AFG 2595 Atindra Sanyal

AFG 2595 Atindra Sanyal

Nick                 :           Sany (briefly Attaboy)

DOB                 :           09 Jun 65

Address           :           S4, Cluster 10, Purbachal, Salt Lake, Kolkata 700 097

Email               :           atinsany@gmail.com

Phone              :           9873159369

Hobbies           :           Like photography, travelling, reading

Memories:     

The time I spent at AFMC was a time for me when I was in a continuous state of awe of my peers, for various reasons. First off, they carried their brilliance lightly. Some of them carried me along with them during the journey, and unknowingly gave me insights into a world far bigger and more diverse than what I had seen, before I went to AFMC. The awe continues today. My Batchmates have done very well professionally, and are modest about their achievements.

Memories, not in chronological order of events or in order of significance.

·         Gulmohurs in the Boys’ Hostel

·         Waking up late and rushing to class.

·         Saving eggs and bartering them for the bun omelette because one was essentially poor

·         Running up unpaid bills in Insti

·         Midnight snacking on bun maska, bun keema and bun omelettes with spiked tea at Amuni’s rehri

·         NCC camp at Panchgani, and the long walks (“paaint to paaint mapding” is what our NCO called it), The Moral Rearmament Centre there, the cultural show on stage, Suman singing “Old Summer Wine”

·         Election weeks’ scheming, campaigning , and making posters

·         Hobbies Club overnight exhibition prep along with Shanks, who was the Hobbies Club Secy, and Soodji (and others), and going straight from there the next morning to cover the S Batch Passing out Parade. This was followed in due course by the Hobbies Club dinner at George’s. 

·         Running about to bring out the English section of Dhanvantari, getting illustrations made by Damby. It was the age of lead typeset printing.

·         Bringing out Medihoops with Shanks, DJ and Viqi. Viqi doing the sketching, and all of us putting our heads together and producing stuff that few would read, but the passion of it all!!

·         Playing football in right midfield for the Batch and for AFMC. I treasure the AFMC Jersey till this day.

·         Mardi Gras at IIT Madras, travelling in the train’s engine for a few hundred kilometres along with Vidya on that trip from Pune to Madras, and being unceremoniously offloaded because I could not resist blowing the engine’s horn. Our team winning the 1^st prize in Creative Writing, courtesy an excellent opening line by Shanks for our magazine CATS CAN” and an ad flooding that got us eyeballs, and a few I won in photography there.

·         Returning to AFMC from Mardi Gras and seeing that we had just missed the pre-Strike bashing up of the suppliers of adulterated food materials to the Hostel messes., Getting coerced into being Mess Sec by Rawat after the strike ended and unearthing financial fraud after fraud in billing.

·         Not studying and flunking Pharmac, but passing PSM because Goka was a great man.

·         Our great Warden (then Lt Col) later Maj Gen PS Choudhury who backed us when we were in a spot or two.

·         Behind the scenes hectic activity in Durga Puja plays, in which Achy and Ghatak acted.

·         Vidya and I trying Vodka and Limca together, resulting in my developing a distaste for both which lasted for years. Vidya suggesting as to how I should be going about studies, and leaving after a while, shaking his head in despair.

·         Being among the first lot to occupy a room in the old Girls Hostel, christened the U Block for posterity.

·         Shyam Bhat’s demise and funeral, and how that incident affected Sunil Shukla, literally, forever.

·         Going to see movies with Troy. We saw Mandi twice, and the second time I taped the audio on my Walkman. Going to DQ for a monthly treat with him.

·         Going off to Lonavala  with Achy and Ghatak, and once on a solitary hike in general area Monkey Hill (the place where all trains going West stop for testing brakes before descending the Ghats) in a light drizzle. 

·         The Basketball Blues team with Khunga, Anya, Surdy, Namby in it, was a source of pride for all of us. How they played! What sheer class! 

·         Sports Week victory celebrations, with two-wheelers careening up and down the length of the ground in front of the Insti, followed by no-holds barred Victory Parties. 

04 Mar 1984, Khandala

Wish I could change about AFMC:

Not disrupting a Pune Univ inter college football match being played on our ground in our fresher term, ordered by some seniors, “Freshers, toot padho!” That had got us banned up to the 1984 season. After that we had to begin learning playing competitive football from scratch. 

My journey so far:

Interned at CHEC Calcutta. Served in J&K, Rajasthan, North East, Gujarat, Uttarakhand, West Bengal (thanks to Kuli), Punjab, J&K again, Delhi and now in Bangalore. Served in three major CI operations, and at Siachen. Just after New Year 1989, on Sonam in Siachen, a helicopter offloaded two small mail bags. One of them contained greeting cards only for me, about a hundred of them, from U Batchers wishing me a safe return.

My thoughts:

I feel that it was group efforts in sports, elections and theatre that forged us into a band of brothers. We supported each other automatically if the name of U Batch was at stake. We formed up as one, on the field, as on the stage. Our double victories in college elections and sports were considered a unique achievement. It fostered strong bonds at the time.

Despite distances and long periods of lack of contact with each other, we get along famously when we meet. The Batch spirit remains strong. Help and support is given generously. U Batchers went on to earn name and fame after leaving college, and almost always when I have taken the name of a doctor from our batch, senior and junior alike ask, “....of U Batch? You are from U Batch?”

As of today, a few of our close friends are no more with us. Rup, Angresh, Rawat, Tippana, Garg, Dubey, Inji. Every time we get together, we remember them fondly, regret their passing. All of them have contributed to our lives.

If I was not a doctor I would have been a journalist.

Ten years from now I would have started a venture with a few likeminded U Batchers if we can get together to help the marginalised and the poor. And maybe do some writing and travelling.