Pathways to light

I was a very idealistic young man and, contrary to the wishes of my mother's upper-class family who wanted me to join the diplomatic service, I decided to become a doctor in an Indian village (not ever having seen one before!). Therefore after an education in Cambridge and Harvard during which time I sat for and passed the MRCP as well as the FRCS – to be able to treat most of the problems I would encounter – I returned to India but, unfortunately, had a fairly conventional career in Delhi and failed in my life's ambition. This, on the contrary, is the enthralling story of someone who succeeded. Prakash Amte was one of the two sons of the great Baba Amte who also, despite his fairly affluent background, decided with his wife to devote his life to the upliftment of the inhabitants of the villagers in Anandvan deep in the Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra. He also demonstrated that people suffering from leprosy should be treated with respect, and he employed them to work in his own home and insisted on taking them to weddings and parties as part of his family. In Anandvan, Baba's headquarters, there were snakes and scorpions and leopards and bears. Baba was given many honours including the Padma Vibhushan and the Ramon Magsaysay Award (he also inaugurated my wife Shusmita's Spastics Society of Northern India building in Delhi). Prakash went to Nagpur Medical College and after qualifying wanted to help Baba in Anandvan. However, Baba decided, in December 1970, to send him and his wife Mandakini to live amongst the Madia Gond tribals in Bhamragad, which was 250 km away and reached only after crossing rivers and creeks. The whole area had deep and dark forests, and after cutting down trees, they lived in the open, day and night, fetching water from the rivers nearby. The tribals whom they had come to help stayed away from them because they trusted their local faith healers more and did not understand the Marathi language, which was very different from the Madia Gond they spoke. They all had emaciated bodies, were nearly naked except for a few rags of clothing and were scared of all other human beings. There was very little food as they did not know how to grow any and they had eaten up most of the local animals. After they were allocated land in Hemalkasa and Nagepalli in December 1973, Prakash and his team began their remarkable work on helping the Gond tribals become part of the mainstream of society. They learnt how to talk to them in their tongue and gradually won over their trust. After having lived and worked for 20 years, often performing operations without electricity, they have established a hospital, a residential school and an orphanage for injured wild animals, as well as a large animal conservation facility in Hemalkasa where rare, protected and endangered animals are cared for and have the freedom to roam. Many of the tribals are now doctors and engineers. Their work is being carried over by their sons Digant and Aniket. Prakash, too, like his father before him, has been awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Prize. This inspiring book has been written in a simple style which is honest and straight from the heart. Instead of our current role models of high earning, media savvy, corporate doctors we have here, at our doorstep, an example of why we should change from being businessmen to healers of the poor. It should be required reading for all young doctors in India as well as those in Cambridge and Harvard. By a strange coincidence, I was recently awarded the Doctorate in Science by the President of India at the famous Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences in Delhi. My much more deserving corecipient was Dr. Prakash Amte dressed in a shirt and not his trademark vest. Financial support and sponsorship Nil. Conflicts of interest There are no conflicts of interest.