Skin and other stories

Dr. Sharad Paul on skin care and his passion for writing fiction

Published - January 19, 2015 08:14 pm IST

Sharad Paul with Vidya Singh  Photo: R. Ragu

Sharad Paul with Vidya Singh Photo: R. Ragu

Dr Sharad Paul, in his lecture on ‘Skin: A biography’ (Also the title of his book) traced the history of skin. .

“Indians inherently lack Vitamin D,” he said. When compared to people with black skin, brown-skinned people have four times lesser levels of Vitamin D. It gives us stronger bones and reduces the time the body takes to recover from injuries. This explains why we see black-skinned athletes, from poorer nations and limited resources, perform well in athletic events. Dr. Sharad, in his session on Sunday, where he was introduced by Vidya Singh, shared many insights on Indian skin that most of us are ignorant about. Dr. Sharad Paul, a popular name in skin cancer surgery, is also the brain behind the Baci Group that has the Baci Lounge — bookstore/café and Baci Cosmetologie, a skin care company that developed Mikanis, a skin care range designed for brown skin. Through his Baci Foundation, he runs literacy and mentoring programmes for disadvantaged children.

TIME magazine called him Open Heart Surgeon and in 2012 and he was also a finalist for the New Zealander of the Year award. Apart from teaching as a Senior Lecturer in Skin Cancer at the University of Queensland and a Senior Lecturer in Surgery (hon) at Auckland University, he also trains students in creative writing.

He published his first novel Cool Cut in 2007 and his second novel, To Kill A Snow Dragonfly in 2012. In 2014, The Kite Flyers was published. His non-fiction work includes Skin: A Biography and Dermocracy: By Brown Skin, For Brown Skin.

In another session with Ranvir Shah he spoke about writing fiction. The Kite Flyers, a story of three friends, takes place in an imaginary village named ‘crow shit’. Sharad was born in England and spent a lot of time in Chennai and explained how his experiences here inspired his writing.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.