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VOL. XXIV NO. 15, November 16-30, 2014
Nostalgia
Of cricket and Saigal at MMC

Madras Medical College, 73 years ago – as recalled by Dr. S. Ramaswamy, ­Professor of Anatomy (Retd). He was a 1941 batch ­student of MMC.

(Continued from last fortnight)

Madras Medical College Orchestra group, August 1946 (X – S. Ramaswamy).

The election to the College Association came up as usual in January 1945. Sampath Loganathan, my classmate, a University Blue in Tennis, was unanimously elected as the General Secretary. There was no President; the Secretary was all-powerful as far as the Association was concerned. Dr. P.V. Cherian had taken over as Principal. He was the Head of the E.N.T. Department in the Government General Hospital, but was better known as a ­brilliant E.N.T. Surgeon. Both Dr. Che­rian and his wife, Tara Cherian, were actively involved in the political field. This led to Dr. Cherian becoming a member of the Madras Legislative ­Council and, much later, Governor of Maha­rash­tra, while Tara Che­rian became the first woman Mayor of ­Madras.

A memorable event was the organisation of a “Ladies vs Gents” cricket match. The Gents had to wear fancy dress and had to bat left-handed and bowl underarm. The Ladies won the match. It was a thoroughly enjoyable occasion for one and all after the disastrous College function in August 1944.

The summer vacation over, the academic ward postings and classes started. The subjects for the December 1945 examination were Pathology, ‘Hygiene’ (later designated Community Medicine) and Ophthalmology. Bacteriology (later designated Microbiology) was partly Pathology. The lectures in Opthal­mology and Obstetrics and Gynaeco­­logy were held in the Government Ophthalmic ­Hospital and in the ‘Maternity’ Hospital, Egmore. There were no restaurants in the area and refreshments had to be taken in a small ‘wayside’ establishment on Marshall’s Road and a small tea shop in the ­Museum premises. Hotel Ashoka came years later.

* * *

The preparations for the ‘Graduates’ Reception’ function went on as usual, this time with the expectation of a very enjoyable evening, the political atmosphere having undergone a change with India well on its road to independence The popular songs at the time were those of K.L. Saigal (particularly from the film Tansen). As usual we had two items in the orchestral part – one only instrumental, the other “Diya Ja­lao” wherein Saigal acting as Tansen finally accedes to the request by Akbar to sing the rag Deepak. The vocal refrain for the song was mine. After prayer and the ­instrumental part of the orchestra were over, the hall was ­darkened. There were shouts of ‘lights, lights’ which we had anticipated. As I began the song Dina Sema, the lights came on, but subdued.

As the song progressed and was nearing the climactic end, the lighting kept slowly increasing and as the song ended with the words Diya Jalao, sung three times with successive increase in ­volume, the lighting kept brightening till, at the end, it was almost blinding for a few seconds. There was a standing ovation with ­‘encore’ being shouted again and again. We had decided against encores to ensure the audience remembering the experience. I was called “College Saigal” thereafter.

* * *

Joseph Anthony was appointed cricket team captain though I was a strong contender. Our performance in matches was better than in 1944. Bhaskar Rao was the highest scorer and I was the second. Both of us were asked to attend the University Team ­Trials. As the dates of the trials were very close to my University examinations in December, I could not attend. Rathnakar Rai, who captained the University team, later told me that I would have had every chance of being selected, in the fifteen if not in the eleven.

In the practical examination at the end of the year in Bacteri­ology, of which staining of the Malarial Parasite was a part, the ­external examiner expected the candidate to do the staining ­meticulously and carefully and would not take kindly to the ­candidate if his/her fingers got stained!

There were Hygiene excursions on Saturday afternoons most of which I had to miss as I was involved in cricket mat­ches. Dr.  Shenoy used to be in charge of these excursions. I could take part in only two of them, one to Ooty and the Pasteur Institute, Coonoor, and the other to the Madras Milk Dairy farm. It was a proud privilege to have been taught by Dr. K.S. Sanjivi, Assistant to Col. C.K. Prasada Rao, in the fourth year and, later, in the final year by Dr. Rathnavelu Subramanian, Assistant to Col. C.K.P. Rao. The surgical posting was under Dr. Mangesh Rao who, unfortunately, fell sick. His Assistant was Dr. A. Venu­go­pal, son of Sir A. Lakshmana­swamy Mudaliar, and it was a fine opportunity to learn from him. Dr. Subramania Iyer was our Hygiene Professor, a very jovial person who was popularly called “Mani Maama”.

* * *

I entered the final year MBBS course in January 1946. During the first three months there were postings in Medical wards, in Surgical and in the Maternity Hospital in groups. I belonged to the one allotted to Maternity Hospital, i.e. Obstetrics and Gynaecology which included outpatient departments and wards. We had very devoted teachers like Dr. E. V. Kalyani. One unit was headed by Dr. A.L. Mudaliar and other by Dr. Thomas. I had the pleasure of being posted in Dr. Thomas’ unit. Dr. Thomas was ambidextrous and his lectures were illustrated by beautiful diagrams on the blackboard drawn with both his hands. Just listening to his lectures was enough to know the major part of Obstetrics. Our group had what was called ‘internment’, when we had to stay in the Maternity ­Hospital in dormitory type accommodation and take turns to attend to deliveries in the labour ward. Whenever a Caesarean ­Section operation was performed the announcement would come through the ringing of a bell when all the internees were expected to turn up to witness the operation.

Each one of us was expected to ‘conduct’ 21 deliveries and submit the records as a requirement for the final year examination in Obstetrics and Gynaecology. Anyone of us who at a particular point of time had delivered a baby weighing the maximum at that time had to extend a ‘treat’ to the other internees and I had the pleasure doing so once.

During one Caesarean Section conducted by Dr. Thomas, there was some delay in the arrival of the lady doctor who was to assist him. Dr. Thomas was a bit upset and made preparations for the operation calling upon one of us internees to assist him. Since he was not in his usual pleasant mood and appeared to be angry, my co-internees were afraid to volunteer to assist him. As I was the class representative, they pushed me to do the job and I “dressed up” for the occasion and went on to assist him. At the end of the Caesarean delivery he asked me whether I had assisted in such ­operations before. He was very surprised that I had not and compliment­ed me for my contribution.

* * *

The forensic lectures continued and the examination on that subject was held in April. Dr. A. Sreenivasulu Naidu was the ­Professor and Head of the Department of Forensic Medicine. His manner was enuncia­tive while answering questions in Courts as a Forensic Expert and lawyers would never take liberties with him. Earlier, in 1944, he had conducted the post-mortem on Lakshmi­kan­tam’s body in the famous Lakshmikantam murder case. The defence lawyer for the accused was none other than K.M. Munshi.

An emergency operation had to be done on Lakshmi­kantam after he came himself by rickshaw to the hospital with stab wounds in his chest and abdomen. He had a sturdy ­physical constitution and could withstand multiple stab wounds. He did not survive the operation. A senior doctor was expected to do the operation but it was conducted by his assistant and they had quite a bit of explaining to do.

As an examiner, Dr. Mangesh Rao appeared intimidating, but he was extremely kind and liberal in assessment. I had no problem in passing in the subject and had the pleasure of being in touch with him even after the examinations for quite some time. Unfortunately he died while driving his car at night, crashing into the wall of the fountain at the Edward Elliot’s Road-Marina junction near Queen Mary’s College.

(To be concluded)

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