I turned eighty-two last year. It has been, as a 21st-century geriatrician might say, “a long wait to become very old!”
My Bapa, a Meteorology Director, lived to the age of ninety-eight, while my idealistic Amma reached heaven a whole decade earlier.
I was born in Thengali, Kuttoor, Tiruvalla, Kerala, four years before India heard the chimes of Independence; thanks to a non-violent barrister named Gandhi and a certain gentleman called Attlee. I feel proud to say that my uncle, Kandathil E. Mammen, was a freedom fighter honoured with the Tamra Patra award for his service to the nation.
As a boy, I dreamed of finding a cure for cancer – the “crab” that claimed the life of my beloved grandmother. My school education was in different Indian states; hence, I became multilingual with a universal English accent.
At sixteen, I stood first in a rigorous international entrance assessment to join Christian Medical College (CMC), Vellore, founded by the visionary Dr. Ida Scudder. Those formative years at Vellore instilled in me a lifelong passion for healing, compassion, and excellence. I was one of the last students to have had the privilege of conversing with gentle Aunt Ida at a potluck dinner.
Later, my three daughters carried forward that legacy. One served as a lecturer in Immunology at Imperial College London before being headhunted to the United States with a prestigious O-1 visa and an enviable salary. Another is a dedicated and friendly NHS GP and trainer of future general practitioners. The middle one is an OBE barrister – our high-flying lawyer – personally commended by Prince Charles the year before he was crowned King.
Military Service
Inspired by Jawaharlal Nehru’s stirring declaration, “When a country such as India fights for her freedom, the result cannot be otherwise,” I joined the Indian Army Medical Corps on a five-year Short Service Commission at the age of twenty-one, driven by patriotism and idealism. Incidentally, my pet name is also “Lal.”
During my service, I had the rare opportunity to treat Nehru’s only daughter, former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, for acute mountain sickness near the India–Tibet border. Later, during the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War, I was recalled from the Reserve after completing my DCH at CMC and had the privilege of treating both friend and foe alike on an enemy desert battlefield – a hard and humbling experience that deepened my respect for humanity beyond national lines.
Afterwards, I completed my M.D. in General Medicine at Trivandrum, passing on my first attempt – one of only three among eight to do so.
Journey to Britain
When Professor Webb, our Director at CMC Vellore, retired to become Professor of Paediatrics at Newcastle’s Royal Victoria Infirmary, he offered me a rotating paediatric post. Thus began my journey to Britain – with just four pounds sterling in my pocket, owing to India’s strict foreign exchange rules — and the start of a nearly half-century medical career in the UK.
A month later, my beautiful wife joined me. She was entrusted to me by her father, K. M. Abraham, BSc, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Kerala.
Trials and Triumphs in Britain
The England I arrived in during the 1970s, was not always kind. Outward racism was in commonplace, both on and off the streets.
I recall lunching one day in the Consultants’ Dining Room when a senior Caucasian colleague remarked, “Yes, we can still use overseas doctors — just as a pair of hands.”
At another hospital, as a junior doctor, I once called a senior consultant in the middle of the night after diagnosing a one-day-old neonate with Congenital Hypertrophic Pyloric Stenosis. He later complained that I had disturbed him unnecessarily – until surgery confirmed my diagnosis. He never apologised. But I learned then that early, accurate diagnosis saves lives, and that principle became my Kai Punyam.
In later years, I was listed as an expert witness for Child Protection in Crown Courts by the UK Law Society. I also deputised as a Police Surgeon in Harlow, Epping, and Dunmow.
Professional Journey
Over the years, I worked across Britain – in children’s hospitals in Aberdeen, Wrexham, Sheffield, and at Great Ormond Street Hospital – learning from some of the finest minds in medicine, including Professor John Nicholas Walton, Editor of Brain’s Textbook of Neurology, and Professor Donald Barltrop of Westminster Children’s Hospital.
Their mentorship helped me achieve the distinction of becoming a Senior Fellow of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (FRCPCH) – an honour I cherish deeply.
In all, I have visited 98 countries, contributing financially to humanitarian efforts such as Doctors Without Borders (MSF) and Save the Children Fund.
A Life of Ideals
In my student days, I was elected Speaker of the CMC Students’ Association, and later twice elected Secretary of the UK Indian Orthodox Church at St Andrew-by-the-Wardrobe – a beautiful church designed by Sir Christopher Wren – signs of the trust and goodwill of my peers.
Reflections
Loyalty, moral courage, and empathy have been my guiding lights as a doctor and as a human being. I overcame my childhood fear of heights by earning an A-grade in a 17,000-foot Army Mountaineering Course in the Himalayas.
Having travelled to 98 UN member nations, my next dream is to gallop – not just trot – to the remaining ones on this beautiful blue planet.
Meanwhile, as a teetotaller, I can spin the ball both ways in cricket and recite English poems by Sarojini Naidu and Rudyard Kipling – both born before me in the country of my birth.
Jai Hind!
“For there is neither East nor West,
Border, nor Breed, nor Birth,
When two strong men stand face to face,
Though they come from the ends of the earth.”
