Doctor

Once I was returning from Madurai to Madras by Pandisn Express after performing my duty as the coordinator of Anna University, conducting the Entrance examinations for Engineering, medicine and agriculture . ( these examns have since been abolished).

The train was zipping past from Kodaikanal road to Dindigal with no stop in between and it might take more than 45 minutes for the train to come to the next stop. Meanwhile, there was some consternation in the next compartment. It was a vestibuled compartment and so I could see people anxiously moving from our compartment to the next and back.

The passengers who were there wanted to know whether there were any doctors in the compartment. When asked what the matter was, I was told that one elderly gentleman has swooned in the next compartment and that he needed immediate attention. #

TTE was called to get assistance to the patient by informing the next railway station. But one person said that it might take time and we could not afford to take any risk. Again a loud announcement was made to the effect that if there was a doctor in the compartment, he could please come up and do a timely service by saving an old man in the compartment who had fallen unconscious.

One person said that in the reservation list pasted in the train at the entrance, he had seen one name with Dr affixed to it. TTK immediately verified the list in his hand and found out that there was one Doctor in seat number 56. That was myself. Immediately some people barged on me shouting “ we are shouting for a doctor for so long, and you are sitting pretty in your seat without responding. You must be a very irresponsible person unfit to be a doctor” Before I could react, some one literally raised me from my seat and asked me to come to the neighbouring compartment to see the patient who desperately needed attention by way of first aid so that he could survive to to reach Dindigal.
I told them with all my humility, that I was not a medical doctor, but a doctorate in Engineering. However much I pleaded, most of them were unwilling to purchase my story. Then I had to take the few official papers from Anna University appointing me as a coordinator for the conduct of entrance examinations. I explained the whole hog in detail and still there were a few who were unhappy and unconvinced.

I could however listen to one person mumbling that he had encountered a similar situation previously also where one doctorate in Mathematics was involved and said that because these people put Dr before their name, such a situation was encountered and that in future they must be banned to put their degree before their name. Like many other degree holders they might be permitted to put their degree after their name. Instead of putting Dr before their name, they can add PhD after their name, a reasonable suggestion.

By the time, some sprinkled some water in the face of the patient, his shirt loosened and he was laid down in that seat for rest. I think he was attended to by a medical staff at Dindigal, given some first aid and pills and was allowed to continue with his journey. I was cutting an awkward figure throughout the travel.

When I applied for visitor’s visa to States with my wife, my wife was given a visa for 10 years, whereas I was given visa for six months, for my fault of putting my name as Dr Guruswamy, because of the suspicion that I might seek a job there if offered a 10 year visa.

After these bad experiences, I stopped prefixing Dr to my name in any of my travel and other documents where it becomes irrelevant.
Today, even in my visiting card, I avoid prefixing Dr before my name. To tell you a fact, I don’t have a visiting card at all.