Dr. B.C. Bharat Chhaparwal is a well-known name not only in Madhya Pradesh, but also in the medical circles all over India. He was a Professor of the Department of Paediatrics, Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Medical College, Indore, and was twice appointed the Vice-Chancellor of Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya, Indore, (MP). He has held many responsible positions like Vice-President and Acting President of Medical Council of India, and National President of Indian Medical Association. He has published and presented over 100 research papers nationally and internationally. 

Anyone who converses with the 85-year-old Dr. Chhaparwal is amazed not only by his vast knowledge and experience in the field of healthcare, but also by his humility and humanity. He was raised in a well-to-do family. His father was a close friend and a classmate of Mohanlal Sukhadia, a former Chief Minister of Rajasthan. Dr. Chhaparwal was in personal contact with the former Prime Ministers Indira Gandhi, Chandra Shekar and Atal Bihari Vajpayee. He could easily approach former Chief Ministers of M.P. Mr. Arjun Singh and Mr. Digvijay Singh. His contacts with professionals of his field are numerous. Despite having an extensive network with influential people, Dr. Chhaparwal remains humility personified. Being a man of profound compassion and empathy, he is unable to think of causing any suffering to other human beings.
  
In the course of a conversation, Dr. Chhaparwal told me that to be a genuine medical doctor one has to see God in his patients. They have to believe that God is in the human being (Nar hi Narayan hai). He shared his motivation for pursuing a career in medicine, particularly as a paediatrician, and discussed his view on the essential qualities of a doctor.
  
Dr. Chhaparwal spent most of his early childhood at his mother’s house, where his grandmother had a significant impact on him. Although she was not a medical practitioner, she used to guide people how to lead a healthy and happy life. She motivated the young Bharat to become a doctor. He also noted that a medical doctor commanded the respect of people from diverse castes, religions and professions. “I could perceive a medical doctor as my ideal”, said Dr. Chhaparwal. Born and raised in Rajasthan, he went to Indore for his medical studies, since Indore was a cosmopolitan town. Dr. Santhosh Kumar Mukerjee was a renowned practitioner in Central India, and Chhaparwal aspired to study under his guidance. It is interesting to know his reason to elect for a specialization in paediatrics. Since childhood, he was a fervent devotee of Child Krishna (Bal Krishna). He belongs to the Pushti Marg community, which adheres to the worship of Krishna or one of his forms. In fact, Dr. Chhaparwal is an authentic Vaishnav who understands the pain of others, as poet-saint Narsinh Mehta describes in his famous bhajan, Vaishnav Jan To Tene Kahiye. 
 
Vaishnav jan to tene kahiye je, peed parai jane re, 
par dukhe upkar kare toye, man abhiman na aane re
(One who is a Vaishnav (Devotee of Vishnu) knows the pain of others,
Does good to others, without letting pride enter his mind).
 
“I had the option before me of choosing any other branch of medicine, but I chose paediatrics because the idea of serving Lord Krishna in the children was in my mind”, he says.  Another reason for becoming a child specialist was the poor health condition of children prevalent in North and Central India. Almost 50% of children die before they reached the age of 15. He believed in the importance of saving the lives of children.
 
Among his exemplary Professors, who influenced him to become a doctor with moral and ethical values, was Dr. J. N. Pohowalla, a child specialist. “I have not seen God; but I have seen a walking God in him. He was a walking God, the way he used to teach and the way he used to behave with others. To talk about his knowledge, he was up to date not till yesterday, but till tomorrow”, commented Dr. Chhaparwal about his Professor and guide.  On completing his post-graduation, Dr. Chhaparwal went to Dr. Pohowalla and told him, Sir, you have given me the licence to work as a child specialist. What should I do?” A quick and spontaneous reply came from his guide: “You should have a mother’s heart, without it you cannot be a child specialist”. “I think that I have succeeded in cultivating such a heart. That is why I always tried to be available to the poorest of the poor and to the king of kings”, said Dr. Chhaparwal.
 
An important quality a doctor needs is love for people, especially the patients who come to them. During his rural posting of six months, Dr. Chhaparwal stayed in a village named Harsola and got acquainted with the people of the area. “I knew each family of the area”, he said.
 
Medical ethics were a part of their studies from the very first year, he recalls, but their implementation depends on each person. According to him, a doctor should be honest to the core. He recollects an incident from his days as a student. Once he had prepared a case study and presented it brilliantly before Prof. Akbar Ali, who was the Professor of Medicine. After the presentation, Prof. Akbal Ali asked Chhaparwal, “Did you check the urine of the patient?”, which immediately put him in a difficult position, as he had not done it. He admitted his failure. “What the hell you are talking about, go and examine the urine of the patient”, he shouted.  When he came back to his Professor with the result of the urine test, he was asked to draw the crystals of the urine he had examined. He was then asked to put it on his neck and to make a round of the ward. It was humiliating, but he took it in the right spirit and learnt a lesson in perfection. 

According to Dr. Chhaparwal, medical personnel, whether doctors or nurses, have a special place in the society. A patient exposes their body to a doctor because they trust them. Therefore, a doctor or nurse should never do anything that destroys this trust. Even squeezing or exploiting the patients for benefits also betrays this trust.  Often people come to a doctor in a desperate condition, and the prime duty of a doctor is to save life and heal people. Becoming a doctor should not solely be motivated by financial gains.
As a doctor and an administrator, being the Vice-Chancellor of Devi Ahilya Vishwa Vidyalaya (DAVV), he never compromised his honesty and integrity. Treating the medical profession as a means for making money is inhuman, and a great sin, according to him. He feels disappointed due to the rampant commercialization of the health sector and the utter failure of the government to provide basic health facilities to the common people.
 
As a doctor, Bharat Chhaparwal was committed to the people of India. He was invited to work in an American hospital after his post-graduation. In fact, the tickets were sent for him, his wife and his child. Before committing to the invitation, he went to his guide Dr. Pohowalla for his opinion, who told him, “You need to go to America; America doesn’t need you. Remember India needs you”. Dr. Chhaparwal dropped his plan to go to the USA.
 
During the conversation with him, Dr. Chhaparwal shared with the author some incidents in which he stood firm and refused to comply with unfair requests by authorities. While he was the Vice-Chancellor of DAVV, the Chief Minister of M.P. once asked for a favour of allotting his nephew a seat in the MBA course. Chhaparwal told the CM that he would look into the marks of the candidate. When the CM called him after three days, he declined very politely saying, “Sir, I cannot do it because in order to admit the candidate you have recommended, I need to increase 50 more seats, for which I need permission from the higher authorities, and I am damn sure that I will not get it”.
 
After narrating the incident, Dr. Chhaparwal said, “I had the courage to refuse the request of the CM because I never wanted to become the Vice-Chancellor. It was because of the pressure from the CM and the Governor, who is also the Chancellor of Universities, that I accepted the post. They made me the Vice-Chancellor in order to put the University on the right track, which at the time was in a very bad shape. Had I succumbed to the pressures from different corners, I would not have been able to fulfil the task that was entrusted to me”.  “If you don’t have any vested interests, and if you do your work honestly, you need not be afraid of anyone”, he added.
 
Simplicity is another hallmark of Dr. Chhaparwal. During his tenure as the Vice-chancellor, he never stayed in the official residence allocated for him. He stayed in his own house, because he wanted to connect with the ordinary people. People would have had only limited access to him if he had stayed in the bungalow.
 
He is a role model for all those in the health sector, mainly because of his spirituality of seeing God in every human being. He is able to see God in every patient who comes to him, and deal with them exuding utmost care and concern. His simplicity attracts people, especially the poor, to him. His honesty and integrity strengthen him to question all unfair practices. At a time when the health sector is becoming a big business, the presence of doctors like Bharat Chhaparwal is a blessing for humanity. Let his tribe increase.