Shyam A. Jha

It was the summer of 1977 when I started a new journey from Darbhanga, Bihar, ... to Pune, Maharashtra ... where I spent the next several years of my life ..... definitely the most important years ..... and probably the most memorable years.

I started at 5-Mid-6 with Gautam Ganguly and Vishwendra Sharma.and left from 4-Ground-7 with neighbors Premchandran and Chengappa.

Since you last saw me in 1981 .... this is my story.....

I left for Command Hospital Calcutta, for internship. where we had Alok Pandey, Mala Dey, Partho Mazumdar, Rajesh Mukherjee, Bachu Ram, Bishnu Thapa and Pema Rinzin.

From there I moved to my first field posting as RMO to 5/11 Gorakha Rifles. There I met Reginald Verdarajulu (who came to relieve me for my annual leave) and Kevin Baljeet Singh. Mahesh Chengappa was nearby too. Then I was posted as RMO to 20 SIKH and with them moved to Bikaner. I completed my SSC tenure from MH Mathura ... and moved to Delhi ...working in Nursing Homes and trying to get a PG. I joined Biophysics at AIIMS and realized that it was not what it was meant to be...got married and migrated to USA in 1990.

The usual struggle...Nakul Varshney was a great help to me and then I got lucky ... cleared my exams in one go and got a Transitional Year Residency at Sparrow Hospital, Lansing, Michigan ... guess the outgoing Program Director who was an Air Force guy from the US Air Force liked my fauzi lingo....fauzis are same everywhere.

After the one year program I was accepted for Anesthesia residency at Vanderbilt University where I spent the next three years ... it is a pretty good program. Those were the days when it was tough to find a job in Anesthesia....I finally found one at Oneida, Tennessee .... a small town North of Knoxville. From there I moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to do a fellowship in Pain Management at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

I did locums for a while and joined University of Texas Medical Center at Tyler, Texas ... and now I am in Dallas going to law School .... now that is another long story .... but look to the positive side .... I won't be moving again for a long time, may be finally I will develop some roots.

I am divorced, and do not have any children.

Somehow we have not got together here ... not as much as we would like to ...I have been to a few 4th of August reunions here .... and met Varshney, Bassi, Sidhu and Subramani there.... Long time back talked to Ajmani haven't seen him though ... Vishnu Sharma was here in 2000 and we had a nice get together at LA where Mehboob and Hazrat joined us from San Diego.

I have been to India only a couple of times since I came here. Once it was in 1999 and met quite a few guys at the 4th of August at Maurya, New Delhi .... Chibber, Hooda, Munka, Paul, Renu ....and A.S. Randy at Hyderabad, Keswani at Bombay, S.K. Brevis at Ramgarh and B.P. Kashyap at Ranchi.

I attended the P Batch Silver Jubilee Reunion in December 2002 at Pune. It was very well organized, and it was wonderful meeting all the batchmates after so long...it was like seeing a movie...where you see people change right before your eyes...except it really had been twenty five years...our memories were of faces as we had seen them twenty five years back....everyone was more mature and mellowed.....I will strongly recommend others to go to their batch reunions.

I would be glad to hear from fellow P batchers and AFMCites ... and if you are coming to USA .... please let us know a couple of months in advance ...... that way we can arrange to meet you.

Hope to hear from you.

I can be reached by e-mail at shyam.jha@att.net
or you can call me at home at 817-540-2878 ... and be prepared to leave a message, because that is what you will find most of the time, but I will get back to you.
....and from within USA you can call me toll free at 1-877-SAJHAMD.

Contact Address:
212 Branch Bend
Euless Texas 76039
USA