Journey of two friends, two doctors in their late twenties

By: Dr. Angeli Misra and Dr. Asha Bhatnagar

Dr. Asha Bhtanagar		Dr. Angeli Misra

 

Twenty six years back- two friends’ two doctors in their late twenties decided they wanted to follow their dreams. They wanted to set up a Centre of Excellence in diagnostic pathology and bring to the door step the highest quality of testing anyone, anywhere in the world could offer.
Both Doctors Dr. Asha Bhatnagar and Dr. Angeli Misra belonged to middle class families and both had been recently married with the responsibilities of the job and a small child and the family.
There was no money to start an enterprise like this which needed a good amount of investment. Their husbands had just started their careers and both of them could not expect their family to contribute as they had lost their father and had only single parents then mothers who were looking after them.
It was not easy! They started to look out for a loan to be able to finance them. But the available loan was only 70% and 30% would have to be provided by the promoters.
In 1991, They cut down the project cost and decided to start slow. They took a small garage on rent. To come up with the 30% the gathered of all their jewellery and sold all that jewellery for a small amount of Rs 60,000. A small loan was taken and the lab was equipped.
It was difficult for 2 young ladies to get across in a man’s world. But they were determined to make it a success. The lab was staffed by just one technician and one courier boy along with these two doctors.
Everything was done by them starting from registering a patient doing the test and typing the reports. So much so the doors were closed and sweeping, dusting and cleaning the toilets also done by them. They worked 12-14 hours a day. Late evenings, lunch time and early mornings they visited doctors to inform them regarding their facilities and the tests they had to offer. Having post graduated from the prestigious AIIMS Dr Angeli had been trained in advanced technology and investigations. Slowly they convinced the doctors to trust their laboratory for investigations.
There was a strict quality control back then too and a good communication with the doctors and patients.
In 1993, The laboratory grew slowly from 1 garage to 4 garages and then more and more automated equipments were added.
The laboratory moved finally to single large floor of about 3000 sq. ft. Over the years it has now become a world class state of art lab with the best equipments and a large team of Doctors, Technicians and support staff. The area has now doubled to 6000 sq ft.                                                                                                                                                                                            
On recalling the journey the two doctors remember those days. It was not easy. Besides looking after their newly established laboratory they had to take care of them small children. Dr Angeli had a daughter 3 years old and Dr Bhatnagar a 2 year old daughter. The same year 3 months after starting the lab Dr. Angeli Misra had given birth to a son also. The ladies did not want to compromise on their duties as a mother. The children were put in day care and after that they were picked up by their maternal grandmothers and taken home by them. Many a days after day care they would be picked up in an auto and brought to the laboratory where the mothers and the children would have lunch together in a nearby park.

But all the hard work paid up. 26 years down the children have become professional and the laboratory is known as one of his best in the city.

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