Chance meetings can change our courses

Meeting a person casually, by chance, can change the course of our lives. We realize this long later. One such meeting was to influence me to as great an extent as it proved, in more ways than one.

‘Door-crashing’ to our friends’ or relatives’ houses at our whims without appointments was quite common, even in the late seventies. Those were days when social contacts were in tact! My good friend, Ravi, after returning from a hospitalization had returned home, to recoup. One evening, I had gone to look Ravi up at his home. There was already another young man visiting. I got introduced to Rajgopal, who lived on the same street. I was from the neighbouring locality.

Both of us left at the same time, after wishing him a speedy recovery. Raj was returning home from a shopping errand and I had nothing else to do. I pushed my bicycle to match the speed of Raj’s ‘padayatra’. Before our conversation got to any depth, we had already reached his home. I was called in and got introduced to his parents.

Little did I know then that I was entering into a great friendship with a family that was known to ours for about 40 years before! Further conversation revealed all that. My father and his maternal uncle were great friends – of course, jobs had separated them long before.

Raj was studying for a degree in Homoeopathy in Dharwar and had come for a vacation to his parents’ house. We developed an excellent rapport with each other as we seemed to have similar likes and dislikes.

I began to frequent his house, even after he went back to Dharwar. His father, a retired doctor, also became a good friend. We used to chat on different subjects, while he became my doctor too. I also admired his wonderful sense of humour, kindkness and fine qualities, not to mention Raj’s mother also. I would eagerly inquire Rajs arrival for vacation for meeting him more often.

Sitting on a road’s kerb stone (traffic was not a nuisance then), Raj and I used to chat away for hours and in one of his ‘talks’ there, he told about his subject of study – homoeopathy. That was the first I got to hear the name. On his subsequent visit, an opportunity had arisen to experience the wonderful effect of the homoeopathic system, myself.

It was a real pain in my neck one day, in every sense. With great difficulty, I pedaled my way to his house for treatment. He put a few little medicated pills on my tongue and asked me to wait for 10 minutes and see what happens. Lo and behold! The stiffness was so much less, almost in a jiffy. After some more time, I comfortably pedaled my way to the market, where I had an errand to run! Two more days of those pills affected a complete cure! It left me wonderstruck, for a person exposed only to allopathy.

After some months, he got his degree and opened a clinic here. Naturally it had a humble beginning. To the clinic my visit every evening was to return home by talk-walk, pushing my bicycle along. This continued for sometime till he decided to marry (another homeopath, his college junior) and move over to Mumbai for greener pastures. In the meantime, he had inflicted upon me how homoeopathy works. I was to attend his marriage in Mumbai which is another memorable little story altogether.

We got cut off. The telephone was still not affordable to many, nor was it felt an absolute necessity, then. But we enjoyed exchanging letters. For my problems, I would ask his advice for treatment. His prescriptions cured some of my problems so beautifully that I was convinced about the system and wanted to broaden its application, which went on to the cricket field also. A little ‘homoeo kit’ in my cricket kit has proved a real boon, ever thereafter!

To learn more about homoeopathy was a keen desire that had cropped up. In 1994, my attending a 3-day awareness camp organized by Homoeopathic-Self-Reliance-Forum, Anantapur, under the leadership of late Dr. G.V.Chalapathi, satisfied this. A few basic books to study and with the background of the camp, I was now able to ‘self-medicate’ and see for myself how simple day to day ailments can be taken care of, without hassles, without expense.

In that camp, I was happy to see one Sri Achyutha from my city giving a lecture. Some days later, I hunted his address to find out the efficacy of ‘pregnancy management’ through homoeopathy which was a separate topic. This was also a topic for my better half, practically. So we wanted to give it a go and later gave it. Meeting him, though not by chance, was the beginning of yet another link in friendship that was to change our courses for good. Because that link brought us to a group that dedicates itself to the cause of homoeopathy, of mankind, not ignoring spirituality, esp. to the ‘leader’ of the group, one Sri Joshi.

Sri Achyutha and I were deciding to do some correspondence course on the subject. At that time, he had been told about some group that conducts a free course. So we both joined to attend, only to find that it was such a wonderful one. Here, knowledge got broadened, got to know good people, got exposed to spirituality and got to be able to help others esp. through homoeopathy, all of which have become part of our lives now.

Had I not visited Ravi at that particular time, I know not where I would have been now. It certainly affected the route I was destined to take. Now, Dr.Rajgopal Nidamboor also had influenced me in writing – he is a fine writer himself, having published a few books and numerous articles. Ironically, his profession is not homoeopathy now, but as an editor. He had unknowingly kindled a little fire in me, a fire that has made me pick up the pen [now keyboard].