Kannur and Calicut

Kannur

I have lots to write about my wife and children. After our marriage, we had no children for seven years; partly our fault, because Rema wanted to go for PG (D.O) and so went to Madurai for the course and then after that, hunting for a job in various Government hospitals. Just to get postings together we had to go and see the minister, and that too in the unearthly hours - 1-2 AM. That minister was decent enough to keep up his word and we got posting together. That Minister was Wellington. Later on, we came to know that he was a Sai devotee and he was with us when the Kerala Trust members went for darsan and interview (in the 1990s).

And then suddenly, Rema was with child. We were doubtful and visited 2-3 doctors to confirm. So, we were happy. Rema took leave for maternity care and never joined back. We were in Kannur then and staying in a rented house called Happynook near the Army Cantonment area. I was the third surgical unit chief then. Oh My God! The amount of surgery I had done then. We were confident to tackle any case then, no hesitation at all. Mostly done under spinal or local. GA was rarely used - at the most with cloth mask and open Ether. One whole ward was post-op. "Consumer protection" was not there, and so the doctor-patient relationship was superb. They had full confidence in us and we were confident to tackle any situation. Actually, that was the Golden age of the best doctor-patient relationship. After the "Consumer protection" has come, that golden era will never come back.

When Rema was full term, a LSCS was expected, but they managed without it - Dr Sumathi in her Rajasree Nursing home, Chalappuram, Calicut. Rema was admitted (partly in her home and partly in the hospital). She had an enjoyable pleasant time there, awaiting the baby. We were having no anaesthetist in Kannur, and that's why we had to go to Calicut. Finally when the time came, Anaesthetist was not available, and I myself had to give short anaesthesia for the forceps delivery!

And finally our Queen - Anju - was born on 22nd Sept 1972. We were celebrating it like the Krishnavathara of Bhagavatha. Now we were eager to return to Kannur and we made alterations to the house for mosquito protection. My practice and Surgery went on. Rema didn't return to work. My Mother and Kochechi as well as my eldest sister Padmachechi were with us. The house owners were Purushuettan and Ammuedathi, an elderly retired couple whose main income was our rent. We were downstairs and they lived upstairs. Extremely friendly people. We liked most of the people of Kannur. Even our son-in-law is from Cherukunnu near Kannur - there is a famous temple there called Annapoorneswari.

Rema's sister Dr Jaya was getting married at Surathkal REC college campus, where Rema's uncle was working. The groom was from Hospet - Kannada Brahmins - Dr MG Bhat- we all call him Thammu. It so happened Anju 's 28th day was the wedding day. Then Anju's Ahmedabad trip - Rema's parents took her and Anju there where Rema's father Prof. PR Pisharoty was working - in Physical Research Lab - as Prof Emeritus. I returned to make arrangements for my UK experiment. My mother and sister were driven in my Standard Herald 4 seater with some luggage to Thrissur. Mother has to be there until I came back from UK. Then I returned to Kannur and sold our car for Rs 12,000. Returning to Ahmedabad via Bombay- to say farewell to Little Anju and Rema. The flight to London was in Air India on May 1st I think - it took roughly 16 hrs I guess.

Anju was growing up fast, as the favourite of grandparents and all at Sejal apartments. She was liked by everybody and would always smile - which she does even now. She doesn't like hurting people and is always friendly with all around. Once someone took a short movie about her and brought it to UK for us to see her grow. It was not yet the time of mobile phones - they came only after 1997, and good quality mobile-phone cameras still later.

Calicut

After coming back from the UK, we took a an upstairs-only house for rent. An elderly couple were staying downstairs - they were the owners. He was in the Lions club - very active and senior in position, and was quite proud of that also. These Lions have peculiar names for their positions eg TAIL-TWISTERS - really funny. When I was working in Kannur, I was also a Lion due to friends' request. I felt these Lions were not sincere, because I knew they do a lot of advertisement and fanfare for doing very little to the community. In essence I was only acting as a Lion. I left it soon.

We never had a telephone or fridge in those days, and no car either. All travel was mostly by autorickshaws and occasionally by bus.

Hari was a few months old then. One day, he fell down from the cot when Rema was bathing. When she returned, she felt so sorry. But nothing serious happened - just a bump on the head. Life upstairs was a bit uncomfortable, and so we vacated that house soon. With great difficulty we hunted out another house. Part of it was a Medical shop. The rest had a common room, Rema's consultation, one bedroom downstairs and our bedroom upstairs. It was so close to the main road that there was always the sound of buses, trucks etc - day and night - very noisy. There was a bathing and washing tank just behind the building. Hari used to throw away his broken and not-so-broken toys into that tank. Hari and Anju used to play with their tricycle inside.

Amma and Kochechi were with us - they were always together - and there used to be Mahabhagavatha parayanam by one Mr Warrier - a very pious man. His whole family used to visit us occasionally. He was poor and had a large family. We used to give a small Dakshina every time - mostly on Sundays.

The owners of the house - "The Palms" as it is called - Mr Sukumaran, was a very quiet gentleman owning the medical shop. They had no children. His wife Ammu looked after the house. Life in Palms was reasonably smooth except for frequent servant problems - minor ones. My Cheriamma (Kochechi) used to tell our children stories and they used to enjoy listening to her. They learned many good things from her and my mother. In fact, this moulded their character and behaviour, because we parents were busy with work. But Rema somehow found some time to spend with the children, reading good books along with their food, and they used to swallow the food absorbed in the stories. Rema's book reading is in her blood, which she has passed on to the children also. Both our children and Rema are voracious readers and retainers too with tremendous memory, especially Hari. He can grasp anything very fast and store in his memory (like his grandfather). While in "The Palms", Hari had a toy car which he used to pedal around very fast with fast reflexes - reverse and forward very fast. We all used to enjoy his playful antics.

Our stay in Palms too came to an end. In 1979 we got an old house with wall, well, electricity, and corporation water too. Do you know how much we paid for it? Just Rs. 64,000 for 13 1/2 cents walled-off plot with five full yielding coconut trees. But the old house had to be repaired and re-modelled, with 3 bedrooms added upstairs which again cost around Rs. 3 lakhs which we got with difficulty as a personal loan from a cousin of mine, much elder to me, a retired banker, Kochaniyan chettan. He is no more now. This house was named 'SAIRAM' and it was at the Chakkorathukulam junction - very well located with the National Highway passing just in front of the entrance. Now that area has developed so much, the traffic is so much, that you won't recognise that area.

We had a very peaceful life there but in the end, one Sunday morning, there was very heavy rain and our plot was submerged in water. Even the ground floor was flooded up to the middle of the stairs. Early in the morning, while coming downstairs, I was surprised and shocked to find myself standing knee deep in water. My driver-cum-mechanic Mohan brought some more men and a large pump to remove the water. It took about 10 hours of pumping to dry out the place and then - snakes!! - in the consultation area when the holes were filled up with water. Many of my original certificates got wet in the flood and  had to be blotted out, but at least were saved without any damage. The certificates included my FRCS (Edin), MS, MBBS, FICS, UK Medical council Registration, Rema's MBBS and DO certificates, etc -- all safe now. Now we had the fear of recurring floods, and throughout rainy nights, we were watching out for flooding.

In the meantime, we had already paid the advance for a 4th floor Apartment in Arcade Apartments above POP Nambiar's house. The house was ready, so without much delay, we decided to shift. Our Mohan greatly helped in shifting the house smoothly without much damage. We again called the new house 'SAIRAM'. Shifting was complete in Feb 2007 - so we stayed in our previous 'SAIRAM' from 1979 to 2007. This shift created problems for our servant Sathya, for she had to walk a longer distance to the bus stand, but she managed. Three ladies we always remember as our loyal, honest servants - Sathya, Ajitha and Bhavani.

An important incident after coming to Arcade. One day, I had upper abdominal pain and took some antacids. The pain didn't abate. It was getting more severe and intolerable. Usually I can withstand physical pain to a considerable extent. I decided to go to Hospital, taking Mohan along to drive. Directly went to the OT changing room. Dr Biju, surgeon, was there. He immediately gave me a drip and calmpose. Pain was epigastric, so my doubt was that it had a cardiac cause. Cardiologist came, my pulse was thready and veins collapsed. Full ECG was done and cardiologist ruled out infarction. He did a confirmatory enzyme study too - so cardiac cause was ruled out. A USG was suggested. By evening pain subsided a bit and I decided to have USG early the next morning - and then the cat was out of the bag!!

My GB (gall bladder) was tense, oedematous and gangrenous. Due to microvascular changes, it was silent in nature, so no pain earlier. As soon as the pathology was confirmed, I called Thammu, who was then having Sai Darsan. He said he will come with necessary instruments the next day. As promised he came the next day, early in the morning, with Jaya, in their car. OT was ready by 9 AM. The anaesthetists decided who will give anaesthesia - the lot came to Dr Vijayakumar. He gave superb anaesthesia. Recovery was smooth too. Being Laparo surgery I could move about by evening, and had gruel at night. Early next morning, I got up, ready for activities. Thammu asked me to go slow and not to be in a hurry. They were leaving by afternoon. So the GB saga ended very well.

I didnt have any illnes for a long time except a flu 3 years later. I also had an inguinal hernia surgery later done by Thammu himself. Then also, I came home the same day. Thammu is an excellent surgeon with Golden hands. He too has officially retired from active surgery now - doing only free service. As said before, Mrs Thammu is Dr Jaya Bhat, an active gynaec surgeon till recently. Both of them are our Swami's favourite devotees. Their daughter and our daughter are both working in UK, Scotland. Both have one daughter each. Our grand-daughter Aparna is a medical student now, 3rd year.

In Nirmala Hospital, conditions are pleasant for working as no one interferes in your work. But they are very stingy in spending and one has to go after them with repeated requests. I was asking for a dental surgeon for years. Nothing happened so far. They will not raise the operating fees also unless we repeatedly pester them. I was successful like that only 3 - 4 times to raise operating fees. Prejudiced minds will say all sorts of things about Mission Hospitals but they must know that they don't do anything selfish. They have submitted their lives to this noble cause - this has to be appreciated. So, I cannot blame them on any account.

While doing freelance surgery, one risk is that I cannot do follow-up of cases done. Once in Vadakara, I lost one piles patient within hours after surgery, due to negligence of that hospital staff.  I had gone home. No one was taking care of the patient. He just died. Fortunately there was no one to take up a medical negligence case. So everything ended there. Very unfortunate. Though I was doing freelance in many hospitals, with God's blessings, I didn't have any more such unpleasant incidents.

I had to face the consumer court once, and that was a trivial case of wedge excision of a foot nail. But the patient played it poorly as his advocate didn't attend and the case was dismissed. Anyway I got all my court expenses through professional protection scheme of Kerala IMA. That was the only unpleasant incident in my professional life.

Stay in Arcade Apartments was very peaceful and quiet as there was not much traffic along that way. Though traffic gradually increased, it is still one of the quietest places to stay. We had a Babu's grocery shop where most things were available. Almost every day, Rema would ring Babu for items and things would be brought by his sons or himself. He was very decent and never overcharged us, we too paid all bills very promptly. It was a great consolation that Anju's father-in-law was staying downstairs. We both respected and helped each other like two brothers. Agewise also our birthdays were only one month apart - his was Aug and mine Sept. We both had Spark cars, mine was a bit older. Arcade had very little parking space and we all had to do gymnastics for parking. But on the whole we all accommodated quite well and never had an unpleasant incident.There were one doctor couple with 2 daughters staying downstairs, working in MIMs hospital. They too were very friendly and helpful. They may shortly shift to their own newly built house. So probably Advocate Rajendran and family will be lonely, with Sunitha in the 4th floor. Appa (POP Nambiar) may be leaving for Hyderabad as he was all alone here, to be near his daughter's place. Anju and Anoop have a plan to buy a flat for Appa to stay in Hyderabad near (his daughter) Sreekala's house. Appa doesn't like to stay for long in his son-in-law's place. The Andhra and Karnataka customs are like that. The relatives will spread unnecessary gossip. Most of us in Kerala have no such foolish customs. We welcome anyone, especially close relations.

My Arcade flat has now been given to Vinod and Sindhu Vinod to stay and later buy. One advantage is that I can keep my things in one room and they use the rest of the house until I vacate completely. So it is actually a mutually beneficial plan. I call it God's plan. Vinod is working in a Big hotel near BMH hospital.