Multifaceted personality

FOOTPRINTS - Life and the Work of the Legendary Surgeon, Dr. Girijashanker Das Mahapathra: Dr. Bani Das Mahapathra; Akshara, Kalyani Nagar, Cuttack-753013. Rs. 250.

WHAT MADE the young Indians, who went abroad 50 years ago for specialised training, return to India with enthusiasm and then struggle to create and establish new departments in the country? Why are the young Indians reluctant now to return to India of the present day? Was the newly independent India a different country with a different milieu and different values?

Many were the Indians in the 1950s who struggled and sacrificed to make India a better country with good facilities and their path was uphill all the way. One such great surgeon who spent his entire life in improving the conditions in Orissa, a backward state in the 1950s, was Dr. Girijashanker Das Mahapathra. In his own words: ``I got rid of the idea of serving in Britain. I still think about it sometimes and feel whether the decision was wise on my part or not. Had I stayed back, I would have been an internationally famous surgeon. But I could not neglect the call of my motherland. We had to develop our country and our country needed us. Hence I decided at last to come back. Had I stayed back, I would have become a great and rich surgeon but back in India, I could make thousands of surgeons, who would serve all over the world besides their motherland.''

Readers are grateful to his wife, Dr. Bani Das Mahapathra, for completing the biography and publishing it. It makes available to us information about the conditions in Orissa of the 1940s and 1950s and how a one-man army led by Das Mahapathra was able to change the surgical face of this backward State.

Born in interior Orissa in a learned family, it was lucky that Das Mahapathra chose surgery for his career. He had to go to Patna to study medicine and later specialised in general surgery, where he walked away with all the prizes and in addition was fortunate enough to get as his bride Dr. Bani, his classmate.

Luckily somebody in the government of pre-independent India, had the vision to think of the future of the country in science and arranged for the selection of young scholars for training abroad in various specialities and Das Mahapathra was selected for training in general surgery in the U.K. We must understand that even today, general surgery is an important requisite of medical science. He was the first FRCS of Orissa, an honour and achievement specially for a student from a rather backward state.

The reviewer had the pleasure of knowing Das Mahapathra during his post-graduate study days in Edinburgh.

On returning to India, he struggled very hard against odds to establish and promote the study of higher levels of surgery in Orissa. Why should everyone who wants to create and establish something new in this country have to undergo endless difficulties? The reviewer himself had to face such bitter struggle when establishing neurosurgery in the then Madras State, which of course was more advanced. Still the struggles were identical. Das Mahapathra succeeded and made the Cuttack Medical College one of the best in India.

He was a brilliant surgeon, full of compassion for his patients, who really worshipped him as their saviour. That did not in any way melt the hearts of the politicians and bureaucrats who continued to obstruct due to ignorance and obscurantism. Poor India.

Though he did not like to work as an administrator, as a senior in government service, he was made the principal of the medical college. As a popular principal and an excellent teacher, he spread the fame of the Cuttack Medical College all over India. Later unfortunately, being the seniormost in service, he was made the Director of Health Services. He never liked this purely administrative job with constant struggle against politicians and bureaucrats; but he fulfilled his duties conscientiously and got a good name from the Chief Minister and the Governor.

Das Mahapathra was a versatile person with many interests and hobbies. He was a poet and has written many poems in Oriya. He could draw and paint very well and best of all he was a great gardener. Flowers bloomed under his caring and loving hands and they were a delight to him. He lived a full life of a ``Stithapragna'' serving humanity at all levels. He encouraged many doctors to become surgeons and specialists and made Orissa advance in the surgical field.

The author has added many interesting sections about her famous husband and also written a section about her own illustrious family. This is an interesting biography and is of historical value in the study of the march of medical science during the 20th century in India.

B. RAMAMURTHI

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