‘My biggest achievements have been my students,' says Mumbai-based Dr Ashwin Mehta

An 85yearold cardiologist Dr Ashwin Mehta is sort of a legend among the medical fraternity in Mumbai In the 1990s he was possibly the first in the city to use primary angioplasty in acute myocardial infarction PAMI in heart attack cases Before that he also helped set up the cardiology department at the Sion hospital and then went on to teach there training thousands who went on to serve in smaller townsldquoMy biggest achievement has been the studentsrdquo says the doctor who has treated four prime ministers including Morarji Desai Chandra Sekhar Deva Gowda and Rajeev Gandhi and seven Bharat Ratna awardees like Lata Mangeshkar Ravi Shankar J R D Tata Nanaji Deshmukh and J P NarayanHe won the Padma Shri award in 2004 and then last week he was selected for the Padma Bhushan Nair Hospitalrsquos cardiologist Dr Ajay Chaurasia one of Dr Mehtarsquos students who refers to him as lsquoABMrsquo says ldquoI completed my super speciality training under him at Sion hospital while pursuing my postgraduation He has been an astuteborn healer and a teacher par excellence Whatever I am today I owe it to himrdquoDr Mehta has seen the world change the political systems shift and the medical field evolve with changing times ldquoIn the days when I was a medical student in the rsquo60s I had an opportunity to treat Pyarelal Sharma LaxmikantPyarelal and I had to stay the whole night holding his hand and noting his blood pressure because there were no monitors Now everything has changed we are now in a world where robotassisted surgeries are not too far in the future to be widely usedldquoDr Mehta wants the expansion of good quality and affordable treatment to the remotest parts of the country which he says has not happened ldquoNobody should be dying through ailments when they can be savedrdquo he saysMeanwhile he continues his practice at Jaslok Hospital even at this ageThe second doctor to be feted is a neurologist from Nagpur selected for the Padma Shri award Since the early rsquo90s Nagpurrsquos Dr Chandrashekhar Meshram made it his mission to reach as many Indians as possible carrying the torch of science and rational thinking He aimed to educate the masses about brain diseases like epilepsy and its various manifestations He held programmes on All India Radio appeared on Doordarshan and even wrote for newspapersLast year he became the first Indian trustee of the World Federation of Neurology WFN established in 1957 and just a couple of days ago was selected for a Padma ShrildquoMy dream is to see a society aware of brain diseases with access to affordable diagnosis and treatmentrdquo he says adding that even now a person living in urban cities as well as rural areas is considered as being possessed by a lsquodevirsquo or a ghost during an epilepsy attackWhile his outreach programmes have not immediately convinced everyone in the audience to seek treatment ldquoa few people from that audience have later become an example for others as they saw them become betterrdquoFlagging the divide in treatment between urban and rural areas he said there is a need to improve public health facilities beyond our cities as even after so many years things have not changed much ldquoWhenever we hold outreach programmes in rural areas or small towns or when people come from such areas to the cities for our programmes we provide anyone diagnosed with a brain disease with a monthlong supply of medicines as these may not be available in their hometowns at government hospitals or private medical shopsrdquo he saysDr Meshramrsquos paths have crossed with those like the late Dr Narendra Dabholkarmdashfounder of Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmulan Samitimdashand he has also worked closely with Shyam Manav who started the statersquos first antisuperstition societyManav recalled ldquoWe were in our 20s when we met through J P Narayanrsquos Tarun Shanti Sena and we both desired the betterment of societyrdquoEven as the two had to walk on very different roads the one common intersection was superstition Manav says that even as doctors are people who dedicate their lives to science there are very few doctors like Meshram who have been able to apply rational thinking to their work or are aware of the ills of societyAnother Ayurveda practitioner from Punemdash95yearold Manohar Dolemdashalso won a Padma Shri award in recognition of his setting up an eye clinic in Narayangaon under Pune district from scratch