Out of the Third World

When Ashok, a shy impressionable 18-year old Indian student from East Africa goes to England in 1967 with the ambition to become a medical doctor, his enormous challenges of British English comprehension and difficult pre-medical school studies are compounded by the adversity he faces from a tumultuous period in British politics, triggered by an apocalyptic-sounding speech, dubbed "The River of Blood," delivered by Enoch Powell, a prominent British politician, on April 20, 1968, harshly denouncing the immigration of non-white people from the new Commonwealth (Great Britain's ex-colonies) and demanding their repatriation. At the Woolwich College in London, he inadvertently befriends Norbert Eliumelu, a sly, immaculately dressed, smooth -talking Nigerian in his thirties, who is also completing his prerequisites for admission to medical school. Their deep friendship takes and ominous turn when Norbert suddenly abandons college at the end of the first year and resurfaces at the end of the second, the final college year to cajole, threaten and bribe Ashok into a highly nefarious and risky quid pro quo scheme to guarantee admission for both into medical school-a very onerous task for a foreign student in Great Britain 50 years ago.