BENGALURU: When a paediatric surgeon and urologist asks you to capture a picture of him with his “babies”, it’s easy to imagine the cries of a couple of red-faced newborns. But Dr Antony Robert Charles cradles his arms around five palm-sized ships instead: a monoream ship, a bireme one, a Viking warship, a Chinese ship and the Indian Navy’s INS Rajput (which comes with a special story). These ships, or his babies as he affectionately calls them, were handcrafted by the doctor, with toothpicks, buttons and balsa wood.
The doctor gives partial credit to the Age of Empires for his exposure to warships. But the real passion towards making these models (from scratch as opposed to buying half-made ones and just sticking the pieces together) came from his 11-day expedition to the Nicobar Islands as part of the medical relief team post the 2004 tsunami. The experience has stuck with him, and he reveals that he went through a bout of depression once he returned. “We were told to go to Port Blair but when we reached, we were hijacked and put on the INS Rajput, which then set sail for Nicobar Islands. We were told they had medical equipment there but no doctors. In 2013, I started making these ships and found the process to be quite cathartic,” says the doctor who practise at Rainbow Children’s Hospital.
Fine craft
In a year, Dr Charles is able to make at least six ships, and considers the smaller ones that fit in his palm to be his favourite. These, surprisingly, take longer to make – about three weeks – since there is more attention to detail. A night owl, Dr Charles is up till 3.30am to work on the ships, since he’s in and out of surgeries through the day. Despite a dedicated work station (which his wife suggested he move to due to the mess that comes with making the ships), he still prefers to use the dining table (much to the disapproval of his wife) as it faces the television, the background noise of which keeps him up at late hours.
Comparing making these ships to surgery – since both require focus, steady hands and attention to detail – the former helps the doctor unwind. Interestingly, he even makes use of his surgery focus glasses and expired surgical instruments to make these ships. “I upload pictures of the ships I make to a forum of model ship makers. Those people can be brutal but the feedback is helpful. Someone once told me that the ladder on my ship looked messy and he was right; you could see tiny clumps of glue on it. I then started to make them using sutures. They come out so much better now,” he says, adding that sometimes, the high he gets from making a ship is actually greater than completing a surgery successfully. “Unlike my patients, these ships don’t cry at the end of the procedure,” he explains.
The doctor, however, hasn’t made a ship for the past five months. His workload has increased and he’s currently handling more hospitals and patients, and hopes to streamline the process soon in order to get back to his hobby. Does that mean he’s getting more sleep then? Not really, since he has moved on to making wine at night and is currently experimenting with pomegranate and betel-leaf flavours. “It’s less messy than making ships but my wife is still wondering why I can’t just sleep like a regular person,” he signs off with a laugh.