Hard on the heals

At 92, Reddy, who remains deeply involved with the hospital chain he founded, tells Shine Jacob why he believes the country needs to push for ‘Heal in India’

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At the Apollo Hospitals corporate office, Sunny Side Building, in the heart of Chennai, as I wait for Prathap C Reddy to meet me, my mind races with questions. Iam still thinking of them when the 92-year-old walks into the room, greets me warmly, and takes a seat.

Ninety-two years is along time. Where does one even begin asking about them? But then, 92 years can give you the ability to read people’s minds. The founder-chairman of Apollo Hospitals astutely gauges my predicament, and decides to begin at the beginning — from his village, Aragonda, in the Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh, which has three temples, dedicated to

Parameshwara, Rama, and Hanuman, but back in the day had no school.

Reddy would have a tutor teach him at 3 pm every day. But before those special classes, he and a group of some 10 friends would climb atop a hill in the village and jump into a water body 20-ft down. Perhaps, behind those heroics was the conviction that no harm would come to them even if they went into freefall from that height. After all, Reddy’s was no ordinary village. Legend had it that when Hanuman was transporting the mountain with the sanjeevani booti (life-reviving herb) to save Laxman, half of that mountain fell in this village. Perhaps, it was then destined that Reddy would choose a profession that involved healing.

Decades later, in March 2000, America’s then president Bill Clinton would inaugurate the world’s first VSAT-enabled telemedicine centre at Aragonda. He would watch a doctor consulting a child from the village

with heart disease and assuring her that she would lead a normal life. Describing it asa “wonderful contribution to the healthcare of people who live in rural villages,” Clinton had said to Reddy: “... Ihope that people all over the world will follow your lead.”