Kashmir Impulse Desk
Srinagar, Aug 8
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah described cardiologist Dr Upendra Kaul’s memoir as a “love letter” to Kashmir as he launched the revised second edition of the book in Srinagar on Saturday.
Abdullah was speaking at the launch of When the Heart Speaks: A Memoir of a Cardiologist at the Radisson Collection Hotel & Spa, Riverfront, Srinagar.
The chief minister said the memoir went beyond Kaul’s medical career to document his experiences, struggles, travels, relationships and long-standing attachment to Kashmir.
He described the book as an account of both personal challenges and professional experiences, including Kaul’s observations about practices within the medical profession.
Abdullah praised the cardiologist for writing candidly about the profession, saying an honest autobiography inevitably risks upsetting people because it requires the writer to put forward experiences and views without sanitising them.
He said Kaul’s interests extended beyond cardiology and that his writing reflected a broader engagement with subjects unrelated to his medical specialisation.
The chief minister also highlighted Kaul’s repeated visits to Srinagar to treat patients requiring specialised cardiac care.
Abdullah said Kaul could have concentrated on the financial rewards of his profession but instead chose to provide assistance to people who could not afford expensive medical treatment.
He also referred to a centre established by Kaul in memory of his late mother, describing it as both an expression of gratitude and an effort to make healthcare accessible to people with limited means.
Abdullah urged Kaul to continue writing and jokingly suggested that a third edition should contain more stories and anecdotes.
Kaul, a Padma Shri awardee, said his decades-long association with Kashmir had been driven by affection and a sense of responsibility towards its people.
Speaking on the sidelines of the book launch, he recalled continuing to assist Kashmiri patients during the turbulent 1990s, when healthcare services in the Valley faced significant disruption.
While working at AIIMS, Kaul said he made an effort to examine patients arriving from Kashmir even when they reached his outpatient department late in the evening.
He said he would sometimes remain at the hospital until 11 p.m. or midnight to see patients who had travelled from the Valley.
Kaul said his decision to treat Kashmiri patients had drawn criticism, including accusations that he was serving Muslim patients for financial gain. He said such criticism did not deter him.
His assistance, he said, extended beyond medicine. During the 1990s, he helped some people who had left Kashmir find employment, including placing some at his hospital and helping others secure jobs elsewhere.
Kaul said his memoir recorded such experiences alongside professional anecdotes, including cases involving patients unable to afford expensive cardiac procedures or medical devices.
His healthcare initiative is now being expanded beyond existing programmes in Kashmir. Kaul said the Gauri Kaul Foundation planned to extend its heart-health services to Jammu.
A cardiac centre has already been established in south Kashmir, he said, while an outreach programme seeks to take specialised care closer to patients rather than requiring them to travel to major hospitals.
“We felt that everybody cannot come in. We must go to them,” Kaul said.
The programme includes a mobile “heart clinic on wheels” equipped with facilities such as echocardiography. The clinic visits Ayushman centres and schools as part of an effort to detect cardiac conditions at an early stage.
Kaul said the initiative focuses in part on children between five and 15 years old and that early identification could improve the management of cardiac conditions.
He said thousands of people had already been screened and the programme was targeting about 6000 beneficiaries.
The longer-term objective is to expand the programme across all districts of Jammu and Kashmir, although Kaul said such expansion would require time and greater participation from healthcare professionals and institutions.
He said several organisations had supported the programme with equipment and other assistance and that work was underway to obtain support for research into cardiovascular disease prevention.
Kaul also said his team was pursuing research into new approaches to cardiovascular treatment and prevention, including alternatives to conventional aspirin-based treatment.
He stressed the importance of preventive cardiology, saying healthcare should focus not only on treating serious disease after it develops but also on early detection and prevention.
National Conference leader and Member of Parliament Mian Altaf also spoke at the event.
MLA Muhammad Yusuf Tarigami, Delhi Public School Srinagar chairman Vijay Dhar and SSM College of Engineering and Technology chairperson Dilafrose Qazi were among those present.
