Dr Shashank Shekhar and (above) Dr Varun Kumar Sinha, who pursue music and photography as their hobby. Pictures by Jai Prakash

Patna, Dec. 9: Starched white coats and stethoscope are the first things that come to the mind when you think about a person pursuing the medical profession. Now try replacing the stethoscope with a guitar or a camera and the impression changes, but not the person.

Three doctors in the state capital have decided to follow their passions to excel in their medical quest. According to them, their hobbies help them tide over the pressures of their profession.

Meet the chief cardiovascular surgeon at Jeevak Heart Hospital, Dr Ajit Pradhan. Music is his passion and patients his responsibility. He mixes the two with such expertise that his patients find him more of a musical healer than a surgeon of the heart.

The cardiovascular surgeon has adopted music therapy to treat his patients. “I have incorporated western and Indian philosophy into music therapy and it works wonder with patients who suffer from psychosomatic disorders. There are 31 different ragas that can help cure many diseases,” he said.

The medic even plays classical music in his operation theatre as it rejuvenates him and keeps him stress free.

Tunes of Hindustani music work like magic to soothe Dr Pradhan’s nerves after the day’s work. He said: “Music is my love, I cannot survive without it. It gives me a break from my work and acts as a stress buster.”

“With the nature of my job, I get very little sleep. But if I am up at night because of music and sleep for just four hours, I still wake up fresh and ready to start my day,” Dr Pradhan added.

At Jeevak hospital, however, Dr Pradhan is not the only one with an ear for music. Dr Shashank Shekhar, senior consultant anaesthesiologist, loves to sing and there are times when unmindful of where he is, he starts humming old Hindi classics. “I have been listening to the songs of Mohammad Rafi, Kishore Kumar and Mukesh ever since I was a child. When I entered medical college, music, however, took a backseat because of academic pressure. After entering the profession, pursuing my love for music became even harder. My work became so stressful that my friends advised me to take up music to help beat the pressures of the job. It worked like a miracle. Now, I sleep with music playing in my room and I wake up refreshed every day.”

Urological surgeon at SK Sinha Memorial Hospital Dr Varun Kumar Sinha has a different passion — an eye for nature. Dr Sinha has kept himself fresh with wildlife photography since 1969. He said: “I have always been in love with nature and peace. Whenever I would see an animal, I would capture it in my camera. In 1974, during the inauguration of Shanti Stupa in Rajgir, I met a scribe from Japan ready to sell his SLR camera. He had a 200mm lens and I couldn’t stop myself from buying it. I was the first one in Patna to own such a camera and since then I have been sending my photographs to various exhibitions in the country and abroad.”

Dr Sinha is the president of the Federation of Indian Photography and the founder secretary of Photography Association of Bihar. He said: “Every two-three months, I leave to explore nature and I have travelled to several places just to capture the nature and wildlife.” Asked how he manages his gruelling job as a doctor and his passion for photography, he, simply, said: “If you really want to pursue something, you can always manage time for it. I earn from my practice as a doctor but whatever I earn, I spend on my passion. Earning is important for me to enjoy my passion.”