When my friends came to my hostel room, they urged me to play a song before they had to leave. As usual I played some song & they used to leave contented. Many times they also took the guitar in hand & made me quiet apprehensive about their acts. It was my natural reflex to that stimulus. A response that every guitarist will give when his guitar is touched by a so-called alien. So that wasnt something new to me, neither it must be to other guitarists. The day began with I playing the Sholey theme with my whistle, I remember it clearly, one of my friends took the guitar in hand & started to mimic Bryan Adam as his song SO '69. I was quiet careful about the act. But then I just got back, taking it lightly & with in that moment, as if the whole climax was jotted down. The guitar was removed from its proximal belt & it crashed in a parabola. Vigorously banging its neck on the floor! Before I could do any thing %u2013 it was apart into pieces, hanging loose by its strings. It was a shock for all, rather more for me %u2013 the thing that I most loved, the thing that was my attribute in the public was now-here scrambled into pieces. I was calm, as I am always in a situation of crises the quality of mine that my friends appreciate & according to them I have managed to survive so many adversities of my life, with a tough attitude of mine. The first thing I had in my mind, the first face I saw at that time was my Guitar teacher, the Guru of my chords style Mr. Sunil Renuse. I knew he had the answer. I also had seen his handy cam video of repairing a totally scrambled guitar under a two-wheeler! So, I thought this was just a Cup of tea for him. We hurried it to him. It was quiet astonishing to see his faceless expression when we presented the guitar. It was so because the guitar was not only my favorite, but also his. We had spent 2 hours to choose this guitar from a shop of 14 similar guitars!!! It was but oblivious to have the guitar in this condition & that too from his favorite student, who cared the guitar even more than any of his students did (I had heard that one of his student, fed up of learning & having sore fingers out of it, had started using his guitar as a Cricket Bat!) The same eve, we went to the market purchased all the things we needed, which included paste, colour, brushes, sandpapers, nails, etc%u2026 with a total of Rs. 300/- The program began then. This was my first time to see the interiors of the guitar, the truss rod hole, the inside wood make all was quiet visible. As if it was my first anatomy dissection, I was observing the things that were going on. We needed 11 nails in the neck. The job was hard & finite. The basic problem was to fix the moved out pieces (which I had collected & brought from the wreckage site) into the guitar neck. Technically or Medically, it was a compound displaced fracture that my guitar had, usually seen in fracture femur in a road-traffic dashboard accidents. We assembled all, patch to patch. Now the finished up & final touch was remaining. I was afraid that will the guitar ever play so sweet after that? Not just because it had an accident, but also because of my teachers answer. When I asked him about the outcome, in a sheer distress he answered me only in two words, Lets see. A word I frequent use to talk to apprehensive relatives of a hopeless medical case. Now I understood the mental condition of a serious patients relatives. The guitar was rubbed with sand paper, finally painted black. There were still two base of nail seen on the first fret board, they didnt hurt the fingering, but did show that the guitar was ever repaired. Now the plastic surgeons work began. We had an idea. Stuck two circular white radium sticking on it a bit bigger the size of the white markers on the frets. Good they looked fantastic, but according to the standards the guitar never has markings on the first fret, but we had!!! A rare piece of art. Ha ha. Now the real fear started, will the guitar ever play so smoothly? No one knew it. I had been ordered to keep the guitar on the floor on its hole & un-tuned loose strings to avoid pressure on the neck. After a couple of days, I tuned it to low-pitch as said & started playing cautiously. A week passed by, we tuned it standard 440Hz. Days passed, the guitar was smooth. I was happy & more than me was my teacher. Because he had one more feather in his cap. Gradually I noticed the guitar that had once a fine twang after playing below the 10th fret, had gone. Miracle, the twang had gone, & it was due to the repairs & basically due to accident! In generalized terms we had got the error repaired! Many times when we talk about this incident we always have a hearty laugh on this miracle. I completed my 3 shows on this guitar then. But one thing I learnt never give your guitar to a person does not know to play it. It was God that helped me face me this incidence, but maybe it was a chance for me, the only first chance to improve & learn. As I always believe, There are no mistakes, but only experiences.
College Dr. D Y Patil Medical College, Kolhapur - I will just complete my Internship after MBBS in March. Are you also from any Medical Clg?
