My First Autopsy

Jan'1997, I was on the Rajdhani Express on my way to Delhi. Delhi was one of my favourite holiday destination, not only b'coz I had relatives and a resultant free stay but also for the several other things that attracted me.....The Rodeo at the C.P. , The Priya Cinema, The Delhi Haat, and the Daiichi at South-Ex. just to name a few were my favourites.
Travelling alone, I ensured for enough newspapers and magazines to give me company, lest I don't find a congenial co-traveller. As the journey started I opened the newspaper and found a startling headlines..it said my best friend, my hostel room-mate whom I bid good-bye after my final examinations was missing for the last 4 days. I, however did'nt take it very seriously. Though he had managed to hit the headlines, somewhere in the back of my mind, I firmly believed that he must be somewhere or the other.
My next 1 month in Delhi was all fun and frolic, met old friends, literally did'nt have time for newspaper and T.V. After a month, the day I landed at Imphal airport curfew was on...my dad had arranged for a police-officer to bring me back home so that I don't remain stuck in the airport till the curfew relaxes. The state was boiling in agitation,' A FINAL YEAR MEDICAL STUDENT MISSING FOR ONE MONTH WITH FIVE OTHER PEOPLE......GOVERNMENT CLUELESS'. Demonstrations, hungerstrikes etc. had become a daily affair & I,too joined in protest.
Meanwhile, our examination results got declared; both of us passed in subsequent ranks. Internship also started shortly and my first posting was in Forensic Medicine. It was a Sunday that I received a phone call from the mortuary that 6 dead bodies had been brought and that I needed to report by 9 A.M. to conduct post-mortem.
As I entered the morgue, I found my friend's dead body lying on the table, putrified & pungent in odour. His red jacket was intact, I could identify his shoes & his torn jeans. Face was puffed up beyond recognition. The bodies were brought after exhumation, buried after the murder probably a month back. His hands were tied behind & had a bullet entry wound in the occipital area & an exit wound between the nose and the right eye which meant he was shot from the back, hands tied. All the other bodies too were shot in similar manner. The professor told me 'Girish, this is your friend, you have to do the P.M. on him'. Heavy in the heart, but bound to oblige, I put on my protective clothing, ran the scalpel on my friend's body, emptied his putrified abdomen, removed his lungs, his heart, slit his skull open but the brain had undergone liquifactive necrosis and ran off as putrid fluid.
Never in my wildest imagination, had I thought my first post-mortem would be on my friend who was always with me. This episode hit me hard and I took lot of time to recover from it. My friend was a very kind-hearted person. He belonged to a humble family where all eyes were set on him that he becomes a doctor and looks after the rest. He was a classic example that proved the old saying,' Whom the Gods love,die young '.
It has been more than 12 years since this happened. Today, I am just remembering you ,my friend. Can you read it in heaven?