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 most problems which beset the health of our people.
I am now getting somewhat disillusioned
We are actually witnessing the congealing of what was at one time considered a healing profession into something mechanistic and often commercial
New drug industries entered the healing enterprise and saw a vast, untapped market that they could exploit. Using the powerful advertisement media, they made us believe that we lived at bay, in total jeopardy, surrounded on all sides by human seeking germs, shielded against infection and death only by a chemical technology that enables us to keep destroying them. We are instructed to spray disinfectants everywhere. We apply potent antibiotics to minor scratches and seal them up with plastics. We live in a world where the microbes seem always to be trying to get at us, to destroy us, and we only stay alive and whole through diligence and fear.
As a profession, we have not only failed to fight against the falsehood perpetuated by the drug industry but we have in fact become partners in their profit making enterprise and with what trivial bribes of small gifts and dinners! The chapter entitled ‘The Pill-Pedlars’ by David Gould, a former editor of New Scientist, in his book The Medical Mafia, is an absolute eye-opener. The entire continuing education of most doctors is through the sales literature freely distributed by our drug industry. And our public now knows it.
Dr P K Sethi

Medical Research and State Imperialism
Only work which they consider worthwhile is funded and this, in turn, is determined by what our politicians and bureaucracy wants.
The work done by Dr. Arole in Jamkhed, Dr. Antia’s work in Bombay, or Dr. Sanjivi’s work in Madras needs to be more widely known and discussed. Rural health care can no longer be left to our politicians and the bureaucracy. But it is here that our Medical Association and the Medical Council of India have failed miserably.
Dr P K Sethi

When I realised that the western artificial limb, suitable for the chair-sitting, shoe-wearing culture of advanced countries, was posing numerous problems for our own amputees, and tried to work out an acceptable design for our floor-sitting, barefoot-walking culture, the orthodox in the profession viewed this work with derision, even though my amputees were more than satisfied. Because I used traditional craftsmen to give shape to my ideas, I was accused of introducing quackery into our profession and every possible obstacle was put in my way. It was only when my work earned the approval of the West that it began to be appreciated locally. Which brings us to another enigma that our researchers face. It is considered respectable to work on problems which engage the attention of the advanced countries, howsoever irrelevant these might be for our own. This explains why most of the research done here is borrowed, meaningless and second rate.
Dr P K Sethi

I can't believe this slipped past my peripheral vision. This was an outstanding man. I hope he receives the credit his life work so richly deserves. Tens of thousands of productive lives have been reclaimed due to his efforts. It's sad to learn, from this obituary, that there was any bitterness associated with his remarkable accomplishments.
By Adam Bernstein
Washington Post [1] Staff Writer
Tuesday, January 8, 2008; B07
In 2004, he told the British Medical Journal that he was angry over what he called blatant corruption in Indian medicine, involving kickbacks from corporations making machinery and the dehumanization of patients by doctors who see their clients as test subjects.
"I have often advised our young doctors not to rush to make a lot of money -- the gratitude of the patient should be enough," said Dr. Sethi, who maintained the family's Jain traditions. "But my main regret is that I have not been able to pass on my ideology to them."
New York Times Obituary

I first met Dr Sethi about 28 years ago and then faced him in an interview for a faculty position at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi in 1991. The next time he met me, he said, “You’ve got what you always wanted, ab jum ke kaam karo (now get down to hard work)”. Those words have haunted me ever since.
When he learned that I had specialised in biomechanics, he invited me to evaluate the Jaipur foot as an engineer. Encouraging young professionals and treating them as equals was a rarity among people of his stature.
Dr Dinesh Mohan, IIT Delhi

We should not think of disabled persons in terms of millions in the country as it makes them faceless and turns us into helpless handwringers. He said that we should think of the two or three amputees in every village. Then the problem becomes solvable because each village can raise the
few hundreds of rupees needed to take care of them.
Dr P K Sethi
Ever since I have used this example in every class I have taught to impress upon students that most of our problems are amenable to solutions once you change your way of thinking
Dr Dinesh Mohan

That is when we realised that the foot design was just a part of the story The success of the foot had more to do with Dr Sethi’s philosophy on healthcare and his unmatchable quality of involving
anyone who could contribute to the process. He wanted ordinary people to be able to make limbs, ordinary people to train amputees and ordinary people to participate in the excitement.
Dr Dinesh Mohan

I had no great love for orthopaedics. One look of his charismatic face and I had opted for orthopaedics as a career
They say the greatest teacher is life itself every day of my life in the ward and the department was a lesson and Dr Sethi the teacher
He taught me to question. ‘you cannot learn if you do not question, what to do, why you do it, how to do it when to do it and the last which used to be his pet question ‘who did it or who was he’
Dr Rakesh Bhargava

Once after the visit of an eminent Orthopaedic surgeon, I was commenting on the gentlemen’s extraordinary speed and almost keyhole surgery. Dr Sethi shot back ‘what are the qualities of a good surgeon?’ As he was wont to, he asked me to find out, referring me to’ Surgery heterodox and orthodox’ by Sir W Heneage Ogilvie. The qualities listed by Ogilvie fitted PKS, as we his postgraduates affectionately called him in private, to a T.” In judging a surgeon we must consider qualities of the head, the heart and the hand, “Sir Ogilvie wrote.
He was a member of an elite Book Lovers club which included such luminaries of the Rajasthan University as Dr Daya Krishan, Prof. of Philosophy, Prof Unnithan, the musicologist Dr Mukund Laat, the Physicist Prof Loknathan, Dr Rao of Malviya Engineering College who was also a scholar of nature study, Ms Hemlata Prabhu, the professor of English and Mr. Anil and Mrs. Otima Bordia, both of IAS
Dr Rakesh Bhargava

Dr Sethi was the only one who constantly read the book to be reviewed, and moreover he was one who consistently bought the book to read it .He was equally fond of cinema, but the ‘experimental kind. On our visits to Dr Sethi, conversation would often veer to Kurosowa’s films, or to movies by Bengali directors like Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen and Ritwik Ghatak as Mrs. Otima Bordia was a Bengali.
Mr. Anil Bordia

At surgery, he invariably meticulously planned his case, insisted on his registrar ensuring availability of every necessary instrument. He used to tell us that no matter how many times he had performed an operation he always read it one more time before coming for surgery, and insisted we do the same. His dissection was meticulous and copy book, patiently executed, no step omitted. I remember when Sir Donal Brookes from UK came to Jaipur to perform a nerve repair on the son of one of our Professors, we were in great awe, watching him operate, but at the end of the surgery the consensus was that PKS was not a shade less.
Dr Rakesh Bhargava

I have often her heard this Urdu couplet but never have I felt it more appropriate for a person than for this man, Dr P K Sethi
“Hazaron saal Nargis apni benoori pe roti hai
Badi mushkil se hota hai chaman main Deedawar paida”

Dr Rakesh Bhargava