By Suvarna Brahmavar
Daijiworld Media Network—Udupi (RD/CN)

Udupi, Jul 16: A medical practitioner who has served the people for five decades and has experience attending to over 5,000 child births; and all this was achieved in the medical sphere at a time when electricity, transport, and mobile communications have not developed.  He is none other than Dr N C Kalkura, a native of Barkoor, near here, who has gained wide experience in his medical practice overcoming all odds. 

Dr Kalkura was born in 1931 and earned his MBBS from Madras Medical College and began as a rural medical practitioner in Saibarakatte, near here, in 1957.  One can imagine how backward Saibarakatte locality was five decades ago.

It was a jungle without any transport facility.  He had to walks miles together in the deep woods to attend to patients.  There were no pharmacies except in Udupi and Kundapur.  He had to attend to the patients in their far-flung houses. Whenever he reached a patient, other patients would also arrive there in large numbers as the news of doctors coming spread through the neighbourhood.

Unforgettable incident:

* One night, when he was returning after attending a patient in a remote village in his scooter he fell on the dirt road and the scooter could not be moved. He walked about a half kilometre and knocked on a stranger’s house in the middle of the night.  The owner of the house came out, started his creaky truck, loaded the scooter with the help of other men and took the doctor home.

• In another incident, the tyre of his scooter was punctured on the dirt road near Saibarakatte late at night. Dr Kalkura was appointed health officer at a health unit in Saibarakatte in 1964.  His services extended to the areas of Malpe, Kolalgiri, Hirebettu, Sastan and neighbouring villages till 1978.  He continued in his service at the local Hhealth unit in Barkoor till 1989 wherein he retired from government service.

He began a small clinic at Kalchapra near Barkoor with the support of gynaecologist Dr Rukmini and gained experience in attending to women in labour and helping birth over 5,000 babies.  Eighty-year-old Dr Kalkura even now attends to patients’ calls with great dedication to his chosen profession. He believes that the health of a businessman in the town is as important as that of a peasant in the village.  He had followed this virtue even at a time when infrastructure facilities were undeveloped in the district.  He would consult Dr B B Shetty and Dr Mohandas Pai in the neighbourhood in some complicated cases.  He continues to learn to keep abreast with modern medicines.

The district Rotary Giants Group honoured Dr Kalkura on Doctor’s Day celebrations on July 1 for his humanitarian service. “The humanitarian deeds of Dr Kalkura are motivation for the Rotary Club to actively involve in social service,” said Barkoor Rotary Club president.

Barkoor Sudhakar Rao acknowledges the ever-smiling service of Dr Kalkura.
It would not be an exaggeration to state that the selfless service of Dr Kalkura indeed sets an example for the medical fraternity.