Medicowesome secret project: The Ordeal

What is the secret project? How can I participate?

Name: Palash Asawa

Passion: Poetry

Stones of solidarity, arches of glory
Every soul within these walls, shelters a story
The story of books and blood and bedlams
An ode to the deceased, whose spirits linger
Free and buoyant, but prisoners of our nightmares
Only felt as the ever gnawing pain of our failures

Eyes ablaze with passion, we embrace our fate
Dictated by the countless things we love to hate

From the minutiae of anatomy, to the spirit volatile pharmacology
We delve ourselves into the morbid world of pathology
Piled under books, pressure, and social apoplexy
The only respite is a gasp amidst an emergency

Furrowed foreheads, fidgety limbs

Betray our apprehension, under the veil of composure

Pristine books, tattered notes
Conjures up the grim picture of learning
Where trivial details and ritualistic cramming
Are the only ways to endure this unrelenting journey

The only anodynes in these chaotic times
Are purposeless banters over beverages and shared tiffin
Or the apparently pivotal political opinions and relationship advices

Offered by the liquor in the cerebral synapses

Or the pills of nonchalance overdosed with gulps of recklessness
Or finding yourself on the greener side of madness

When the exams loom large, hysterical fits embark
Gauntlets are down, who will flinch in the dark ?
Integrity disintegrates into shards of deception
‘Who took my chair !’ you think in consternation
Caffeine coursing through your veins, succumbs to keep you alive
When blood red sangria eyes are fatigued by the vigil of the night

‘Judgement day!’ , you quiver in horror with a hint of anticipation
Some chant prayers, some repent their days of hibernation
You run the gamut of possibilities in your brain,
But all the speculations and predictions are in vain
Some falter, some toe the borderline

The triumphant ones are given their chance to shine ( read : undermine )

Don’t let this system zap out the fire in you
Don’t let the menial tasks steal away the life from you
Put your shoulders to the wheel, muster the courage
Which got you to sail on this eternal voyage

Be an immovable rock in this uncaring Zeus’s thunderstorm
And not fall apart like a house of cards in a rain-storm.