An engaging medical memoir that sparks important questions

The Hindu

15-05-2025

In 'Untold Tales from a Family Physician's Bag', B.C. Rao chronicles decades of clinical experiences with a mix of medical insight, personal anecdotes, and social observations.
The book is part memoir, part casebook -- and while it attempts to unpack the human complexities behind diagnosis and treatment, it also opens up difficult, necessary conversations about the limitations of the system itself -- the broader social, ethical, and systemic issues -- sometimes insightfully, sometimes awkwardly.
Dr. Rao writes with the confidence of someone who has seen much and thought deeply about it. His tone is often frank, occasionally humourous, and, at times, wryly critical -- especially of patients who 'google too much,' hop between doctors, or fail to disclose symptoms fully.
The medical system -- diagnosis, privilege and pressure
Some of the most layered reflections come in the chapters dealing with patriarchy and sexual health. In one, a patient embarrassed to speak of sexual issues is eventually found to have tuberculosis of the prostate --something that mirrors the importance of full disclosure, but also how cultural taboos keep patients silent. These stories open up space for medical education and awareness. There are genuinely useful takeaways-- like the evolving understanding of ulcers (from stress to H. pylori, and the Nobel-winning discovery by Barry Marshall and Robin Warren) and the complexity of diagnosing conditions like ischemic heart disease or transverse myelitis.
However, the humour in some chapters -- particularly when dealing with 'difficult' or multi-symptom patients can feel like it stems from a place of privilege. What might be exhausting for the doctor is, for the patient, often the lived chaos of chronic illness. There's room here for a deeper reckoning: How can the medical community better hold space for suffering that doesn't fit a neat diagnostic box?
Dr. Rao ambitiously tries to place medicine within broader societal contexts -- touching on patriarchy, caste, stigma, and sexual health. These are essential and relevant themes. But in doing so, the book sometimes risks overstretching its metaphors or tying social evils too directly to disease, as if culture and biology were interchangeable.
Diseases don't have moral compasses. They aren't carriers of cultural baggage, even if social structures influence how we perceive or treat them. Some of the framing -- especially when discussing 'honour,' or drawing analogies between caste and illness -- may unintentionally blur that line.
That said, Dr. Rao's willingness to address taboo topics on sexual health and embarrassment around symptoms is noteworthy. These are areas many clinicians still sidestep, and his candor does add value.
Questions more than answers
What binds the stories together is a quiet undercurrent of systemic critique -- of how questions of affordability pushes patients to drift between practitioners, how pharmaceutical pressures warp clinical judgment, and how even the best of intentions can get lost in hierarchy. The book raises important questions about ethics, education, and the future of healthcare, especially post the worst phases of COVID where telemedicine has become a new normal.
But there's also a sense of unresolved tension: for all its wisdom, the book occasionally mirrors the weak spots it seeks to illuminate -- chief among them being the patient's voice. While we hear a great deal about what patients do 'wrong,' we hear less about how medical systems and mindsets can evolve to meet them where they are, and even less from patients themselves, whose voice is entirely missing.
'Untold Tales from a Family Physician's Bag' is not just a window into a doctor's career -- it's a mirror held up to the culture of medicine itself. It's insightful, wide-ranging, and often engaging. But it also leaves the reader with discomfort, sometimes, especially about how patient experiences are narrated and interpreted.
Perhaps, that discomfort is useful. It prompts reflection. How can doctors listen better? How can patients be encouraged to share more openly? Can we forsee a justice-framed healthcare system?
The book doesn't offer easy answers. But it invites readers—doctors, patients, and everyone in between-- to sit with these questions. And that, perhaps, is its greatest strength.