WHAT I THINK ABOUT WHEN I THINK ABOUT WRITING

Dr Chandrakant Shah with his granddaughters Neha and Anita on his birthday.

By DR CHANDRAKANT SHAH

I turned eighty-nine last month. Recently, someone asked me why I write. Is it a hobby, an urge to impart a message to readers, or a feeling of importance that an old man can still do it?

Is writing stressful? Do I run out of subjects to write on? When do I think I will stop writing?

Before I attempt to answer some of these, let me tell you something about myself which will help you understand how I became a writer.

Growing up in a small town in India, I learned English as a second language in grade eight from teachers who did not emphasize grammar, writing or reading English literature. During my undergraduate years in premedical and medical, I read only English textbooks and not any medical journals (which was the norm then).

However, at the age of 31 in 1967, transformative changes started happening. I was hired in 1966 as a research fellow in the Department of Paediatrics at the University of British Columbia by the late Dr Geoffrey Robinson. We did some ground-breaking research which needed to be published.

Publishing scientific papers requires clarity, grammar and syntax, vocabulary, critical thinking, creativity, research, time management and adaptability.

As I had never written or even read scientific papers, I was lost. I was drowning in self-doubt! I vividly remember how I dreaded every Saturday morning as we met in Dr Robin-son’s office from 8 to 11. He would review the draft of the paper I had written, fuss and fume over a short sentence or a few words and rewrite them. Not accustomed to the rigour of writing, I used to get frustrated and did not know why he was making such a commotion! I was almost ready to quit.

During this period, I was promoted to assistant professor in the Department of Paediatrics. The head of the department invited my wife and I for dinner at the Faculty Club. During casual conversation, he emphasized that to survive in the academic environment, I must learn a dictum, “Publish or perish”.

As I always enjoyed teaching, I realized I must become proficient in writing to be published.

The next phase of my learning occurred upon the realization that while I was good at creativity and ideas, I was mediocre at writing. I needed a collaborator or service provider who was more proficient in the English language.

The ideal solution would have been for me to take courses in English grammar and writing. Unfortunately, I thought I was too busy to take time off to do so, which I still regret! When I moved to Toronto in 1972 as a staff member at the Hospital for Sick Children, I was happy to learn that it had an editing department which provided me with a lifeline for writing my research papers.

In the early 1980s, as there was no comprehensive Canadian textbook on public health and preventive medicine, I decided to write one. I invited my colleagues to be coauthors, but it never materialized. So finally, I decided to go alone. As I also did not know how to type, I coerced my elder son Sunil to type the manuscript; fortunately for me with his proficiency in the English language, he became my de facto editor at the age of 18.

After the rejection of my textbook manuscript by three publishers, I decided to self-publish the first edition of the book in 1987 and found it a successful venture. We did the next three editions together and learned about the different types of editors and used their services. During this period, I experienced another transformative change: as mentioned above, I could not type and for writing in modern days, I needed to learn to type.

At the age of 55, I embarked on learning to type. After trials and tribulation for three months, I did learn typing, and I dubbed my success as “freedom fifty-five” as I was no longer dependent on others to do my typing! I also learned about various computer programs such as Microsoft and Page-Maker.

In 2003, the fifth edition of my book was bought out by one of the largest medical publishing companies, Elsevier Canada; and the sixth edition of the book was called Shah’s Public Health and Preventive Health Care in Canada 2020.

Over the years, my writing has progressed from research papers and textbooks to position papers on subjects like homelessness, briefs to various levels of government and non-government agencies, letters to editors of scientific and lay publishers expressing my views on subjects dear to my heart; more recently writing articles in media to provide a “voice to the voiceless” on various subjects to educate the general public for advocating the need for change in our attitudes and developing healthy public policies; and finally, writing my memoir, To Change the World, My Work with Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Canada with the hope to inspire my readers on how to maintain a sustained commitment to the cause they believe in.

You may ask, have I made any impact by doing so? While I have been fortunate to see the results of my writing, the sole reason for writing in my old age is to impart knowledge and understanding from my experience to readers. I also strongly believe the quote from the Bhagavad Gita, ‘Do what you think is right without expecting the fruits of your efforts’.

Have I become a writer? Well, I am yet to master writing skills! I still make many grammatical errors, write a convoluted sentence or string my words the wrong way around. Head without chicken instead of headless chicken, for instance!

I still seek help from others including my granddaughters to correct my grammatical errors and now use apps such as Grammarly.

However, I am not deterred! As Margaret Atwood said, “If I waited for perfection, I would never write”.

SENIOR MOMENT

WHAT I THINK ABOUT WHEN I THINK ABOUT WRITING