My association with the IndianPsychiatric Society spans over four decades and leaves many beads of memory about its eminent Fellows and t Footsteps in my mind.
It was in 1974, during the Annual Conference held at All India Institute of Mental Health (the precursor of NIMHANS), Bangalore, that I came into contact with the Organization.As a second year MD trainee I enrolled as an Associate Student Member. More significantly, I was made the Captain of the tiny Hospitality Volunteer Team and Member of Publicity Team by Dr.RMVarma our Director and Dr.ASMahal our Professor (Chairman and Organizing Secretary of the Conference). The Institute then was a small establishment, with students countable in two digits and staff with fingers of two hands. The Association also was tiny, attendance was thin and resources meagre on those days.The task of receiving the VIP Guests at the Airport or Railway Station on arrival, escorting them to the hotels or guesthouses and places of their visits, given to the Hospitality Team was neither easy nor pleasant, with limited number of vehicles and expenditure allowance available for us.
On the morning of the day previous to the inauguration of the Conference, we were to receive an eminent Professor and reach him to the Asoka Hotel. Besides eminence he had the dubious reputation of grandiosity,arrogance and vanity. I tried to wriggle out of this assignment, but our Professor, confident of my verbal skills, and possibly unaware of my lack of diplomacy , insisted I should personally lead the reception team for this Star Guest of the organizing committee (and his.)
We reached the Airport on time, but the flight was late by two hours. It was a chilly morning, the tea stall in Airport was closed, it was difficult to get some edible breakfast from nearby else where , as the city was still not full awake.. Being on empty stomach, the wait was miserable for us. The driver out in the parking lot was also irritated. I had a tough time pacifying my team mates and the driver. Finally our guest landed, but his luggage took a long time to get delivered. He got annoyed seeing the oldish Ambassador Car we had brought for commutting him.
At the hotel reception too he was irritable.While we were standing enthralled at the spacious impressive interiors, he was rubbing with staff there. Finally when he moved to his room, we had a sigh of relief. Possibly we can move now to the Railway Station to cater to other guests. Alas, the relief was not to last. Receiving a distress call from the room we all went in there. Our guest was furious pointing to stains on the curtains and bed linen, and dirt- real or imagined- on the walls and surfaces.
'Can't you find a better hotel?', he shouted at me, sensing I was the one heading this ill-fated team. I tried to pass on to him my information that Asoka was the best high class hotel in Bangalore at that time, which infuriated him further.' How many high class hotels you have been to ?' he asked with disdain. Honestly,none for me to declare.
When I gently asked for permission to leave, as we had to receive other guests his anger quadrupled.
I felt having had reached my tether's end and we slipped out of the room, leaving him to his tantrums and personal transport arrangements ,to reach the Institute for his afternoon programmes.
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In the afternoon we had to go to the City Railway Station to receive Professor Vidyasagar, the National President of the Indian Psychiatric Society. None of us had seen him. With a photograph we scanned passengers alighting from that train, keeping a placard with his name written, as well. With nearly all passengers screened out, we started getting a bit upset as we missed him and possibly he also missed the placard we carried to help identification.
'Oh.all of you have come here to receive me.'
A fair man in sixtees with a beaming smile slapped my shoulder.
Unmistakable, here he is! We exclaimed in silence.
After asking names of each of us, he enquired whether we have had our lunch. When we answered in affirmative, he said.
'The train was stuck somewhere early morning. Thread was scarcity of water, food etc there after.I could not get my lunch in train.Shall we go to the canteen for a while. If you have done your lunch, give me company with some snacks.'
We accompanied him to the canteen and gave him company. When I made an attempt to pay for his vegetarian lunch he refrained saying
'Let us economise conference expenses'
. His accommodation was arranged in a modest make.shift guest house at the institute. Till we reached there he discussed about the forthcoming conference and the programmes he envisages under it's aegis. Two days later in the second day of the Conference ,after the sessions are over, I was asked to escort Professor Vidyasagar on a visit to a friend of him staying at Malleswaram. I could spent close to two hours with him in the car. He told me the challenges he had to face trying to introduce Family Psychiatry in the Amritsar Mental Hospital and how he circumvented the objections and obstructions from Administration and apathy and non.co.operation of some of his colleagues.
Next day during the Annual General Body meeting chaired by him there were heated exchanges between senior Fellows. Standing in the rear as a Volunteer, I could see him sobbing and suppressing his tears as the Titans clashed on either side of him.
When we dropped him in the Railway Station for return journey, he reassuringly said that some conflicts and contradictions are part of any growing organization and despite all this, the Indian Psychiatric Society would grow and prosper.
He profusely thanked us for taking care of him and invited us to visit Rohtak, where he worked then. That did not materialize, but I had met him once more at Chennai few months later in another academic meeting and spent some time with him there too.. Though I have never had met him thereafter, he remains in my memory as a gentle lamp emitting soothing light at corridor crowded with dark shades.
The contrast in the personality and behaviour of two eminent psychiatrists in the country, I had met during the first National Conference I attended, lingered in my mind. The bitter verbal clashes witnessed in the Annual General Body also stayed on as a dark cloud in memory. With varying permutations and combinations, I could perceive similar contrasting personality traits among the leaders and functionaries of our organization on and off. I could also witness many bitter verbal fights and tantrums in the floors of our Conferences from time to time. Yet, as Dr. Vidyasagar reassured us before boarding his second class coach for return journey after the 1974 Bangalore Conference, the Indian Psychiatric Society grew and prospered since then, and continues to grow and prosper ever. .
Dr. K. A. Kumar
Former National President ,Indian Psychiatric Society
Trivandrum.695004
drkakumar@gmail.com
