BY S. MALLAPARAJA RAO, B.A., L.T.

Machilipatnam mourns the death of its dearest son. Andhra-desa stands bereaved. The medical profession has lost one of its brightest ornaments. No more can that tall, broad-shouldered, firm-lipped, well-chiseled, khadi-clad figure erect on an unusually high B.S.A. cycle be seen riding through the streets of the ancient city of Machilipatnam, on daily healing rounds, regular as the Sun's. No more will that face, perpetually calm and confident, and child-like, sweet, simple and open, shed cheer and health all around.

On the fateful evening of Friday, the 16th of October 1931, the call came from above, sudden and terrible, and the soul of Dr. K. Ahobala Rao left its mortal sheath and flew to the heavenly Father, Whose work he had done on earth for about two decades, with unique and selfless devotion.

He was not full fifty years and seemed to be in possession of perfect health. Even on the last day, he went with clock-like regularity through his daily routine. He got up before the Sun, had his morning exercise, examined for about three hours his patients who were very large in number. He then went on his rounds in the town, returned home after twelve and had his Spartan meal and a brief rest. By two o'clock his friends were ready and he had his game of bridge with them. By 4-30 he biked at top speed to his Cosmopolitan Club for tennis. He had not played three games when he felt giddy, left the court and reclined on the ground. He yet called to his friends to go on with the game. Quickly spasms followed. Doctors came and did what all was possible at such brief notice. Some said a blood vessel burst in the brain and others that an artery in the heart gave way. But what could they do? The darling of the gods did not need any human aid. If he did, could not he, who rescued thousands from the jaws of Death, have forestalled this catastrophe and saved himself? He was wanted by his Father perhaps for work in other spheres. It was for him to obey. At 5 p.m. his body was carried to his house, a mansion with over seventy high doors, open always as his ever-open, spacious heart, and laid on his cot in his favourite semi-circular hall.

As wild-fire the news spread through the vast town and to the villages around. All shops closed. All business stopped in an instant. Men from all parts of the town, men of all classes, creeds and ages, ran towards the bungalow to have a darshan of the body. There was not one in the whole crowd who did not shed tears or anguish.

Next noon the body, still fresh and composed as in natural sleep, was laid in a tastefully decorated easy chair. Lo! when muskets were fired and the chair was lifted up by over a hundred arms, even as the Sun was shining bright, there was a light shower. Was it a shower of flowers from heaven? Was it a shower of tears from the gods weeping at the death of their darling? Or were they their tears of joy that, after nearly fifty long years of separation, they were having their brother amidst them again?

The body was carried through the principal streets of the town, and, in spite of the heavy downpour of rain which commenced on the way and lasted an hour, a huge procession followed it till burning sandal-wood consumed it and shot the incense up the way the great soul had flown. There was a complete and spontaneous hartal. Not even a pinch of snuff or a betel leaf could be had in the market.

What is the secret of this universal love and respect he commanded? Why did the people of Machilipatnam do obeisance to his body as they have never done to any other? Since his return from England about twenty years back, unceasingly and selflessly, without an eye to recompense, in obedience to his own inner, law, as a tree yielding its fruit unmindful who takes it up, as the clouds which drop down rain on all alike, Dr. K. Ahobala Rao had dealt out health and life all around. He was born for service to humanity. For the sake of that service he remained a bachelor life long and that service he rendered as a karmayogin. He treated the zamindar and beggar with equal care and sympathy. He never demanded money. He took what his patients gave him of their free will and full heart, and put it into his pocket without counting. The money so earned he gave away with both hands. Poor students, musicians, poets, artists, all received his bounty. For his friends he was a never-failing mine. Whoever asked, it was not in his nature to say ‘No.’

Though an allopathic doctor, educated in Scotland and holding the degrees M.B., C.H. and D.T.M., his leanings were towards the natural system of healing. He worked with Nature. Diet and fast, exercise and rest, water, light and air and suggestion, were the chief remedial agents he employed. He used the minimum of drugs. Sometimes he used them as a matter of unavoidable necessity, and oftentimes for the mental satisfaction of the patients, who could not be shaken out of their age-long drug superstition. His diagnosis was shrewd, quick, and sure, and his prescriptions were simple, masterly, and unerringly effective. He had due regard to the Ayurvedic and Unani systems and directed patients where they could get relief. It is impossible to find a physician so candid and confessing so openly the limitations of his profession.

He patronised juniors. They might come and learn under him and go when they liked. He did not mind if his practice suffered thereby. He was only too glad if they flourished and carried relief a little deeper into suffering humanity.

There is practically no house in Machilipstnam which is not under a debt to him. Patients from all parts of Andhradesa flocked to him. His name became a household word and disease was as it were conjured away with it. His open child-like smile, his confident look, and that indescribable something which was in him and which is always in the anointed ones of God, attacked disease and half cured it before medicine went down the patient's throat.

It was not only as a physician and a man of unbounded charity that Dr. K. Ahobala Rao served his fellowmen. Long ago he had ceased to be a mere individual. He was in himself an institution, a great healing and synthesizing institution. In him, the allopathic, the Ayurvedic, the Unani, the natural and the faith cure systems lost their antagonisms. He was a strong Congressman and was in the forefront of the Non-Co-operation movement. But the Justice party leaders and Government officials did not cease to be his staunch friends and admirers. His life was an object lesson in equity and equality, and his table was truly a round table. The Hindu, the Muslim and the Christian, the Brahmin and the Non-Brahmin, the official and the non-official, the Justicite and the Congressite, the zamindar and the pauper, forgot their differences and conflicts in his presence. He was the friend of them all and treated them with equal familiarity and consideration. The proudest official felt him his equal. The stalwart rowdy loved him as his own brother. The child played with him as with a fellow of its own age. Such was the magic of the love welling out of his heart, which instinctively realised the essential human unity underlying all apparent differences of caste colour, creed, age and sex.

There was no activity, worthy of note, in Machilipatnam with which he was not associated. Whenever there was a keenly contested wrestling match, Dr. Ahobala Rao must be the umpire. It was only his decision the combatants would honour and abide by. He was the President of Y. M. W. Badminton Club, the founder of the Cosmopolitan Tennis Club and the chief member of the Chatrapur Theatrical Company. He was a member of the Government Temperance Committee and also the President of the local Congress Committee. He was on the Managing Committee of the Hindu College and also on the Governing Body of the Andhra Jatheeya Kalasala. He was the President of the Board of Trustees of Ramalingeswara's temple and the Managing Director of the Andhra Insurance Company. Wherever he was, his strong commonsense showed the way, his voice carried weight, his personality quieted opposition, and his selflessness, candour, and good humour kept miles away the rivalries, recriminations and intrigues which nowadays often vitiate public life. If the Andhra Insurance Company did such vast business and reached such stability and standing in such a short time, it was mainly due to the mighty influence he wielded and the aroma his name carried through Andhradesa and beyond. What is to become of those institutions now? Whither will the different parts of society drift, now that the strong cementing force which held them together is no longer there?

I heard a small girl of five whisper to her ten-year-old sister, "Our Ahobala Rao is dead. When next we fall ill, what is to become of us and to whom can we go?" There are very few in Machilipatnam whose minds are not likewise agitated. The death of Dr. K. Ahobala Rao has left a void which cannot be filled.

But happy was he, happy in his birth, happy in his life and happy in his death. In spite of his multifarious activities and great achievements, he lived and died a child. The cares and sorrows of the world never touched him. "No Happiness without peace" Santhamu leka saukhyamu lethu, was his favourite tune. While he played at bridge, while he indulged in light talk with his companions, and while he attended to serious business he often hummed that tune. Who knows, as he hummed it, to what mental discipline he was slowly subjecting himself? He perfected the virtue of santam and reaped to the full its reward, anandam. He was floating in it. Reverses he had, and financial losses. The vile tooth of ingratitude bit him hard and often. But he cared not. He did not allow all that to interfere with his peace and bliss.

He still continues his mission of service. The suffering of womenfolk moved him to tears and he often gave expression to his desire that Machilipatnam should have a Gosha Hospital of sufficient magnitude to alleviate that suffering and to reduce child mortality. It is perhaps the decree of God that his desire should be fulfilled through his death. On the 21st of October, there was a huge meeting in the Machilipatnam Town Hall and it was resolved to raise a fund of at least a lakh of rupees and erect in a suitable place in the town a free hosipital for women and children as a fitting monument to him. The hands that are seen working are those of his ‘friends’ and ‘admirers.’ The inspiration is coming from above. From the footstool of God he is animating, watching and guiding those below. May the whole of Andhradesa respond to the call and continue the work of healing and synthesis which Dr. K. Ahobala Rao died doing!

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