YAAD AATI HAI DR R P KAPOOR KI... BY Ali Peter John

He was a friend of Dr B R Chopra from their days in Lahore in Pakistan before partition and had come to Bombay during the refugees walking into Bombay . He was a doctor who set up his practice in the faraway fisherman's village of Versova - ALI PETER JOHN

He was also a close friend of Sahir Ludhianvi who had a bungalow built in the old style of the local people . He practiced on the ground floor and had his house in the first floor .

The bungalow originally belonged to Sahir Ludhianvi who when he built his own apartments in Juhu asked Dr Kapoor to occupy his bungalow and the bungalow became very popular as Dr Kapoor's bungalow and his patients were mostly all the kolis ( fisherman's community from Versova , who treated him like a God who had only come to save them from all ailments and diseases ) .

All he had was a stethoscope round his neck and a huge box of thousands of colourful tablets which he gave away to his patients like peppermints or toffees and they believed that they would be healed and saved .

But his reputation received one big shot in the arm when leading filmmakers like B R Chopra , Ramanand Sagar and their families visited his clinic regularly ..

But the one time that his clinic became the Mecca of all patients all over was when Lata Mangeshkar reached his clinic one morning and soon her sister Asha Bhosle also kept visiting him regularly.

The sisters traveled all the way from Napean Sea Road whenever they had any problems with their health. And Dr Kapoor didn't need any publicity for his clinic . The name of Lata Mangeshkar as his patient was all that he needed to make his clinic popular and he soon had a school called Versova Welfare High School buit by him

And till the end of his life , he believed that his destiny changed after Lata Mangeshkar entered his clinic for the first time