A Cottage in Swami Hills-21. A Vaidyar, a Maruthuvar and a Doctor

A COTTAGE IN SWAMI HILLS*

21. A VAIDYAR, A MARUTHUVAR AND A DOCTOR

Thiruvisanallur Vaidhyar came once in a month to our house. He was dressed in immaculate white Dhoti worn in traditional way with a Gandhi cap and carried a big bag slung onto his shoulder. He was an Ayurvedic Doctor. He chatted for a while with my grandfather and in between read his pulse rate by keeping his hand on the wrist. then he would take out a couple of small bottles containing different coloured powders and poured some of the contents into paper packets. He then gave them to my grandfather prescribing when the powder is to be taken (invariably with honey) and what should be taken along with that and what should not be taken, My grandfather had a lot of faith in him. After a few years, I did not see Tiruvisanallur Vaidhyar. He might have grown too old to make house visits.

He was replaced by a Maruthuvar whose name I did not know. He was a siddha Doctor. He was dressed in simple Dhoti and a half shirt. He did not look commanding like Thiruvisanallur.Probably some one might mistake him for a person doing odd job at home. He was intent while reading the pulse. He did it for more time and spent a lot of energy in it. Sometime, it looked as if  he was getting some messages along with the pulse.  After a couple of minutes, he would very elaborately explain the problem. "kapamsu" he told once. So, that became his name. He would say "Aiya, Kapamsam is dominating and naturally you feel breathless. Stomach burning. eyes burning...... all because of Kapamsam." Then he would give some medicine sometimes liquid stored in a bottle. Generally, kapamsu gave too much lecture about the evils of something or other. This went on for some time.

In 1966, my grandfather suddenly became ill. I do not know what exactly happened but he was almost in bed for a week. I had never seen him lying down like that earlier. We contacted Dr M K Subramanian who had a big hospital opposite Vani Vilasa Sabha (later known as Vijayalakshmi theatre). He sent his nephew Dr M R natarajan to look at my grandfather. Dr Natarajan was a no nonsense new generation Doctor. He was very modern. He would arrive in his car at 6 AM sharp. He would sit by the side of my grandfather and open up his bag ( which would have been carried by me as he alighted his car) full of gadgets. he would read the blood pressure and check the pulse and reel out some medicines. Sometimes, he wrote them down. We had never seen Doctor telling so many different tablets at a time earlier. Dr P V Ramaswamy Iyer at the most would give one tablet. Here, this Doctor was reciting " Lasix 2 times, Have you taken neurobion Ok," and so on. He would say " No Cofee tew. Only take complan ". then he would leave charging full 10 Rs which we would have given Dr PVR probably for the whole year.

My grandfather realised he had diabetes.He did not understand how he got Diabetes as he was not a great sweet eater and he regularly walked. He was not obese and looked fit. then he bought some test tubes and some chemicals and started performing the test at home to check sugar in the urine. I also learnt to perform the test. One had to put urine sample and some chemical and heat it in the burner and look at the colour. It was easy to perform but interpretation was very subjective. 

My grandfather  never liked Dr Natarajan. One thing was Dr Natarajan had no time to talk. He only commanded. My grandfather wanted to talk but he just did not bother about his wish. Second, he said "NO" for everything. Last but not the least, my grandfather loved his coffee and he hated having "that stupid complan" which according to him was just "clay"..

He got better though our visits to the Dr MKS hospital continued for frequent medical check ups. we had to wait in long queues and had to put up with the brusque behaviour of medical staff. My grandfather went through these as he had no choice. He said "I have VDH (Ref 1) - a dilated heart which was revealed even while I was in college. Why do these people make a big fuss now?" was his question. he said "I don't mind dying. But let me die in my own way, not by taking these tablets and not taking anything I want and not going out and living like a kill joy to others."  

He had a strong belief earlier that he would live up to 100 as he was doing Yoga and living a well regualted life. But, his spirit was broken by the restrictions imposed by the Doctor. My grandfather loved freedom and independence and would not compromise it. But, he found every one supporting the Doctor and telling him"Take rest", "Don't do this" "Don't do that" etc and he felt let down.

He said , " I pray God to live a life without poverty and die a death without pain" quoting a famous couplet.

அனாயாசேன மரணம் வினா  தைன்யேன ஜீவனம் .

He achieved both in his life.

Ref 1

It is defined in the Medical Dictionary that VDH is Valvular Disease-Heart. This means that one of the valves in the heart either was not closing (which was highly improbable in his case) or was "leaky" in which case some blood flowed back into the heart making it to work more.
He told me once that when he went for selection to University Cadet corps in Presidency College, it was found out. It is not clear how without ECG they found it out at that time.  He also said Dilated heart and he used to say he was a "large hearted'" man. It is not clear whether this is related to valvular disease.

* Cottage in swami hills refers to the house in which we lived in Kumbakonam. This phrase was used once by my grandfather when I asked him that as some  people go in summer to Kodaikanal and Ooty where they have a cottage whether we would also be able to go and stay like them one day. My grandfather replied that he already has a cottage near swami Hills (swamimalai) and he referred to his house as the cottage.