STROBILANTHES 

(STORIES)

DR. P.P. VENUGOPAL

The most striking story in ‘Strobilanthes’ revolves around a girl of extraordinary beauty, likened to the blue flower ‘neelakurinji’ who excels in both academics and extracurricular activities but becomes a victim of professional injustices. All the stories in this collection are set against the backdrop of the medical profession. It is no mere coincidence that the storyteller is a doctor. Dr. P.P. Venugopal, deeply engaged in various social issues and active in numerous fields, finds the hospital environment to be a fertile ground for storytelling. The writer does not merely seek out stories; rather, the pain, grief, and suffering that emerge from the depths of his heart naturally take shape as narratives. Each story is crafted not only for enjoyment but to challenge the reader’s mental boundaries.

The Deepening Soul’s Torment
A. Sajeevan

This is a story of experience told by a friend, the experience of a doctor who endured months of mental turmoil in the name of humanity. An expert in neonatal care and treatment, he was a dedicated practitioner who had transformed the NICU into a haven in the midst of his own life’s chaos.
Once, he had to place a premature baby in an incubator. The doctor stayed by the incubator, more anxious than the baby’s parents. He had to step out for a family matter that couldn’t be postponed, assuring the nurse that there was nothing to worry about regarding the baby and handing over all responsibilities.
When he returned, he found the baby had died due to a malfunction of the incubator. During this time, the hospital authorities concealed the truth, providing the baby’s parents and others with misleading reassurances. They justified the death by citing the inadequacy of their efforts to save the life due to the premature birth. With no valid argument to counter, the family took the baby’s body home.
However, this deeply shattered the compassionate doctor’s mind. He knew the baby’s death was not natural and that it resulted from a malfunction of the hospital equipment and the negligence of the nurse in charge. He felt that it was, in fact, murder, and he bore a part of that guilt as the person responsible for the neonatal clinic.
‘I Can’t Bear It. I have two paths ahead of me: either I resign from my job or drown my mind in some drug. Yet, I feel there’s no escape from this terrifying guilt. If only I could capture all this pain on paper, I would find a bit of relief.’ This is what the doctor told my friend.
This account illustrates the professional mental struggles that compassionate doctors experience. While all jobs can be sources of stress, doctors uniquely face pressures, facing lives hanging between life and death. They must often tell patients, who might have only days left, that they could live for a hundred years.
I previously mentioned the mental struggles faced by compassionate doctors. Some doctors might unknowingly become desensitized as part of the medical business. For them, illness, treatment, and death become mechanical, merely inevitable occurrences. The deaths caused by medical errors and the early demise of patients are often just parts of their job discipline.
On the other hand, there are doctors who connect deeply with the common person. Their words and demeanor provide comfort that often proves more effective than the medications they prescribe. For these doctors, the pain and despair of their patients weigh heavily on their own minds. The deceit and indifference encountering by the patients hurts them.
These compassionate doctors carry their anguish, and sometimes, this pain and torment spill out through their words, colors, and sounds, transforming into beautiful artistic expressions. The stories of Dr. P.P. Venu Gopal serve as poignant examples of this experience, akin to embers glowing from a smoldering flame.
‘Posthumously yours – K.A. Sameer’, The story begins with a real event that deeply unsettles those involved and witnesses. It presents a narrative that evokes sympathy for those unaware of the reality behind it.
The protagonist is an artist who values genuine friendships and relationships. On the eve of a major surgery, he yearns to have dinner with a dear friend, longing to return to a healthy life. However, he is also anxious about the situation of his second wife and son, who would be left orphaned in his absence.
After a successful surgery, just when he feels he is recovering, death unexpectedly intrudes like an unwelcome guest. That kind-hearted person encountered exactly the things he had hoped would never happen in his life. His body lies awaiting the conclusion of a city-wide arts festival, while his second wife and son remain completely unaware of what has transpired.
The final journey of this kind-hearted man, who usually ensures others’ endings are dignified, becomes a mockery due to the indifference of those who eventually take charge. His close friends, who had supported him, witness this painful spectacle.
This story exposes the hypocrisy of society, at the same time the compassionate doctor inside the author jumps out unknowingly. It subtly critiques the way Sameer’s death and the negligence of hospital authorities are handled. Officials claim that Sameer’s demise during a liver transplant was due to his body rejecting the new organ, avoiding accountability for their part in the tragedy.
However, the matter of the dengue fever, which they have kept extremely secret, reaches the ears of the author, a character in this story, as a shocking revelation. As this unfolds, Sameer’s death comes to the forefront of the murder investigation. In hospitals, especially amidst multiple deaths, the harsh truth is that some deaths do not occur naturally due to the severity of illness. This story is an emotional outburst on this poignant realization for the compassionate doctor.
All the stories in this collection are set against the backdrop of a hospital. It is not a mere coincidence that the storyteller is a doctor. Someone like Dr. P.P. Venugopal, who engages with various social issues and remains actively involved in all fields, finds fertile ground in the hospital environment to craft his narrative. However, behind the storyteller’s deep exploration of the hospital and the patients and doctors within it lies a profound reality. The writer is not merely searching for a story; rather, it is the pain, grief, and suffering that are unleashed from his heart’s depths that unconsciously shape into a narrative.
The most striking example of this is the story ‘Strobilanthes’. A girl of extraordinary beauty, resembling the blue flower, excels in both academics and extracurricular subjects… She enters a private institution to study nursing but is ultimately pulled into a mire of traumatic experiences and ends up becoming pregnant. Punished for brutally killing her own newborn out of vengeance against those who destroyed her, she faces the consequences.
Simply summarizing this story, the emotional intensity of ‘Strobilanthes’, written by Dr. Venugopal, cannot be fully conveyed. One can only read this story with the mental anguish of the judge who is compelled to write a verdict in the case of Seethalakshmi. The narrative also presents the hidden machinations within the hospital, showcasing gruesome images of clandestine pregnancies being concealed from the outside world and the brutal act of drowning a newborn in a bucket filled with water. The compassionate physician’s perspective reveals these horrors without him being aware or acknowledging them.
‘Santaanagopalam’, ‘Putrakameshti’, ‘This is your fault’, every story in this collection deserves a detailed appreciation. Each story is not merely for enjoyment but is designed to challenge the reader’s mental boundaries. Reading should not happen in the same mental state as when one begins; that’s the hallmark of a successful literary work.
Years ago, the collection of stories by N.S. Madhavan, who once lacked recognition among prominent writers, was presented to readers by dear friend and journalist V.V. Venugopal. Later, N.S. Madhavan became one of the most notable writers in Malayalam literature. Today, as I write the foreword to the storybook of my dear friend Dr. P.P. Venugopal, my hope is that this name will feature on the list of the most distinguished storytellers in the future.