50 years and counting of an eventful medical career,
50 years and counting, of Service to the community.
50 years and counting of a sparkling level of the indomitable spirit of sheer humanism.
So many facets and virtues of just being Francisco Colaço.
Goan
Doctor
Family Man
Social activist
&
Quintessentially Human.
A man of eloquent words.
A man of magical music
A man of reflective silence
And always, a Man who gave back more than he ever received.
Incubated as a Doctor in Goa, polished in Bombay and then dazzled on a flight of scientific merit in New York.
Here was a man, who could have aced the American dream, but returned to his roots,
to serve his beloved and now crumbling and distraught mother land.
The greatest quality of this uncle, mentor and friend of mine.
Was not
His sheer diagnostic and luminous brilliance as a physician.
Or
His genuine empathy for the ill and the suffering, particularly children
Or
His virtuoso, almost maestro, like skill when he hit the high notes on his Echo machine , and conjure diagnosis that mimicked a work of a Beethoven or a Mozart.
By far, his greatest attribute, which we humble and much younger mortals can only, watch in awe is his insatiable thirst for knowledge.
His curiosity.
His relentless pursuit of the finer details.
His ability to learn, unlearn and relearn.
Who on earth, invests in a brand new state of the art Echo machine, at the age of 80.
Unless you are a Yehudi Menuhin, investing in a Stradivarius??
His passion is that intense.
His search for knowledge is the child like curiosity to seek the stars.
And his mission is always, about the journey not the destination.
The wisest doctor is gravelled by the curiosity of a child.
Words were never more apt.
Despite, the most monumental and devastating, heartbreak any parent, will ever have to confront
He, along with his tightly knit family, surmounted the odds and prevailed.
In treading, on broken glass, through life.
In finding meaning in music, together, to soothe the soul.
In always seeking the higher objective of serving Goa, both as a Doctor and an activist, to cherish the memory of the One, who gave the entire family, their greatest and undisputed joy.
One always wonders, what is Grief?? Grief that one holds like a lance in your being, for the rest of your life.
Until one realizes that Grief is the most pristine, the most divine and non complex form of Love!!
It’s only when one Grieves, ceaselessly
That one Loves, unconditionally
And that one Lives Completely.
The rest, Wealth, Fame, Power, Talent whatever are like selfies
Transient, Shallow and never good enough.
You always think you can do a better Selfie.
Love, that is the only emotion, that is timeless and matchless and eventually generous.
And this family, led by this Man, abundantly gave Love to his friends and patients, friends and indeed foes, Goa and society at large.
A cardiologist with truly a remarkably Big Heart.
Of course, it’s tough to debate him on his entrenched convictions
Ramrod integrity on his professed ideology of socialism and secularism, is and will always be his calling card.
No matter the obstacles
No matter the counter argument.
No matter the easy way out.
I, unsuccessfully, tried to persuade him on the nuances and changing tides of Goan politics and wider society.
All my arguments fell flat.
Most often, I had to beat a retreat with a bloody nose.
He could never compromise with Hate and Bitterness that had injected itself into the Goan social fabric.
Not one teeny weeny bit.
Did he have faults.
Like all humans, of course he did.
By far, was his legendary temper.
The Wrath of God in Romans 1:18, would have had tough competition with him
And on a 1-10 scale on Temper
The good doctor would win.
He was truly a melange of many contradictions.
Soft as a puppy, fierce as a Tiger.
Patient with the sick and needy, impatient with inefficiency and sloth.
Jovial and gregarious as an operatic flourish, reflective and quiet as a lingering love ballad.
Scientific to the last molecule yet unflinching in his Faith.
A poet and a Doctor
A modernist yet of vintage quality.
A Man of this land, by this land and for this land
Fifty years of medicine
Forty odd years of the Country’s, foremost Echocardiography.
Ladies and Gentlemen
I give you
Colaço
Francisco Colaço
Never Shaken.
Always stirring !!!