He lived an immaculate life
By R. K. Malhotra

GREAT men, it is said, are always exceptional. India has to its credit such exceptional personalities in different walks of life. Dr P.N. Chhuttani deservedly belonged to such an exceptional category in the field of modern medicine. He was one of those four professors who are instrumental in founding the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research at Chandigarh (PGI) in 1962 with the active support of the then Chief Minister of Punjab, Partap Singh Kairon. His performance as the PGI’s Dean and then as its Director was remarkable. He proved quality medical education and health care to the people of the north-west region of the country. Nehru Hospital attached to the PGI was conceived with the motto "Care of the patient is caring for the patient."

He led his colleagues from the front to build the institute into an ‘island of excellence’ before his retirement in 1978. He was, indeed, a karmayogi who soon after founded Chandigarh Medical Centre (CMC) in the heart of the City Beautiful. He was a workaholic, having a schedule of 10 hours, which he followed it day in and day out for his professional duties, both as an extraordinarily sensitive physician and as a progressive administrator. His uncanny clinical acumen and bedside manners inspired a generation of doctors. Clinical knowledge for him did not equate with clinical wisdom. As he often quoted Shakespeare, "knowledge comes, wisdom lingers". As a clinician he used his eyes, ears, smell and touch to diagnose most of the cases. He held that investigations must follow clinical examination and not, vice-versa. Apart from being hailed as a "doctors’ doctor", he became a legend in his life time for his concern for human causes.

We met occasionally and after every meeting Icame back impressed with his vast sweep of knowledge of men and matters. Though separated by 17 years of age, our association continued for 40 years until his death in 1996. He provided health care and social awareness. His thinking was action-oriented. His purpose was to enable the citizens to live a reasonably disease-free life and earn the right to die with dignity.

He was a humanist and believed in pragmatic ideologies and not the ones which sounded high. He lent his voice to many causes. He was a votary of nuclear disarmament. He highlighted the dangers of a nuclear threat . As an International Counsellor of the International Physicians for Prevention of Nuclear War, he was critical of the mounting expenditure by Third World nations on conventional armaments for defence rather than on health and education. He accused the developed countries of reprehensible attitude for making money out of the Third World misery. He lamented that arms traders had no qualms about making profits out of poverty. They sold weapons to countries where millions of people lack basic means of survival. He regretted that India and Pakistan spent $ 19 billion on defence in 1993, which they could have used for poverty alleviation programmes.

As a trustee and later as President of the Tribune Trust, he emphasised the role of the media not only to identify the factors determining violence and crime but also to help in their preventive and cure for the good of the body politic. Without interfering in the editorial policy of its three publications, he gave a healthy direction to maintain a correct and neutral reportage during the turbulent period of militancy in Punjab, thus discharging social responsibility with credit.

Dr Chhuttani was a genius who had common sense in an uncommon degree. He had an acceptable solution for every problem. He was unorthodox and would express his views firmly and frankly. He always carried himself with dignity and deeply impressed all with his simple elegance and measured views. He was versatile in conversation on any subject under the sun. He was a voracious reader, a prolific writer and an ace speaker.

Punctuality and promptitude received his highest priority. He never forgave himself if he were to be late, nor did he allow any one to disregard time. Non-adherence to schedule totally annoyed him, because he had respect for the supreme value of time. Stern in appearance and speech, he was a man of warm human emotions though rarely demonstrated. He was a no-nonsense man with a humane outlook. He had, in his personal life, imbibed several virtues, which are worthy of admiration and emulation. His wants were minimal and care for others optimal. He led a Spartan life and became a teetotaller at an early age. Professor B.N. Goswamy, the celebrated art critic, writing about ‘PNC’, described him as a jeevanshilpi — an artist in life. Order, coherence and proportion, the three attributes of the great art of the world, came instinctively to him. He imbibed great personal discipline, which helped him to live with dignity till his death.

Education, he thought, was a potent instrument of social change, and health could be promoted by public policies such as medical care and epidemological services. To him, health enhancement was a constitutive part of development. ‘Health care for all’ was one of the cherished wishes of Dr Chhuttani. He led a crusade against drinking and smoking — the ‘state-promoted enemies of man’. He became a protagonist of bio-gas projects and use of solar energy. He dreaded the bomb of population explosion.He urged the public and pleaded with the powers that be to avert the demographic disaster before it was too late. He deservedly commanded a great respect both in India and abroad for his professional competence and human concern for the good of the world.

There is no doubt that a teacher and particularly a medical teacher has to be judged by the example he sets to his students and the service he renders to the humanity. Dr Chhuttani passed this litmus test with full marks. His immaculate life inspired all those who came in his contact. He lived more than half a century of unimpeachable probity and rectitude in his professional life. He donated all his possessions to different health and educational institutions. Well before his death, he formed a trust which now runs the Chandigarh Medical Centre (CMC) and pursues philanthropic activities for the causes that were dear to him. His name, indeed, will remain inscribed in the annals of India’s modern medical history.