Smart Medico Churns out Kaant

by SHOMA PATNAIK
Posted on 2008-08-26
Skin and beauty specialist, Dr Anupama Kudchadkar runs a busy consultancy at Panjim. Now she is in the limelight not for her expertise in handling skin ailments, but because of her publication Kaant, released last Monday, on August 18th . The book launched by the leader of the opposition party, Dr Manohar Parrikar elicited quite a good response with the first 100 copies of it snapped up by the invitees in no time. A second print is underway after which it will soon find its way in book store shelves.
So, what prompted this doctor to turn to writing despite a busy schedule? She also runs a regular column, on beauty, for a Konkani daily for the last two years.
Says Dr Kudchadkar, Although my book is a compilation of all my past articles I felt that they deserved a separate niche of their own. Because, as the smart physician has figured out, “newspaper articles are never remembered over a period of time.
She continues, What made me actually come out with this book is because there are so many false beliefs with regard to skin. For instance, the skin disease ‘herpes’- there is such a lot of misinformation about it with people going to all sorts of quacks for treatment. Or, the younger generation, they spend so much on beauty therapies when it is just not needed.
That certainly makes Kaant sound like an interesting read! Any plans to publish it in English? “Yes,” she says before qualifying it with “I want to do the translation myself so that the ‘essence’ behind my thoughts is not changed.”
Clearly, a lady who is committed to her calling, despite it being in the rather frivolous department of ‘looks’. What made her choose her special area of work? To this the response is, “My mother was a teacher and father a businessman. The inspiration to study medicine was from my older sister, a doctor and good scholar. But, by the third year of my studies I was already ‘spoken to’ in marriage. My future husband was also in the medical profession. That implied busy lives for both partners. It made me qualify in dermatology which is not an emergency branch of medicine. It is not as demanding and would gave me time to devote to home.”
But, does she not believe that qualified women pursue a tough profession? “It is each one’s choice, is the answer before adding for me both family as well as career is important. Yet, between devoting ample time to family, our doctor has managed to do extremely well for herself. She is highly successful in her practice, as the always overfull waiting room indicates.
Before leaving, there is a last question to be asked. Do Goans have good skin? Yes, is the reply and “they are aware of the attractiveness of a good complexion, educated about obtaining it and want to keep taking care of their skin,” I am told.