Vital Signs

Turning your own ideas into words that count can sometimes be a bit of a challenge. So it can get really tricky when you need to turn someone else’s ideas into their own words. But for a writer and editor, I think that’s a challenge worth accepting.  

And so it proved to be, working with Dr M.I. Sahadulla on his memoir Vital Signs: Reflections on a Life in Medicine and Management. The most obvious benefit of working on the book was the insight it offered into the process through which a young person from Murukkumpuzha, a village (now a small town) near Thiruvananthapuram, evolved into one of Kerala’s most successful entrepreneurs.

A more important reward was the opportunity to see an outstanding clinician at work; and, of course, the lessons in entrepreneurship, managerial problem solving and professionalism that happened as Dr Sahadulla went about the routine business of running KIMS. And then, there were the master classes in thoughtfulness and warmth as he bumped into patients, doctors, nurses, paramedical staff and others in the hospital’s corridors, leaving each person feeling a little better and happier for the encounter.

All these opportunities to learn and the pleasure of spending time with a leader who is both warm and inspiring were, without a doubt, the best part of working with Dr Sahadulla. And somewhere along the way, turning his ideas into his words stopped being a challenge.