Life in Mubende!!!!

After one year stint in Kapchorwa, in May, 1971, I moved to Mubende Hospital as a Medical Superintendent and the District Medical Officer. It was a big responsibility thrust upon me, a challenge which I had to face and had to accept it. We were two doctors there, my local colleague, Dr. B. Nvule , an elderly person, sober and soft spoken who was a support to me. Later on, a young doctor, J.D. Arenia, also joined us. Three of us were doing well, managing the hospital, and I looking after the district health services as well in addition to the normal / emergency duties of the hospital. Quite often our younger colleague won't respond to the emergency calls during the night and the call would be diverted to me. Now this was an additional work on top of my own calls on my days. His explanation was that he was on  medication for epilepsy which may cause excessive sedation and , hence the problem. A few months later he went to the medical school for post graduation in Paediatrics . Sometime afterwards got the sad news that he got drowned in his own  vomitus on the pillow during an epileptic fit in his sleep. That was really very tragic and. unfortunate to lose a young Ugandan doctor like that.

My work was going well. I succeeded in establishing a new dispensary in a small village, Naluggi. Here, a lot of help came forth from the catholic church to accomplish it, for which I was so grateful to them apart from the Ministry of Health.

Here in Mubende, I met one Balinder Kumar a motor mechanic, owner of a garage, originally from Ludhiana. He used to look after my small car, Ford Escort, which I had to use for the inspection and supervision of the district medical / health services. During our first encounter with usual pleasantries, I learnt that his wife Kamla was from Yamuna Nagar, and her parents were staying  near the Ballarpur Paper Mill. It appeared then that world is so small, and we do bump into each other. I developed a very close kinship with the family. Later this family migrated to Leicester, UK, after the exodus of Asians from Uganda, and I lost touch with them.

This was the period when things were getting very hot here in India with the influx of ten million refugees from erstwhile East Pakistan. Indian emissaries were going around the world meeting the world leaders apprising them of the developments on the Indian subcontinent. My Sony radio, a very faithful companion, was always there to keep me updated on the current affairs. All India Radio, BBC and Voice Of America were keeping me abreast of the developments here at home. AIR was broadcasting commentary almost daily on India / Pakistan conflict and I was keenly following it. It was written by one N.S.Bedi who happened to be the friend, colleague and neighbour of my would be in laws. Apart from that I was  regularly getting my Overseas Hindustan Times, once a week, by post, to keep me informed of events here at home. Eventually, Bangladesh came into being after Pakistan army surrendered with 92,000 prisoners of war in Indian hands to give a leverage in negotiation  with Pakistan.