AFG 2533 Ravi Dubey

 

Name             Ravi Dubey

AFG              2533

Nickname    Dubeyji (Always respected)

DOB              28 Jun 1965 (He was definitely younger)

Address        Somewhere in the Universe       

Spouse           Never married

Children       Lopchu

Lhasa Apso

Tumble ji

Pug

Hobbies        Music (vast collection of Cassettes collected over the years), Travelling (especially on his Bullet if not his two cars), Golf.

College Memories

Usually seen with

Shishir and Suri, his room mates in the first five terms, Mota Joshi, the residents of 6GSS in the Final Term where he was Suri’s neighbor and this neighborhood was an adda for Bridge and other sessions

Usually seen at      Suri’s room

Never seen at        Girl’s Hostel.

What he could have changed about himself           Be a little less lonely

If he was not a doctor      With a brilliant mind like his, he could have excelled in any profession.

Journey of life

Born into a land-holding family in Etawah, UP, Dubeyji was the eldest of three siblings. His initial schooling was in the village they belonged to. Seeing the innate brilliance of the child and the mismatch between his potential and the schooling he was receiving, his paternal grandfather who was in the Archeological Survey of India decided to take him under his wings and give him a better education. As a result, Dubeyji did his schooling at Dehradun and Secunderabad before gaining entry into AFMC.

By his own accounts, narrated in his usual self-deprecating style, his preparation for the AFMC Entrance was cursory (he narrated this in the context of today’s craze for coaching classes) and the journey to his Exam centre was peppered with obstacles with the result that he actually reached the centre late. In effect, he completed and qualified in the Exam in less time than all of us lesser mortals did.

He was a complete teetotaler and vegetarian until he was informed of his passing the final MBBS exam. Internship at Roorkee saw him explore life beyond, and Vijay Vishnu Joshi was a willing accomplice (with apologies to Mota). A fracture during internship saw him miss MOBC (he held the unique record of never doing his MOBC) and continue for another one year at Roorkee. A short stint, thereafter, in Rajasthan preceded PG in Anesthesia at AFMC. His specialist career started with a short posting to Base Hospital Delhi followed by stints at Bagdogra (Surdy was co-posted there and Mota was in nearby Hashimara), Thangdhar (with Sofat), Base Hospital again, Gangtok, Ranikhet (with Thary) and Bhatinda. It was during his tenure in Ranikhet that he began exploring the possibility of settling down there. He was a mountain-man and toured extensively in Kumaon and Garhwal during this tenure. At Bhatinda, he had decided to hang his uniform and settle down in Ranikhet for which he bought himself a piece of land with a picturesque view of the Kumaon hills. 

 

At the fag end of his tenure in Bhatinda, he lost his long and trusted companion Lopchu, who had been with him for more than 15 years. As though in preparation for the parting, he got himself Tumble a few weeks prior. Tumbleji took over from Lopchu. 

   

 

After leaving the Fauj, he started construction of his dream house in Ranikhet with personal attention to detail and used up most of his savings in the process. He had decided to be a freelance Anesthesiologist rather than be bound down by a salaried job. His skills had great demand all over Kumaon and he would make frequent trips to Haldwani, Almora and the surroundings of Ranikhet to provide Anesthesia cover. As he would say, he made enough moolah this way to never have to access his bank account. In any case, he was a man with frugal requirements except for his lavish house.  Mandy’s brother, Sandeep, who was posted in Ranikhet, was Dubeyji’s close friend and well-wisher in that period.

I was lucky to have been Dubeyji’s guest at “The Abode” on four occasions, thrice with my family and the last in August 2014 in the company of Suri, Shishir and Caprihan, one of the best holidays I have had.

Exactly a month later, Sandeep rang me up to convey the tragic news of Dubeyji having left us prematurely, unannounced and unattended. Tumbleji faithfully followed Dubeyji on his celestial journey just a day later.

(Grateful for inputs from Shishir and Mota)