A Cardiac Centre with a Difference

A day care heart centre is located on the Mughal Road, 8 kms from Pulwama town after crossing the Laar Nala bridge (Larri Kadal). It is bang opposite the Hawal village, Rajpora (Tehsil Pulwama) on one side of the Rastriya Rifles and CRP Camp. The centre is named after a grand old man Late Prasad Joo Khan.

Who was Prasad Joo Khan and what is the importance of Hawal village?

He was my grandfather and was born in this village, which used to be one of the very few Kashmiri Pandit predominant villages. He started his carrier as a Patwari in Shrimal, Kellar block, Shopian. The village was inhabited mainly by forty families of Pandits and around 10 Muslim families. The Khan surname came because our forefathers were working for Afghans as accountants during their rule from 1752 -1819 AD. Pandits owned the entire agricultural land while the Muslim neighbours were either artisan, washermen, potters, barbers and landless agricultural peasants who were hired for land tilling by the Pandits. Some of them also worked as domestic servants for Pandit’s. During my father’s time in 1930’s there was a primary school with just one teacher from the village. After primary school, students had to go to Pulwama which had a middle school. Those few students who had to study further had either to go to a high school in Shopian run by Pandit teachers or go to Srinagar, which was preferred if they had some relations in the city. Very few children would study beyond middle and high school.

The village was surrounded by paddy fields and apple orchards. It had 2 temples, Bidabal the temple of Goddess Durga (currently inside the Rastrya Rifles camp) and a Ganesh temple on a nearby hillock on the Shopian road. There is one mosque, near the a stream and a Sufi place of worship called Siminie where Pandits and Muslims of the village used to go on specific days linked to the Sufi saint. One more mosque near the bus stand has been made over the years. The nearest gurudwara was in Shadimarg, a predominantly Sikh village about 3 kms away, very close to the forests of Yarwan. This is a very historic Gurudwara because the place was visited by Guru Hargobind, the 6^th Sikh Guru. It is also popularly known as the Chatti Patshahi. Hawl, thus had a world of its own with a harmonious co-existence of people belonging to different faiths.

The village also was very well known for a big general store which would sell everything from hardware, cloth, tea leaves, herbs, common medicines, Kashmiri bread, kiryana, stationary etc. It was a supermarket of the present days. People from neighbouring villages would also come to buy things from this shop, which was a retail as well as a whole sale shop. Barter system was allowed. Customers would bring paddy from their fields and buy things in exchange for it. The village after 1990s, when the unfortunate migration of Pandits took place, wears a desolate look with only one Pandit family continuing to live there. The houses can be seen as fossilized tall buildings giving it a very depressing look.

Back to roots:

With the formation of our NGO Gauri Kaul Foundation, one of the missions of ours was to set up a state of the art day care heart care centre in this remote part of the valley. We built it in year 2020-21 on a piece of land owned by me on the main road. It was fully equipped with diagnostic cardiac equipment, like ECG, Echo cardiography, Ultrasound, equipment for tread mill testing (TMT), long term ECG monitoring, head up tilt testing etc. All the blood biochemistry tests including some point of care tests (with reports within 10 minutes) to diagnose, heart failure, heart attack and clotting of blood are available. The centre has a well-stocked pharmacy manned by a qualified pharmacist. Our endeavour is to fully evaluate the patient, carry out tests and prescribe the treatment the same day. Sick patients requiring admission are transferred to hospitals in our ambulance.

The centre provides care to patients coming from villages near by and also far off villages from South of Pulwama, Shopian and Kulgam districts (a population of more than 10 lakhs). Besides, patients from Rajouri and Poonch areas come through the Moghul Road. I visit the centre for one full day on Thursdays and the amount of satisfaction I get is beyond description. People treat me with open arms, hug me, and kiss me on my forehead. Most of them want me to come at least twice a week. My other colleagues are there on other days.

The generous funding provided by the CSR of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) made it possible to equip the centre. In fact, the centre was inaugurated by Dr Alka Mittal the then CEO of ONGC in September 2022.

Upcoming Additions

A generous grant by Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) is going to get us a mobile “Cardiac Clinic on Wheels” before the end of this year. It would be a very spacious ambulance with cardiac diagnostic facilities which would include, ECG, bedside echocardiography using a portable rugged echocardiography machine, blood sampling and point of care tests with instant reports. This would enable us to carry on all the required blood tests on the spot with reports in a few hours on the Roche equipment. The mobile clinic will be meant for villages of South Kashmir and would visit different hubs with prior information.

Our dream is to make a hospital in the village with admission facilities and a cardiac catheterization laboratory for patients with acute cardiac problems who are not in a condition to be shifted to Srinagar hospitals and give them the best possible care near their homes.

Acknowledgements

Without the joint efforts of all our trustees this service would not have been possible. Our grateful regards to:

Mr Mohammed Asad Pathan formerly CEO of IOCL and Group Resident Director, Delhi with TATA’s and Founder Trustee of Gauri Kaul Foundation.

Mrs Devaki Jain, An eminent women champion and economist

Mrs Meera Shah, A prominent social worker

Mr Amod Kanth, A policeman, social activist, and founder of NGO Prayas

Dr Sudhir Singh Bloeria, Former Chief Secretary J & K and Vice Chancellor Central University Jammu and Kashmir

Prof Upendra Kaul, prominent cardiologist, recipient of Padma Shri and Dr B C Roy Award, and Founder Director Gauri Kaul Foundation