A millionaire doctor with a heart of gold

BANGALORE: It reads like a fairy tale of yore. Only, this one is true.
For 30 years now, a popular city-based cardiologist and physician has been visiting a village on the outskirts of Bangalore every Sunday, armed with medicines and equipment to treat the needy from surrounding villages. This, absolutely free of cost.
A good 800 people, hailing from around a 50-km radius of T.Begur village, queue up to see the doctor, collect a week''s dose of medicines, and pay him nothing more than gratitude and love.
In fact, the number of cases treated at this weekly clinic reportedly touched an amazing 1 million recently.
At the centre of this saga is Dr Ramana Rao. A simple math illustrates the extent of his love for the poor. At a nominal Rs 10 per patient, the fees he has forgone over the last 30 years amounts to a cool 1 crore. This of course does not take into account the cost of medicines he has distributed free or the laboratory tests he has sponsored when required. Or, for that matter, the possible money he could have earned from his farmhouse reserved exclusively for this free clinic. And it certainly does not take into account the Sundays he has spent for the past years treating patients in the clinic.
Dr Rao attributes the strength he finds for his mission to his parents. "They are the reason why I began serving the poor."
Just why is he doing this? "To serve the country. It enriches me and the respect I see in the eyes of my patients is a bigger reward than the money I could have made," he says.
Dr Rao is helped by his sons Charit and Abhijit, both doctors, and his wife Hema.
He strongly believes that more doctors should address the issue of medical care at the grassroots. "Doctors should devote at least an hour a week to treating the needy at a nearby village. It will make them better as doctors too", he says.
On how he feels at this stage when his achievement qualifies as a world record of sorts, Dr Rao says, "It has made me that much more humble. It also reminds me of how much more is to be done".
The doctor hardly has time to plan a financial empire of gigantic proportions that is well within his reach, or even a social life. But then, the wealth of love and goodwill he has accumulated over the last three decades fills much more than just his coffers.
In his theatre of love, he plays god. And that is just what he is to the thousands who flock to his Sunday clinic every week. He can be reached on 23616666.