By Dr. K. Javeed Nayeem

The higher we are placed, the more humbly we should walk and Dr. Basavaraju has made this his motto in life.

My last two articles were about two doctors and two events that destiny brought them face to face, which had two vastly varying outcomes. Yes, destiny is unescapable, which is why perhaps the adage that ‘Man proposes and God disposes’ has stood the test of time.

The Roman politician and philosopher Cicero has very rightly said: ‘Fate leads the willing and drags the unwilling.’ Cicero believed that the laws of nature were more important than the laws of men and governments. He believed in destiny and his life too ended by the destiny he believed in, without him being able to control what happened to him or his fortunes.

In the months following the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44BCE, Marcus Tullius Cicero delivered several speeches urging the senate to support Caesar in his struggle against Mark Anthony. But, when Mark Antony and Caesar reconciled and became friends, for a brief while, Cicero himself was sidelined, as it happens in politics, even now. He was in fact murdered by a soldier, on the orders of Mark Antony, who could shake hands with his former opponent but could not forgive someone who was just his supporter. Yes, that is how destiny plays with the lives of people! 

Now, coming back to the present, it’s a coincidence that I am writing once again about another doctor who, without any dispute, stands out tall, for the kind of service he has rendered to society. It goes                    without saying that when we talk of a doctor’s life and work, we invariably expect it to be one of utmost dedication and selfless service to society, very often entailing stepping far beyond one’s own comfort zone and call of duty. This is what society expects from all doctors, across the world and this is what it hopes to see, in its best possible form, in every one of them.

Whether it succeeds in seeing this and whether most doctors live up to this expectation or not, is a different matter, open to debate or even conjecture!

The man I am writing about today is Dr. M.M. Basavaraju, a physician, who after a multi-faceted tenure of thirty-seven years in government service, very recently retired as the Professor and Head of the Department of Medicine at the Mysore Medical College and Research Institute (MMC&RI) here in our city.

Many incumbents hold posts like these, serve their designated tenures and demit them, unnoticed and unremembered. That is, unless they do something extraordinary or noteworthy, which makes them endeared to people around them, who remember them and their work, long after they hang up their boots.

Dr. Basavaraju was one such man, worthy of being remembered as a humble and hard-working soul, with a conscience that remained alive and guided him all through his working life. Workers like him are very rare, especially in government service, where accountability takes a back seat because most of the time no one questions how they work. That is why, government service is considered the best career option by all those who look forward to an easy and undemanding life.

Now, this may raise the hackles of a vast majority of those serving in government jobs, but this is the steadfast opinion of the vast majority of those who stand and wring their hands helplessly, with expectations of seeing them work with more commitment and honesty!

But all those who saw Dr. Basavaraju at work had just one thing to say in unison: this was an exemplary government servant who always did his duty and much more, with a rare kind of commitment and honesty. His colleagues used to see him doing the rounds an hour before he was duty-bound to start his work and they used to see him still at work long after it was time for him to go home.

Every one of them, I spoke to, said that he was a most helpful and cordial colleague with whom they could get along well, irrespective of whether they were his superiors or subordinates. Most notably, during the Covid-19 time when he was the Nodal Officer, he was at his best in this respect when they were all going though the most stressful time of their working life.

And, all his patients, at every one of the hospitals where he worked, used to feel that they were very fortunate and blessed to have such a kind-hearted and noble soul, to relieve them of their suffering and pain, under the roof of a most ordinary government hospital, where facilities are not their best. This only shows that it is not the setup but the persons who are at the helm of affairs who can make the difference between success and failure.

Now that this most modest man has shown us with his impeccable track record, how true this can be, let us all wish him and his family a life of happy and contented retirement, with happy memories to keep him company in the years to come. Incidentally, it was Cicero again, who said: The higher we are placed, the more humbly we should walk and Dr. Basavaraju has made this his motto in life!

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