The author of the website, My India Stories.com
(myindiastories.com) is Veeraswamy Krishnaraj, M.D. I was born in Saram village
in 1937 in Tamil Nadu, the then-Madras Province under the British Raj. A
village doula administered prenatal, natal, and postpartum services to
my mother. My mother was in labor under the watchful eyes of the
doula and bingo, I dropped into the dexterous hands of the doula. I grew
up in the village for a few years. My parents took me to a
nearby town with my younger brother, where I completed high school
in 1953, My parents, my two brothers and I moved to a temple-town
(Chidambaram with famous Nataraja Temple) where I
completed my pre-med college education. In 1955, I entered Madras Medical College and
graduated in December 1960 with a medical degree (M.B; B.S). I worked as
a House Officer in Govt. General Hospital for six months, left for
the U.S.A and landed in the Idlewild Airport in NYC (Renamed JFK Airport
later) on August 3, 1961.
Yes, a day later, Barack Obama was born. No, I did not deliver him. He
was born in a far away place, which I visited in the 1990s. I worked as an intern and resident in
pediatrics in NY City hospitals, passed the written and oral
examinations, obtained a board certification in Pediatrics
in 1965, and earned Fellowship of the Royal College of Physicians
(Canada) in Pediatrics in 1968.
I
married in 1967, practiced Pediatrics and retired in December 1998.
I was brought up in a secular home. I don’t remember celebrating even one major Hindu festival at home. I went to a Protestant Christian High School from 1945 to 1953, known then as The American Arcot Mission High school in Tindivanam. We had Bible Classes and were asked to write down one good deed in Christian tradition a student performed to another person daily. The students were inventive-that included me and entered in the book of good deeds, episodes from the Hindu Epics: Ramayana and Mahabharata. One good deed entry was,"Today, I showed Hanuman the way to Lanka." We had no good deeds to report and so liberally borrowed from the Ityhasas. We had no religious instructions in Hinduism. About half the teachers were Christian and the rest came from Hinduism: Brahmins, Mudaliars.... Better than 90% of the student body belonged to Hinduism, Islam, Jainism… The rest were Christians. There were no overt or covert attempts to convert the students to Christianity. Christmas celebrations were an annual event, which the student body attended. The school had an Indian Christian Headmaster, a kind man. The Assistant Headmaster was a fair-complexioned Brahmin gentleman with hazel eyes, who, we saw, did his jogging on the Trunk Road (main highway, a North-South Corridor), used by lorries (trucks), cars, Jatkas, bullock carts, pedestrians, animals, sheep, cows, ducks... The duck crossing was the best thing we saw. When the heavy lorries carrying sand came to a screeching halt at the sight of highway crossing of the quacking ducks with the duck-minder conducting from behind the ensemble of ducks with a flourishing stick. Duck Crossing. https://www.youtubeDOTcom/watch?v=JrRPwcVpZS4 The school had a soccer field. I never participated in the sports. The school was about a mile and half from where I lived. I took the main bazar road to the school. Most people followed no traffic rules. There was no pedestrian path. The pedestrians were at the mercy of wayward cows, stray dogs, grunting pigs, roadside performing monkeys, dancing bears... I witnessed the marauding monkeys grab the half-eaten banana from the hands of a hapless child. The common modes of transportation was Bullock Cart, Tonga, bicycle... A car was rare on the streets. I remember seeing dense smoke-belching trucks powered by steam made by burning coal. The tonga was ubiquitous. Once as I was walking in the middle of the road on my way home from school unknowing of the horse-drawn carriage behind me, the horse ran into me and I was hanging helpless by the shirt collar from the shaft tip for about 30 feet. When the horse stopped, I was unhooked from the wooden tip. I went home, no apologies from the driver. I was not hurt and happy the horse and the carriage did not run over me. There was one Hindu teacher with the habit of putting his hand in the pockets of children and take small change they had for candy, snacks... Everybody knew it and nobody complained. There was another Hindu teacher in Tamil language studies. He used to call the misbehaving students: Panni-Naai (This word has two meanings. When told as one word (Panninaai), it means, "What did you do?" When used as two words (Panni Naai), it meant a pig and a dog. The words are spoken Tamil which is differrent from literary written Tamil. Most teachers were exemplary. I sat on the floor in the corner of my classroom for one whole year in the late 1940s on the order of my teacher. I know him by name. That year I was fidgety and hyperactive. I know it now because I am a pediatrician. The teachers did not understand psychology of students. There was no social worker or counselor. My teacher failed me that year and I had to repeat. The teacher sent me away from the classroom to buy meats from the meat market, quite a distance away from the school and deliver it to his family. I never questioned him. I never told my parents. The teacher had no compunction in using a student to do his household chores during school hours. Once, a fourteen-year-old girl had blood coming down her leg and spilling on the floor of the classroom. No one knew what it meant including the girl. The teacher did not tell us what it was. We did not understand. The teacher did not reassure or explain to the girl or the students. Neither the parents nor the teachers instructed the teenagers on the physiological changes they undergo in the adolescent years. There was no teaching of physiology. I spent all my years in the school thinking that the testicles in the scrotum made urine. Such was our ignorance. We were not taught anatomy, physiology, chemistry, physics, botany... Geology and history were on the curriculum. I had some rudimentary knowledge of Hinduism during
my school and college days. My parents did not take me to any temples. I tagged along with uncles, aunts, cousins… to temples. There were no
formal religious instructions either from my parents or any
organizations.
A
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The professor of pediatrics was the first one to go abroad and receive F.R.C.P (Canada). He was brilliant and extensively studied 'Indian Childhood Cirrhosis.' I was the second one to receive the same fellowship in Canada.
The medical education in India was top-notch and served me well during my training and practice in the USA. Listening to the patient and the parents helped me make correct diagnoses often. Parents know the patient (child) better than the doctor. I always believed in that. We often forget how much the patient or parent teaches us about diseases. Once I had a child coming into the Pediatric ER with abdominal pain. He was diagnosed as Acute Appendicitis. As a senior resident, I was to supervise the junior resident. As I approached the patient, he smelt of acetone. I told myself this was a case of Diabetic ketoacidosis with abdominal pain. He did not have physical signs for Acute appendicitis. Blood sugar and urinalysis established the diagnosis. A child came with wheezing. The working diagnosis was Bronchial asthma. The child was not wheezing when I examined him, no ronchi that I could hear. I bent his neck fowards; that precipitated wheezing. The diagnosis was Vascular Ring in the chest mimicking asthma. Confirmation came by esophageal contrast studies. My training in NYC hospital was excellent. Our professor of pediatrics had a particular interest in Adrenal glands. He did research on them. When I was a resident in Canada, an infant came in with shock. Routine blood tests and EKG were done by me. The EKG showed spiking T waves indicating high potasium in the blood affecting the heart. Immediately I gave the infant a dose of hydrocortisone. The blood tests showed high potasium and low Sodium. The diagnosis was Adrenogenital syndrome, which was proved by urine and blood tests. If it was not for my training and awareness of Adrenogenital syndrome, I would not have diagnosed the condition. Thanks to the professor. A preschool child came in with ankle pain. One spot was tender (point tenderness) on the tibia. He had a low grade fever. My impression was osteomyelitis. X-rays were normal. I insisted on osteomyelitis, but the specialists did not agree. Early osteomyelitis does not show in x-rays, until reactive bone formation and thickening appear in a week or so. Treatment was started. Increased levels of radiotracer uptake indicated early osetomyelitis. The child was on IV antibiotics for weeks. I spent more time in the history and physical parts of examination, which I found lacking in some resident doctors. Some had no time for the patient and immediately dispatched them for x-rays and blood test. What a waste of resources. After my retirement, I thought I would do part-time work in pediatrics out of state (NJ). I was hired by a pediatrician much younger than me. I was scolded for spending too much time with patients and my production quota was six patients every hour. Shortly thereafter, I was called into the office and handed a check. A few days later, I received a certified mail that I was no longer needed in the office. I also beleive in home remedies and naturopathy under certain conditions and for certain maladies. I suffer from Type 2 Diabetes since the late 1990s. Besides the allopathic medications I take cinnamon in powder form (150mgs twice a day). It helped stabilize and control my blood sugar. When I left for the USA, my maternal uncle gave me a Sanskrit-English copy of Bhagavadgita published by Gita Press, Gorakpur, India. I still have that copy with me since 1961. Since I retired, I lived and breathed Hinduism during my waking hours. The stories and Hindu religious articles are from my reading during the retirement years. I began visiting Hindu Temples in the Tristate area and whenever I visited India, I went to Tirupati Venkatesvara Temple, Madurai Meenakshi Amman temple, local but famous temples in Chennai... |