Mahanta da
All I wanted to know was whether you are one of the custodians of the
Assam.org list. And if you do not want to get into this biography business
because of some past bad experiences, your abhorance for hero worshipping, you
could have said it in one line.
By the way I am not sure how knowing about our own people is hero
worshipping. I was amazed reading about Kashinath Saikia in the list as I did
not hear the name before. Similarly, may be I would have liked to read about
Pilik Chaudhury or Parvati Prasad Baruva or Ganesh Gogoi. For people like you
and me-busy in our own materialistic pursuits-it ends at that. Where is the
hero worshipping part ?
Regards
Chitta
that Its not clear to me whether you are one of the custodian but not into
biography writing or you have nothing to do with assam.org and dont want to add
the biographies
Chan Mahanta <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Hi Chitta:
While I admire and respect achievers and do-gooders, I am not into
hero-worshipping. More so because our people have degenerated the
hero-worshipping to a substitute for emulating what their heroes exemplified.
In an extreme example of it, one illustrious NRA ( I am being extremely
generous here) , who fancies himself to be the defender of Xonkordev's legacy,
even threatened to shut down an exhibit honoring Xonkordev, if the organizers
used the X letter in transliterating the departed hero's name in English. With
such examples of hero-worshippers, who needs hero-trashers :-)?
So, I will pass on writing biographies. But I hope to set examples thru MY
actions, shaped by learning from and emulating those who came before me, whom I
admire.
I also am not the kind of person who go about waving my pride in this or
that, person or action or achievement. Pride waving is something that becomes
necessary only when there really is scant amounts for it to be found. Again,
not to suggest I don't admire others' contributions or achievements. But that
is not something I build my self-worth upon. And if ALL or many individuals
take that approach, we will become much better people.
Finally, there are many individuals who did many fine and admirable things,
and many are doing it now, unrecognized and unsung; as many will do in times
to come. In this era of information overload, I do not even think of attempting
to know all that is worthy of knowing, people, actions or things. We will, of
necessity, have to focus on issues, people, things--that are of interest to us,
individually or collectively.
So, biographies should be written by those who have an interest in it.
Finally, the piece below, is definitely NOT one to emulate to document
someone's life, with such banalities like:
>The doctor told her he could cure her in a day. And cure he did. A clinical
diagnosis by the gifted >doctor established that a purgative would heal her.
She had the pill and as if by magic, she was cured >instantly.
OR
with such poor understanding of a language, like:
> He miraculously survived inspite of drowning in the Brahmaputra at one pont
of his career.
c-da
PS:
>Alright-what you are saying may be true for some Indians, but is equally
true for most of the Assamese.
*** Yes, and that is precisely because Assam's establishment is little more
than a bad copy of India's.
And I recognized the 'some' aspect of it, when I qualified my statement with
'by-and-large'. Question would be what you imply with 'some'? Hope it is not
an attempt to portray it as a minuscule, aberrant segment and thus a rebuttal
, on the sly, of what obviously is an uncomfortable truth to you and others .
If that is what you are trying to do, that would be dissembling :-).
>How many Nolboriya Assamese know about Samson Sing Ingty or Kalicharan Brahma
*** Let us not equate trivia collection with learning about people or
cultures, even though that is exactly what the whole desi-education system has
degenerated into, where information collection and regurgitation passes for
learning and measuring its worth.
At 8:42 PM -0700 7/4/07, chittaranjan pathak wrote:
Mahanta da Thanks for your interest and contribution so far. Hope you will
take some initiative to fill the gap on biographies front too. Others will
surely follow. I am not sure who the owner of the list is as my earlier post
elicited no response. Are you one of the custodians? If so ,please let us know
how we can all go about filling this gap. May be we can have a time frame and
all of us can volunteer few biographies of personalities we feel we are
familiar with. Regards Chittaranjan By the way Mahanta da-these
biographies are not about educating Indians. These will be useful for every
one and most useful for the Assamese (including us and hopefully/wishfully our
children). You also know it Mahanta da-is not it? The educating Indians bit was
just out of old habit. You said that Indians are not interested about others,
their culture, their history, their language and by and large, Indians are
perfectly happy to suck-up to those who they deem are
superior and are ever ready to push down on whom they deem inferior.
Alright-what you are saying may be true for some Indians, but is equally true
for most of the Assamese. How many Nolboriya Assamese know about Samson Sing
Ingty or Kalicharan Brahma. Bokul Bonor Kavi does not ring a bell in Bijni
nowadays nor does Kamala Kanta in Karbi Anglong. And now the situation is such
that a Roy boy of Goalpara will idolize as Jatiya Bir Chilarai only leaving
Lachit Borphukan to his Upper Assam friends. I feel such a list with life
sketches with luminaries of Assam will be a learning, relearning exercise for
all of us and to some extent make us all broadminded enough again to feel proud
of all these luminaries from Assam forgetting the ethnic divides. Now tell
me, should we not all feel proud this octogenarian Assamese doctor who is still
on his mission at the ripe old age of 97. I have been fortunate enough to drink
the pink concoction administered by this Good Samaritan
during those childhood fever bouts. Here is the life sketch of Dr. Nalini
Sarma published in this Saturdays Sentinel magazine. Atifa Deshamukhya in an
interview with the venerated doctor.
He is 97 years old and still practising as a doctor, bringing succour to
patients from far and wide. It is interesting to note that is these days of
advanced medical tests and treatment people still flock to him for clinical
diagnoses based on the senses, and in some cases samples of body fluids tested
by himself over a microscope. A stethescope and a BP machine are the only
adjuncts that distinguish him as a doctor. Therein lies his uniqueness. He
puts his hand at the pulse point and diagnoses the disease, said a loyal
patient who has been consulting him for over 50 years now. She also recounted a
mysterious case about a lady of Uzanbazar who had been diagnosed with cancer by
a leading hospital in the city. Just before leaving for Apollo Hospital,
Chennai, she visited Dr Nalini Sarma at the behest of some relative. The doctor
told her he could cure her in a day. And cure he did. A clinical diagnosis by
the gifted doctor established that a purgative would heal her. She
had the pill and as if by magic, she was cured instantly.
When asked to comment on scores of such incidents reported to me, Dr Sarma put
it down to originality of approach. In fact the late Dr Bani Kanta Kakati had
once defended his system of diagnosis by saying that Nalini has originality
during the early part of Sarma's career. It acted as a spur egging him on to
develop this god-gifted trait. Now, at ripe old age he justifies his approach
saying that stalwarts in every field are divinely gifted. If I have been able
to do something significant it is also a gift of god, says he.
Not only education and professional experience, but a host of co-curricular
activities and a childhood spent in the close proximity of nature have helped
to shape the man as he is today. He learnt French and Korean, took lessons on
the piano, learnt martial arts and was actively involved in games and sports.
Perhaps thats why he is healthy in body and mind till date. No specks, no
artificial teeth, and still very much on his feet.
Dr Sarma is effusive in his insistence that the very medicines that heal can
also kill. It is necessary to exercise utmost caution that medicine itself does
not become posion.
Douse the flame, dont hit against the smoke is a precept followed by Dr
Sarma. He is saddened that most doctors treat the symptoms of the disease,
rather than address the root problem. He cited many examples to corroborate
this. In most cases, it appeared that some primary cause as gas or
malfunctioning of the liver was giving rise to complications in people which
the front-ranking doctors and hospitals could not handle satisfactorily. But
when Dr Sarma targetted the source of the disease, people recovered all too
soon. And this is how his fame spread.
He is happy to be practising at this ripe old age. Its a learning experience
listening to the accounts of the many experiences he has had. Grimacing at one
moment, heartily laughing at the other speaking animatedly in a smattering of
Bengali and English intertwined with chaste Assamese, he made me wonder at
this vitality and zest of a nonagenarian. Born to Harikanta Sarma and
Dharmeswar Debi, he suffered various ailments and accidents in the early part
of his life. He was sent to the medical college of Bengal, Calcutta to pursue
medicine as a career. It was a premier medical college in those days, drawing
patients from eastern Asia, middle-east countries as well as Europe. While a
student, he used to frequent the Tropical school of medicine at Calcutta where
he acquainted himself with the research work being conducted on various
tropical diseases. The neigbouring pathological museum was also a treasure -
trove for the young, inquisitive Dr Sarma who engrossed
himself in multi-pronged studies to equip himself for a fritful career. He was
a bright student and the professors would often single him out to assist in
operations being performed by them. This practical grounding has been so
succussful that at this date, when he has long forgotten the theory inscribed
in voluminous tomes, he recalls crystal clear the hands-on experience which
has, as it were, formed an intuitive basis for his diagnosis till today. In
those days, a course in medicine know as Bachelor of Medicine included Medical
Surgery, Midwifery, Gynaecology, Ear, Nose & Throat, Eye, Skin and Teeth also.
It was quite a comprehensive course, which is why Dr Sarmas patients can
consult him on anything and get results. At present he does not practise
surgery, which is one of the fall-outs of advancing age.
The masters under whom he received training were also men of considerable
stature. Lt col Green Armytase, professor of midwifery and gynaecology was
later made honorary gynaecologist to Her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain.
Another illustrious professor was Sunil Bose, elder brother of Subhash Chandra
Bose, who was the most well-known cardiologist in East India at that time. And
Nalini remembers how the former would humbly admit to knowing nothing much
about the heart! A precept learnt of Lt col Vere Hodge, profesor of medicine,
has remained the buzzword for Dr Sarma patient is the best book. Thus, he
has kept up the learning process over the decades, learning from his patients
even as he tried to help them with his stock of acquired knowledge.
Dr Nalini Sarma first set up practice at Barpeta. Those were days of
conflicting claims of local doctors, homeopaths, Kabiraj, spiritual and
indigenous healers. It took time to carve out a niche for himself. But in time
he did so incorporating the best aspects of compettitive fields of medicine,
while weeding out peoples superstitious dependance on quack healers of all
kinds.
Next followed a stint as in-charge, Assam Civil Hospital. He because known as a
strict administrator who would give the British Sahibs a run for their worth.
Besides attending to patients and endless post mortems, the load of the World
War-II which was then raging he managed to usher in qualitative changes in
the isolation ward of the hospital, lying hitherto neglected.
He helped set up the Indian Medical Association, and involved himself in relief
activities and disaster management. He strictly imposed hygiene habits among
the abors and was known to resort to spanking of people and patients to get
them to behave!
He was also associated as in-charge of the Lokapriya Gopinath Bordoloi TB
Hospital and visiting professor at Ayurvedic College.
Owing to some conflict with the powers that be, he resigned from his government
job and set up private practice. Patients queue up in unending lines to this
day.
He advises a good diet concentrating on milk, butter, fruits, egg and fish,
followed by free hand exercises and long walks as the secret of a healthy life.
He says that sleeping more than eight hours a day can make the body a hotbed of
disease. One should eat in moderation, have regular habits and be occupied
with constructive activity to be of sound health and spirit. Going by the
nonagenarians good health, his advice is surely worth taking. He miraculously
survived inspite of drowning in the Brahmaputra at one pont of his career.
Here's hoping that he remains with us for many many years more in good health
and spirits.
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