Dr Patrick Yesudian Speech

Though Dr Yesudian could not attend our reunion his message was from the heart. It  was made even more relevant by Dr Krishnakumar. Thanks KK for speaking for your mentor. I will always remember the line- Be faithful to your daily tasks.

Prabhakar

Here is the speech unedited

Though you’ll all be in your 4^th decade, to me you are still young as I remember you in the 80s. I would have loved to have been amidst you this evening but unfortunately I have to travel to Erode for a Dermatology conference. I may not remember your names but I can certainly recognise your faces.

 

When I was transferred from ESI hospital and posted as Professor of dermatology at the K.M.C, I was first disappointed when I saw my department. You’ll recollect that the department of dermatology was housed in asbestos-roofed shed more suited to act as a war time shelter but I just did what my mentor Prof. Thambiah used to say “Be faithful to your daily task”. I did just that by being in the hospital at 8 A.M sharp and seeing the O.P patients along with my single assistant.

 

Soon, not only did the O.P attendance increase but students started requesting me for classes. I was of course delighted to have then and one day in a week I used to have slide sessions which attracted not only KMC students but also some from MMC. These slide projections were presumably very useful for those who went for their PLAB or USMLE. Dr. Pandian who is now a respiratory consultant in USA told me that he was shown a case of sporotrichosis for the spotters. He was the only candidate to have got it right, since he had seen a similar slide at my class. So my short stint at KMC was soul-satisfying and the happiest time in my service career of over 30 years.

 

The only blotch in my happy memories was the brief period when I was forcibly made warden of  the men’s hostel. Every day I’ll be flooded with complaints about non-supply of water, poor quality of food, troublesome neighbours and stuff like that over which I had little control except to pass it on to the Dean. But the nightmarish event that marred my wardenship was, when a student sent me a lawyer’s notice stating that I was jealous of his popularity as secretary of the college union! That was the last straw on the camel’s back and I promptly met the chief secretary who was my patient and on his orders I was immediately relieved of the warden’s post.

 

One of my faithful pupils was Krishna Kumar who never missed my clinic even after I went to MMC as Professor. sometimes I used to despair of him because he came to MMC at the expense of other subjects like pathology and Obstetrics much to the annoyance of the Professors of other departments. After his graduation I thought that he will take up to dermatology, but he branched off to pathology. I am happy to see that he still keeps in touch with dermatology though considered an authority in ocular pathology and stem cells.

 

During my recent visit to U.K, I visited a hospital in North Wales where my son is a consultant dermatologist. I was happy to see that nearly half a dozen consultants in that hospital were medicos from Madras. Two were from KMC. Ambalavanan who is a consultant in respiratory medicine and Hearton who is a consultant in haematology may be known to you. They insisted that I should give a talk at their clinical meeting. So I spoke on “Old is Gold” which was appreciated by the staff.

 

Finally, the enduring factors in medicine have always been compassion, pity, care and love which I am sure all of you are practising.

 

Have a great reunion before you reach the metallic age – silver in your hair, gold in your teeth and titanium in your hips.

 

God bless you all.