(21 Aug 11)
I don’t accept public
invitations for free meals or chai or networking. I go only if I feel the event
would make the travel and time worth my while.
The G K Salelkar Memorial Foundation I knew nothing about. But I went
out of more than mere curiosity: the theme was Romance in Medicine. Not of, but
in. Nothing in the topics mentioned indicated doctors falling in love with
colleagues, technicians, nurses or patients. Not directly, anyway. The first
was Science of Man. Could it be about how biology overtakes reason? How the
heart overrules the mind? Another topic
was Adding Life to Years, which too could be construed as have fun, live long,
etc.
I went more out of excitement.
Having served on an Ethics Committee, I had heard the revered names: Drs B M
Hegde and Pankaj Desai, men who have gone well beyond their texts and patients,
who have walked whatever they’ve talked and are leaders beyond the boundaries
of their neighbourhoods. As a Mumbaikar, I knew of Drs P Pispati and Sanjay Oak
and… imagine that…. I could get to hear these famed orators right here in
Panaji. In recent times, thanks to the International Centre at Dona Paula and
organizations like the Salelkar Foundation, it’s an advantage to be in Goa to
hear at close quarters stalwarts and contemporary thinkers and be able to ask
them questions.
Dr Hegde blasted modern science. An Allopath who advocates homeopathy
and ayurveda? His trashing of some scientific ‘theories’ were backed by work
done by Nobel Prize winning physicists and biologists. He quoted extensively
from references that I located online and am still trying to comprehend. He put
them across so simply that at the time, the logic slid easily into my brain.
The heavy theories and their explanations were interspersed with generous doses
of humour, with a voice that needed no mike… and at 80 plus years, that’s no
mean achievement. He held the attention of over 300 people for over an hour
without an extra inhalation or sip of water. Let me take back my words. He
didn’t blast science or theories. He blasted us for believing blindly,
unquestioningly, for pursuing what we read in journals, without pausing to test
for ourselves the truth held in the words, the texts. He was advocating
homework before action. Logical? And yet we don’t follow it.
Dr Pankaj Desai’s talk should be printed and circulated amongst medical
professionals in Goa and be made compulsory reading for ALL professionals. Here
is a man who is rich. Very rich. He has earned all those lakhs of rupees
ethically. He accepts no gifts from pharmaceutical companies, gives no cuts or
commissions to fellow doctors who refer patients to him, and isn’t afraid of
charging fees that are well above the competition. He’s unafraid because
leading a principled life has given him that power. He’s able to do it because
he’s professionally competent. He’s looked up to because he had the courage to
follow his conscience. He has proved that it is possible to be honest and rich
and successful in India. No need to make excuses. You’re good at your job,
sincere to your patients, you don’t need props was the message he gave.
Dr Sanjay Oak described ‘success’. Like satisfaction, this is a
difficult word to quantify. Being Dean, earning the big bucks felt good, but
doing a day long surgery where the skills of several highly qualified team
members were required that saved the lives of a pair of infant ‘Siamese’ twins
felt like he had achieved something. The famous Aruna Shanbag case was another
example. An ‘activist’ (so many of these well-meaning types actually end up
messing good work) went to court to say that this nurse, who has been in coma
for 37 years, should be ‘put to sleep’. Dr Oak had to draft a powerful legal
argument to convince the Supreme Court that Aruna maybe in coma, but she was
alive, well cared for by several generations of graduate nursing colleagues,
and couldn’t be murdered because someone felt sorry that she was a vegetable.
He won. Vigourous claps echoed through the conference hall when he said: This,
my friends, is success.
Beyond academia, it’s entrepreneurs in Goa very interesting. Besides the
shacks, there are innumerable low end but good eateries dotting the state.
Porvorim has imperceptibly become a place for food adventurers. Lucknow’s world
famous Tunday Kebabs are available on Chogm road. I haven’t found anything else
like that in Goa yet. Right next to it is Trupti, where cooks from Bengal are
making and selling authentic stuff, ‘hot-hot’.
Best of all, I like the attitude of so many working-class Goans who
never make it to the newspapers: like Georgina of Pastlaria, Panjim. We were
hungry one Sunday afternoon for an inexpensive snack. Everything around her
shop was closed and she was out of savoury snacks. She called up her colleague
in another branch, requested us to drive there – which we did. Loyal customers
flock to places thanks to workers like her. Business flourishes in spite of
politicians because of workers like these. Jai Goa.
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