CHANDIGARH: South Indian doctors of PGI are undergoing a crash course in the Punjabi language to enable conversation between them and patients so that they can give better treatment.
PGI has over 750 doctors and more than 100 nurses from south India, who have been trying to learn the local language.
They are being taught Punjabi by Panditrao, assistant professor in Government College, Sector 46, who hails from Karnataka. Good students will get the “Angad Award”.
The course has started from February 1 and will conclude on February 21 on International Mother Language Day. The doctors are taught for three hours every day from 5 pm to 8 pm near the doctors' canteen.
Panditrao Dharenavar has been teaching Punjabi to south Indian doctors for some time now.
Doctor Venkat from Tamil Nadu, who is attending the crash course, said that he does not know Hindi, but is now learning both Punjabi and Hindi. Another doctor from Kerala said that knowing the
local language is an asset for better treatment to patients.
Dr Vishwanth, who has learned Punjabi in the past one year, said that he uses only Punjabi and Hindi with his patients. Vishwanath, who won the 'Angad Award' last year for his speedy learning of the
Punjabi language, says a total of fifteen doctors have enrolled for the crash course but only ten doctors attended the course on the first day due to their busy schedule. Panditrao now plans to visit doctors in their departments and teach them Punjabi and Hindi.
Thanking the previous director of PGI Doctor Yogesh Chawla for the permission to teach Punjabi, Panditrao said that he would not only teach Punjabi but also Hindi till his last breath.
Panditrao is originally from Karnataka but has learnt Punjabi so well that he has penned twelve books in Punjabi and translated Jap Ji Saheb, Sukhmani Saheb and Zafaranama into the Kannada language.