Dr Anand was a passionate, principled doctor whose calling was to selflessly serve his patients. Renouncing the prospect of a flourishing practice in a big city, he chose assistant doctorship in a remote mining town Parasiya where death, disease and desolation were a daily order.
In the middle of surviving the harsh conditions of Parasiya and serving it’s people, Dr Anand found the love of his life and married her. He also found a great friend in Dr Jagan, a specialist Obstetrician, Gynecologist and a confirmed alcoholic. Dr Anand and Dr Jagan were two polarities of life. Not too long ago, Dr Jagan had landed in Parasiya back-stabbed by his own community, finding no takers for his talent. Adversities of life mixed with loneliness fixed a heady concoction Dr Jagan could never resist. Many a times he would be too sloshed to attend to his patients and Dr Anand would alternate for him. During one such drunken absence, Dr Anand performed a miraculous procedure to revive a seemingly stillborn baby. Poor parent’s joy knew no bounds. They named that child Anand and this feat made Dr Anand a massiah.
On another such occasion, Dr Jagan was required to perform a critical surgery but now feeling even more broken and hopeless he was passed out in his room. Dr Anand could tolerate this no more. He dashed into his room. In a stern yet compassionate voice he confronted his friend and asked him to identify himself whether he was the most talented obstetrician gynaecologist or a soldier defeated by vagaries of life. He reminded that doctors give life to people but Dr Jagan’s absence was about to take two lives; a mother and her yet to be born child. `Wallow in self pity, let the lady and her child die because their doctor is too busy caressing his own wounds’, Dr Anand’s words pierced Jagan’s heart. He threw away the glass in anger and disgust and prepared to operate.
Operation was successful. Procedure was performed on the lady but it sure healed Dr Jagan. He stopped drinking and dedicated himself to the cause of building a big, well equipped hospital at Parasiya. Like mentioned earlier, Jagan and Anand were two polarities. So as Jagan’s life took a positive turn, Anand’s life was to head south.
Dr Anand fell out with his senior doctor and left that job. He and his wife went in search of their destiny. He struggled to find sustainable means, his practice wasn’t taking off; for days he would see no patient. He used this lull to study further. Now an out of work MD, life kept throwing challenges at him and he put up a valiant fight well supported by his wife. His savings all dried, personal belongings all sold, wife’s jewelry pledged to make the ends meet.
In another stroke of misfortune his pregnant wife got run over by the mine owner Madhochand’s car. Their unborn child died in the womb. Dr Anand wanted to bring Madhochand to justice but all his witnesses turned hostile. They were paid handsomely for doing so. Poverty, despair, injustice, death of a loved one and destruction of dreams, Dr Anand was all shattered. As Madhochand went scot-free, Dr Anand lost more than just the legal battle. His indomitable spirit died and wealthy, pompous, conceited Madhochand lived on.
Defeated in every possible way, he came to a big city where he ran into the same friend who had years ago lured him with the prospect of a flourishing practice. Poverty-stricken Dr Anand made up his mind. He became part of a syndicate that engaged in `cut-practice’, a practice of referring patients to one another for a small percentage of fees. Lured by the easy money he compromised his own principles, exploited his wealthy patients. In no time he earned himself all the riches, fame and the company of rich and famous in the city. Power and success fixed a heady concoction Dr Anand found difficult to resist.
At this time, master Anand and his parents came looking for Dr Anand all the way from Parasiya. The boy was to be operated and the parents could trust only Dr Anand. To their surprise they found Dr Anand all changed and cold. He handed the body to another doctor from his syndicate not bothering to find his credentials. He was a quack. The boy died during operation. Dr Anand was defeated by his own game. Master Anand’s birth took Dr Anand’s to mateoric height and his death had him fall from grace. He could not face himself. At home, his wife who was perhaps the last tattered symbol of his now renounced principles, left him to go back to Parasiya with their second child in her womb and a lot unsaid between them.
Having won everything and lost, Dr Anand was sitting alone in his empty house. Darkness saved him from facing himself as from seeing the ugly face of his success. At this point, Dr Jagan dashed into his room. In a stern yet compassionate voice he confronted his friend and asked him to identify himself whether he still was the passionate, principled doctor whose calling was to selflessly serve his patients or a greedy, cold hearted pimp who traded his patient’s lives. He reminded him of his high ideals and how they earned him the real glory – trust and love of his patients; he pointed how his greed, pomp and conceit earned him disgrace. He reminded that practicing medicine is a noble profession and it could be practiced only with love, with devotion not greed; and then he told him the news that his wife could not. Dr Jagan’s words pierced Dr Anand’s heart. Both rushed back to Parasiya.
Well, that night Dr Jagan, the most talented Obstetrician performed two surgeries, one delivered Dr Anand’s baby another delivered a new, reformed Dr Anand.
What an incredibly interesting story this! Dr Anand went through an interesting phase in the Hero’s Journey called `Resurrection’ where an established Hero faces the most intense challenge of his lifetime and becomes a Hero people can relate to. This challenge brings out the ordinariness in the Hero while expanding his extra-ordinariness.
