By Prasun Sonwalkar
Doctors from India working in Britain'sNational Health Service are among the most popular health professionals, and Nanjappachetty Doraiswamy in Glasgow is the latest example of this.
A pioneering surgeon, Doraiswamy is to retire on November 23, 2005 after 41 years of service?and there is a welter of emotion among the local population as the date approaches.
He has been Yorkhill'ssenior-most accident and emergency consultant and has treated thousands of children, many of them in serious condition.
The local media is covering his forthcoming retirement, with interviews and anecdotes from his patients and colleagues.
Along with three colleagues, he has also set up Scotland'sfirst Hindu temple, currently based in Partick Burgh Hall.
Hundreds of Indian families from all over Scotland flock to pray together at the shrine and to learn to speak, read and write the languages of southern India.
Doraiswamy told the Evening Times of Glasgow that he has never been sick during his time in service and has never had a day off. He has also never had a cough or sneeze.
?I have never had a day off for sick leave in my life,? he said. He admits that this is something incredible.
Doraiswamy has a simple secret for his attendance: he loves his job.
His colleagues admit Yorkhill will be hard to imagine without the man known affectionately by patients and staff alike as ?Mr D?.
Apart from his skills in treating children, he helped train a generation of doctors who can talk to children at their level.
He said: ?You have got to reach out to children. Me, I watch all the cartoons, all the children'sTV programmes.
?If a child comes in, you ask about Spiderman, Superman or Shrek.
?When I first started out, I tried all the departments to see what I liked most. But there is nothing like treating a child.
?They?ll come to see you, frightened of the white coat and the needles. And then you take away their pain and they smile, immediately. I am going to miss the children.?
Doraiswamy puts down a lot of his success to his own three children, now grown up.
In his job, he has also battled to make things safer for children.
His biggest bugbear is the number of children who lose their fingers in doors?literally hundreds every year?and he has designed new doors that are safer for kids.
?I am very proud of my achievements,? he said.
Working in India, England, Kuwait and Scotland, he has devised several important new surgical procedures.
More than 20 years ago, Doraiswamy pioneered efforts that used balloons to avoid surgery in newborns who had problems with their bladders.
Bollywood producers irk Londoners
London is one of the favourite locales for Bollywood producers and several blockbusters have been shot here. Now the frequent shootings have come in for criticism from irritated local residents.
Some of them have complained to local councils that the producers do not follow health and safety rules during their shooting schedules.
Leicester Square, Piccadilly Circus and Regent Street are popular locations for Bollywood shootings.
Reports say that the Westminster Council is unhappy with producers who fail to respect the licences by blocking pavements and roads, serving hot food and over-running licence times without permission.
There are about 1,500 filming days a year in the City of Westminster.
Tim Owen, spokesman for its special events and filming team, has warned that directors could be arrested for obstructing the highway and causing public nuisance.
Owen told the British Asian weekly Eastern Eye: ?Bollywood is a very generic term and there are a few who take advantage. They bring a lot of crew members and entourage and they do not always tell us this.?
Recently, crew members reportedly stood on the pavement to halt pedestrians on Shaftesbury Avenue in order to shoot a couple of scenes.
Owen gives another example of an Asian film crew that shot in Leicester Square, near Odeon.
He said: ?They set up a kitchen to feed their cast in Leicester Square. They were not given permission for this.?
He said it was mostly residents or businesses that had complained.
However, because of confidentiality clauses, the council will not reveal the names of the films or the producers involved.
Avtar Panesar, head of operations at Yash Raj Films, said some filmmakers genuinely came to Britain unprepared, relying on advice from unofficial people.
He added: ?There is a lot of foreign exchange coming into the country from film companies. You can spend a quarter to half a million pounds in 20 to 30 days working here.
?They (councils) need to appreciate that sometimes in the film industry you do not have the time to complete the work within the authority'stimelimit.? ?The Indian film industry does not work like the Hollywood film industry, he remarked.?
(The writer is a UK-based journalist and can be contacted on sprasun@hotmail.com)
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