 |
| Dr.K.Rajagopal, Kollam |
Padmasree Dr.K.Rajagopal is a septuagenarian traveling ayurvedic physician who clocks 3000 km every month.
On Mondays, he starts from Kollam with his driver of 25 years, Justin. He heads straight to Ayurveda Pharmacy, Aluva. On Tuesdays he is at Amala Cancer Clinic, where he is the Director. On the next day he heads for Kottakkal Arya Vaidya Sala Cancer Clinic. On Thursdays too he would be at Kottakkal Charitable Hospital. Incidently, Dr.Rajagopal is the Advisor to Vaidya Sala on matters of medicine and publication. Fridays and Saturdays are for Ayurveda Samajam Hospital at either Shornur or Thiruvananthapuram. Here too, in addition to being a physician, he is the President of the organization. By Saturday night the 74-year-old doctor would be back at Kollam. Sunday forenoons are for patients in his own hospital at Kollam and afternoons for visitors.
Son of traditional healer M.P.Krishnan Vaidyan and Vaidya Sastra Vidushi P.Kalyanikkutti Amma, Dr.Rajagopal had no doubt about the path to choose in life, even when he completed MBBS in 1961. Earlier in 1955, he had passed DAM with 1st rank from Ayurveda College, Thiruvananthapuram.
“During my studies or afterwards, I never felt any anxiety about apparent contradiction between allopathy and ayurveda. While the foundation of ayurveda is quite strong, the application side of allopathy has much to comment about. Being brought up in an ayurveda tradition, I had nothing to doubt. However, for diagnosis and treatment, modern medicine has been felt to be useful,” says this practitioner of complementary approach.
After spending few years as chief physician at the family hospital, he joined Panchakarma Institute at Cheruthuruthi in 1971. Honours and positions followed in quick succession. Head of Regional Institute at Poojappura, examiner at Kerala, Mahatma Gandhi, Calicut, Madras and Bharatiyar Universities, Dean of Sree Sankaracharya University, member of Central Council of Indian Medicine, Advisor to Kerala Government are some of them.
Apart from Padmasree, other honours to come his way include Brihatrayee Ratna (1997), Patanjali, Vaidya Vachaspati, Fellowship of Central Government etc.
Dr.Rajagopal, who had successfully experimented with a ‘karinjeerakam’-based medicine for cancer declares: “I believe there is ayurvedic treatment for all diseases.”
Courtesy:
Anil Mangalath (text),
K.B.Satheesh Kumar (photo), Mathrubhum Arogya Masika, December 2005
Contributed by: Administrator
