My friend, Dr. Mazda Turel, Mumbai’s top drawer neurosurgeon of the brain and spine, has written a book. It is called ‘Bheja Fry’. A title that, at first glance, might suggest a Parsi’s fondness for food. However, it comes, quite fittingly, from the organ he knows best. “The spine is like carpentry,” he once told me. “The brain is challenging, a complex organ, it’s a delicate surgery.” It is also where he prefers to work.
For years, Dr. Mazda wrote a column, ‘Doctor in the House’, for ‘Sunday Mid-Day’. With a breezy, informal style that was chatty. And a wit that was unmistakably Bawa. The columns were lively, and humorously chronicled life inside the OT, the triumphs and tensions of a neurosurgeon holding the brain, spine and destiny of a patient. He wrote each one using a grateful patient as a case study. I used to look forward to them.
‘Bheja Fry’ gathers 68 of these pieces. Boman Irani says it is “sharp as a scalpel and warm as a bedside conversation”. I’ve had such conversations with Dr. Mazda, though never at a bedside. Ours are over tea at Wockhardt Hospital, where he practices, or dinner at some nice, quiet restaurant. He is always in black scrubs and Crocs. Always late. Always forgiven. I know that he has been saving lives, that matters more than punctuality.
Dr. Mazda is tall and wiry; he moves with the energy of an athlete. His smile reaches me first. The hand on my shoulder follows, a gesture as easy and reassuring as the man himself. Our conversations drift, from the light to the philosophical and back again. I drink coffee, he orders ice cream, for he has a sweet tooth. His phone interrupts often: it’s the hospital, his wife or daughters. Life, in its various urgencies, calling him back.
If you have never met Dr. Mazda — and, as he might say, may you never have to professionally — you will find him in the book. He comes across not only as a surgeon of considerable skill, but as a man who understands that healing begins before the incision, and continues long after. Empathy and sympathy complementing medicine and surgery. Somewhere behind the scalpel and smile, ‘Bheja Fry’ reminds me that even in the most exacting of sciences, the human touch endures.
About Mark Manuel
The above thoughts/content has been proudly copied from the wall of Sir Mark Manuel. Being interviewing almost every role model of this country and going stronger each day. Mark Manuel is a respected Mumbai editor, writer, and columnist.
With over three decades of journalism in leading publications. This includes the Free Press Journal, Times, Dainik Bhaskar, Mid-Day, and Afternoon. He is famous for his brilliant pen interviews. He himself is a TEDx speaker.
Further
His interviews have featured in several leading media houses. They include the Hindustan Times, Huffington Post, BBC, and Network 18. Almost every famous person has been interviewed by him in the country from Mother Teresa to Muhammad Ali. His first book is just out. It’s titled Moryaa Re! It is a crime thriller that is perhaps the country’s first police procedural. He began his career covering crime. And in a tribute to his experience and knowledge of this beat.
Several distinguished officers of the Mumbai Police and its Crime Branch collaborated with him to make this book possible. Amitabh Bachchan wrote the forward in a statement of friendship for Mark Manuel and admiration for his work.
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