"My aim in writing stories from life as a memoir so that with will power, persistence, knowledge, ingenuity and moral integrity you can achieve your life’s ambition and help people."
Professor Upendra Chowdhary
To becoming a Professor of Neurosurgery to writing a book which would tell the stories from my life beginning from a village in India
To becoming a Professor of Neurosurgery with having achieved the MBBS degree and a Master’s degree in surgery in India and then having higher neurosurgical training at elite neurosurgical departments in England, attaining Fellowships of two Royal Colleges of Surgeons going on to become accredited in the UK as a fully trained neurosurgeon. The journey till here needed considerable sacrifice and overcoming several obstacles such as leaving my home in India as well as my parents, grandfather, brothers and sisters and close friends. It also required ingenuity, adapting to different culture, climate and working environment after leaving the cosy life as a child among my extended well-to-do Zamindar family.
Agra
Leeds, England
A Village Boy’s Journey
Volume - 1
Journey begins: from childhood to becoming a surgeon
The Story
This will encompass from 1942, the time of Quit India movement, to obtaining my Master’s degree in surgery in Agra and start of neurosurgical journey as a senior trainee in New Delhi.
About Me
I was born on 1st August 1941 in Patna, Bihar, India as a British subject. The period between 1941 and independence of India in August 1947 and, then, new era of Indian self-governance led to tumulus changes in all aspects of Indian society.
Volume - 1, 2 and 3
Journey begins: from childhood to becoming a surgeon
The Story
This will encompass from 1942, the time of Quit India movement, to obtaining my Master’s degree in surgery in Agra and start of neurosurgical journey as a senior trainee in New Delhi.
Volume - 2
Neurosurgeon’s life: One mm. between life and death; but you are of the wrong colour.
The Story
This volume will encompass my journey from New Delhi to England then to practice neurosurgery in Ireland with traumatic experience of facing well entrenched racial and ethnic prejudices in getting a permanent position as consultant Neurosurgeon in UK and Ireland.
Volume - 3
Journey to Saudi Arabia and prodigal’s return to England to face brush with the law.
The Story
This encompasses my life and work in Saudi Arabia and then return as “retired” consultant neurosurgeon to England in 2007 with start of and resulting in flourishing neurosurgical medicolegal practice till 2022.
"Never give up on your dreams. Imagine how many lives you can save."
Volume - 1
Saving lives: Surgeon’s handiwork
My first job after graduation was for one year when I worked as Senior House Officer in Unit B, headed by the second Professor. After that I worked as Surgical Officer in the Emergency Department for 4 months. I was, then, posted as Resident Surgical Officer in Unit A, headed by the first Professor, Prof Srivastava, who was the Chairman of the Department. He was workaholic. He used to do a ward round at midnight. He was an excellent surgeon and brilliant teacher. He kept me with him for 16 months and I would be working 12 to 14 hours a day most of the time. My only solace and time to unwind was to visit Taj Mahal after the midnight ward round and sleep on the central marble plinth for couple of hours with soothing sounds of the fountains and the fragrance of the flowers coming from the gardens.
Volume - 2
Neurosurgeon’s life: One mm. between life and death.
One of the prime examples of “1mm between life and death” is surgical clipping of cerebral aneurysms. Surgery of clipping of an aneurysm is the most delicate and difficult procedure. Here a mistake even of less than a mm. would mean the difference between life and death. Operating upon Basilar artery aneurysm is even a more delicate and precise surgery under microscope. While I was there, I operated upon seven Basilar aneurysms over a period of three years with only one, the first patient, died. In total by the time, I had left Dublin, one of the nursing sisters in the operating room, very kindly, counted all the aneurysms that I had operated upon and there were 133 patients and I had treated 139 aneurysms.
Volume - 3
Dangerous Quests for Excellence
When I joined University Hospital, Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia. I was advised by the returning Irish faculty members who came back to Dublin, after spending several years at the King Faisal University, Dammam that a non-Muslim expatriate must never mention what to say of discussing matters related both to religion and politics. I myself advised, quite emphatically, during “psychological therapy” to non-Muslim new arrivals from UK and India the same things. I myself stuck to these in day-to-day life, but I became more and more concerned about unnecessary damage to patients of all types, alive or dying or even those who were becoming “patients” due to judicial punishment, such as chopping of right hand at the wrist without any medical help or input…
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