Amritsar Calling: Of healers & remedies

And here we had grown up to the gentle mannerisms of our good old Doctor Vachher who took a few sittings for one dental cavity and rewarded us with a candy each time. The women also were ever so happy after their flirtatious visitations where he threw in some poetry and an occasional rose as well.

I myself, when in agony due to a spinal disc prolapse many years ago, visited an uncle who had the supposed blessings of a saint that enabled his healing prowess. He gave me a thorough squeeze over with multiple strangle-hold embraces that squashed me to a pulp. Then I was presented little packets that tasted like a blend of pepper, turmeric, and sugar, to be had twice a day for a week. Such has been our local belief system here, varied, perhaps twisted, sometimes bizarre.

Younger still, with swollen ankles or with pulled muscle tendons we would be carried to ‘Billa the Maalshiya’ who would massage the living daylights out of us, apply a wretched smelling black balm, tie on a bandage, and actually cure. He always had scores lined up, including crying kids horrified by the howls of the patients whose pain was being addressed with more agony. Such were the simple remedies of our yesteryears.

And yet this city has had the doyens of medicine and surgery emanating from it. The foundations of healthcare in Amritsar were laid by people like Dr Tulsi Das, awarded the Padma Bhushan by none other than President of India, Dr S Radhakrishnan. His contributions were manifold towards setting up the premier-most medical institutions of north India including the PGI at Chandigarh, and later the Rohtak Medical College. In the same field of ophthalmology was Dr Man Singh Nirankari, a highly respected institution of the city, an expert in his field and a prolific author as well. Dr Sohan Singh, the eminent ophthalmologist, still has one of the first private hospitals here named after him. His son Dr Ranbir Singh, one of the finest human beings that adopted the profession, nurtured the enterprise after him. His able grandsons, surgeons of repute, Rajbir and Pritam further went on to add laurels, chaar chan, to that legacy which, in turn, shall lie with the great grandkids of the founder, taking on the lineage and the profession.

A personal favourite has been Dr Daljit Singh, recognized internationally for his substantive contribution to intraocular lens surgery, a first, that changed the prospects of sustained eyesight for Indian humanity. Even President Giani Zail Singh trusted his eyes only to his surgical acumen and technique. That illustrious tradition of quality ophthalmology is taken forth by sons Ravijit and Kiranjit, as well as their wives Indu and Seema, respectively. These were gifted men of sight and their vision carried forth by the progeny.

So much of medical talent and yet our driver Santa Singh had his own remedy to any ailment that struck. Whenever, for instance, he felt a sign of weakness due to his old age, he would consume a batta full of warm desi ghee. Style Ambarsari! Obviously the loosies would visit him the next day. However, by the third he was fit as a fiddle, twirling up his moustache to ninety-degree perfection. But that was another era. Now our gang of help heads straight for the pharmacist or his dispenser who vanquishes the ailment akin to hammering an ant. It has to be one broad-spectrum high-octane capsule or a Megatron injectable cure. And we still wonder where the superbugs are emerging from!

The list of the contemporaries of medicine-men of the city is long and heart-warming as well – Dr PN Chhuttani, Dr Sant Ram Dhall, Dr Santokh Singh Anand, Dr KL Wig, Dr Karam Singh Grewal, Dr Yudhveer Sachdeva and Dr RP Malhotra, among others. Those who followed were the likes of Dr Balwant Singh Tung, a saint and a surgical healer beyond compare; Dr Ved Gupta, a wonderful man and one of my father’s best friends, who was perhaps the keenest general physician and cardiologist, humble as could be, with the keenest mind to pick up symptoms and give an informed diagnosis on even chronic issues like none other. These were capable professionals but ones who would never over medicate, the old school who believed in care with dedication, even philanthropy. And many of them spent decades teaching and nurturing healthcare professionals in the big league today.

Dr K L Wig, Dr Tulsi Das and Dr PN Chhuttani

Not to forget the adorable Dr Ms Bhatia, elegance par excellence who ran the Laal Haspataal with affection and efficiency. A legacy followed up by Dr Jasjeet Chachi, the exuberant Mrs Phillips and Dr Mrs Kirpal Kaur, among others, bearing the progeny of the city and looking after the womenfolk with aplomb.

Building on the foundations of these stalwarts, this city could easily have been the healthcare destination of the world. It has had the first major medical college of the north, the first major mental hospital north of Agra. In fact, a dedicated bus service, number eighty-one, in yesteryears, heading straight for the straitjacket. So, anyone in our childhood acting looney was told “Ehnu te charao ekasi number bus te.” And lest we forget, one of the leading dental colleges too. All sarkari and all top-of-the-line government institutes that churned out the cream of medical fraternity in evidence to this day across the country and overseas. With time the private institutions took charge, while the delivery of the public facilities lagged much.

But look at the USPs of this city, its global connect with the NRIs, its logistic upper hand with international flights, excellent road and rail network et al. Leverage that with now great private healthcare facilities as well as academic institutions to support research and technology. Add to this the focused super specialisations of the new generation of men and women of medicine. We could actually give the NHS of Great Britain, with a wait list of six million hopefuls, and the USPHS of America, embroiled with its major queues for elective surgeries and months of waiting periods, a run for their money. Let’s not forget the dearth of insurance for almost 28 million Americans, the lack of coverage internationally for many medical procedures making care unaffordable. And here we have ample super docs and facilities with possibility of deliverance for a few lakh ruppias what the world does for a million in dollars. I mean even if we were to charge the premium dollar, we would still give them value for money and a darshan ishaan as well. As a travel company handholding inbound NRIs and their friends, for a fraction of cost in pounds or francs, one has arranged healthcare, stays for the family, all conveniences, and a five-star exotic leisure trip after the recovery for convalescence and leisure. Two for one benefit… Soney te sohaga.

I myself am terribly timid at succumbing to an allopathic bingo cure, no offence meant. This is perhaps generational and the fact that we try all things simple before surrendering to deeper science. So, with signs of an ailment the first effort is to give it the tea therapy; ajwain and cumin seeds for indigestion, cloves for a toothache, jaggery and ginger tea for a bad throat et al. And then if nothing works, graduate to ayurvedic Amritdharas and the unani Zinda Tilismath. Homeopathy comes next from my chest full of Belladonas, Nux Vomicas et al. After things really come to a head, allopathy is resorted to after enough remote arm-twisting from the Delhi-based son who believes all the above is just mind gaming, and gut-wrenching nagging by the wife who would rather knock a health situation to smithereens than ‘suffer’ like yours truly. But then Taureans are stubborn as they come, and the cycle of treatment and soft self-medication sacrosanct.

To top it all, one has the Amrit Sarovar of the Golden Temple, where a dip with faith at the Dukh Bhanjani Sahib is believed to cure ailments that find no remedy elsewhere. Such is the power of the nectar and of prayer. So, heal with faith or heal with medicine, heal under the scalpel or with the touch of a saint, this city has the blessing of cures with many options and expertise to match. Thus, the city offers not just the tandoori but tandrusti (good health) too.

Balle Balle to that!

(The writer is an Amritsar-based author, philanthropist and environmentalist)