The moment one trips or slips, making an absolute fool of oneself that they wish to evaporate — that moment becomes an unpleasant experience in their memory.
Nephrologist and former vice-principal of Government Medical College and Hospital, Thiruvananthapuram, Dr Kashi Visweswaran shows us how those moments are not horrible but something to look back at with a grin.
With his new book Stumbles, Blunders, and Laughter, Dr Kashi has taken a different path. The author of 20 medical books is now stepping into literary fiction with his autobiographical account of his career. He weaves several moments into a narrative that seems less like a milestone and more like a life spent in profound action.
The book is a light, breezy read, destroying the perception that doctors are always serious and grumpy. He tackles work with a humour that doesn’t remain on the surface but melts into the scene, making it easy for both the medical staff and the patients to encounter the uncertainties that the profession brings up with delightful zest.
One of the uncertainties he narrates is the unruly transfers in the government sector. Here too, Dr Kashi finds satire and room for a silver lining.
“Whether these transfers were just stumbles or stepping stones, I would understand only later,” he observes in the book, noting how the changes could inspire ample room for personal growth.
Travel instances, too, form a chunk of the narrative, with him explaining his visit to Bhakra Dam, to the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research in Chandigarh, where his journey to the world of kidneys really began, and to the higher reaches of the extreme north. And during all the ups and downs encountered along the way, satire lingers, making the journey palatable, even memorable.
His profession threw at him several chances to exercise his trait “to take things lightly”, he writes, citing examples of how a bit of humour helped him stoically get into the ‘slaughterhouse’ (aka practical examination) as a student, ‘being Ok in the UK’ as someone pursuing higher education, and examining patients or teaching wannabe specialists.
Dr Kashi harps on the lightness of being as a quality of mind that could help thaw the grimness that otherwise fills the profession.
Replete with interesting anecdotes, the book also brings out the chaos in hospitals — the bureaucracy, misunderstandings, and mistakes. Yet the doctor does not focus purely on the flaws of the red tape; he turns the mirror on himself. His personal missteps, including those in travel adventures, are looked back at with gentle self-mocking warmth.
One of the incidents he describes is about when his plea for medical equipment was met with mild scorn from the authorities, as though he had requested a swimsuit to indulge himself during a nature expedition.
Another one that brings forth chuckles is a consultation visit to his colleague Dr Subramania Iyer’s home, which was in fact a covert ‘bridegroom interview’ that led to Dr Kashi getting hitched to Dr Iyer’s cousin.
The book’s small chapters are a point of attraction. Another is the lavish use of phrasal verbs, something that readers with a taste for language could indulge in to hone their way into being wordsmiths.
The book is more of a treasure trove of life insights told by a dear friend than a doctor’s career account. It also drives home the message that a meaningful life need not be extraordinary; it just needs to be taken with a sense of acceptance.
(This story was reported by Keerthana C for TNIE - Kerala)