Dr B. Narsaiah says that he and Dr Bipin Kumar Sethi are best friends though they are poles apart. “We are South and North poles; he is fair skinned and I am dark, he is straight forward, while I can’t hurt anyone. For him education and his career are his life and for me, every problem on earth is my problem. He is calm and I am short tempered,” says Dr Narsaiah, Member of Parliament, and a laparoscopic and obesity surgeon.
Recalling their college memories, Narsaiah says, “We first met in July 1977, at Osmania Medical College.” Dr Bipin Kumar, who is a leading endocrinologist, adds, “We became inseparable since May 28, 1978 when we started living as roommates.” Did they become best friends the day they met? “I cannot say that, but over the period of one year we started liking each other, though we belonged to different backgrounds. I was from a rural area, struggling to speak English and he was from North India, a Punjabi who studied in central schools and did not know a word of Telugu,” recalls Narsaiah.
He adds, “His father was in the Army and his family had to move out of Hyderabad, so he requested for hostel accommodation. As no accommodation was available in the college hostel, he shifted into my room at Reddy Hostel. We stayed as roommates till we finished our education.” Bipin adds, “He was always very protective. And soon the friendship turned into brotherhood.”
“We were also competing with each other to stand first in class; most of the time we would share the first or second position. I was a spendthrift and he was the kind that saved money. I would spend all the money I got from my parents and in the last week, if I needed more for movies, etc., he would give me money from his savings,” says Narsaiah. An incident reflects the bond between them. “We both appeared for our final MBBS examinations, but unfortunately he failed in one subject (viva) inspite of standing first in the university. I passed in first division and stood second in the university. It was like a bolt of lightning. He was always a better student than I, but due to the fault of an examiner he failed. It was a dilemma for me, as my best friend, a better student than I, had failed. He had to wait another six months to write his exam, whereas I had to join an internship. I decided that I would not join internship till he passed. All my other friends felt that it was foolish to lose one academic year. Yet, I was firm and my family did not object either,” says Narsaiah.
Best friends stand by each other, no matter what. Bipin adds, “His unconditional support, the way he fought for me, was commendable. When I had this crisis he said ‘From this moment, as long as you live, I will provide for you and your family and you can continue to live the life with the same ease’.” Narsaiah took up Bipin’s case with the university, met all opposition leaders including former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee (when he came to Hyderabad) for the injustice meted out to his friend. “After re-examining the papers, the examiners agreed that it was their mistake. After two months, I went to the High Court. The court felt that failing a student who had stood first in the university in an oral examination, which was purely subjective, was wrong and directed the university to pass him. Finally, the professor who failed my friend was nabbed by the ACB while taking a bribe from a student during the next examination and was jailed.”
Growing up together
As the saying goes, a good friend is a connection to life — a tie to the past, a road to the future, the key to sanity in a totally insane world. And it has proved true for these two. “We both went to PGI in Chandigarh to write the All India Entrance Examination. It was one of the elite colleges. It had negative marking and we attempted the least number of questions. We felt it was a waste of time to wait for the results, as we had not attempted enough questions. We packed our bags and went to the bus stand to go back to Delhi. We boarded the bus too. To our surprise our friends came searching franticly for us as we had cleared the examination with distinction,” they say.
