Siddharthan doctor and stories of life and death

I came to my village in Kerala yesterday to spend some time with my parents. Nelluwaya- like most villages in Kerala is filled with green rice fields and white egrets munching on fish and worms; the quintessential 'chaaya kada' in the town, where old uncles whose faces speak of history and times gone by, sip tea and discuss the politics of the times; the barber shop where cutting your hair is secondary to discussing the major events written in the daily newspaper; a temple, a mosque and a church offering prayers to the almighty in their own ways; trees breathing, birds chirping, sun rising and setting, humans living their slow and seemingly quiet lives, sweating and drinking over their worries.

It was Christmas Day and I hopped onto my bike with my mom to pay a visit to Jessy aunty- our one long-time Christian family friend for lunch. We used to live close by in Pune and after she shifted to Kerala, my encounters with her became limited to Christmas and New Year's Eve or any of my short visits to Kerala. It was she who first spoke about Siddharthan doctor- the enigma, the magician. We were having a sumptuous lunch cooked by her which included fish curry, beef roast and Kerala matta rice and talking about old age and ailments and hospital expenses when she suddenly said-

"In our days, we used to have Siddharthan doctor. He would just give us an injection and we would be cured. You could go for any ailment and he would have an injection for you. It was magical. He was godsend. It was cheap and effective, no worries at all."

I was intrigued. The scientist in me questioned first- how can this be true? What kind of injection was he giving? Was he even a licensed practitioner? What diseases were we talking about? Was he a fraud, just playing on people's beliefs? Was this some weird kind of placebo? I was still in my thoughts when my mother added an anecdote about her grandmother-

"When my grandmother fell ill, she only wanted to visit Siddharthan doctor. She really believed that he could cure her. Unfortunately, we could not take her to him and she passed away the same day."

I still could not believe his aura. Here was a man, unknown to me, whose claim to fame was that he could cure anyone. It almost seemed heroic, godly, like the fraud village doctors you see in the movies. I couldn't help but notice how both Jessy aunty and my mom spoke of him with a hint of ridicule and laughter coupled with a sense of respect for his skills. Saving someone's life with a mere injection was no joke. Whether it was my grandmother who died in her late sixties and was believed not to have received the right care and advice, or Jessy aunty's mother who had been ailing with arthritis. Death is scary- even the thought of it. We live with this fear all our lives. Businesses thrive our fear to live- think pharmaceuticals, wellness, insurance, security services and so on. We stop taking risks in our lives, stop push ourselves beyond our limits. We miss out on a lot of pleasures that life can offer- fear of heights limits us from climbing mountains and witnessing the spectacles above, fear of water stops us from enjoying the beauty of the world under water and fear of the law stops us from breaking it and living a life of our own.

Later in the day, I rode my bike to meet one of my father's younger brother- he had just undergone

chemotherapy for prostate cancer and had just begun his recovery. He started speaking about the expenses at the hospital, the daily auto charges, cost of the medicines and the pain of the surgery. Suddenly, his wife spoke of Siddharthan doctor again-

"Back in the day, Siddarthan doctor would just give an injection and we would come home healthy, no hospitalization, no other treatments needed. He was a saviour. We could live our lives without fear."

I had finally understood Siddharthan. He was not just a doctor who cured any illness, he was the one who cured the biggest of them all- FEAR. He helped people live their lives without the fear of death, of incompetence due to ailment which was his biggest blessing to the people of Nelluwaya and the nearby region. He made living life bearable and free.