Comment: 1. Very well written. Easy flow. 2. Thank you Roland for writing it and Thank you Eddie for sharing it with us. 3. Enjoyed reading it very much. Delightful.
4. If I may: because of logistics, difficult patients from Goa (esp South Goa) were reportedly transported to Miraj - the home of the very well known Wanles medical school and hospital. BTW: Wanless was a Torontonian who did humanitarian work in India. 5. With the opening up of air-travel, those who could accord traveled to Bombay's Jaslok hospital. jc On Sunday, September 9, 2012, Eddie Fernandes wrote: > By Roland Francis > Source: Goan Voice UK. 9 Sep. 2012 at www.goanvoice.org.uk > > Full text: > > Although the first practical and modern nurses in India were trained by a > group of medical missionaries sent from Britain after the 1857 'sepoy' > mutiny which was the first major pang of an Indian independence struggle, > the nursing profession in that country formally began with establishment of > a Trained Nurses Association in 1908 leading to a formal ordnance in 1947 > followed by the setting up of a nursing council in 1949. It was during this > period that Anglo Indian women flocked to the profession and young Goan > women quickly followed. > > Nursing was a glamorous profession then, like air stewardesses were until > quite recently when unions fought for and the courts agreed that a flying > career should not depend on age or beauty. Nurses were taken for training > only from good-looking, personable, western dressed Indian women and in > those days that meant Anglo-Indians and Goans. Although other Indian girls > did their best to join in, their families and Hindu society would not allow > for it. The likelihood of their women touching wounds and healing fevered > brows was not something educated Hindu families wished to contemplate. > > Goan women were not as stylish and swank as their Anglo nursing > counterparts > and therefore took longer to climb the hospital ladder on top of which sat > the Anglo matron, but what they lacked in personality and facile language, > they made up with hard work, a gentle touch and a less imperious attitude. > > Bombay rocked then. It was pre-independence India or just after that and > Bombay was the center of the British Near, Middle and Far East > jurisdictions. Tommies were brought in for R&R as a respite for their > battles in the North-East, Burma, Singapore and countries all through the > sea lanes to Australia. Later it was Brit soldiers and civilians > repatriating from a lost crown jewel. The city was in a joyous, hedonistic > turmoil. Money flowed as if through a high pressured tap and the Goans were > in the midst of it, as waiters in the Taj, Monginis, Gordons, Venice, > Bombellis and other top restaurants getting fat tips, as civil staff in the > naval dockyards, working for all the overtime pay they wanted, as musicians > in the best bands entertaining the wealthy and as fast rising supervisors > and senior officers in the divisional railways, Bombay Telephones, Post and > Telegraphs and every other British dominated enterprise. The Anglos were > leaving for England and Goans were thought to be their best replacements, a > good fit for the mantle of high positions. > > More Goan women followed their earlier pioneers into the nursing > profession. > The pay was nothing to write home about, but in the hospitals they served, > high level contacts were made, important impressions of their work formed > and good husbands attracted like bees to flowers. These contacts were later > useful to get children admitted to prestigious schools, jobs that were > impossible to normally get were opened up with a word or two and a second > income introduced into the family equation that helped no end. This was a > new trend. In those days one income, that of the male, was the norm. A blow > was struck for female Goan liberation. > > Simultaneously, Goan medical doctors, specialists in every medical > discipline came to dominate Bombay. They were educated not only in > Portuguese Goa, but also in top Bombay teaching hospitals and interned with > them. Private hospitals were rare and the public hospitals like St. > George's, King Edward Memorial, and the Grant Medical College at the JJ > Hospital, were state and municipal run, with a sound British medical > administration and high standards. Goan doctors conducted pioneering > operations, ran tight medical ships and were well respected with their > services desired by all sections of the Bombay population. Goan doctors > asked for Goan nurses when they could, not out of a sense of common > identity, but because these Goan nurses were second to none. Between them > they accommodated many Goans who came to the city for major treatment even > though most of them could not afford it. Complicated medical treatment in > Goa was lacking and going to Bombay was suggested by doctors in Goa > themselves. > > And then as quickly as it happened, the phenomenon disappeared. Goan women > became attracted to well-paying secretarial positions in large corporations > and nurses from the state of Kerala rushed in to fill the vacuum. > Internationally, Filipinas - Catholic and good nurses like the Goans - > became that country's biggest export to the Middle East, Australia, Canada, > and elsewhere. An era ended not only of Goan nurses but of a Bombay that > was > once all things to all people - wide and as far as the Empire in the east > could reach. > > By Roland Francis (roland.fran...@gmail.com <javascript:;>) > >