The Dissection of Anatomy.

This is the most paradigmatic anatomy diagram. It would be in the back cover of 'foreign' anatomy books. There were a handful who tried to even read them, most sane people giving up in a month. In my opinion though, the most appropriate use for them would be weight lifting. 'Gray's Anatomy' is the most celebrated anatomy text. For those of you who are thinking when was the book on Meredith and Derek's romance released, Gray's Anatomy is a big fat boring book. Its a GR-A-Y and not GR-E-Y. if it is of any help. The height of hotness in the book is 'The Vitruvian Man' not McDreamy. In med school, no prof looks like McDreamy, most of the are more Nazi than Bailey. And inspite of poring through books all day and night, no one knows answers in rounds (unlike Yang and Izzie, who in four seasons have never studied, they have very laborious love-lives though)

The text which I studied and almost all medical students in India have studied is B. D. Chaurasia's Textbook of Anatomy. Small red volumes, three of them, just giving you what is important. I used to still mark the very important and when time is too short, very very important questions and read them. I would have never been Henry Gray's favorite pupil. Heck! anatomy didn't even impress me. For most medical students, anatomy is the First Year. Physiology (in my opinion a more conceptual subject) was a mere appendage and Biochemistry a distant cousin. Everybody loved anatomy; I loved a certain boy in my high school bus. Everybody has problems, I guess. Girls in particular ( always if the characteristics involved are weird, it must be associated to a girl). In my hostel, girls used to read anatomy in the morning, pre-prandial, post prandial, in evening and at night. There was no time in the day, girls in junior hostel would be found to be indulging in any mundane activity. The erudite lot studied anatomy, making Henry Gray twist and turn in his grave. My attention span with Anatomy was forty five minutes, and retention power was one day. why bother cramming so much, if I am going to anyway forget it anyway.

The cardinal part of Anatomy instruction is Dissection. We used to have two hours of Dissection everyday, after lunch, at two o'clock. At that time of the day, interest in education was grossly depreciated and what was required was a good siesta. The dissection hall didn't have stools, we stood all the time trying to read Cunningham's Manual. All volumes of the book should be included in non-pharmacological treatment of insomniacs. May be they should start a cohort study with the new batch. All of us were a persevering lot, always looking into the book, though never registering anything. The art of dissection was practiced in beginning of chapters. We used to dissect so wonderfully, that nothing was left to study, no nerves, no arteries, no veins. Gradually, love stories blossomed and idle talk increased, interest in dissection as a process became sporadic (very much like my posts). There were academic high points though: study of the mammary tissue (distributed to all tables with male bodies, like gurudware ka langar), study of the eye (cow's eyes provided for better understanding; likened to my friend Divya's eyes); the grand opening of the skull (which I missed, because I was crying in my room when I flunked physiology. Hey! even I am a girl) and maybe study of the male external genitalia (somebody stole a testis; as if he could attach it!).

I somehow passed Anatomy, by making 'colorful diagrams' in theory and by blinking rapidly and occasionally making an intelligent statement in the viva. I do not have to go to Anatomy class in future, I fervently hope.