Sowbhagya Munishankar - A Story of Medicine and Culture in Dundee
“Dundee is a nice place. I have lived in Dundee more than
anywhere else and my heart is in Dundee”
Born in Mysore, India in 1948, Sowbhagya (known as Bhagya) went to various Indian schools, moving with her father who worked as a Registrar of Cooperative Societies and had to move to different postings. At the age of 16, she started her medical career in Mysore Medical College. Graduating as a doctor with an MBBS degree in 1971, she worked as a junior house officer before getting married in 1973 to Dr Munishankar and moving with him to the United Kingdom. They first settled in Guildford where she got her first job in the NHS.
In 1975, her husband got a job in the newly opened Ninewells Hospital in Dundee. When they first moved to Dundee, they stayed in a single room at Maryfield Hospital due to lack of resident accommodation for doctors. They had to eat every day at the canteen because they did not have access to kitchen facilities. They struggled to get a mortgage to buy a house. However, when her husband got a Registrar job, the hospital gave them a six-month interest-free loan towards a mortgage. They moved to West Ferry where they lived for seven years before moving to Hamilton Street in Broughty Ferry where they stayed until 2016.
Bhagya started working in Ninewells Hospital as a Senior House Officer in Anaesthetics for a year, then worked as a Registrar in Anaesthetics for two years, while training towards a career in Anaesthetics. As her work involved different locations (Dundee Royal Infirmary, Stracathro Hospital and Ninewells), she quickly obtained her driving licence as this was a requisite for her employment. Unfortunately, in 1978, when she had her daughter Sowmya, she had to take a break in her career because she was unable to get paid maternity leave. The hospital was unable to extend her contract to cover the maternity leave period. She was however able to retain her medical skills with the Women Doctors Retainer Scheme, which allowed her to work two sessions a week for two years instead of the usual ten sessions plus out-of-hours schedule that is routine for a full-time doctor. As childcare was challenging, with limited nursery places available, she gave up her ambition of becoming a Consultant Anaesthetist. She instead took up a ‘non-training post’ which keeps you employed at a middle-grade level with limited scope for progression to a Consultant post. She therefore worked as a Clinical Assistant in Anaesthetics, which allowed her to limit her sessions to eight per week. In order to support her child, she worked two whole days (24 hours) a week which was equivalent to eight sessions, and was able to engage a child minder for one day per week to cover her absence. This gave her the necessary time to look after her daughter, with school runs and out-of-school activities. Her husband was unable to help with childcare as he worked six days a week as a Consultant in Radiotherapy at Dundee Royal Infirmary. Once her daughter was more independent, she was able to progress to an Associate Specialist level in Anaesthetics and in the last two years before retirement, she was able to take up a full-time Locum Consultant post.
Bhagya really enjoyed her work at Ninewells. When she first started, the department of Anaesthetics was very small with only seven consultants. She recalls: “the department was very supportive and I had a very good mentor”. She specialised in Maternity Anaesthetics. “It was a very nice department. The whole team of Anaesthetists, Obstetricians, Midwives and the rest of the team was really like a big family and I had a very good working experience there”.
She recollects that when she first came to Dundee, there were very few Indians and she could share her culture with very few friends. There was only one Indian shop in Dundee where the availability of Indian food stuffs was limited. There were also very few Indian restaurants at that time (the Balaka being the one she remembers, which had a limited range of Indian cuisine). She therefore recollects going often to Glasgow and London to shop and meet friends. “I learned to cook after coming to Dundee,” she recalls. “I knew so little that I had to read the instructions on the Uncle Ben’s rice packets to make rice”. However, she gradually developed a passion for cooking and came to love cooking for her friends and guests. She enjoyed inviting her work colleagues home because they loved her Indian food.
Bhagya has always kept busy and actively contributed to the Dundee community. Initially there was no government support for IVF (In Vitro Fertilisation) treatment to help people struggling to have children. The Tayside Infertility Research Group at Ninewells Hospital started supporting IVF as much as they could without government funding. Doctors and nurses gave their own time, unpaid, to support the patients. Bhagya herself went in to anaesthetise patients during the procedure. “I would go into the hospital at 8am for the procedure before regular work started at 9am”. She did this for some years before IVF treatment was officially funded by the NHS. She also helped raise funds through her involvement in the Indian Community. She and her colleagues held various fundraising events for IVF. “The farmers were very generous. We would arrange events in their houses and I would cook curry for 20 people. People would pay to come and watch the demonstration and eat Indian food”.
Bhagya’s daughter attended the High School of Dundee. “[It] was a good school. There were no computers in those days and all the parents had to go to the Wellgate Library to get books for school homework. All the mothers would go to the library and we all got along well. My daughter was born in Dundee, got married in Guthrie Castle and had her first baby in Dundee.”
As her daughter grew and required less of her time, Bhagya volunteered at the Oxfam and Shelter shops for eight years as she could fit this in between her childcare duties and her regular work as an Anaesthetist at Ninewells. When her daughter showed an interest in learning Indian dance, Bhagya was happy to be introduced to Mrs Swati Raut, a PhD student at the University of St Andrews who was trained in and could teach the traditional Indian dance, Bharatnatyam. Bhagya hired a church hall and organised classes for other interested children and adults. She would personally pick up and drop off Swati, who did not drive. Bhagya worked in close association with Dr Bishwanath Bose, an engineering lecturer at Dundee Institute of Technology, who was interested in music and helped to form the Asian Cultural Association of Tayside & Fife in 1987. They worked together to invite artists from India to come and perform in Dundee and their shows were held in Bonar Hall and other venues. Bhagya, being from Karnataka region in India, had developed close links with the community organisation Kannada Balaga UK and through this she was able to invite artists to come from London and Manchester to perform, as well as conducting week-long classes in Indian dance and music in Dundee. Dr Bose died in 2008 but Bhagya continues to be a committee member of Kannada Balaga UK and was their Treasurer for over ten years.
Bhagya and her husband moved to Glasgow in 2016 to be closer to their daughter and grandchildren. She continues to be active in the community, organising Indian festivals like Ugadi, Diwali and Rajyotsava, with cultural shows and games. She supports a monthly singing group on SAN TV. She recently won the SAN TV Community Award for her role in the G61/G62 Community Response team, a registered Scottish charity providing voluntary support for vulnerable and isolated residents across Bearsden and Milngavie.
Although Bhagya is leading an active life in Glasgow, she often comes to Dundee to visit friends. “I miss Dundee. I lived there for 43 years, most of my life, and consider it my home. It is a very nice place, very clean and not much traffic. The people are friendly, and I did not face any racism. I had very good colleagues and friends there. I enjoyed walking along the Broughty Ferry beach with my dog and it was beautiful. My heart belongs to Dundee.”
Written by Deepa Sumukadas, with thanks to Bhagya Munishankar for sharing her story.
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