When their English novel Love, Anatomy and Coconut Chutney hit the stands recently, it was the end of a decade-long wait for Dr Priya Mary Jacob and Dr Sajna VM Kutty. These first-time authors take readers through the years they spent at their alma mater, Calicut Medical College, with stories about friendships, academic grind, interesting episodes from hostel life, bitter-sweet love stories and more.

Both oncopathologists, Dr Priya is now an additional professor (pathology) at Regional Cancer Centre, Thiruvananthapuram, and Dr Sajna is senior consultant (pathology) at MVR Cancer Centre and Research Institute, Kozhikode. Dr Priya joined the College in 1996, Dr Sajna is a year junior.

The authors say that while the incidents are real, the characters are fictional. The book traverses through the lives of six characters during the six years from 1996 – Zara Ann Mathew, Nayana Krishnakumar, Sheetal Tyagi, Daisy Chacko, Kenza Abubacker and Mala Diwakaran. They look back at their campus life 10 years later, recalling the good, bad and ugly episodes.

Dr Priya says that although she wanted to write a book ever since she joined college she never got the time to work on one. She says, “I finally sat down to write it 10 years ago while on six-month maternity leave after I had my second child. But soon I realised that I could not do it alone. Also, besides putting up posts on Facebook, I had not written a book before. I wanted someone who knew Kozhikode, who knew the stories, and above all, someone with my crazy wavelength. That turned out to be Sajna, who was also active on Facebook then. We never interacted in college. I loved her writing and when I called her she was reluctant initially but eventually agreed.”

Dr Sajna adds, “We became friends while working on the book. I was pretty active in literary events in college. It was a common friend who told me about the book,” Sajna says.

They began by listing incidents separately and compiling them. The first draft ended up with over one lakh words, which they eventually had to trim by removing certain episodes and characters. “Since I was pretty emotional about my characters and incidents, I gave the task to Sajna,” Dr Priya says.

The rewritten and edited draft was sent to other literary agents. Dr Priya recalls, “Suggestions and criticisms were many. One of them suggested to write it in first person, which we didn’t approve of initially. But later we wrote the chapters of 2016 in first person. Some opinions were heartbreaking. One of them lashed out saying we had wasted her time and that our writing lacked effort!”

However, it was criticism that pushed them to keep going, they say. “Sometimes it is the people who criticise you the most show you the right path,” says Dr Sajna.

What makes the book a breezy read is the way the two have blended wit and wisdom. “The humour comes from Priya; also, she had a treasure trove of fun stories as she was a hosteler while I was a day scholar. I am the serious type as well. But we ended up having the same voice by the time we finished the book having gone through the process of reworking on the book several times, that too for 10 years,” says Dr Sajna.

Dr Priya adds, “The book felt like a constant tug of war between the eternal optimist and the perpetual pessimist. I am wildly optimistic, while she is firmly grounded in realism.”

The interesting thing is they have met only once during the course of writing. “Our interactions happened over emails; some 10 a day,” Dr Priya adds.

The chapters recall the curve balls thrown at them in their professional and personal lives. Through the characters they have reflected upon how relationships evolved, both among friends and those in love, proficiency at work during emergency [like the Kadalundy train mishap], wading through a male chauvinistic environment and more. Some of the incidents are personal, like the repulsive behaviour of a professor in orthopaedics towards female students or the ‘showman’ or exhibitionist who sneaked into ladies’ hostel. Dr Sajna points out that that they have brought in character traits of several real life people in one character.

“Based on the feedback for the book, we know that most of these experiences are not restricted to medical colleges. Those who have pursued other courses would have gone through or heard about such characters or incidents,” Dr Sajna adds.

The duo stresses that they are happy to have presented the women’s point of view in the book. “Besides reminiscing about an eventful campus life, it talks about girls, what they expect from their partners, their ambitions and how they are forced to give up on so many things,” Dr Priya explains.

Published by Srishti Publishers, the book is priced ₹499. It is available on Amazon and in book stores.