[Music]
[Applause]
overheard at a dinner party party
tell me something interesting about your
patients man mom I had a student once
who presented a 70 year old with
diabetes did you say student do you
teach yes ma’am actually at a Medical
College we we teach oh so you must be
interacting with your students a lot
yes ma’am actually this particular chap
I know very well because he played the
keyboards for our recent production of
Fiddler on the Roof what I think I
better start at the beginning a few
years back as I was driving home from
work one evening it struck me that there
are three questions which are central to
professional life as I saw it the three
questions were one what are you good at
doing – what do you want to do and three
what are you doing the next day to this
epic moment of discovery of the three
central questions happen to be a Sunday
and we had a carpenter at our place
commissioned to do a piece of work as I
watched him work a block of wood was
gradually transformed into a sturdy
table with elegant rounded edges a firm
feel and a perfectly polished surface I
felt that I was in the presence of a
master the three questions when applied
to him seemed to fit perfectly
what was he good at doing obviously
carpentry
what did he want to do seemingly
carpentry what was he doing carpentry
this man was among those chosen few for
whom all the three questions had a
single answer it is possible to have
disparate answers to the questions for
example a man good at using a computer
may want to be a doctor and end up
heading a design company and many others
perhaps so there I was fixed on the
seemingly neat matrix busy slotting
people on how many of their answers
merged on a scale of three till one
evening my wife and I went to a concert
and watched a musician performed he sang
a lovely set of songs sending us into
raptures as he softly strum his guitar
we met with him after the concert and as
I congratulated him I slipped in my
three questions I said so you’re so good
at doing this I’m sure you wanted to be
a musician all your life is this what
you do for a living to my surprise he
said no I’m a software engineer I work
with a group that has five patents to
its name and he went on to describe how
he loved that job and as he spoke it
became clear to me that it wasn’t so
simple after all there was a fourth
question what are you good at doing what
do you want to do what are you doing and
armed with this realization I began
looking around and I saw so many people
who were good at what they basically did
for a living but who were also doing
something else and in many cases a
significant something else
I saw a plastic surgeon who’s a great
artist and whose works have been
exhibited on many occasions as with the
musician I was struck with the beauty of
his work even as I was struck by the
fact that he was a renowned an excellent
plastic surgeon as well
I’ve regularly meet an ENT surgeon who’s
a stand-up comic and a medical inventor
and apparently excels at all that he
pursues and there’s the architect who’s
a gifted percussionist the busy program
manager an IT executive by day who
transform into exquisite choreographers
and dancers by evening the physiatrist
who dances bharata natyam i could go on
all these people passed the
three-question test with flying colors
they’re good at what they do for a
living they want to do it and they’re
doing it but they’re also doing
something else something beautiful
something fulfilling something which
seems to make a difference to their
lives so I took a step back and looked
at my own life and experience as a
medical student in this very town I was
subject to the same pushes in polls of
academic rigor as any student of my time
but then along came an opportunity to
join what was then called the mangle Oh
amateur dramatics society on man’s
four-shot and thus began what was to
become a long affair with the stage we
had an inspiring director who drilled it
into us that it wasn’t enough to love
the greasepaint and the footlights you
had to reach out and touch the paying
public seated there in front of you on
one occasion I remember him saying and I
quote
unless the death old lady in the last
row understands you don’t even bother
showing up unquote Mads Mads was a
lovely experience three full full-length
plays and a few small productions
happened in those Wonder Years
side-by-side my years of studentship
went on I completed my graduation in
medicine and was unleashed into the real
world of health care and patient
interaction did my experience with
theatre helped me in my vocation I think
it did but more about that in a bit the
years moved on it was 1997 and I
happened to meet with a friend again
from Mangalore and she told me that she
started an organization which promotes
Musical and theatrical talent while
raising funds for charity this seemed to
me to be an excellent idea and I
enthusiastically joined her with my wife
my pillar of support to this day and
thus began my acquaintance with the
cause Foundation an organization with
whom I was to be associated over the
next 20 years and Counting our formula
was simple our director would buy the
copyright for a musical and get the
group together sometime in June we would
rehearse long and hard thereafter late
into the evenings and every year at the
end of August or the beginning of
September
a beautiful Broadway musical was born
there is a saying which goes be careful
as a fresh-faced young lad
growing up watching the likes of
Christopher Plummer in The Sound of
Music
Rex Harrison in my fair lady and toe
Paul playing the Willett village milkman
and Fiddler on the Roof little did I
even dream that I would one day get the
opportunity to actually play Captain Von
Trapp or Professor Higgins or the
absolutely delightful Tevye but that’s
exactly what happened
thanks to this this great organization
the wonderful lady who leads it and to
that gifted group of people who who sing
act dance organized and perform while
doing something totally different for a
living my own pursuit of a livelihood
meanwhile went on I had decided on a
career in community medicine to see if
we could make a difference by working at
the roots of health problems and by
reaching out to populations which lacked
access over the years I became
interested in the health of the elderly
and today I work with a team which runs
a senior citizen health service in rural
and urban areas around the city of
Bangalore now I ask myself has my
experience with doing something else
helped me in my profession to my mind
theatre is the science of expression
elevated to an art form it brings an
elements of communication of reaching
out to people understanding them and
working together in teams to create
something that is greater than the sum
of its individual parts and when I look
back at my chosen profession I find that
the practice of medicine and public
health calls for all that and more for
instance
when working with our elderly patients I
seem to hear the voice of my director as
he says if the old lady with a hearing
problem doesn’t understand you don’t
even bother showing up the
of Community Medicine calls for a lot of
communication with individuals and
groups of people
it calls for teamwork for example to to
organize an outreach rural geriatric
clinic just like the teamwork required
to stage Young Frankenstein or Hello
Dolly or Joseph and the Amazing
Technicolor Dreamcoat and there’s the
little bits and pieces of philosophy and
profound thought that are hidden like
little gems in each of these productions
for instance in the classic my fair lady
Eliza Doolittle is a common flower girl
who yearns to be a lady and subjects
herself to the brutal training
techniques of Professor Higgins
cushioned to an extent by the
professor’s kind friend Colonel
Pickering towards the end of the play
Eliza is heard saying and I quote the
difference between a flower girl and a
lady is not in the way she behaves but
in the way she’s treated I will always
be a flower girl to professor Higgins
because he treats me like a flower girl
and always will but I will always be a
lady to Colonel Pickering because he
treats me like a lady and always will
belonging is I do in the real world to
an organization with a hierarchy ranging
from a director to a ward boy I think
there is something I can learn from that
sentiment another favorite is from our
2008 production of all shook up a
musical drama based on the songs of
Elvis Presley my character is an elderly
widower
who develops a gigantic crush on a young
lady in town but finds himself
completely tongue-tied in her presence
so he turns for advice to a young man in
town and the youngster tells him to
remove his glasses ruffle his hair but
he says above all else you know what you
got to be no idea says the elderly man
cool says the youngster this might sound
intuitive to my younger friend seated
here but
I can think of countless instances of
harried residents of mine grappling with
14 issues on a Monday morning concerning
their patience their colleagues and
their seniors and I find myself
desperately wanting to reach out to them
so as I stand here before you even as I
stand before groups of patience of
colleagues of students trying to reach
out to them trying to look into their
eyes and to make a difference believe me
when I say that I’m truly beholden to
that other thing in my life which has
taught me so much and made me who I am
today as it happens I’m not alone in
advocating the pursuit of that other
thing research shows that a hobby or a
creative pursuit can help in many ways
it boosts self-confidence it improves
synaptic connections in the brain
it raises quality of life and most
importantly it’s a determinant of what
we call successful aging so you can
choose to to read to dance to paint act
sing perform do any of the million
things there are to do apart from your
job of vocation and even as you do that
other thing be assured that it will help
you do your core job better and make you
happier it will also help you in the
years to come which at my stage or or
indeed any stage in life are the years
that matter and so ladies and gentlemen
as we live our lives doing what we do
and as we reach the end of our lives on
this beautiful planet I foresee a scene
at the pearly gates of heaven where we
wait for admittance the man over there
will ask us all about our lives who we
were and what we did and as we give him
as you give him an account of your life
your family and your work
be prepared for him to ask you so tell
me what was that other thing you did [Applause]
[Applause]
overheard at a dinner party party
tell me something interesting about your
patients man mom I had a student once
who presented a 70 year old with
diabetes did you say student do you
teach yes ma’am actually at a Medical
College we we teach oh so you must be
interacting with your students a lot
yes ma’am actually this particular chap
I know very well because he played the
keyboards for our recent production of
Fiddler on the Roof what I think I
better start at the beginning a few
years back as I was driving home from
work one evening it struck me that there
are three questions which are central to
professional life as I saw it the three
questions were one what are you good at
doing – what do you want to do and three
what are you doing the next day to this
epic moment of discovery of the three
central questions happen to be a Sunday
and we had a carpenter at our place
commissioned to do a piece of work as I
watched him work a block of wood was
gradually transformed into a sturdy
table with elegant rounded edges a firm
feel and a perfectly polished surface I
felt that I was in the presence of a
master the three questions when applied
to him seemed to fit perfectly
what was he good at doing obviously
carpentry
what did he want to do seemingly
carpentry what was he doing carpentry
this man was among those chosen few for
whom all the three questions had a
single answer it is possible to have
disparate answers to the questions for
example a man good at using a computer
may want to be a doctor and end up
heading a design company and many others
perhaps so there I was fixed on the
seemingly neat matrix busy slotting
people on how many of their answers
merged on a scale of three till one
evening my wife and I went to a concert
and watched a musician performed he sang
a lovely set of songs sending us into
raptures as he softly strum his guitar
we met with him after the concert and as
I congratulated him I slipped in my
three questions I said so you’re so good
at doing this I’m sure you wanted to be
a musician all your life is this what
you do for a living to my surprise he
said no I’m a software engineer I work
with a group that has five patents to
its name and he went on to describe how
he loved that job and as he spoke it
became clear to me that it wasn’t so
simple after all there was a fourth
question what are you good at doing what
do you want to do what are you doing and
armed with this realization I began
looking around and I saw so many people
who were good at what they basically did
for a living but who were also doing
something else and in many cases a
significant something else
I saw a plastic surgeon who’s a great
artist and whose works have been
exhibited on many occasions as with the
musician I was struck with the beauty of
his work even as I was struck by the
fact that he was a renowned an excellent
plastic surgeon as well
I’ve regularly meet an ENT surgeon who’s
a stand-up comic and a medical inventor
and apparently excels at all that he
pursues and there’s the architect who’s
a gifted percussionist the busy program
manager an IT executive by day who
transform into exquisite choreographers
and dancers by evening the physiatrist
who dances bharata natyam i could go on
all these people passed the
three-question test with flying colors
they’re good at what they do for a
living they want to do it and they’re
doing it but they’re also doing
something else something beautiful
something fulfilling something which
seems to make a difference to their
lives so I took a step back and looked
at my own life and experience as a
medical student in this very town I was
subject to the same pushes in polls of
academic rigor as any student of my time
but then along came an opportunity to
join what was then called the mangle Oh
amateur dramatics society on man’s
four-shot and thus began what was to
become a long affair with the stage we
had an inspiring director who drilled it
into us that it wasn’t enough to love
the greasepaint and the footlights you
had to reach out and touch the paying
public seated there in front of you on
one occasion I remember him saying and I
quote
unless the death old lady in the last
row understands you don’t even bother
showing up unquote Mads Mads was a
lovely experience three full full-length
plays and a few small productions
happened in those Wonder Years
side-by-side my years of studentship
went on I completed my graduation in
medicine and was unleashed into the real
world of health care and patient
interaction did my experience with
theatre helped me in my vocation I think
it did but more about that in a bit the
years moved on it was 1997 and I
happened to meet with a friend again
from Mangalore and she told me that she
started an organization which promotes
Musical and theatrical talent while
raising funds for charity this seemed to
me to be an excellent idea and I
enthusiastically joined her with my wife
my pillar of support to this day and
thus began my acquaintance with the
cause Foundation an organization with
whom I was to be associated over the
next 20 years and Counting our formula
was simple our director would buy the
copyright for a musical and get the
group together sometime in June we would
rehearse long and hard thereafter late
into the evenings and every year at the
end of August or the beginning of
September
a beautiful Broadway musical was born
there is a saying which goes be careful
as a fresh-faced young lad
growing up watching the likes of
Christopher Plummer in The Sound of
Music
Rex Harrison in my fair lady and toe
Paul playing the Willett village milkman
and Fiddler on the Roof little did I
even dream that I would one day get the
opportunity to actually play Captain Von
Trapp or Professor Higgins or the
absolutely delightful Tevye but that’s
exactly what happened
thanks to this this great organization
the wonderful lady who leads it and to
that gifted group of people who who sing
act dance organized and perform while
doing something totally different for a
living my own pursuit of a livelihood
meanwhile went on I had decided on a
career in community medicine to see if
we could make a difference by working at
the roots of health problems and by
reaching out to populations which lacked
access over the years I became
interested in the health of the elderly
and today I work with a team which runs
a senior citizen health service in rural
and urban areas around the city of
Bangalore now I ask myself has my
experience with doing something else
helped me in my profession to my mind
theatre is the science of expression
elevated to an art form it brings an
elements of communication of reaching
out to people understanding them and
working together in teams to create
something that is greater than the sum
of its individual parts and when I look
back at my chosen profession I find that
the practice of medicine and public
health calls for all that and more for
instance
when working with our elderly patients I
seem to hear the voice of my director as
he says if the old lady with a hearing
problem doesn’t understand you don’t
even bother showing up the
of Community Medicine calls for a lot of
communication with individuals and
groups of people
it calls for teamwork for example to to
organize an outreach rural geriatric
clinic just like the teamwork required
to stage Young Frankenstein or Hello
Dolly or Joseph and the Amazing
Technicolor Dreamcoat and there’s the
little bits and pieces of philosophy and
profound thought that are hidden like
little gems in each of these productions
for instance in the classic my fair lady
Eliza Doolittle is a common flower girl
who yearns to be a lady and subjects
herself to the brutal training
techniques of Professor Higgins
cushioned to an extent by the
professor’s kind friend Colonel
Pickering towards the end of the play
Eliza is heard saying and I quote the
difference between a flower girl and a
lady is not in the way she behaves but
in the way she’s treated I will always
be a flower girl to professor Higgins
because he treats me like a flower girl
and always will but I will always be a
lady to Colonel Pickering because he
treats me like a lady and always will
belonging is I do in the real world to
an organization with a hierarchy ranging
from a director to a ward boy I think
there is something I can learn from that
sentiment another favorite is from our
2008 production of all shook up a
musical drama based on the songs of
Elvis Presley my character is an elderly
widower
who develops a gigantic crush on a young
lady in town but finds himself
completely tongue-tied in her presence
so he turns for advice to a young man in
town and the youngster tells him to
remove his glasses ruffle his hair but
he says above all else you know what you
got to be no idea says the elderly man
cool says the youngster this might sound
intuitive to my younger friend seated
here but
I can think of countless instances of
harried residents of mine grappling with
14 issues on a Monday morning concerning
their patience their colleagues and
their seniors and I find myself
desperately wanting to reach out to them
so as I stand here before you even as I
stand before groups of patience of
colleagues of students trying to reach
out to them trying to look into their
eyes and to make a difference believe me
when I say that I’m truly beholden to
that other thing in my life which has
taught me so much and made me who I am
today as it happens I’m not alone in
advocating the pursuit of that other
thing research shows that a hobby or a
creative pursuit can help in many ways
it boosts self-confidence it improves
synaptic connections in the brain
it raises quality of life and most
importantly it’s a determinant of what
we call successful aging so you can
choose to to read to dance to paint act
sing perform do any of the million
things there are to do apart from your
job of vocation and even as you do that
other thing be assured that it will help
you do your core job better and make you
happier it will also help you in the
years to come which at my stage or or
indeed any stage in life are the years
that matter and so ladies and gentlemen
as we live our lives doing what we do
and as we reach the end of our lives on
this beautiful planet I foresee a scene
at the pearly gates of heaven where we
wait for admittance the man over there
will ask us all about our lives who we
were and what we did and as we give him
as you give him an account of your life
your family and your work
be prepared for him to ask you so tell
me what was that other thing you did [Applause]
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