A group of doctors who fought in the Covid frontlines in Bengal and beyond has come together to chronicle their experience. A book, titled Covid Memoir, has been published compiling their accounts by a forum of Kolkata-based doctors called Protect The Warriors (PTW) that was formed at the onset of the pandemic.
“The book will remain as a document of these times. Hundred years on, people will know on reading such books what the human race went through, how badly the economy had suffered, and what role the doctors and other frontline workers played,” said PTW president and eye specialist Suman Mukherjee.
Of the 55 contributors, all are doctors barring four. Of them, veteran actress Shakuntala Barua was present to launch the book at The Stadel. “My father was a deputy superintendent of Medical College. Yet he loved literature and music. When he was ill, I used to read out Shesher Kabita to him. Doctors have a cultural bent because of their sensitive mind,” she said.
Novelist Pracheta Gupta lauded the effort. “Doctors are not god, otherwise so many of them would not have died in this Covid war. There was no kit, no medicine, no treatment at the start. Yet they fought and how,” he said.
Bidisha Roy displays the book’s back cover illustration done by her flanked by father Manindra Nath Roy, an orthopaedist and a Purbachal Cluster III resident, and chief guest Shakuntala Barua.
Pictures by Sudeshna BanerjeeAlso present as guest was an actor from the medical fraternity, Kinjal Nanda, who has recently starred in the film Hiralal. “When people speak highly of doctors on the sets or in the green room, I feel proud that I too belong to the fold,” he said.
The book is replete with a range of experiences. Paediatric neurologist Jasodhara Chaudhuri has chronicled her four months at the Mother and Child Hub of Medical College, where children were admitted in the second wave. Gastroenterologist Keya Gupta has written on being a Covid patient. Intensivist Swarnapali Maity’s article is on the acnes that dot her face due to constant wearing of masks. Tshering Namgyal Wangdi has written on being a medical officer in a Kalimpong district.
Experiences have been shared from abroad as well. “We had contributors from the UK (Siwalik Banerjee, Roxanne McVittie, Indrajit Sau and Jyotirup Goswami), from Australia (Sandip Chakraborty), the US (Samhati Mondal Ghosh) and Ireland (Sanchita Talukder). Tanmoy Ghatak wrote of his experience of heading a critical care department in a Lucknow hospital,” said Abhik Ghosh, PTW secretary and an ENT specialist residing in CB Block.
Some have written fiction too. Shamik Nandy has penned three short takes on different aspects of Covid, Arijit Sen has a Covid tale for each of the six seasons. The contributions of Rajib Majumdar, Indrajit Sau, Arindam Patra and Siwalik Banerjee are fictional. The youngest contributor is Samriddha Nandi, a Class IX student. “He learnt of our project and sent a piece of science fiction that sees the Covid outbreak as an outer world conspiracy,” said Nandy, one of the book’s editors.
There are poems too — eight in Bengali and two in English. The book starts with one, titled For We Are Honourable Men, penned by orthopaedist Sohom Mandal on his father Sisir Kumar Mondal, who was the second doctor to fall to Covid-19 in the line of duty in Bengal. Geriatrician Dhires Kumar Chowdhury, who heads the editorial committee, has composed one on a dom of the Covid crematory at Dhapa. A medical representative, Debaprasad Bhattacharya, has contributed a poem titled Otimarir sada pata.
A few, like Seshadri Sekhar Chatterjee, wrote essays. “My article is on epidemics in Bengali literature. Even Saratchandra Chattopadhyay mentions the word quarantine in Srikanto and three other works,” said the neuropsychiatrist from Kestopur.
The cover illustration too is by a doctor, Chandrashish Chakravarty.
“We sent out a request for contributions in February. Our target was a Nava Varsha release. But because of the second wave we all got busy, especially those involved in public health administration, and the launch had to be postponed. Though it was meant to be a book by doctors, we added all that we found relevant from the contributions received,” said Nandy.
Ten senior doctors were also felicitated at the event.
