Brijeshwar Singh is a surgeon with a passion for theatre. He shares stories of hope and courage that are part of his latest book with Shrabasti Mallik
Please share with us the story behind In And out of Theatres: Heart Warming Vignettes beyond the Operation Theatre.
I am a professional trauma surgeon who happen to be a theatre lover. Being a surgeon is an extremely demanding career and I have tried my best to do my job by involving myself personally to treat their illness and injuries. Although it helped me to become a better surgeon in my town, it failed to satisfy the yearning of my soul. I wanted to share the pleasures and the pain of people around me. That is why I decided to pen down my experiences and come up with the book.
Does the book only talk about your experiences as a surgeonIJ
Very few doctors have lent themselves to so many theatres — the medical theatre, the artistic theatre and the theatre of life. The book shares stories of my patients, acquaintances and therasas — the moods and the emotions of my own life experiences as a surgeon. It also talks about my passion as an impresario towards the promotion of Indian theatre and performing arts. The book is a narrative non-fiction of experiences that I have had during surgeries.
I believe that I have a rudimentary observing skill while treating patients that can see beyond their injuries and illness. My observations had the potential to be converted into a narrative with a soul and uniqueness of its own. I cannot separate the doctor and the theatre lover in me. I think of the internal journey of prince Siddhartha who became Gautam Buddha. How deeply he must have felt the pain of others.
Please tell us about some stories of the book.
The patients’ stories always seize moments from my own life challenges. When I was five years old, I developed rheumatic polyarthritis. It devastated my parents because I was born after many years of their marriage. The polyarthritis was a blessing in disguise as the future doctor in me was residing within to monitor my childhood. It controlled and brought cessation to my hyperactivity. My arthritis neutralised my hyperactive syndrome. During this extended period of hyperactivity I not only matured but also understood the problem that I was going through. I have made a modest effort to narrate my experiences as real life stories. The book documents my medical practices as an orthopedic surgeon as well as my daily life. As a doctor, my mind is preoccupied with my patients and their prognosis. Sometimes, one can gather nuggets of wisdom from medical cases. These human stories are the essential tools of the literature of life. This is what has driven me to share case studies which are mainly based on personal clinical experiences, testimonials of patients and people who have come and gone in my life. I am also the kind of doctor who keeps medical cases somewhere in the back-up file of the memory and the heart. Even when I am in a train or on a flight, my patients and their cases seem to travel with me in my thoughts. There are few stories of courage and hope that I have personally witnessed before a surgery. They have had a huge impact on me and I have tried to share them in a few stories in the book. Palace on Wheels, Rajasthan and Palash are few of the stories that speak of such experiences.
Who are the literary figures who have inspired youIJ
There were a lot of authors I grew up reading and somehow or the other, they all have influenced me as a debut writer. There is Maya Angelou, Roberto Bolaño and Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Among Indian writers Uday Prakash and Mridula Garg are my favourites.
Apart from being a successful orthopedic surgeon you are also active on the stage. How do you juggle your time between the operation theatre and the stageIJ
I organise a 10-day theatre fest every year, conduct theatre workshops in summer for school children and run a theatre repertory Rang Vinayak Rang. All these needs a team work and I have a great team of family, friends and hospital colleagues who involve themselves in it, apart from their routine work. Amidst my hectic schedule at the hospital I attend a few important meetings and organise my surgeries. I give only one to two hours per week to Windermere, my black box auditorium where plays are performed. That suffices my requirements as an organiser and a promoter. The rest of my time is devoted to my patients.