He has never stood second in an exam in his entire life; he is a plastic surgeon par excellence, but walked away from making millions because he felt there was more to life than just the green bucks. He is a self taught sculptor and painter who designed his own house and did the decorations along with his talented wife Kusum for his daughter’s wedding. He is a poet, who can recite a beautiful poem dedicated to his 4 year old grandson Roshan, the light of his life, and then an ode to “roadeshwari the Indian buffalo” in one breath with the same panache. He is a musician, a “certified’ clown and a ham, but what makes Dr. Satish Vyas special is the joie de vivre with which he lives his life.
The eldest of 9 children Satish Vyas was ‘supposedly born’ in 1945 to an elementary school teacher and his wife in a remote little village of Madhya Pradesh. “I say supposedly because there are no records. Some people said I was born in 1944, some say I wasn’t born. I just manifested myself. I claim to have arrived in this world anytime from 1920 to 1980, so just take your pick of the year!” he guffaws.
Being the child of “The teacher” says Dr. Vyas, with a straight face, was a privilege. He had the freedom to sit anywhere from grade 1 to grade 6 – whenever the mood struck him. His face widens into a huge grin as he throws in the punch line- “There was only one room and all the classes were in the same room.”
Living in a village where there was no physician, for some strange reason that he cannot explain, young Satish Vyas aged 8, made a painting and signed it – “Dr. Satish Vyas MS, FRCS’ having no clue what it meant. He was a very naughty child and had 8 fractures before he turned sixteen. When asked if he was not well by people who came to check on him (after all there were only 300 people in that village including cattle so every one knew everyone!) he retorted, “Oh, I’m doing very well. It’s just my arm that’s bit under the weather.” That arm was fixed 8 times by the village carpenter, who put a splint with a piece of wood and wrapped it up with a rack.
Dr. Vyas walked four miles, uphill, barefooted back and forth to a nearby school for classes after 6th grade, but he was happy to do it because of his never ending passion for learning. “We had minimal resources those days, and I would pick up anything I found where I could learn something. There were times I would go to a nearby village to buy something and end up reading even the newspaper the item was wrapped in, to quench my thirst for knowledge. We lived in a remote village that was so isolated that we had to walk about 15 miles just to find a train station or a bus stop.’
When he finished high school, Dr. Vyas’s father said to him that the family could not afford any further education and so he should become a school teacher. The innovative high schooler approached one of the village big wigs and told him that he (being an ace chef) would cook for his son, who was headed to the same college where Vyas wanted to go, if the man would pay for his boarding and lodging. “My cooking abilities were greatly suspect, but I managed.” A year later Vyas stood first in a merit scholarship exam in entire Madhya Pradesh and that facilitated his entry into medical school. He received a monthly scholarship of 100 rupees out of which he sent 50 bucks home to help his parents who were raising 8 other children. “Still my mother would do menial labor pulling out weeds all day, to make 1 or 2 bucks, or take some medicines to sell in trains. She would save 15-20 rupees that way and hand them to me when I came to visit, to help out. At school I would skip breakfast because I couldn’t afford three meals and managed with lunch and dinner.” Dr. Vyas recalls that he found out he had topped his first year when he read a 5 day old newspaper wrapping in which some one had brought some sweets.
Dr. Vyas aced his way through medical school standing first each year and collecting the maximum number of gold medals along with the Dean’s son.
In the meantime Dr. Vyas decided to fall in love. “I think my wife was in 6th grade and I was a little older when I first saw her and decided this is it. She was the rich city girl and I the poor country boy, and you have the perfect ingredients for a bollywood story. I moved to Indore where she lived and started trying to figure out how to get to her. It dawned to me that I must impress the mom.” Dr. Vyas found out that his future mother in law along with other ladies in their 50s and 60s went for a bhajan (hymn) singing session at a 70 year old swami’s abode. “Can you imagine, all these older ladies, a 70 year old swami and a 17 year old boy, in the midst singing hymns. I hand wrote 15 copies of the hymns-one for each lady. At the end of that month, every one of them wanted me for a son in law!”
Dr. Vyas then gathered the courage and called Kusum’s house. Her mom picked up the phone. He stuttered if he could take Kusum for a movie and held his breath. This was the 1960s! What seemed like an eternity passed and then the pragmatic mother whispered, “Take her but don’t come home… Kusum will meet you two blocks away at the cross road… We met and went for the movie, but I was in a daze,’ guffaws Dr. Vyas. They were married a few years later.
A pediatric surgeon was instrumental in inspiring Dr. Vyas to get into plastic surgery. “I would see severely deformed children brought to this physician and how he would get to work and transform the child. Things were hard during residency, with a meager 300 rupees salary especially since now they also had a son. In spite of academic excellence Dr. Vyas found that everyone else had a government residence and a job even though they were way down the merit list. He remained jobless, because he didn’t have any connections. “I went to Bhopal and not having any money to grease the palms of the chowkidar, spent three hours sweet talking my way to be allowed to meet the Secretary of Health. Walking into his office I said, I have stood first all these years and I don’t have a job. The secretary said coldly ‘Who told you to stand first?’ It was as if I had been slapped. I walked out without a word and said this is it I’m going to America.”
But the land of milk and honey was even farther than the elusive dreams of the government job Dr. Vyas had been chasing. Even the qualifying exam was not held in India but in Colombo. “A kind friend agreed to pay my fare, and I told him confidently I will pass the exam. Like I had any choice! I couldn’t afford airfare, so I went on a small boat puking my way through the entire journey, but I did pass the exam.”
Dr. Vyas and his family landed in Altoona Pennsylvania in 1971 via London. ‘ We stayed over night in London and slept on this mattress that we thought was heavenly, it was so soft. Today we know it was the worst quality mattress one can sleep on but at that moment to country bumpkins like us it seemed like being in heaven.” Coming to America was a culture shock. ‘ No matter how much you hear about a place and no matter how many pictures you see, you are never prepared for the cleanliness and beauty of America.’ Dr Vyas says he never faced any racism, but would cry every day in the early weeks because he felt so home sick and moonlighted long hours to make extra money.
Dr Vyas then moved to Detroit to pursue his residency in surgery. There were about 22 odd residents in the first year who were then whittled down to 8 by the second year. Dr Vyas was the only foreigner among the 8 who made it to the second year. One of his papers is still on display in the university, because Dr Vyas a self taught sketching artist and painter could not write fast. Instead, for a 3 hour anatomy paper he drew 80 colored diagrams, to compensate for the lack of words. “After that, I was always delegated the task of drawing every senior’s project diagrams as part of ragging!”
The department head was so impressed by his caliber that he would let Dr Vyas operate on his VIP patients. At 34 Dr. Vyas went into private practice as a plastic surgeon. “What most people don’t know is that Susruta, born in the 6th century B.C, was the descendant of sage Vishwamitra and known as the father of plastic surgery. In fact the technique he used to perform reconstruction of the nose during that time is being used to this day. It is referred to as the Indian method of reconstruction. There is of course one minor change. He used carpenter ants to stitch the edges. He would clamp the claws of the carpenter ants to the edges and twist the neck, throwing the rest of the body away. I use nylon sutures instead these days!”
Dr Vyas says he is happy that cosmetic surgery is now no longer considered the privilege of Hollywood stars or taboo, but the mal practice lawsuits have introduced greedy attorneys into the swing of things. “It is strange that the use of silicon gel implants have resulted in a 4.4 billion dollars’ award in a settlement . “This is a product that has not been proven to be harmful. It is being used by rest of the world and do you think we are the only smart people in the world and every one else is a fool? Even experts on the panel on the plaintiff’s side acknowledged there is only a 1 percent chance of any serious complications by using silicon gel implants.”
“It was the lawyers who brought this country to the stature it achieved, and this country’s demise and down fall will also be underwritten by lawyers. Our strengths become our weaknesses at times. The only way the legal system in this country will be fixed is when a major catastrophe takes place. Until then everyone will just sit complacently.”
Dr Vyas began his private practice at the age of 34 and 4 years later walked away from a thriving business, deciding to work less than 20 hours a week, so that he could spend more quality time with his family and do the things he really enjoyed doing. One of them was to go twice a year to India and operate on the underprivileged who needed reconstructive surgery and these days he also speaks at national seminars while training other physicians when he goes to India.
The trips to India and abroad have produced some memorable moments. There was the trip to the holy shrines Kedarnath and Badrinath for religious ceremonies for his father. Ever the ham Dr Vyas decided to wear saffron robes, grow his hair and pretend to be a swami. He even took over from a blind singer and sat with the harmonium singing hymns and distributing mango drinks to the 300 odd people that gathered. He outwitted the greedy priests there and got the ceremony done in very less. A day later he saw a couple staring at him very intently. He ignored them and carried on his hamming, until the man called out “Dr Vyas?” He then introduced himself as one of the physicians who had attended his seminar at a particular hospital. It was Dr Vyas’s uproarious laughter that gave him away!
On a trip to Morocco he dressed as an Arab sheik, except that with his white beard and lanky frame he was mistaken for actor Amitabh Bachchan. As the rumbles of “Amitabh Bachchan, Amitabh Bachchan grew,” playing to the gallery, Dr Vyas purchased all the peanuts from a peanut seller and asked him to distribute them among his fans.
He is a trained magician and actually went to school for clowns. ‘ When I told my kids I had joined clown school, my son Manish looked at me seriously, and asked ‘Papa are you taking classes or TEACHING classes there?”
His foray into the exciting world of Hindustani classical music happened several years ago. “ My uncles were super singers. One of them had a huge fan following when he sang at religious gatherings. I knew my ears, my soul were in fine tuning. All the notes were right in there. It was just a matter of time to get them out. Alas my voice decided not to cooperate, but I switched to saxophone, and sang and played at family events. I made up for my lack of talent with my impressive histrionics, getting outrageous clothes made to go with my show!”
Dr. Vyas says his wife Kusum has been his backbone. “ I saw something in her very early on, that I lacked and lack to this day. She completes me.” Kusum is very creative and an accomplished artist, who loves children and likes to spend a lot of time with them. Dr Vyas and she often visit their Professor daughter Sapna’s classroom, to introduce India to the students, through slides, clothing, cuisine and even putting henna on their hands. In their entire married life of over 3 decades they have been apart only for a week. She puts up with all his eccentricities graciously. ‘I decided to learn sewing from her on a whim and have stitched many things since then. My grandson and I have often worn matching shirts stitched by me and gone out.”
Dr. Vyas says while his work ethics has always been western, he thinks life is all about family values that the east inculcates in one. “ My daughter Sapna used to say to me dad you are the only father who is home most of the time when I come home. That is more important to me than all the millions I could have earned. One of the most gratifying moments in my life happened when a 3rd year medical student, Prakash Chandani, heard one of my lectures and decided to follow my path. He is one of the leading plastic surgeons in India today. He wrote to me for 8 years and I finally met him when he invited me to be the chief guest at the opening of his clinic.”
Dr. Vyas says he believes in doing everything concurrently, and not leaving it to the future. His foot was paralyzed during a surgical operation where he almost died. He went on to become an ace snow and water skier-on one leg, at the age of 33. “When I see a blind person climb Mt Everest, I realize a paralyzed foot is nothing to complain about. We put limitations on ourselves. Henry Ford said it aptly-When you say I can do it and when you say I cannot do it, you are right both times.’ I am one of those who believe I can do anything I set my mind on.”
For more information about Dr. Satish Vyas please browse his official website at: www.artisticsurgeon.com.
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