Bharti Kashyap with her dog at her residence. Picture by Hardeep Singh

Bharti Kashyap has only one complaint. The 37-year-old ophthalmologist has never received a love note from her husband.

Bharti was only 19 when she married eye surgeon B.P. Kashyap in 1986. Though a mother of two, deep down in her heart she is still a girl. A die-hard romantic, she laments that her husband, whom she calls BP, has never wooed her with roses, gifts and love notes.

“However, when it comes to pointing out mistakes my husband will type a 10-page letter. He gives me a computer printout of the letter and keeps a copy for himself…probably for future reference,” she said, and added with a mischievous glint in her eyes, “those are his love notes, I guess”.

However, Bharti is thankful to her husband and in-laws for their support in fulfilling her dream of becoming a doctor. Her father in-law passed away within nine months of her marriage, but Bharti has fond memories of him.

A perfectionist to the core, Bharti has an eye for detail. She hates slipshod work and ensures that everything she does — right from preparing for a conference to cooking and throwing a party — is flawless. Her husband dislikes this habit and feels she focuses “a bit too much on what is on hand, thus forgetting everything else”.

The husband and wife team set up the Kashyap Eye Memorial Bank that organises cornea grafting and free eye surgery camps. Bharti recalled an incident during the days of the domicile violence when she received a call at midnight to perform an operation at Kutchery Road.

She asked the caller if he had obtained a death certificate to which he answered in the negative as no doctor was ready to venture out. Bharti immediately consulted a physician friend on how to prepare a death certificate and, along with her husband, went to Kutchery Road. “Eyes have to removed within six hours of a person’s death. As our country is hot and humid, the earlier the better. As a result, we had to do it quickly,” she said.

This pretty doctor has a busy schedule. She shuttles between her clinic and Nagarmal Modi Seva Sadan hospital and during weekends she is busy organising eye camps. Bharti hardly gets time to watch television, but loves to listen to music, especially songs from Rajesh Khanna movies. “Most of my weekends are spent organising free eye camps. So whenever I am free I like to have fun. BP creates a ruckus whenever I ask him to escort me to parties. But he is the one who enjoys the most once the party begins.”

The ophthalmologist loves to shop till she drops, but unfortunately her husband rarely accompanies her during these mall-hopping expeditions.

“BP hates shopping. Earlier, whenever I bought clothes for him he used to criticise my choice. But once a funny incident happened. I had bought a few shirts for him and my elder son, Bibhuti. Both of them threw the clothes at me, saying they did not like them. My son told his father that he did not like the shirts because they were not his favourite colour, black. Bibhuti asked his father why he threw the shirt at me when he never really had any choice? That changed BP’s attitude.”

Besides being a successful doctor, Bharti is also a good cook. “I did not know cooking when I got married. As we lived in a joint family, I did not have to worry. Twelve years ago, when my in-laws migrated to the US, I had no alternative but to learn cooking. After all isn’t the stomach the way to a man’s heart?”

Bharti has an anecdote to share about her culinary expertise. “Once BP invited his colleague for dinner. I decided to prepare chowmein and chilly chicken. After wasting 20 packets of noodles, the dishes were finally prepared and laid on the table. From our guest’s expression I realised that the food was awful to taste. Despite my husband’s encouraging looks, I felt miserable. That was the turning point in my life. I decided to master the art of cooking. My hard work paid off two years later. My husband invited the same colleague for dinner and he complimented my cooking saying the food was as good as in a five-star hotel.”

Bharti wishes that she could spend more time with her children. “By the time I finish attending to patients, they fall asleep. I spend about half-an-hour in the morning with them and if I am lucky then maybe an hour late in the evening. I don’t even take holidays. But then I love my work and organising eye camps is a passion,” she said.

Bharti dotes on her younger son, Nimesh, and wants her elder son, Bibhuti, to become an eye surgeon. “Kashyap Eye Hospital should not close down. My elder son, a Class X student of DPS, is a topper. I would like him to follow in his father’s footsteps. I don’t want them to leave the country like BP’s family members.”