Medical Chronicles Part 1

I have completed my engineering. But, this post is not about how awesome my 4 years at IITM was. This is just a post I had written long before, but I hadn't published it. I would be releasing the story in parts. This is the first part.

“Swagat hai aap sab ka break ke baad iss adhbhut khel mein jise hum kehte hai KAUN BANEGA CROREPATI!”, boomed the voice of the star himself, Amitabh Bachchan.

The guy sitting opposite found himself staring blankly into the red and blue neon lights. And then the familiar male baritone sounded again, “Mere saath aaj hot seat par baithe hai Durgapur ke Mr. Sayan Roy aur wo 25 lakh rupaye jeet chuke hai.”

His heart skipped a bit; one wrong answer and he would be out with only Rs. 3,20,000. He turned to the audience stand, he could see his Mom and Dad beaming, but dangling on the edge of their seats. 

Big B propelled the game forward by asking the penultimate question; “50 lakh rupaiyon ke liye ye raha aapka agla sawaal.”

Q. Which one of the following tranformations accurately describes “Apospory”?

a. Embryo from nucleus
b. Embryo from integuement

c. Embryo from egg of an embryo sac developed directly from megaspore mother cell

d. Embryo from egg of an embryo sac developed directly from a cell nucleus

It was a tough question, but deep down he swore that he had seen the question somewhere. This was the moment of truth, if only he could crack this, nothing could stop him. He was quite confident of his eidetic memory.  In his mind, he ruffled the pages of the botany book. The term ‘Apospory’ ringed a bell, but not so loud that he would point out the right answer. He had used all the 3 lifelines; one on a question of history, one on politics and the last one on Olympics! None of these were his strong subjects.

But, this one was his childhood buddy. Biology was his life. He could have thrived on chromosomes and cancer for his whole life. But, he couldn’t believe that biology was ditching me, when he needed it the most. He murmured to himself, "Et tu Bio?"

He eliminated the first 2 options by logic, but couldn’t pick between C and D.

“Megaspore or Cell Nucleus?, he whispered, seeing the saint-like face opposite to me from the corner of my eyes, begging for some kind of help.

He only got a reassuring smile, but no answer came forward. He had to take his risks, after all that is what he had learnt till now.

“Option C”, he said, removing the cough in his throat.

“Confident? Lock kar diya jaye?”  Big B asked in his male baritone, about whether he should lock the answer.

 “Yes”, He replied.

“Computer ji, please lock option C”

He felt a sudden thrust from above, like he was caught in a whirl wind of some sort. The answer clicked in his mind now. He had made the wrong choice. It was D. But, he could not come back. It was like all his dreams were being washed, one by one.

Just then a sudden jolt woke him up. It was his room-mate, Anand. He spoke in a hurried fashion, “Wake up dude, it’s already 8.30. The exam starts at 9!”