DR. VELAYUDHAN: 40 YEARS OF PRACTICE AS PEOPLE’S DOCTOR
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| Dr.Velayudhan, Edappal, Malappuram |
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Though there are many doctors and hospitals in Edappal, why do people throng to the house of Dr.Velayudhan, who has just MBBS as his qualification? To answer that one must know a little more about this unique doctor who has the distinction of having won the Karshaka Jyothi award of the State Government in recognition for his efforts in agriculture.
Strange indeed, isn’t it, that such a busy doctor should be a practicing farmer. And stranger still, he doesn’t keep any register or computer-based records about the numerous patients he treats. Says doctor: I move closely with the patients. Their life history, family relationships, habits etc. are known to me. I treat them as if they were my close relatives. Once a person comes to me for treatment, his or her history will be ever fresh in my memory.
Dr.Velayudhan, who graduated in 1963 from Medical College, Kozhikkode,has been serving lakhs of patients in Edappal for the last 40 years. As his father was a coconut climber with hardly any land and his mother a chronic patient, Dr.Velayudhan had a struggling childhood. He used to help his father in the leased land where they cultivated, and that accounts for his love of agriculture.
Till recently the doctor used to climb coconuts. Aren’t there professionals available to pluck coconuts? That is not the reason. The doctor had planted those coconut saplings. As he was busy with patients throughout the day, he had planted them at night. He was able to watch their growth also at night alone. Though they had grown big, in doctor’s heart the love for his trees was such that he used to climb up the trees at night just to watch their flowers and nuts. That his wife used to quarrel with him for these nocturnal visits is another matter. She cannot understand the bliss I enjoy during such times, he says.
Does the doctor have any unfulfilled aspiration in life? To fall down dead while treating a patient, he says.
Courtesy: V.K.Sreeraman, Kalakaumudi, December 22, 2002
Contributed by: Administrator
