Executive homeopathy

LUNCH WITH BS: Dr Mukesh Batra

Dr Mukesh Batra

The homeopath with 32 clinics on his new corporate model for cures

A Maqbool Fida Husain painting, kept in one of the clinics of Dr Mukesh Batra, chairman and managing director of Dr Batra's Positive Health Clinic Pvt Ltd, depicts him as a Hanuman carrying a mountain of traditional herbs. Waiting for Batra at the lobby of Taj's Sidewok at the National Centre for Performing Arts (NCPA), I wonder whether Batra is busy carrying medicines for some other celebrity patient today as he's running late.

"I had to attend a programme on Radio City," a profusely apologetic Batra tells me. As I remind him of his Hanuman avatar, a smiling Batra informs me another clinic has Husain's Madhuri Dikshit painting on its ceiling.

Before we sit down for the lunch, Divyakant Solanki, our photographer, wants him to pose at the Sidewok bar with the wine bottles in the backdrop but Batra doesn't seem comfortable with the idea since he's a teetotaller.

Once Solanki is through with his shooting, Batra takes a look at his digital camera. The pioneer of the super speciality homeopathic clinic in India is a reputed photographer specialsing in landscape photography. His company's calendar features his breathtaking photographs of the Himalayas.

We decide to get our food before we settle down. Batra goes for dahi pani puri for starters and mutton dhansak for the main course. "Give me only gravy and no mutton," he tells the waiter but later changes his mind and joins me for stir fried noodles, chicken garlic wok and vegetable wok.

Even though it's a buffet lunch, a waiter volunteers to serve us. Batra is quite well-known here and often drops in at Sidewok for dinner after watching a play at NCPA.

"You must attend one of our family dinners. It's a medical conference. We only talk medicines while eating. Both my parents are doctors and so are my wife and in-laws," Batra tells me while eating dahi pani puri.

The man who's turned homepathy into a flourishing business and expanded into branches the way a Dr Max or an Apollo Hospitals would do, tells me how he began his career with a charitable trust in Mumbai at a remuneration of Rs 150 per month and worked their for nine years till he started his own clinic in 1982.

At the time of leaving the trust, he was seeing 325 patients a day and earning Rs 650 per month. Today, all 32 of his clinics are networked into a common database and customer care centres remind patients of appointments by SMS and even courier medicines to patients who pay Rs 6,500 for an annual package.

"No bank loan was available while I set up the clinic as lenders wondered how a homeopath would repay the loan. I wanted to set up a fully-computerised clinic where I could store data on patients and develop a software to prescribe the right medicine," Batra says while reaching out for noodles.

Although there are 2,000 basic medicines, there could be 98,000 combinations. Finally, he raised Rs 10 lakh from different sources at 36 per cent interest per annum to go ahead with his mission.

A regular column in Illustrated Weekly in the 1980s, possibly the longest running column by a homeopath, helped him create an awareness about homeopathy.

By 1995, after treating over 50,000 patients, Batra sat down to analyse the success of his treatment and found that the results had been good for 18 diseases, mostly related to hair loss, skin problems, diabetes, arthritis, neurological disorders and sexual dysfunctions.

This gave birth to India's first speciality clinic, inaugurated by the then finance minister Manmohan Singh who Batra says was a patient when he was Reserve Bank of India governor. He then rattles off surnames (he doesn't wish to give the first name!) of celebrity patients as well as people he's played host to.

These include the Deols (of film star Dharmendra fame), the Kapoor clan (which runs from Prithviraj to Kareena), and recitals at home have featured Roop Kumar Rathod and Ghulam Ali.

"In 2001, I moved out of practice and became an entrepreneur. Now 700 people work for the company and 215 full time doctors attend to 72,000 patients a day," Batra says, adding that the idea of branches occured to him when, in the 1990s, the waiting period for an appointment at his client was one year.

Apart from 32 clinics in the country, he has one in London and another in Mauritius and a cyber clinic, which offers online consultation. "Globally, there has not been any instance of a homeopath doctor venturing into healthcare retailing," he tells me with a smile, enjoying his tiramasu.

Last year, his business turnover was Rs 39 crore. This year, he projects a turnover of around Rs 60 crore and plans to introduce over-the-counter FMCG products "" shampoo, conditioner and cough syrup to be sold from any outlet across the country.

Winding down our lunch, and trying to save on a Rs 6,500 annual payout, I ask Batra what medicine I should take when I feel stressed. "If you are under stress due to grief or bad news, take Phosphoric Acid 6c, two doses a day.

If you're overworked (hah!), then take Picric Acid 6c, five pills daily," he tells me. Too many drinks at a party, it appears, can be fixed with one dose of Nux Vom 200 at bed time, and a broken heart can get some solace from two doses of Ignatia 200c.

Finally, the piece de resistance, Batra recommends Lycopodium 200 for erectile dysfunction due to excessive worry and stress, and Staphysagria 30c if this is due to suppressed emotions.

As we are about to leave, a waiter comes and seeks Batra's advice for his wife who is suffering from Stephen Johnson's disease, a tissue disorder which can lead to blindness.

Batra leaves his visiting card with him and promises to see him next week when he comes for dinner at this place after watching a play at the NCPA. I recall the Husain painting as we part company.