Why A Book On The Lives Of Doctors Is An Important Read During A Pandemic

Doctors are the frontline workers battling Covid-19 and deserve our understanding more than ever. Septuagenarian doctor Anil Chawla decided to write a book on their lives to give people a glimpse into their experiences.

I am Dr Anil Kumar Chawla. I turned 71 in May 2020. In March 2020, when PM Modi announced the creation of PM Cares Fund for help in fighting the COVID Pandemic, I thought I must contribute my might to this great cause through my efforts and create a book that describes the lives of doctors, the frontline Corona Warriors who during their training were never taught of such a situation where their own lives would be on the line while treating their patients. This is a once in a century situation- Doctors at the war front in their home towns, in their workplaces.

Being a doctor, one comes across all kinds of people, patients and situations, some tough and some very tough; some a source of joy and some a source of misery. As doctors we live through this all, getting praises as well as brickbats and we try to keep our balance. But do people understand anything about their doctor’s life or doctors’ lives in general, beyond how the doctor treated them and behaved with them? Probably not!

It is to fill this gap that this book is written for people in general. But it can be an eye-opener for doctors themselves also in many ways. The book is named The Doctors’ Lives – The Inside story of the journey and experiences of doctors.

The back cover of the book states:

“If ever someone wanted to know the journey of physicians from the day they dream of becoming doctors to the day they graduate till the end of their working lives, this book describes all that in great detail in the words of a doctor written in simple prose as well as verse. The ups and downs of the life of doctors, the traumas they go through, the joys they come across, the wisdom they pick up along the journey is beautifully described. This book is all about, “Doctors: We, the people!”

What I Learnt While Writing This Book

Although I have turned a senior citizen it does not much feel so, probably because the spirit is always young and as they rightly say that age is just a number. So it seems to be. Being over 65 years of age, have been following the advisory, “Stay home, stay safe” but the online activities have not ceased. In this period of the pandemic I have had several online conference calls with members of the National Specialty Board on Family medicine, have formulated and finalized curricula for the subject of Family Medicine; have attended webinars, have replied to many phone consultations from family and friends, have run a Medicine Photo quiz on our Doctor friends’ WhatsApp group. Besides of course doing lots of household chores and taking regular walks in the compound, doing regular yoga, pranayam and meditation. Keeping busy and occupied is said to be good for health, both physical and mental.

I have used the self-publishing platform of Notion Press based in Chennai. Self-publishing has taught me so many new things like downloading images, then increasing their pixel quality to the printing range, then uploading them on the publishing platform, checking for errors, editing etc. It has been a very satisfying journey all through.

The Notion Press listed it for online purchase on September 23 and I quickly ordered my initial five copies and was satisfied that my contribution to PM Cares fund has started with an initial Rs 530. The publisher gives the authors share of Rs 106 from the cost to the PM Cares fund if bought from the Notion Press online store itself, but if bought from Amazon, the share falls to just Rs. 43. So it is better to buy from the Notion Press itself.

I was delighted when I received my copies. I was happy to see its cover as well as the interior. The book has stories, poems, quotes and illustrations and is bound to give satisfaction and delight and information to the reader about the lives of doctors. Can you imagine doing continuous duties for 36 hours or more including a night in between! I have done that myself and in many surgical specialities, they have to do more. This journey of doctors is very exciting. The reader will surely enjoy as well as be more enlightened about doctors.