The Hindu Business Line : Nalli's world

So real is Kaveri Nambisan's Nalli that she is bound to remain in your consciousness at some level or another for quite a while after you've read The Hills of Angheri (Penguin Books). Whether it is the lucid prose, the author's ability to peel off the several layers of Nalli's persona and lay bare her soul, or a sprinkling of her own experiences as a doctor (Kaveri graduated from the St John's Medical College and later trained in England)... . her dreams, fears, joys and sorrows in her evolution as a doctor... or a combination of all of these, Nalli's journey from a little village girl to a full-fledged doctor comes alive on the pages of the novel. You feel elated at her triumphs, despair at her setbacks, frown, smile or chuckle with her... and so much want her dream of setting up her own hospital at Angheri, along with her childhood sweetheart Jai, to come true.

Nalli, the 12-year-old girl from Angheri comes into your world dressed in a parrot green lehenga with a neat row of golden elephants and a flaming orange davani, wondering if anybody would notice if she dabbled some lipstick on her cheeks and lips. She makes you an ally as she fights her entire family in pursuing her dream of becoming a doctor. The dream is of course linked to her hero Jai, who can climb the tallest tree, has the stomach of an elephant, a storehouse of tricks and plays pranks on everyone, getting a medical scholarship.

Then they would both set up the hospital of his dreams at Angheri. Nalli is not deterred even when Jai agrees with everybody that her becoming a doctor is not such a great idea, because the only use for her medical degree would be to wear it as an ornament around her neck, as "soon you'll be somebody's wife." And you wonder how many village girls would have had their dreams squashed by such cruel words.

The Mysore Doctor with his uppity ways cannot cure her brother Budhi's jaundice with his pills and glucose, but the Angheri Vaidyar makes it disappear with his kashayam. When he mutters that "this village needs a doctor of the right kind", her Appa, the village school headmaster, starts thinking and Nalli gets her staunchest ally in her quest.

You travel with the young woman to the medical college in Madras where her world is filled with her roommate Carol with her scandalously short and tight dresses, Subbu the cadaver who at first petrified her and then is constantly in her thoughts... as the owner of the shop across the road, the father of four children etc... and, of course, heavy and tiresome books which are her constant companions. But throughout the six years, her longing for Angheri's hills continues and Appa's and Ajja's letters keep her going. On completing her course Nalli wants to become a surgeon and even though at first he is shocked, Appa supports her and even borrows money to pay for her ticket to England. Through the training in Liverpool, the young woman learns fast, gains confidence in herself, fights racial discrimination from the odd patient who doesn't want an Asian to treat him, and gets accustomed to the regulars... such as the alcoholics, drug addicts and tramps.

After making mistakes, such as diagnosing a bladder tumour to be told by her superior that the little girl had only swallowed a thermometer that was firmly entrenched in her bladder... she learns that as doctor she does not have the luxury of making mistakes. And, in her world, there is no place for indecision or doubts. As Dr Bianchi tells her: "Medicine is an imperfect science and doctors who practice it are more imperfect... surgery has evolved, step by painful step. A hundred errors. Not every technique is learnt from books or other surgeons. How long an incision, how tight a suture, how deep should the needle go, how big or show small. Every case teaches." She also learns that to be a successful surgeon it is not enough to stay in the background "and expect someone to hold your hand."

And then there are Dr Shankar and Shanta, who dissuade her from returning to India. "He cited grim examples of friends who were languishing in the Public Health Centres in remote villages, or frustrated in cities. The roads were treacherous, the filth disgusting; his kids always got diarrhoea when they went home on a visit. And did I know, they had those old-fashioned telephones with dials on them? Their fingers hurt to use the wretched things. We can do more for our country by staying on here and being successful."

"Listening to him, I was eager for home", is Nalli's firm response.

When she has had enough of "sunless winters" and thinks that "something must be done before the frost settled in my heart," she decides to go back home, leaving behind the unexpressed love of Stan, the ambulance driver. In more ways than one, Nalli's heart has little place for anybody else after Jai falls in love with Bela, marries her and moves to Bombay to set up a thriving practice. Nalli's gentle efforts to remind him of their dream of a hospital in Angheri are brushed aside with the argument that Bombay and new specialities like endoscopy need him. And he could always "serve the poor" in Bombay. "And, we'll be misfits (in Angheri). Let the villages improve. Let the villagers show that they can keep a surgeon busy," is his convenient argument.

But on return to Angheri, Nalli finds the village does not want her as a doctor, so she takes up two jobs, the first one in the north where she works in a charitable hospital and the second in a corporate hospital in Madras. But in neither she is able to find fulfilment. Eventually she realises that Jai is "limited by his limitless ambition" and the novel ends with the doctor heading back home to pursue her dream.

The biggest charm of the book is its simplicity and honesty; Nalli does not try to become a big heroine mouthing platitudes and clichés. At heart she remains the simple village girl that you're introduced to in the first chapter... one who is not afraid to face up to her fears... or dreams. One takes to Nalli effortlessly because each of us has a bit of Nalli hidden somewhere within us.

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