When Dr SC Jamir, Governor of Odisha, consented to attend a function organised by the Odisha Branch of the Indian Medical Association to mark the Doctor’s Day, also the birth anniversary of the legend Dr Bidhan Chandra Roy, few in the IMA fraternity would have anticipated what awaited them in Dr Jamir’s address.
Transgressing a bit from my originally planned topic, let this writer admit here that seeing Jamir that day the doctors present in the function were perhaps jubilant that the Governor, at 82, being ramrod straight and faster than many in climbing steps in the staircase, walked brisk and did not use glass for reading!
When he rose to speak, his focus was on old age, old age care, geriatric wards in hospitals, healthcare services in tribal and remote areas, how to meet the challenge of shortage of doctors; and then the two most important issues confronting Odisha: reluctance of young doctors to serve in remote areas and how to reduce infant and maternal mortality rates.
Then abruptly he paused; his gaze seemed to travel straight over the audience into the back wall and a glow flickered on his face; something pleasant transported him into a past that few could think. And then he stunned one and all, “I have seen Dr Bidhan Chadra Roy from very very close quarters, so close that one could touch him!” Then Jamir elaborated.
He was perhaps seventeen or eighteen, had come to Calcutta for higher studies. like any other youth of his age, he was enamoured by Calcutta’s grandeur; modernity pervaded almost in every field, beginning from painting, filmmaking, literature onto dresses and sarees!
It was “what Bengal thinks today, the whole of India thinks tomorrow” exemplified at its best. And not only the people of West Bengal but also those who chose Calcutta as a city that could provide bread and butter for them were overawed by one person’s aura and charisma. Dr Bidhan Chandra Roy —BC Roy — was ‘Doctor’ to one and all. He had already become a symbol by which outsiders identified West Bengal; much like, let us say, Belur Mutt or Shantiniketan! He was one of the finest in the profession; caring, compassionate and always available, not only to the rich and famous but also to a Tom, Dick or Harry who knocked at his door, anytime! When he became the Chief Minister of West Bengal, the doctor in him never deserted him. He divided his time and kept a slot for the common man, for patients. People came from every part, from near and far, in the belief that if Dr Roy just touched them they would be cured. Touch he did; he patiently diagnosed and advised them; and of course wrote prescriptions. Even when he was out of Calcutta, he had seldom declined a patient’s request. All these were more than enough to create an aura around him, giving birth to anecdotes, interesting episodes and even myths!
“I was just seventeen or so,” Jamir told the audience, “and I wanted to see Dr BC Roy from very close, but that was almost impossible; there were always security personnel and outnumbering them were his partymen, admirers like me and some patients. During public meetings, I always looked at him from a great distance, visualising, or maybe, enacting a scene where I am near him!”
Then the distant gaze on the back-wall transformed into a bright expression; eyes lit up and Jamir, as if for a few moments, became a young man of seventeen! “I then thought of a unique way to get near Dr BC Roy and have a glimpse of the great man.” Jamir elaborated: What he did was pretty simple yet innovative.
He purchased a camera, hung it around his neck and posed as a young Press photographer. That helped ease the problem to the largest extent possible. Jamir evaded policemen, jumped over the barricade and reached the enclosure where only Press photographers were allowed.
He locked Dr Roy inside his camera, contented; and moved as near the stage as possible; and he was within a touching distance of the living legend.
Dream fulfilled, the young Jamir discreetly vanished from the security enclosure. He had not intended to be a photojournalist, he told the gathering at the Doctor’s Day function; instead, he had dreamt of becoming a doctor but couldn’t afford to be one owing to his family’s
inability.
Then Jamir threw a bombshell. Perhaps, no one in the audience had seen Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru in flesh and blood, though everyone knows that Panditji was the first Prime Minister, architect of modern India, that he mesmerised one and all by his action, speech and, of course, by his writings. Hearing from the Governor that he was Nehruji’s political secretary in the early 1960s was a pleasant surprise for many. But that Dr Bidhan Chandra Roy “called the first Prime Minister only Jawahar” was indeed a stunning surprise for the audience.
Before Independence, there were some great leaders who called Nehru by his first name, but after Independence, there was only one and that too being a Chief Minister, to call him ‘Jawahar’! Dr Roy’s charisma, broad smile, charm disarmed many an enemy and endeared him to one and all. Pandit Nehru, being the craftiest of the ‘goldsmiths’ could easily identify what was gold and what was silver! And hence, allowed the charismatic Doctor to call him Jawahar.
(The writer is a short-story writer and currently the Public Relations Officer to the Governor, Odisha)