“I think doctors make good story tellers,” says Tiny Nair, a cardiologist at PRS Hospital. And he should know. His book, Happy At Heart , contains a wealth of interesting anecdotes. And they are not scientists-made-this-discovery kind of tales, they are the stories of people, of doctors, of patients, and of the importance of listening and being present. While some make you smile as the doctor infuses doses of humour in his narration, others touch a chord in your heart. How you interpret each story, he says, is entirely up to you as each tale has an underlying message. Most of the anecdotes are brief and the author says one may read from any page and anywhere in the prologue. “However, if you are reading the book from the start, don’t forget to read the end as it more or less binds the rest of the stories together,” says Tiny.
Growing up as a single child, books were Tiny’s friends. Instead of souvenirs of his various trips abroad in connection with his profession, it is books that he brings home as mementos of his journeys. And although he is a bibliophile and has an impressive library at his residence at Poojappura, turning writer was never on his rolls. “I did write scientific pieces that were turned into books, but I never thought of trying my hand at fiction.”
It was an article of his that got published in The Hindu, which led him on a literary path.
“It was a scribble on clothing labels. It was on how labels had graduated from the back of the collar to the breast pocket,” says Tiny, an admirer of authors Khaled Hosseini and Sunil Ganguly. The response to the published article was an added bonus.
“My patients called to say that they enjoyed the light read. That was when the idea of writing something non-medical and light-hearted came to me. I wanted to write something that would make readers happy, a book that will be a self-help guide on how to be happy. Malayalis are a serious lot. They rarely take things lightly; I wanted them to see the bright side of life through my book,” says Tiny, who calls himself, funny and a person who is slow to anger.
Fond of jotting down things that strike him, Tiny, says the material for the book was always there. “I find a tale in every little thing or incident, be it on housewives, marriage halls, horoscopes…I just needed to frame them into proper sentences.”
The stories in the book, be it the story of the magic beads, or that about the jeweller and his ring, are based on his personal experiences and that of his patients.
“Doctors and their patients share a unique relationship. Not only are doctors privy to their patients’ ailments but also their lives. My patients for instance, talk about their finances, domestic abuse, fall-outs with children… with me.” Names have however been changed to protect the patient’s privacy and “no character is shown in bad light in the book”.
Tiny who has written several ‘medical poems’, five of which have been published by The Hindu , plans to find a publisher for his poetry collection and also his kitty of essays on all myriad topics, right from air fresheners to obstructive sleep apnea. “There is no market for poetry or essays these days. My work tries to show that essays need not be boring. As for my ‘medical poems’, my poems deal with topics such as Alzheimer’s, cancer, doctors et al in a light hearted manner,” says the doctor as he signs off.
