Romantic Insanity

I was touched by T. S. Elliot in my school days, and I was profoundly impressed by William Somerset Maugham, the British writer with pungent social idiosyncrasies and a disenchanted life. Later, in college, I was inspired by poet, singer, and musician Paul Simon. This literary flare transcribed into a more tangible artistic landscape on films. Truly, I was mentored by Satyajit Ray, David Lean, and Franois Truffaut. It seemed just a capricious dream that came alive in the mode of morbid anatomy of medicine. I was fortunate to peel off the deeper fascia and palpate the sublime passion in the art of medicine with an uncompromising devotion to imbibe the true elixir that heals life and touches millions of souls. The literary acumen came in handy to express and depict the mundane facts and dry statistics in scientific journals. Embraced liver into life and persuaded a sanative intimacy to cure liver disease and transplantation. My smoldering desire for poetry and cinema was rekindled and came alive in screenplays after a few decades of my life drowned in medicine. I sculpted the lost dream into a few film screenwrites with a nascent flicker of poignant passion for poetry.

I dedicate the book as a prelude to my widowed mother, who was the primordial driving force in my life in making me a physician, and to my wife, who has submitted an infinite tolerance to forgiving my daily insanities.

Patrick Basu, MD