Night at the Theatre- Einstein

I do not claim to be any authority whatsoever on the matter of drama, but simply a passionate victim that has been moved to scribble a few words on paper.

It’d been a while since I’d been to the theatre; for ‘Netflix and Chill’ had been the norm for a while now. But gladly, things haven’t changed :) A glance towards the stage portkey-ed me to the time I learned to respect it with the beloved Workshop Players in Sri Lanka. The sanctity of the stage they called it; and I remember discovering its personality. An elegant and steadfast father who saw us fall and cry, laugh and love; humbly elevating us to moments in the spotlight.

The announcements were brief, the crowd took their seats and anticipation was in the air. It was mind blowing what I felt in that moment of utter silence. Not a sigh nor a sneeze, nor a cry or a cough. At this point I must applaud the audience. There are a few things people agree on these days and I can’t be more thankful that decorum in the theatre was one of them. There are few moments in life that you’ll never forget because it made you feel something, a sort of physiological high if you will; and this was one of them.

A beautiful rendition of Eine Kleine Nacht Musik proceeded the silence played on guitars which not only brought another set of wholesome memories but was the perfect overture for a unique play.

The spotlight panned across the stage and gracefully settled itself onto Naseeruddin Shah who as it happened become the embodiment of Einstein who had been lying on the floor of the apartment the entire time. Without any ado, he swept the room with a flawless German accent as he starts recounting anecdotes from his early life; all the while subtlety letting on the sloppiness, the arthritis and the forgetfulness of the great man.

He flirted and charmed the crowd, bringing us to jolts of laughter with the kind of humour the world had forgotten. He became a huggable grandpa we all wanted as he entrapped us all in his tiny apartment and even invited a couple of audience members onto stage to explain a theory of physics. The whimsical lines written by Gabriel Emmanuel (A German Jew) brought out the part of science we all liked as a child; the curiosity, the discovery, the magic. It was all so enthralling, we were on the edge of our seats; and mind you it was one- man show! With his words and emotions, he conducted us to the tune of Einstein’s life, loves, regrets; as well as his simplicities and habits.

The lighting and music did excellently to make subtle on point changes to the tone of the narration; the epitome of which lead to a terrific and powerful shot of Einstein’s shadow cast on the mushroom cloud of 1945.

To me, it has reignited a thankfulness for genuine Drama in India, and the scope of extending its heavily needed presence into the fabric of modern Indian culture. After all we’re forced to think what it means to be an Indian. “Politics is harder to understand than physics”- declared the play. Let it not live on for the sake of tradition but to carry forward the passion of art and storytelling into the generations to come.

It’s all very well to witness a technologically growing society with a corresponding growth in BMI; but the reason why voices of singers and expression of actors will always move us is because they are imperfect. And being imperfect is to be human, bringing us together like a gravitational field. .

By the Lake

Methodist Hospital, Pratap Sagar

Half way down the road from Patna to Varanasi amongst the farms and forests of rural Bihar, lies a tiny village whose size is inversely proportional to the reputation of the hospital that it possesses. True, most of you wouldn’t have heard of it. But it’s precisely the reason I am eager to post this narrative.

The hospital was founded in 1952 by Dr. K.W. Langer, a German missionary sent by the New York Methodist Board. The hospital was first set up near the railway station of Buxar and owing to the rising incidence of tuberculosis in the region, it became the primary focus of the hospital to treat those affected. However, this was also the reason the locals revolted against the location of the hospital in the heart of the city, given the stigma the disease was and has continued to be associated with. An agreement was made with the Maharaja of Buxar (who still resides in the palace today) and land was given on lease for an indefinite period.

This brings us to Pratap Sagar, still as rural as I imagine it was in those days. The campus itself encircles a lake which are home to many fish (and snakes), and only recently got its own electrical power grid which also powers the neighbouring villages.  Close to the entrance are a couple of petty shops and the path from there lead to farms and jungle area.

The hospital started officially functioning on 20^th December 1958. Interestingly enough all supplies were sent by cargo planes which encircled the campus thrice and dropped items like milk, butter, peanut butter, soap, and medicines at a near-by air strip. The locals and patients alike enjoyed all these items for free.

In 1974 Dr. Silas Singh of CMC Vellore MBBS batch of 1952, MS Ortho from CMC Ludhiana became director of the hospital. He introduced many revolutionary surgeries during this time; which included leprosy reconstruction surgery which was an added bonus to the undampened treatment of TB which was as rampant as it is now.

His son Dr. R.K Singh (current director) was eager to go abroad to continue his studies. However, after working a couple of years at the hospital he decided he never wanted to leave. “I fell in love with the place” He said, and he took it as his calling to carry on his father’s work in this place of need.

The functioning of the hospital is rather unique. We get around 200- 300 patients a day, a maximum of 350 on some Mondays. Majority of our patients come from far off remote places. Interestingly, apart from UP and Bihar, we also get patients from Jharkhand, Delhi, Maharashtra, Punjab, sometimes even as far as Karnataka and Vellore! We believe it’s a result of word of mouth.

We charge Rs. 100/- for registration which grants the patient unlimited consultations for a year. A new patient is worked up by a doctor, and sent for tests which with our recent partnership with Lal Path labs takes 2-3 hours after which a diagnosis is made and the patient is sent home with a months-worth of medications, barring any other awaited reports. Some diagnoses take longer as they are discussed and deliberated upon by all the doctors. Though we are primarily a chest hospital at the moment, our moto is to help and guide any patient who comes to us, so that even if we can’t manage them, we can diagnose and tell the patient where to go rather than waste more money on surrounding quacks.

We get a wide variety of patients. Every day in the OPD I see a majority of TB and obstructive airway diseases, but also cancers, ILDs, Empyemas, Heart failures, Connective tissue disorders, etc. We pride ourselves on being one of the few centers in our region that enforces evidence-based medicine. To uphold this, we have two OTs with adequately installed laparoscopic equipment, and a bronchoscopy suite where bronchoscopies are routinely done to acquire an accurate diagnosis. We recently diagnosed a case of Mounier- Kuhn syndrome which was a relief to the patient. In fact, many patients come us having been misdiagnosed by so many others. We also insist on sending a sensitivity for all our TB patients as mono/ poly resistance is rapidly growing.

Our ward has around 15- 20 beds. As we do not have a ventilator, serious cases are referred to Patna. Our main emergencies however come around summer/ monsoon seasons where cases of snake bites pour into the casualty. Our hospital is the only place in a 3-4hr radius which has anti snake venom, which we can attribute to one of the many failings of government hospitals in the area.

The vision of Dr. R.K Singh is that the hospital is converted into a medical college and he believes this dream could be realized in a couple of years.

I’ve learned a lot over here, about life as well as medicine. I’ve learnt that people are willing to go miles for proper treatment, that mental health is grossly neglected in rural India, that in a large sea of doctors that practice business instead of medicine there are still places of solace.

There’s something about this place, firstly that brings patients here and then enables them to trust us to lead them to the right treatment. Whatever it is, I’ve worked here for 18 months, and I can be sure that there isn’t a place like it elsewhere!

(Photo credits: Manu Mathew Kurien)