Meet a 26-year-old Unani practitioner who is busy counseling young couples on family planning in the fifth month of her first pregnancy
Meet a 26-year-old Unani practitioner who is busy counseling young couples on family planning in the fifth month of her first pregnancy
Hope and Hippocrates can drown the hypocrites, or so says a story about town. Dr Syeda Fakhra Jabeen, all of 26, holds a Bachelor's degree in Unani Medicine & Surgery, and sets Ghalib's gullies free of ignorance and fear.
u00a0
|
|
Feeling the pulse of the time: Dr. Syeda Fakhra Jabeen at her clinic at Jama Masjid in New Delhi
Pic/Subhash Barolia |
Her prescription: nature over stature. "It is a myth that Unani medicine is losing its importance. Look Westwards, and you'd see how they're taking to us ever more everyday," she reiterates.
Syeda started out small, but greatness spreads swiftly. Today, she sees around 50-60 patients in 3 hours.
"Don't talk of tiredness; I enjoy it every second of the day." Syeda studied at Delhi University's Ayurvedic & Unani Tibbia College with full family support, and extends the same to hesitant dwellers of Delhi 6 these days.
"The problem is that conservative Muslim elders still see family planning as taboo. So, many young couples are secretive about their conceiving concerns," laments the general physician-cum-gynae. However, her hush-hush consultation makes sure birth control finds its way into the tiniest bylanes, and inspiration, in others.
The doctor is optimistic. Muslim husbands, she feels, have started understanding childbirth and its consequences better. But then, others are losing faith in her practice. "Unani medicine takes long to show results." Nevertheless, as she illustrates, it's working wonders.
