Silence, please! Angel-doctor at work

Vijaysinh Parmar TNN Bhavnagar: When a class XII student failed in exams and decided to end his life, it was one book that pulled him back from the edge. He wrote back to author Dr Inus Kasam Vijaliwala: “When I read your autobiography, I realised my situation was not as bad as what you had faced in your youth.” This was the most satisfying moment for Vijaliwala, 50, a paediatrician in Bhavnagar. ‘Silence Please!’ is a best-seller, having sold 50,000 copies since 2005. The book describes how Vijaliwala, son of a newspaper vendor, did not give up education even when faced with abject poverty. Selling newspapers was not enough to feed a family of seven for his parents, both illiterate. Yet, his father ensured all his children were educated. Even if it meant cycling 70 km daily to neighbouring villages to sell newspapers. He would not send his children for relief work during drought years. “They have a different dream to live,” he would say and send them to school. “Every step of our youth was a struggle,” Vijaliwala says. “My family rejoiced when I got admission to a medical college. But my father worried about the fees of Rs 268, a huge amount then. No one would lend us the money as they knew we were too poor to return it.” Vijaliwala completed his MBBS from MS University. He now takes care of 30 thalassemia-affected children, providing free blood transfusions, consultation and even pays for their transportation. “Even if I charge a token fee, the p a re n t s would stop bringing them and they would die.” He does not take fees from patients who come at night in emergency. In 2001, Vijaliwala campaigned for a thalassemia patient of Rajula to collect Rs 50 lakh for bone marrow transplant in Italy. He even launched a website to reach out to a larger set of donors and doctors. And, all this was possible because of his father’s insistence on education. “Had I not studied, I would still have been vending newspapers in my village.”