I really admire the way in which Raghavan gives us the very minute details which he vividly portraits with a pinge of humour here and there..
The lady who attends to uncomplicated childbirth in our times used to be called Midwife.?I still do not know how and why" wife " comes in her name ?
For the first delivery of my wife (SYAMALAS birth) there was some tension till around 2 AM at Pazhayanadakkavu and fearing some complications , word was sent for Dr Tankamma ( I don't exactly remember her name) But by the time she came ,the baby was born much to the relief off all concerned . But having come Dr Thankamma examined and said everthing OK but the patient should be put in a cot and not on floor.
For the second delivery ,which was after about 13 years later , all were concerned about safeness of delivery.While the medical officer in charge of local mini hospital/delivery room at Guttahalli (near the bus terminus) initially said' no problem ', when monthly check ups were done, in the last week opined that they have no doctors to attend any complication that might arise as the second delivery was after a very long period.
So she was admitted in the Malleswaram Hospital. First she was allowed a bed inside , by evening since there were no signs of pain, she was shifted to a veranda to accommodate more urgent cases. Anyhow by next day or so Sridhar was born without any complications and charges by the hospital was just Rs2-50 and that too as my income was given as Rs 500 or so. However APPA celebrated the occasion by distributing sugar and Very Good POOVAN pazham(Not the Madras Poovan but RASTHALI ) We used to call it in Kerala as POOVAN.PAZHAM
We used to wait for 17 A to go to Cantonment to see Dr Jayaraman a very old doctor but good in giving his own medicines which used to cure by just taking 2 or 3 doses. Many days after waiting for nearly an hour we used to walk all the way. ( Now a days we engage auto to go to even nearby places.)
I used to ask Dr Jayaram for some medicines to gather courage for facing interviews and he used to give some powder grinded by him with strict instructions NOT to EXCEED the prescribed dose and to take it just half an hour before we face the interview. I t used to work well in the sense you felt as floating in the air ,while facing the panel of interviewers and words would automatically come in our mouth for any questions that were asked.Whether I got promotion or not is a different question , the interviews went off well. Later on I realized that the powder which he used to give was nothing but very tiny dose of DRUGS which are prohibited by Law to be taken Except under very strict personal supervision by the medical officer concerned.
One interesting feature about Dr (?)Venkitachalam was that he used to charge just Rs 2/ per house visit, but his rikshaw puller used to charge
8 annas per trip and that too spot delivery/settlement, with no carry over, without which he will not take the Rikshaw beyond our house until it was settled...Even for the house visit it was on the Doctors way to Sitaram Mills evening around 4or 5 oclock where he was appointed as DOCTOR ( ? )to attend workers.
Many days I have observed while the Drs fees of Rs 2 was allowed sometimes on credit , the rikshaw puller used to detain the doctor for more than 15 minutes for us to search for the change and give it. If we do not have change but pay1 Rupee he wil not return the balance but would ask us to adjust it for future charges.
Whilst on the subject of Doctors ,I wish to refer Raghavan'.s visit to Bombay and his selection for the post of VICKS Representative by Richardson HINDUSTAN) ( it was this name by which Vicks company was known,) However,the selection and appointment were SUBJECT to his PRDUCING a Medical certificateto the effect that his eye sight was O.K and will be able to correct by glasses for doing the work of a Sales Representative..That evening we went to an EYE specialist at BYCULLA and paid Rs 10/ or so and after his testing, he gave a prescription for glasses and also a certificate in the manner in we wanted. I was able to get this very easily as only a few days earlier for the same reason I had taken our RANGANATHAN, our family friend for whom I got a job in HERDILLIA .He joined Herdillia but later left and came to Madras and joined COROMANDEL GARMENTS. After a few years service with Tatas he left and now he OWNS a Big Garment factory in MADRAS and Exports to the same overseas customers of COROMANDEL. and other valuable clients in Europe etc.
He now owns a house worthmore than Rs1.5 crores in Annanagar and his annual net profit is around R2 crores.He has 2 daughters,both are happily married and well settled. Very recently he had attended the Sathabhishekam celebrations in our house.
I think the Kurien( DR ?) was actually a compounder in HAL and and a practicing Doctor? in the evenings at Guttahalli near KAKKA shop.
But his treatment was very ,very cheap less than a Rupee or soand effective and probably the medicines were all the samples from HAL dispensary?
Wth these few lines I stop now
KONTHAI
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