On Teacher's day
REMEMBERING A GREAT TEACHER, DR P K SETHI Every year on Teacher’s day I would carry a card and some flowers to my teacher, Padamshree and Magsaysay awardee Dr P K Sethi. The card always carried the lines ‘what can I give you in return, please take my heart, to sir with love’ from that haunting melody by Lulu that was the title song of the Sidney Poitier movie “To sir with love” based on the book by E R Braithwaite. Not any more Dr P K Sethi passed away on 6th February 2006 I am writing this tribute in the words of those who knew him well, his own word and writings and some words of my own I WAS brought up and educated in the colonial era. I practised conventional western medicine in an urban environment. I have been a witness to the heady post-World War II days when, with the emergence of some effective antibacterial medicines, diseases which were formerly lethal, such as pneumonia or tuberculosis, could be effectively treated. I was full of optimism that soon we would have answers to