| ashu |
Posted
on 26-Jun-01 12:54 AM
Dr. Upendra Devkota has a formidable reputation as an
expert in his field (i.e. neurosurgery) in Nepal.
He heads the Neurosurgery Department at Bir Hospital.
A high school classmate of now-Maoist leader Babu Ram
Bhattarai (in Gorkha), Dr. Devkota is held in high
esteem by the public at large and by a majority of his
colleagues (if not, then he wouldn't be what he is today)
while some of his (former and present) medical colleagues
have nothing but the worst things to say about him.
To be sure, these few back-biting medical colleagues
cannot complain about the depths of Dr. Devkota's medical expertise, so they are reduced to complaining about his
this and that behaviour and other such intangibles.
Personally, I think that these sniping colleagues are simply jealous of Dr. Devkota's fame, and some of them try hard to tarnish his reputation by spreading rumors and what not,
and, I guess, that's a price Dr. Devkota has to pay for
being famous.
And I guess no matter how successful you are, you can always
count on having a few enemies, and that's life.
In this context, were anybody to ever write a New Yorker-magazine
style profile of Dr. Devkota (who is a PUBLIC figure so such
a profile is justified), I, as a curious reader, would be interested in finding out about, in particular, what led to his falling out with Dr. D. N. Gongal, another famous, well-respected and now-retired Nepali neurosurgeon.
Knowing that the truth can be complicated and multi-layered
and many-sided, I, for one, have long STOPPED believing the
one-sided and emotion-laden stories I had heard from some
who were/are close to the Gongal camp.
But Dr. Gongal, if we remember, is to to be respected, among other things, for urging us young people, in an interview with The Independent weekly last year, to exercise patience, to be humane and not be rude to others.
Anyway, without being an expert :-), just sharing these
observations in the context of Dr. Devkota's rising fame
(as evidenced by that article in The Nepali Times.)
oohi
ashu
|
