Mumbai: Bandra Medical Store leaves prescriptions for trust and legacy

There are perhaps only two things older than in its immediate vicinity: an ancient peepal tree outside the shop's glass door and the one-storey, tile-roofed building called Alves Baug, whose ground floor the store has occupied for nearly 80 years. But this Hill Road, Bandra (West)-located medical shop is famous not just for its antiquity alone. It also derives its reputation from the goodwill it enjoys with its customers, including those to whom medicines are home delivered.Store owner Rajan Ramkrishnan Nair, 70, gives us a conceptual tour of the establishment, where over two dozen employees are busy attending to customers and dispensing medicines. "In the old system when residential and commercial spaces co-habited, it was called ‘peeche makan, aage dukaan' (house in the back, shop in front)," says Nair.The family was never guided by commerce alone, but by service, he claims. "This is a I inherited from my father, which I will pass on to my daughter (Pooja) who now sits at the shop," says Nair.His father, Ramkrishnan Nair, bought the shop from a Parsi tenant around Partition. "Like my father, I too am a tenant here,' he reveals. Originally from Thrissur in Kerala, Ramkrishnan Nair came to the city in the late 1940s and found a job at a medical store in Kemps Corner. He was later the personal compounder to Mohammed Ali Jinnah, who got his medicine for skin allergy and TB from that store. Post-independence, Ramkrishnan Nair moved to a chawl in Goregaon, when a friend introduced him to the Parsi owner of Bandra Medical Store. Incidentally, the store's signboard reads: ‘established in 1955' although the shop is much older. Why? "I was born in 1955, so my father marked it as the year of the store's establishment," smiles Nair.A year or so after Nair's mother Sumati passed away on Feb 3, 1977, his father moved back to his native village in Kerala, leaving behind a directive that has become the man's guiding principle. "My father said, even if someone doesn't have money to pay for medicines, give him what he needs. God will compensate for it."Nair cannot forget the day in 2001 when actor Dilip Kumar visited the store to condole with him over his father's death. "At the time, Dilip Sahab was a Rajya Sabha member," Nair recalls, "And a posse of security guards filled my shop even as he sat here, putting one arm on my shoulder—encouraging me to carry on."The shop thrives on the good relations it maintains with customers. "It enjoys the of doctors and families. I know families that have bought medicines there for over two generations," says senior physician Dr. Syed Khurshid Hussain. Pali Hill resident Asif Farooqui recalls that it was the only medical store in the area when they moved from Dongri to Bandra in the 1970s.Senior advocate and solicitor Shaukat Merchant at the shop says, "I have been coming here for nearly 32 years. We trust Nair and his staff because of their ethical practice. They never misguide or sell spurious medicines.". The loyalty with customers, including many celebrities, goes down decades. Two framed photographs on a wall testify to the store's popularity with the rich and famous. One photograph has former health minister Dr. Rafiq Zakaria felicitating Nair's father on Nov 14, 1971, for running a "well-maintained pharmacy", while the other features his father with actors Shatrughan Sinha and Ramesh Deo. Director Devendra Goyal shot a scene of the 1977 Hindi film "Aadmi Sadak Ka" here. Deo starred in the film's Marathi remake "Dost Asa Tar Asa" (1978). Bandra Medical Stores continues to cater to actors today besides other regular clients on its roster.