John Milton

This morning on 20th August I had to go and see a patient who was running fever since last 2-3 days.With the panic going around the town and the whole country,the parents were very concerned that their girl had not contracted Swine Fever from her friends in college.The girl studies in 1st year BA and I found lying on her bedside table a copy of the famous classic"Paradise Lost" by the famous John Milton,which she had to study in college.
The sight of the book brought back memories of how I had wanted study English in Graduation and make English my vocation in life.I loved English-I memorised sonnets and lines of famous quotation from Shakespeare which I remember even today and can recite with ease.I dreamt of becoming a professor in English after spending a long time in Oxford or Cambridge University .
But Fate had other ideas and plans for me.My father,Dr.(Prof.)Rabindra Narayan Sinha FRCS (Eng&Edin) who was a pioneer of Plastic Surgery in India wanted me to follow in his footsteps.He put his footdown and insisted that I should become a doctor.In those days medical admission was on the basis of marks.1st divisionersin any board was quite a rarity and since I had a high 1st division,I sailed through in Medical admission.I got a furtherpnch when in my pre-medical class where English was one of the subjects,or Professor of English ,Prof.Ranjan Narayan when he learnt about my marks in English in Senior Cambridge,he qupped"What are you doing in Medical College-you should be in English Honours in an Arts College!!"
Be as it may,one never disobeyed one's father those days and here I am a doctor.Of course lot of water has passed in Ganga since I did my Medical Graduation which is 38 years ago.As they say that there is no point in crying over spilt milk but the point is that my love for English still stays.One need not be a Professor in English to be in love with English.I told my patient that you are reading Milton,I have seen where he is buried in Westminister Abbey with other greats .I also visited Stratford-on Avon where Shakespeare was born and live when I visited UK last year while visiting my younger daughter who stays n Milton Keynes,UK.I also visited Oxford where If Fate wished,I coud have studied.
Whatever-Que sara sara-whatever will be will be!

Biggest Non Violent Agitation

I was reading a blog by my friend,Satyanesan,about his experiences in what he believes as the biggest non violent agitation in free India in his institute at Shibpur.This reminded me of a historical non violent agitation in which I got accidently involved as a bystander and later as a witness in a independent Commission of Inquiry conducted by a Honourable High Court Judge of Patna.Of course,I was in no way directly involved but this was my only experience of an agittation which later assumed a national character.

This was in early 1970s, probably 1972,I was doing my Compulsory Rotating Internship in Obstetrics and Gynaecology in what was then known as Prince of Wales Medical College Hospitals ,one of the Premier Hospitals in the country that time.Now it is plainly known as Patna Medical College probably in line with its humble status now.The O&G ward had been temporarily shifted for renovationwork in the old built by the British ,to a vacant plot in front of the Pharmacology Department and next to the Children's Hospital.Now the Hospital,popularly known as PMCH, with its various clinical departments,is longitudinally situated parallel to the River Ganga,which runs from West to East along the North side of Patna.Those who may remember the period, was the time Smt.Indira Gandhi was striding tall after the resounding victory in the 1971 war which led to the liberation and creation of Bangladesh.Of course as there is a saying"Power corrupts and Absolute Power absolutely corrupts".Of course,I cannot believe she personally was in anyway corrupt but when somebody becomes powerful,flunkies and sycophants collect and try to gain an advantage.We had somebody saying"Indira is India" etc.One will remember the Emergency which was imposed later in 1975 with severe curtailment of personal liberties.

Whatever may it be,this led to a reaction and we saw the advent and rise of the great Socialist,Jaya Prakash Narayan who later started what is popularly known as JP movement.As a part of that movement ,we had the Patna University Student's Union presided over by the famous colourful former Railway Minister,Shri Laloo Yadav and the Secretary of the union was Shri Sushil Modi,who was former Deputy Chief Minister belonging to BJP.Now they are in opposite camps but they were in office bearers of the union

To come to the point of this blog,this particular day, there was a big congregation in Patna College,the centre of activity,though Laloo Yadav studied in BN College.I do not remember the exact issues involved but there was a great agitation which led to the police firing Tear gas,followed by actual firing as a result of which several people got injured and had to be admitted in PMCH.There was great tension in town over the students' agitation.I had gone for my evening round to the O&G Ward ,where I was posted, despite protests from my mum but a newly qualified Doctor has great zeal and ideals.

It was about 8 pm and I had decided to return home early,skipping my regular "adda' with my friends who was posted in other departments.Suddenly there was continuous loud banging on the main door of the ward which we had kept closed due to the uncertain conditions outside.The door was opened to let in my close friend,Dr.Prabodh Kumar Jain who was apparently injured.He said he was going for his evening round in the Rajendra Surgical Block when in front of our ward, he was pounced upon by policemen.After telling the nurses to make my friend lie down,I quickly stepped outside to check whether there was any risk of their stepping inside which would disturb my other patients.I saw a few uniformed policemen going away.I returned to apply first aid to my friend, who luckily was not seriously hurt.By this time there was a big uproar and soon lot of party people arrived to take my friend away to be admitted in the Private ward known as Cottage Ward and make political capital out of this episode.

To make the story short,this incident along with other similar injuries to other people, created such an uproar so that Govt.had to constitute a Commission of Inquiry which was to be conducted by a sitting Judge of the Patna High Court,Justice U.N.Sinha. I ,though not a direct eye witness, was an immediate witness,hence the importance of my evidence and statement.A famous barrister,Mr.Basanta Bannerji was the lawyer for my friend,Prabodh whom we had nicknamed as Bhojpuri Sahib.He briefed us before our appearing for giving evidence and he told that the Govt.Prosecution would try to prove that that there was a great hullabaloo on the road because of the problem in the day and he got caught in the melee.When my turn came ,I told in the examination-in-chief,the sequence of events .On completion of my statement,Prosecution Attorney got up to cross examine me.As predicted by Mr.Basanta Bannerji,the prosecution attorney laid a map of the whole area.He pointed that adjacent to our ward next to the Children's hospital,there was a narrow "gali" leading to the Mandir on the ghat of Ganga and at the mouth of the gali ,there was a "Paan" shop around which there was always a crowd of people and on the road in general at thatperiod of time.He had told me to answer in yes or no to his queries and he had me confirm the fact that at period of time, there was always a crowd of people in front of the paan shop ,the ghat and also people going to the mandir to pay homage and attend kirtans.This sequence of yes-es was continuing till out of frustration at the distortion of facts that I burst out that "yes,usually there was usualy a throng of people hanging around but that particular night due to the fear pervading there was no crowd or throng anywhere on the road."On hearing this,the Prosecution Attorney's assistant clapped his hand on his forehead because of my last statement,I completely knocked out the hypothesis his boss was building.Finally on my statement that I had seen some uniformed policemen going away at 8 night,he so very innocently asked,"Well,Doctor,one final question on that particular night,was it a moonlit night or mooness night?"I understood the catch and very nonchalantly answered"It really did not matter since the whole area was lit up by very bright fluoroscent lamps" thus demolishing his ploy to declare me a liar as to prove I could not have had seen in the dark.At the end when he saw all his attempts had failed,he made a statement that I had lied to help my friend to which I violently protested that I was not and I was not in that profession which some people in the room were, that makes lying a byword in their lives.I was shocked that my evidence was taken to be a lie by the Prosecution but I was told later that this was the form in cross examining-they have tell that and I was right in denying it.

Anyway my association with the agitation was this much.This agitation was a prelude to greater things to come -Railway strike in 1974 ,imposition of Emergency by Indira Gandhi and later to be revoked with the loss of Indira Gandhi at the next polls.Thus this JP movement which was non violent in nature set the ball rolling.

So,my friend Satyaneshan,I wonder if you will revise your opinion of the agitatio in your institute being the biggest in ndependent India.

"Can you see any smoke coming out?"

This was in the late 70s when I had just joined Telco (Now known as Tata Motors) Hospital at Jamshedpur in what is presently Jharkhand just after my post graduation in Surgery from Institute of Medical Sciences ,Banaras Hindu University,Varanasi.Though there was a residency scheme in which we as residents had to work our way through side by side with preparing our theses in our respective topics and studying theory for our final Master of Surgery Degree,working in the practical field in especially in an Industrial Hospital was completely a separate cup of tea altogether.
My boss then was a FRCS surgeon Dr.AK.Dhar and he expected us junior surgeons to watch him when he was in the O.T.Well, this time he was doing a Sigmoidoscopy - a procedure where the the optical rod like tube is inserted through our bottom end to see the lower portion of our Gastro-intestinal tract like anus,rectum and sigmoid colon especially.
Though this procedure is done under local anaesthesia and does not cause pain,the procedure is rather uncomfortable and makes the patient tense.So Dr.Dhar in order to relax the patient thought he would try to relax the patient by diverting his mind by asking some other question.He said"Well,Mr.Singh,are you a chain smoker?" At this the patient replied at what left us bemused"Doctor Saheb,can you see the smoke coming out?"