An article published in the special issue of CAMPUS-the college magazine of RMCH.
(We received this anonymous article in our office on 9th sept 81. a few days before the cruel fate stuck prof. B Prasad)
Every RMC graduate knows that Dr Barmeshwar prasad is one of the most famous teachers this medical college has ever possessed. He is a superb lecturer, with a remarkable gift of the gab, who instructs, stimulates, charms generation after generation of medical students. For him lecture is an art form. He is splendid bedside teacher, conveying with wit and enthusiasm his great clinical skills without at any time relaxing his care for the patient as a person. His charm, tact, judgement and common sense makes an outstanding success of his formidable task. His grasp of subjects and cadences of the language, and the endless trouble he takes over its delivery, has long given him a good reputation as a speaker, be it a serious formal oration or a lyrical and witty after-dinner speech.
Dr. Barmeshwar prasad's many achievements, among other physicians to the Governor of Bihar, Honorary degree from other universities, honorary fellowships from other colleges- have been enthusiastically recounted in numerous meetings. I am not a RMC graduate and was never formally taught by him. Inevitably my appreciation will be incomplete, and some of my judgements may be inaccurate. I can write only as a man who has known and admired him ever since i came to Ranchi nearly five years ago. One can be deceived by the charms, the elegance, the panache and the brilliant oratory into thinking that Dr prasad is a man who has deliberately cultivated all the talents for success, and that success and its enjoyment are his primary objectives. IT is only after one gets to know him that one realizes that the carapace of a self confidence conceals a fundamental modesty. It seems to me that, like many successful men, he is driven forward by a sense of his inadequacy. This alone is endearing but more so is the realisation that gaining fame is not, in fact, his primary objective, rather it is a basic and very personal concern for the sick, at first in Patna,later in Darbhanga and now in Ranchi. It a surprise and delight to find that such obvious public graces conceal an integrity and a simple honesty of purpose. For a number of years he has been Head of the Dept. of medicine, exposed to all the slings and arrows of inevitably unsatisfied colleagues but achieving much through selfless, quite endeavour.
He has a talent for friendship. One of his greatest pleasures is to chat with a friend over a glass of soft drink. For him civilization is conversation. If one happens to be the friend, much history, much wisdom and much humour are imbibed with the drink. He does not advertise his cultural enthusiasm, but one is liable on these occasions to find oneself discussing Georgian poetry or the Raj quartet, interest which would not have been generally suspected.
The college, the university and the profession remembers a man who, in spite of his striking public talents, has much private modesty, a man who arouses in unusual measure the loyalty, affection and respect of his colleagues, a man unique in character whose like will not readily recur, a man who has set a special pattern on a generation in medicine. To us his retirement will mean the passing of an era, an era to which all who have known it, will look back with nostalgia, tinged indeed with pride at having known a man who has assuredly found a permanent and notable place in the medical history of Bihar.
(We received this anonymous article in our office on 9th sept 81. a few days before the cruel fate stuck prof. B Prasad)
Every RMC graduate knows that Dr Barmeshwar prasad is one of the most famous teachers this medical college has ever possessed. He is a superb lecturer, with a remarkable gift of the gab, who instructs, stimulates, charms generation after generation of medical students. For him lecture is an art form. He is splendid bedside teacher, conveying with wit and enthusiasm his great clinical skills without at any time relaxing his care for the patient as a person. His charm, tact, judgement and common sense makes an outstanding success of his formidable task. His grasp of subjects and cadences of the language, and the endless trouble he takes over its delivery, has long given him a good reputation as a speaker, be it a serious formal oration or a lyrical and witty after-dinner speech.
Dr. Barmeshwar prasad's many achievements, among other physicians to the Governor of Bihar, Honorary degree from other universities, honorary fellowships from other colleges- have been enthusiastically recounted in numerous meetings. I am not a RMC graduate and was never formally taught by him. Inevitably my appreciation will be incomplete, and some of my judgements may be inaccurate. I can write only as a man who has known and admired him ever since i came to Ranchi nearly five years ago. One can be deceived by the charms, the elegance, the panache and the brilliant oratory into thinking that Dr prasad is a man who has deliberately cultivated all the talents for success, and that success and its enjoyment are his primary objectives. IT is only after one gets to know him that one realizes that the carapace of a self confidence conceals a fundamental modesty. It seems to me that, like many successful men, he is driven forward by a sense of his inadequacy. This alone is endearing but more so is the realisation that gaining fame is not, in fact, his primary objective, rather it is a basic and very personal concern for the sick, at first in Patna,later in Darbhanga and now in Ranchi. It a surprise and delight to find that such obvious public graces conceal an integrity and a simple honesty of purpose. For a number of years he has been Head of the Dept. of medicine, exposed to all the slings and arrows of inevitably unsatisfied colleagues but achieving much through selfless, quite endeavour.
He has a talent for friendship. One of his greatest pleasures is to chat with a friend over a glass of soft drink. For him civilization is conversation. If one happens to be the friend, much history, much wisdom and much humour are imbibed with the drink. He does not advertise his cultural enthusiasm, but one is liable on these occasions to find oneself discussing Georgian poetry or the Raj quartet, interest which would not have been generally suspected.
The college, the university and the profession remembers a man who, in spite of his striking public talents, has much private modesty, a man who arouses in unusual measure the loyalty, affection and respect of his colleagues, a man unique in character whose like will not readily recur, a man who has set a special pattern on a generation in medicine. To us his retirement will mean the passing of an era, an era to which all who have known it, will look back with nostalgia, tinged indeed with pride at having known a man who has assuredly found a permanent and notable place in the medical history of Bihar.
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