Category: Asia
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Yellapragada SubbaRow: a profile in greatness
Beerelli SeshiLa Jolla, California, United States Marshall LichtmanRochester, New York, United States There existed only one SubbaRow: Yellapragada Subba Rao (1895–1948).1-6 The name Subba Rao is as ubiquitous in Andhra Pradesh, the Telugu-speaking part of India, as John Smith is in North America, so SubbaRow creatively modified his name. His creativity was more evident in…
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Joseph C. Carpue: failing to pass on the baton
Birju RaoChicago, Illinois, United States England in the early 1800s was experiencing a renaissance in medicine. The public’s perception of medicine had shifted from what was thought to be a mystic art form towards the understanding that it was indeed a logical, systematic science. During this time, Joseph Constantine Carpue had gained quite a reputation…
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Immortal death: before and after
Karen De LoozeBelgium The slow revenge of unforgiving LawAnd the deep need of universal painAnd hard sacrifice and tragic consequenceOut of a Timeless barrier she must break,Penetrate with her thinking depths the Void’s monstrous hush,Look into the lonely eyes of immortal Death.— From Shri Aurobindo’s “Savitri” “What do you mean by ‘immortal death’?” a friend…
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The humanities in a traditional medical school
P. Ravi ShankarAruba, Kingdom of the Netherlands Having been involved with medical humanities for over eight years in medical schools in Nepal and Aruba, I began to think about my own medical education in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The term medical humanities was not in vogue in India during those days, and only…
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Making medical education interesting and exciting
Anuradha JoshiGujarat, India Can we make an education system which will retain smiles on the faces of our children?1— Abdul Kalam At a time when doctors are confronted with a veritable explosion of new facts and information, teachers in medical schools should face up to the challenge of instilling in their students the habit of…
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G.K. Warrier
Prem ChandranIowa Des Moines, United States On the morning of an auspicious wedding day in a very conservative and ritualistic Warrier community in Southern Kerala, India, a seven-year old boy with curious eyes and bushy hair, youngest sibling of the groom, insistently knocked on the door of the bride’s dressing room, saying, “I want to…
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The man who could not stop smoking!
Ravi ShankarAruba, Kingdom of the Netherlands He was dark and swarthy, around five foot four. His posture was slightly stooped and the muscles of his upper arm and torso were becoming flabby. His hair was unkempt and he had stubble on his face and neck. He was around thirty-five but looked older and had streaks…
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Salimuzzaman Siddiqui
Pradipto RoyIndia Professor Salimuzzaman Siddiqui (1897–1994), the scientist from South Asia who improved our understanding of the pharmacology of medicinal plants, was also a renowned artist influenced by German Expressionism, a literary critic, poet, translator of Rainer Maria Rilke, and musician. These diverse dimensions of Prof. Siddiqui can be traced to the early-twentieth century South…
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Sunbathing the mind: faith healing in India
Karen De LoozeBelgium Understanding mental health care in an Indian context involves a long and adventurous exploration of faith healing. In India, people who suffer from mental illness frequently employ faith healing as an alternative to psychiatric treatment (Raguram et al. 2002). Faith healing often takes place in the temple of a Hindu deity and…
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Sushruta: the ancient Indian surgeon
Satish SarosheIndore, India Through all of Sushruta’s flowery language, incantations and irrelevancies, there shines the unmistakable picture of a great surgeon.Undaunted by his failures, unimpressed by his successes, he sought the truth unceasingly and passed it on to those who followed.He attacked disease and deformity definitively, with reasoned and logical methods– Frank McDowell In “The…