BENGALURU: As a paediatric surgeon, Dr Antony Robert Charles’ schedule is unpredictable, with no idea of what the day holds. In the midst of this, there’s one thing that remains constant, his miniature ship -building activity. A hobby that started eight years ago after his team and he from St John’s Hospital went to Andaman and Nicobar Islands as part of the tsunami relief effort, Charles now finds solace in building these ships from scratch. “I suppose being there and seeing everything we did on the Islands is what inspired me to come back and want to learn how to make the ships on my own. The conventional way would have been to buy the kits and fix it like a jigsaw puzzle, but I wanted to create something with my own hands,” says the doctor, who currently practices with Kindersurge.
Ice cream sticks, toothpicks and coffee mixers, none of these are discarded as they come in handy for his activity. “I even use buttons which my wife endlessly complains about,” he says, with a laugh. As part of his collection, he’s built a monogram ship, a bireme one, a Viking warship, a Chinese ship and the Indian Navy’s INS Rajput. “The Rajput one is what we travelled in when we were on the Islands. When I came back, I sat down with a retired captain of the ship, who had its professional model, and he gave me pointers on building it.”
Unfortunately, a couple of years ago, Charles’ collection was stolen from his office. “It took me three years to recover from that, but I guess that’s the human strength there – you have to move on. I am now remaking all of them and calling it the 2.0 version. These ones are so much better than what I had made earlier,” he adds.
After his busy schedule at the hospital, he returns home to work on the ships till 3 am, or as he says, “till my wife shouts at me to close everything and come to sleep”. Beyond a mere pass-time, Charles finds this activity extremely therapeutic, something that has helped him through phases of depression and addiction. His son, Jonathan Charles , built a miniature ship once but the doctor understands that it’s not exactly of his son’s area of interest. “I remember reading about a US-based study which showed that surgeons who stayed productive and found an identity outside their surgical space lived longer. That’s when I began to explore more,” Charles says.
Ultimately, Charles wants to have a fleet of ships in his kitty. He gives some of his works to close friends but doesn’t plan to make it a commercial affair. “The materials are easy to get these days. And I’m doing this because it calms me and keeps me focused. I’m working on three of them at a time and I will add more to my list. It brings me immense joy to see it all come together,” he signs off.