विभूतिमूर्ति

 
Photos from Top

Dr K K Goyanka, Chief Guest

R S Shukla, Convenor, 'Vibhawari'

Shri K K Sharan, IAS, who inaugurated the Premchand Centenary Celebrations in Munger held in July, 1980.

Dr P N Jha, Chief Patron

IN MEMORIAM

Doctornama : 2

Three years back, I wrote a blog piece on Dr AK Sen, a renowned physician of Patna who had treated my father during the last decade of his life. Dr Sen was member of the CPI and famous in the town as the ‘people’s doctor’. As my father’s medical attendant, I had countless occasions of encounters with Dr Sen. I give that story rather briefly in my blog –vibhutimurty.blogspot.com (2017/ July 10). I have also written another blog on the last illness and the ‘Death of my father’ which happened on 21 January, 1963 in PMCH, Patna. That second blog can also be read there (2018, June 17). There is another remarkable  reminiscence in my life of a miraculous encounter with a famed physician of Patna, Dr Raghunath Sharan, who was a personal physician of Dr Rajendra Prasad, our President, and who had virtually pulled my collapsing father out of the jaws of death in 1953. But that may come next in this series.

Illnesses are an inseparable part of life, and they bring you close to your physicians. My earliest memory of a small-town physician is of a Dr Bose in Chhapra who would often visit our house on his small Austin car in the frequent episodes of malaria or typhoid in the family in the 40s of the last century. He was a burly fellow, redolent in complexion, and always full of good humour. But those memories have still to be recollected.

Yesterday  I came across a birth anniversary post on Facebook, on another of my favourite doctors, Dr P N Jha. It was posted by Sujay Jha, his son and my student at Munger, who lives in Delhi and is a business executive. Sujay’s birth anniversary post was in cherished memory of his distinguished father, who happened to be the top doctor in Munger, as well as  my trusted family physician and a very close personal friend.

Dr Jha was a near contemporary to me - may be a couple of years older in age. At that time, I was teaching in RD&DJ college, Munger. Dr Jha had a debonaire personality with equally charming manners, and we had soon become close friends because of our common literary and artistic proclivities.

In 1977, I had founded a cultural-cum-literary society in Munger (named as ‘Vibhawari’ by me) with a closed founding membership of 25. It met in a circuit at members’ houses for cultural and literary activities. Non-members could be personally invited by the host member. All the top people in the town soon became its members or attendees, and if any of the founding members (govt officers or doctors left on transfer, the founding members co-opted replacements, but it never exceeded 25 as permanent members). Dr Jha remained its founding member even after I myself left Munger in 1988, to join Magadh University on a university transfer.

In July, 1980, when we celebrated a 3-day Centenary Celebration of the Hindi novelist Premchand, Dr Jha was one of its patrons (see photos). On that occasion, we had invited the famous Premchand-scholar Dr K K Goyanka, and Shri Kesari Kishore Sharan, a former Principal of DJ College, and retired Commisioner in the IAS, who had the distinction of first inviting Premchand to Bihar, in a Hindi Sahitya Sammelan annual convention at Patna.The Munger Centenary function was a celebration the like of which had never been seen in Munger and Dr Jha played a pivotal role in its organization.In all these literary and cultural activities Shri Radhey Shyam Shukla, our convenor, took great interest. Shri Shukla’s recent death in the Civid pandemic is a great cultural setback for Munger.

Another memorable meet of Vibhawari was when we put up a slide show prepared by Munger Photographic Society of which another friend Dr B G Bose was President with me as VP. The slide show was of flowers, butterflies and sunset scenes with an accompanying musical soundtrack of chosen Hindi poems by some the most notable modern Hindi poets. It created such a spell-binding effect on the audience that the ovation continued for several minutes after the slideshow ended. The show was held in the garden of Dr Jha’s Fort area residence followed by a sumptuous repast. I still have that tape and the slides in my personal archives to remind me of that enchanting evening.

For all the years that I lived in Munger, my associations with Dr P N Jha remained very cordial, not only as a patient but also as a friend. Indeed,he was one of the best friends I have ever had in my life. He died rather early in 2007 at age around 70.

Note : I phoned Sujay to send Dr Jha’s brief details & he sent this message : “My Father Dr Prem Narayan Jha was born in the year 1933  on 9 January in Patna city .His father name was Indra Narayan Jha, who was a respectable government servant in Bihar Government. My father was an exceptionally bright student from his school days and always excelled in studies .He did his college from Patna Science College and then went to Patna Medical college and topped in the MBBS  exams. He got married to Mini who was the daughter of Buddhinath Mishra from Banaili Raj .He went to do his MRCP from United Kingdom. He was blessed with 4 children - 2 daughters and 2 sons .He practised in Munger from 1964 onwards and stayed in the town since then .He  became a very popular doctor not only in Munger but across eastern India. His patients came from far of places and he treated them to full cure. He had deep interest in philosophy, yoga, literature and travelling. He travelled across various countries and had immense knowledge of countries and cultures. He was very well mannered and sophisticated and had a quintessential approach in life.

A separate post on VIBHAVARI will soon be posted on my other blog : vagishwari.blogpost.com

 

Text & Photos © Dr BSM Murty