big deal.
The crux of pathology is necrosis and apoptosis; I wonder if the department will ever introduce a third option! Get one slide from the intestine and one from the brain and compare them; you’ll find them to be identical twins! If you don’t write ‘increased mitotic activity, cellular atypia, anaplasia, increased eosinophilia’… and God knows what else, you don’t get good marks. However, when you actually see a diagram having the foregoing description, you find it to be abstract art! Lastly, in a couple of exams during the two years, the statement of a few MCQs was as vague as it can get. A question might go as: “A man is having abdominal pain. What is the diagnosis?” And the options: Cholecystitis, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Splenomegaly… Mentioning a ‘man’ in the statement is itself a favour from the department (something students are lucky to receive); at least it rules out ectopic pregnancy! That being said, the readers can very well understand ‘jo hum pay guzray thaay ranj saaray’.
Humans have less interactions among each other, drugs have more! This is what I conclude after studying pharmacology for two years. Exclude anti-diarrhoeals and anti-emetics before safely writing ‘nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea’ as the adverse effect of all drugs. ‘Methimazole, mebendazole, miconazole and metronidazole’ – a simple slip of the tongue, and you’re in a completely different world! As long as Dr. Asma used to teach us, no one could yawn in the class; now you’re somewhat entitled to having a nap in the pharmacology class. You might know more Pharmacology than Katzung but you can never be able to give a satisfactory reply to Dr. Zunera’s question; don’t try to do so! Dr. Attiya is supportive of students and that’s what mattered to us the most, especially in the fourth year.
Forensic medicine is by far the best department in 3rd year. I say this because you never know which book to study from until the mid-term and you can still score good marks in the exams. Vivas are mostly a formality; all the teachers in the department are friendly and really supportive of the students. I really hope the department stays the same for our juniors as well.
The 3rd Proff marked the start of our never-ending exposure to AI, family medicine, bioethics and research. From then onwards, we’d have ambiguous questions on these subjects in all our exams. I remember that, in fourth year, one of our module exam of pathology had an almost equal portion of pathology and these subjects.
The departments appeared particularly conscious about ‘successfully integrating’ these subjects in all their exams. In an observed station of AI in one of the OSPEs of pathology, I had hardly started my sentence by saying “AI can be used…”. The teacher immediately interrupted and said “Don’t say AI can be used. It is being used”. Her confidence left me wondering; the next time I go to the hospital, I’ll definitely find a doctor applying the ‘vast data set’ and ‘algorithms’ of AI for ‘predictive analytics’ and ‘risk stratification’ as well as ‘prognosis assessment’… instead of telling the patient’s attendant: “inka baahir say MRI karwaa kar laayein hamari machine kharaab hai”!
In 3rd year, we experienced audiovisual (AV) OSPE. It’s definitely a very fascinating idea. However, when something is being introduced for the first time, there ought to be glitches and we encountered some of them. The audio wouldn’t work and the video wasn’t very clear. All this meant that the AV OSPE was, at times, a test of the accuracy of our guesses. I hope it becomes streamlined for the upcoming batches.
How the third proff exams and its result surprised us has already been mentioned. In a matter of time, we were in fourth year. Forensic medicine had passed away peacefully: ENT, Eye and Community medicine were born.
The subjects of ENT and Eye were a delight for us, more so after the tough time the non-clinical subjects had given us. From making easy exams to showing leniency in the OSPEs and vivas, these departments won the hearts of the students. I think Dr. Ashar and Co as well as Dr. Fuad and Co will have all our ‘duas’ and there won’t be much left for the other departments!
As far as Community medicine is concerned, either study for it really hard (you’ll definitely be a bookworm if you do so) or study superficially to get an idea and use some common sense, both will work. I commend the determination of my batch mates who went into the depths of what K. Park had written in his book of Community medicine. And I felt sorry for them when the exams had questions that couldn’t be found even in that detailed book! I remember I had revised the epidemiological triad in detail, the phases, the clinical manifestations, the types of vaccines and even the national vertical program of polio. However, in the viva, Dr. Khola ended up asking me about the ‘Polio Endgame Strategy’ (something that isn’t written in any of our book or the slides, I believe). That marked the end of my game of community medicine!
It’s a matter of fact that our batch is very fond of protesting. In OTB, the even batch protested for the ACs. A couple of the very ‘energetic’ batch-mates went all the way from the lecture hall to pseudo only to return in a while. That protest ended before it actually started!
In fourth year, it was the whole batch protesting against the out-of-the-way policies. We bunked classes and a hullabaloo was created on the first floor of NTB. Suddenly, it was decided that we’ll ‘march’ to the VC office in OTB. A majority took off towards OTB. Among those who considered staying behind and tried to reason with their fellows about the need for such a step, some ended up going to OTB in a ‘show of solidarity’ with the batch. Then, the ‘boss’ came into action and what followed is history. Now, we’re the ‘not so favourite’ batch of the ‘powers that be’.
It is said that ‘bachay jitney bhi baray ho jaayein, apnay waaldain kay liye bachay hi rehtay hain’. Maybe that’s the mentality governing many of our teachers in NTB when they give us childish ‘warnings’. On the chilly mornings of Mondays, our teachers would say “shor na karein VC sb round par hain”. Then, on the scorching summers of Saturdays, they’d say “overall pehen lain VC sb round par hain”. How can it be humanly possible for a person to always be on the move? Maybe there’s a phantom of our VC sb that haunts the NTB!
There is one more happening in NTB that is worth-mentioning. You’d be sitting in the library, almost half asleep in the quietness, when a shrill voice, coming out of nowhere, will startle you. It will take you some time to realize that the voice is of the aunty at the NTB entrance saying “beta ‘over-haul’ pehen lain” over and over again! All praises are for her vocal cords; since I haven’t seen her at the NTB for quite some time now, I have reason to believe that she’s on voice rest for vocal nodules!
As we move on to the next class, there is an exponential increase in the number and length of the exams that we give. In fourth year, there was no respite even in the Sendups. We gave MCQ-based exams (through mutual discussion and under the guidance of Chat GPT of course) of paeds, gynae and obs, medicine and surgery and even their OSCEs apart from those of our five main subjects. Our module and block exams are super-lengthy as well. The current salary in house job is 67,000 rupees. That’s the mission maybe: keep giving exams until their total marks add up to this amount, then get your first salary! There was a time when we would give one online test of fifteen marks during the break time at University once every two weeks. Good old days! Now, thanks to the LMS, our weekly tests are of one hour after 9 p.m. And each test is of 100 marks (100 MCQs). This is apart from all the other exams at University. In these circumstances, if someone expects us to give the LMS tests honestly without any ‘external’ help, he or she lives in Utopia!
Four years have passed by and we are all set to step into the final year; a new term is about to start for one last time in our University life. The ride has been bumpy so far; we’ve been through so many ups and downs. Mostly, we have stood together as a batch but, at times, we have faltered. We do remember instances when the admin has supported us, and there are occasions when it has failed us. Being students of RMU, we have some reservations but we do know that we’ll remember the days we spend in this institute. One year from now, we’ll be graduates of RMU. RMU, then, will forever be our alma-mater!
Muhammad Majid Shafi
Batch 48
