The Other Modi - Repeat Telecast

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  http://www.cartoonstock.com/directory/r/retina.asp

Helen Keller, who spoke of him as "a light piercing the darkness with his selfless service".^[2] Dr M C Modi has been awarded

• Padma Shri in 1956
• Padma Bhushan in 1968
• Knight of The Blind award
• Doctorate by Mysore University, Karnataka University and Puna University

In his words - "Like a circus company I have toured all over India since 1943 to provide free eye relief service. In the process I have examined over 10 million patients and conducted over 700,000 eye operations, which I am told is a world record. Somebody compared me to Henry Ford, saying I had brought conveyor belt technology to the field of eye-care. My way of looking at things has not been affected by the aging process at all. I am just an ordinary man. I will serve as long as God wants me to. For me, my patient is my god, the operating room is my temple and my instruments are my puja. My work has therefore been my pilgrimage."
 ...wiki

So when my mom was worried about the star she discovered in my right eye and was scared, Father took some proactive measures and found that Dr. Modi was on one of his circus visits to Nellore in 1953.

So he took me along and we reached the venue of his itinerant tent pitched on the vast football grounds of the V. R. College.

And I found that we were standing at the tail of a mile-long queue...this somehow reminds me now of the stories I read about the Hyderabad fish-prasadam treatment offered free for asthma patients from all over India by the Bathini family...early in the mrigasira fortnight the secret asthma medicine is stuffed in a muriel fishling and dumped into the throat of the welcoming patient and his mouth firmly closed till it is swallowed. 

Of course controversies abound in any free public venture of this sort.

And the line in front of Dr. Modi's tent was moving fast...instant gratification. 

Father had his specs on from his youth. Indeed my mom says that when he came down to have a look at her...to see and to be seen during their bride-seeing ceremony, one of her older grandies asked Father if he was blind...and asked him to prove he could see without his specs...

So, Father was not only my escort but also stood before me in the waiting line...to consult Dr. Modi on his specs power...

Once inside the tent, I found Dr. Modi peering through his ophthalmoscope into every eye that was presented to him. His was a spot decision...he would keep saying "next, next, next" except once in a hundred cases when he would ask his Sister to usher this case into the green room of the tent...and keep saying "next, next, next..."

The goats that were segregated from the sheep were 'operation' cases...now I know that he was doing cataract surgeries on them.

When our turn came, both Father and me were asked to get lost and go to the 'boy' manning the tent. The duty of this boy was simple...there was a huge mound of a yellow ointment. He would scoop a fistful from the mountain and push it into the waiting hands of the patient and ask him to exit through the other door.

But Father was a fond parent and asked Dr. Modi about the star in my eye. And Dr. Modi smiled and said:

"Vitamin A deficiency...let him eat some butter every morning...

"Next...next...next..."

 That is another story...

...Posted by Ishani


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