Dr.G.KWarrier, GKW as referred by his peers, colleagues and students in medical colleges of Trivandrum, Calicut and Kottayam for over three decades from early1960s, was undoubtedly one of the most brilliant clinicians and medical teachers, I could get to know. Let me be more precise, using the Singular here- he was the most brilliant, in both respects.
When we entered clinical studies as third year medicos in Trivandrum Medical College in 1966, Professor Ananthachary was just leaving, and Prof. K. N. Pai was taking over as Head of the Department of General Medicine.GKW was Professor and Chief of the Second Unit (M2 Unit). I was not posted in his Unit. There was occasional references to the clinical brilliance of GKW in the hospital dialogues. I used to envy my classmates, who got clinical posting in his Unit. Several weeks passed, with out myself being able to get a glimpse of GKW, for which I longed ever since start of clinical posting.
The occasion arrived unexpectedly, in an unexpected setting. We were being taken to witness an autopsy in hospital mortuary.As our Pathology teacher was explaining the autopsy procedure, I noted a middle aged bespectacled person, standing beside, pulling out and closely examining loops of intestine from the open abdomen of the dissected dead body, oblivious of all of us there. Some one whispered into my ear- here is Dr. GKW you have been longing to meet. As we were planning to leave after the class, I could see him sitting beside a table, making some notes.
Steeling some time off my regular Unit postings, I have joined his ward rounds a couple of times. Standing behind the regulars in the Unit,I could get to receive only part of what he taught bedside. But that itself pleased me much.
Later,when he arrived in medicine lecture to take classes, I was delighted to sit steady and take in, as much as I could. He would sit on the table top and continue for several minutes on the topic he had seized upon. I remember a particular class, which he started by pulling out a sheet of newspaper from his trouser pocket ( he used to wear his pants like loose trousers, belted around his belly with lateralized buckles) and reading an oft.repeated quack advertisement in it, about a miracle medicine to cure the 'serious ill.effects of semen loss'. He traced the origin of this superstition, and how it prevailed on, down the ages. I do not know whether he has published it anywhere; if so, it would have been the best write.up on the topic. I remember one of his classes, in which he started with a mention of one sixth molar lactate and went on to give a half hour exposition on foundations of Physical Chemistry.
I have also heard of him showing Kathakali mudras, making dance steps,chanting slokas, rendering song bits in the class etc, to bring home some basic aspects of the topic in hand. That made his classes inspirational free.flowing academic transactions.
In the fourth year, by some curious shuffling in Medicine office, I could get a clinical posting in his Unit. I did not know how it happened, but was overwhelmed. It gave me more opportunities to learn directly, albeit briefly, from the great clinical teacher that he was.
Cigarette smoking was part of an elite male cultural stereotype then, and doctors' smoking in hospital insides, was common. Being a chain smoker, GKW would be seen smoking frequently in his OP and during ward rounds. Most often, he would be seen standing on the bedside of the patient,with his left foot elevated and rested on the bedside chair, and smoking vigorously, while discussing the case to his assistants and trainees, gathered around. Hazy rings and curls of smoke would hover over the patient's bed and the gathering around. The awareness about passive smoking was not yet born then, leave alone the terminology. I am sharing this mental image, not to criticize GKW in any way,but to highlight the attitude to smoking in society then, from which even eminent doctors were not immune.
On and off we would hear about his brilliant diagnostic feats, adding to his status as a living legend. Specifics of many of these were beyond my comprehension, being an undergraduate medical student.
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Having many friends outside medical college and being a day.scholar, I used to go regularly for evening walks with my friends in city roads. The Statue Road in front of the Secretariat was our meeting point. One day, I could glance by chance, GKW emerging from the British Council Library , with a heap of books held on his arm.side and reading the book held open in his other hand, as he walked on the pavement. I could gain his attention. He recognised me. I offered to carry the books and accompany him till VJT Hall, where his car was parked.
'Kumar, as a young guy you should walk free, swinging your arms. Not yet time to walk with groceries or bundles on your hand- books no exception, especially for those who do not need them'.
His eyes blinked a bit, beneath his thick glasses and his face glowed in the benign mischievous smile- an expression invariably seen whenever he made a sarcastic statement.
Any way, he gave a few of the books for me to carry and welcomed me to accompany him. Reaching the VJT Hall he wanted me to join him for a cup of coffee. While waiting for the snacks, and while eating too ,his eyes did not leave the page of the book, kept open on the table. On and off, he would close the book and talk.
( Later I heard from Dr.Jacob Chandy of CMC, Vellore about the reading habit of young GKW, when he was a first year MBBS student. He would come to Anatomy class, with pages of Gray's Anatomy, copied in a notebook and keep placing questions to teachers-many of them would retreat tactfully to escape his barrage of questions.
My occasions of pavement companionship with GKW happened a couple of times more. Eapen Samuel, my close friend and an ardent admirer of GKW, came to know of this and infiltrated into some of my evening sojourns with GKW. Learning about my interest in Malayalam literature,GKW used to discuss with me about some malayalam books, once a while. Eapen did not like it, as his malayalam reading did not have anything beyond newspaper, and would try to channalise GKWs talk to science, technology , sports etc. GKW would satisfy both of us in turn, as he pleased. No subject under the Sun, was unfamiliar to him. (subjects beyond Sun probably was no different ).
The Annapoorna Wheat House, Trivandrum Hotel and Aruna Hotel were the places where, we could sit with GKW with a cup of coffee, a couple of times. The privilege of occasional personal contact with the iconic GKW outside the College, while having only a fringe contact with him in hospital, (being just a graduate medical student) made me proud and joyful.
It was a time when, I was reading psychology and psychiatry informally.Once, I told GKW about my liking to go for training in Psychiatry. He discouraged me vehemently. He advised me to do MD in General Medicine, do Neurology, and think of Psychiatry, if I retain my interest in Psychiatry at that stage.
Early during the time of our clinical training , GKW was not doing any private practice(that was allowed for medical teachers). Subsequently, he announced starting of private practice, in a city nursing home. Within a couple of months his private practice spiked. The story goes that he donated his second hand car to his driver, and bought a new one, within one year of starting private practice.
He was transferred to Medical College, Calicut during our Internship, terminating our contact with him. We used to receive glittering reports of his work there. During that period once I could get a chance to meet him on a train journey and talk with him for several minutes. I felt some change in his talk and mood, but could not infer its nature or significance.
My last meeting with him was at NIMHANS, Bangalore, few years later. The details of that meeting does not form part of this narrative.
I am not sure whether the news of his demise a few years later, threw me into an emotional grief. But his permanent exit from the arena of Clinical Medicine in Kerala was felt a heavy personal loss by me, just as by many ones, who had the good fortune to be his students and his junior colleagues.
Apart from the clinical lessons, perhaps I imbibed from GKW the inspirational free.flowing trend of medical teaching, (which got further strengthened later under the influence of Dr.R.M.Varma, my teacher at NIMHANS) . Despite lacking his reading range and scholarship, this model of teaching of GKW probably percolated into me.
That essentially is GKW as Teacher inside me.
Dr. K. A. Kumar
Trivandrum.695004
drkakumar@gmail.com
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