MEDICAL MALADIES (STORIES OF DISEASES AND CURE FROM INDIAN LANGUAGES) EDITED AND INTRODUCED BY HARIS QADEER

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BOOK NAME: MEDICAL MALADIES

AUTHOR NAME: HARIS QADEER

GENRE: MEDICAL ANTHOLOGY

PUBLISHER: NIYOGI BOOKS  

BOOK BUY LINK : https://www.amazon.in/Medical-Maladies-Stories-Disease-Languages/dp/9391125751



The Indian medical field is vast and versatile, and writing stories based on medical experiences needs keen research or first-hand encounters. This book is a collection of 19 short stories translated from different languages like Malayalam, Punjabi, Urdu, Odia, Bengali, Kashmiri, Hindi, Assamese and Marathi. All the stories are either medical fiction or nonfiction, involving the works of prominent writers like Rabindranath Tagore, Saadat Hasan Manto, Premchand and many others. 




The stories involve every aspect of medicine, including modern medical practices like allopathy, homoeopathy, ayurveda, and Siddha, traditional practitioners like Vaids, Hakims, folk healers, and midwives. I was so glad to read tales accurately representing the medical field in all its aspects. Most modern writers give only one-dimensional value to the character of a healthcare worker while writing their books. Meanwhile, each story in this book accurately reflects the lives of healthcare workers. While stories written by a few medical authors were very realistic and on point, a few others were obviously a work of fiction because there were inaccuracies and fallacies in their stories. 



I like how some stories touched the emotions of the healthcare professionals, both good and bad, and tried to narrate from a multidimensional facet. Stories like Quarantine and The Pague Witch were very relatable as the stories seemed very close to the events that took place during the COVID-19 outbreak, and I was surprised how things hadn't changed a bit, even after so many years. 


As a doctor myself, I felt most stories had a slice of my own life experiences from my hospital, like Day Care, A Day in the Labour Room, Manzoor, A Major Operation and Whose Turn Now? I marvelled at the book's striking similarities to my real world and couldn't love them more. The Cavern was another story that I loved, where a heart transplant recipient has to face his donor’s wife in the future, and how the story focused more on the man's emotions even after the successful surgery he had undergone. 


Most stories were poignant and beautiful; some had happy endings, while others ended bleakly. Nevertheless, the book is an accurate representation of the lives of healthcare workers, and I would recommend everyone to read this.



ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Haris Qadeer teaches at the Department of English, University of Delhi, India. He was a UGC-DAAD visiting fellow at the Department of English, Potsdam University, Germany, in 2019. He has also received the Charles Wallace Visiting fellowship to the King's College, London, Uk (2022).


He has translated the writings of Rokeya Hosain Sakhwat, Krishnan Chander, Joginder Paul, Anis Rafi, Saadat Hasan, Manyo, Balraj Mehra, Zafar Ali Khan, and Tarannum Riyaz. He has co-edited the special issue of Thesis Eleven on World Literature: Postcolonial Perspectives and Sultana's sisters: Genre and Genealogy in South Asian Muslim Women's Fiction (2021). His forthcoming projects include The Silence That Speaks: Short Fiction by Indian Muslim Women (2022) and an English translation of a Hindi play.


MY REVIEW: 4/5

#penbooksandscalpel


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