he spends almost the entire day seated in a five feet by four feet unani hospital known as dawakhana hakim raazi (572 sachapir street, pune camp). and, he has been practising here for the past 36 years. born on february 2, 1920, hakim raazi, a shagird (student) of the late totewalla hakim, claims to have treated thousands of patients, including those critically ill. he is a gynaecologist, sexologist and a general practitioner too. alongwith medicine, his patients are also seen seeking his blessings, as he is believed to be a spiritual man. hakim raazi started his career in unani medicine in 1940. after working as an assistant to totewalla hakim for four years, raazi did a correspondence degree course in umdatul atibba from the ajmal tibbia college, amritsar. besides this, he is a holder of a registered medical practitioner's certificate, which he got in 1952. after working with his ustaad (teacher) for 25 years, hakim raazi started his own dawakhana, which he still runs. it is difficult to find this grand-old-man of hikmat alone since his small clinic, which is open and faces the busy road leading to shivaji market, always has patients, either seeking his advice and blessings or taking medicines that come at an affordable price. when this correspondent went to meet him, hakim raazi was attending to a couple of women patients. the cheerful hakim offered a chair just outside his clinic while he was busy mixing powders kept in different bottles for the patients. although the bottles do not have labels; the hakim can pick the right medicine even if he is blindfolded. shuffle them and i will have a tough time searching for the medicines! he tells us, adding please ask me anything you want to. one of the women, laxmi rajaram wanga, says she came all the way from katraj. what brought her to this hakim? laxmi says that she learned about hakim raazi's healing touch and effective medicines from people in her area who were cured of various illnesses. is the medicine costly? no, not at all, she replies quickly. i had piles and have been taking this medicine for just 10 days and i feel much better now. the women walk away with the medicine and another man walks in with blisters in his mouth. dear, you have a bad stomach, and will be all right within two days, hakim assures him. he gives this patient pudis (a mixture of powders wrapped in paper) to be taken twice daily and advises him to eat less spicy and non-veg food. anything to apply to the mouth, asks the patient. well, for the moment, you just eat dry coconut, the hakim advises his patient. ask hakim raazi if he has dealt with any hopeless cases and he replies: yes, i have successfully handled many cases where doctors had given up. he recalls treating a city businessman suffering nasoor, a disease that generally strikes the feet leading to swelling and septic. deepakbhai had been advised to get his legs amputated by a doctor. however, the patient approached me and within a short span of time he was cured. deepakbhai is still in town and gives me lot of dua (blessings). the octogenarian hakim has a bicycle to take him virtually everywhere. besides reaching any place in the city, he pedals his way to far off places, including chinchwad where his eldest son, who is aged 58, stays with his family. what is the secret behind his own good health? special medicines? no way, the secret of my health at this age is regular exercise, hard work and eating less than my appetite, says he. besides eating less, i eat less of non-vegetarian and spicy food and also grind the medicines at home myself, he adds with a smile. hakim raazi is also an urdu poet and has written four poetry books. besides this, he is the editor and publisher of an urdu literary monthly magazine, takallum. thus, the hakim is never found idle. he is either busy with his patients or has someone attentively listening to his shayari!
