Speedy Dialogue Series 11.Dr Subramanium Balachandran

 Speedy Dialogue Series 

 Episode 11: Dr Subramanium Balachandran

 “Sharing my hobbies with my Batchmates”

 Speedy: Good morning, Bala. I am so pleased that you accepted my invitation to appear in my Dialogue Series. 

Bala: Speedy, I thought it was a great idea. Thank you very much 

Speedy: Bala, let us commence with some background information. Believe it or not, 60 years have passed since we entered the Medical Faculty! A lot has happened to all of us since then. 

Bala: It certainly has Speedy, sixty years, that is a long time!

Speedy: But let me focus on you today. I am interested to know how you chose Medicine as a career. 

Bala:. Speedy, in fact, I was doing applied math in middle and high school, and my sister, Indrani, was pursuing medicine. However, as the saying goes got to have "My son the Doctor“ in the family, so I had to switch midstream to medicine. Thanks to Rev. Father Margesz, I was able to get my biology squared away. 

Speedy: We know your sister Indrani very well. She is a regular at our London mini-reunions. Her daughter Rose is kind enough to provide transport. Being a loving and dutiful daughter, she knows how much these outings matter to her mother. 

Bala: My niece Rose is indeed a very special person. 

Speedy: Do you get a chance to look at the Blog?

Bala: Yes I do read the Blog, although I must confess, I haven’t posted any comments -something I want to put right with your help Speedy 

Speedy: Very happy to help 

Bala: Thanks, Speedy.  

Speedy: Bala, tell us a bit more about your career choice and how you pursued it. 

Bala: Delighted to do so.  I read a book written by a British surgeon named George Sava, in which he was describing an appendectomy done through mini incisions. This book gave me the impetus to become a Surgeon. After graduating from Medical School, I immigrated to the US, and I was able to attain my ambition and became a Surgeon. 

Speedy: I always say that those who are brave enough to pursue their dreams will succeed. 

Bala: Very true, couldn’t agree with you more. There are also those who inspire you. I am sure you would have heard of the world-renown “Father of Cardiovascular Surgery “Dr Michael E. DeBakey 

Speedy: Yes, of course, the famous Cardiovascular surgeon of Lebanese origin based in Texas. 

Bala: Yes, that is the one. Well, I had the privilege of doing my Vascular Fellowship with Dr De Bakey. 

Speedy: Fantastic! I am sure you learnt a lot, and he must have been a great source of inspiration. 

Bala: He sure was, most definitely. 

Speedy: Is there anything more you want to say about him or talk of any anecdotes involving him? 

Bala: Yes, indeed. He was the first to classify Dissecting Aneurysms and treatments. He was able to successfully surgically treat a patient with aortic dissection in 1955. Ironically, he was diagnosed, I believe, with type II Dissecting Aneurysm in 2005 and was successfully operated by his associate Dr Noon and he went on to continue to teach and perform surgery. He died at the age of 98 in July 2008. 

Speedy: That was quite a story Bala. You carried on as a vascular surgeon for how long? 

Bala: I was in practice for four decades and finally hung up my “Surgical shingle “ in 2012. 

Speedy: Have you stopped working completely? 

Bala: No, I still do some work. currently, I work in the Emergency Department of an Ambulatory Surgical Center, seeing mostly post-surgical patients. This keeps my Betz cells active. 

Speedy: That is of course, an individual choice. If it suits you and you enjoy the work, that’s fine 

Bala: I do Speedy. I also feel that I am contributing to society with my skills as a doctor. 

Speedy: That’s great Bala. 

I must confess that I don’t know much about your family. I am sure readers would like an update. 

Bala: Sure thing Speedy. I am married and have three kids, a son Robert, an Attorney, the second, a daughter Maureen, an Educator pursuing her Doctorate in Education and the third, a son Niran, who is a Biomedical Engineer. His latest invention is an oesophageal cooling probe to facilitate cardiac ablative therapies. This is pending FDA approval at this juncture. 

Speedy: Clearly a very clever lad. And your wife, is she a doctor too? 

Bala: No, Pat is not a doctor. she has a doctorate in Nursing. Pat and I also enjoy our five grandchildren and are waiting on the last one to finish high school in another year and go on to college. 

Speedy: Bala, let us talk about your hobbies and interests, shall we? 

Bala: Of course, Speedy. In my spare time, which was few and far between while I was in practice, I enjoyed woodworking (self-taught), gardening both flowers and vegetables and the game of Golf. I do try my culinary skills on occasion, but needless to say, Pat beats me hands down! 

Speedy: I bet she does! And you are clearly a creative person. Also, it is Lovely to hear that you play golf. I am biased, of course, but anybody who plays golf is a good egg! 

Bala: Ha! Ha! I heard that you play a lot of golf.  I would love to talk more about it, but I know you want me to talk about my woodwork and carpentry. 

Speedy: Indeed I do, if you don’t mind. Tell us about some of the projects you enjoyed most. 

Bala: My largest carpentry and woodworking project was the renovation of an attic above a free-standing garage, turning it into an entertainment room with a built-in bar, in the seventies 

Speedy: Wow! That must take a lot of skill and time. 

Bala: It did, but I thoroughly enjoyed doing it, and it was joyful to see it when I completed it. Gave me a lot of satisfaction 

Speedy: I bet it did. You said it was in the seventies. Were all the tools required available at that time? 

Bala: Power tools were available, but not anywhere close to today’s standards. The advent of cordless tools has definitely changed carpentry and woodworking as we know it now. In fact, my interest in woodworking started with the arrival of Power tools. 

Speedy: Skill and dexterity are important but like in surgery, you need the proper tools. Am I right? 

Bala: Absolutely. Imagine trying to place a screw into a hardwood with hand tools! In the mid-nineties, my grandson Mitchell was all into ‘ Thomas The Tank Engine and Friends, and this prompted me to build an HO model train layout depicting ‘ The Island of SODOR’ This was a very trying adventure, but I think it came out OK, and he had a blast running his trains. 

Speedy: And what else did you create? 

Bala: From there, I moved on to building cabinetry and niceties. I did some oil painting in the seventies but that took the back burner. Besides woodworking and golf, I loved gardening too. Time to indulge in these was a problem when I was working. 

Speedy: Now that you work less, are you able to devote more time to these activities? 

Bala: Well, yes and no! Since we moved into this house, I lost my 1000 sq foot work shop and now the garage is my temporary workshop. 

Speedy: I see. You kindly sent some photos of some of your creations. Please tell us something more about them. 

Bala: I shall talk through them with the photos and when I did them

(1) Train layout of Island of Sodor in 1998.   

(2) Coffee Tray with inlay 2000. 

(3) Cherry Coffee Table with inlay in 2003, 

(4) TV  Entertainment Center with cherry and maple, 

(5) Night Lamp table 2000, 

(6) Antique Golf Club (1930s) display cabinet- 2015, 

(7) Japanese wine rack 2008. 

Speedy: I was really impressed by your work and would love to see them. The next best thing was to see the photographs. What I saw was the work of a skilled and creative technician who must have spent a lot of time producing these.

I am so glad that we are able to share these with our batch colleagues, and may I thank you once again for appearing in my Series and wish you and your family all the best. 

Bala: Thank you, Speedy for your kind words and encouragement and for inviting me for this wonderful conversation which I enjoyed so much.