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Malegaon Pharmacist (73) who never sleeps

Badruz Zaman, a 73-yr-old Pharmacist based in Malegaon, has never slept in his life-time except dozing off for few minutes which he says is not a “disease” but doctors term it a rarest of rare case of “permanent insomnia”. Read More

Sunday January 28, 2024 11:01 PM , Aleem Faizee, ummid.com

[Badruz Zaman in an exclusive interview with ummid.com Saturday January 27, 2024]

Malegaon: Badruz Zaman, a 73-yr-old Pharmacist based in Malegaon, has never slept in his life-time except dozing off for few minutes which he says is not a “disease” but doctors term it a rarest of rare case of “permanent insomnia”.

Despite this peculiar condition, Badruz Zaman never felt any problem or health issue - neither during his childhood nor in the later part of his life. His parents however were worried. They realised in his early age that their child has problem sleeping when they regularly found him awake for night after the nights.

Surprising for them was also the fact that the sleeplessness and staying awake round the clock did not have any adverse effect on his health and he could be seen busy in his daily routine hassle-free and without any difficulty. Nonetheless, his father Mohammed Amin decided to consult a Physician.

“I was 6 then. Dr Syed had his clinic right in front of Noor Hospital at Mushawerat Chowk where Dr Abbas Ali Luqman, a renowned Physician of Mumbai, used to visit once in a month. After thoroughly checking me up for more than half an hour, he took a pen and paper”, Badruz Zaman recalled.

“The sleep centre in your son’s brain is very very small”, Dr Abbas Ali Luqman explained to my father with the help of brain structure he had sketched on the paper, referring to the hypothalamus - the peanut-sized structure deep inside the brain which contains groups of nerve cells that act as control centers affecting sleep and arousal.

“You don’t have to worry about. It’s no illness”, he said.

Badruz Zaman said after the checkup by Dr Abbas Ali Luqman at Dr Syed’s clinic sometimes in 1958 neither he nor his parents approached any other doctor to discuss his “sleeplessness”.

“It might be because I never reported any problem because of me staying awake all through the nights and days”, he said.

Interestingly, Badruz Zaman smartly used his peculiar medical condition in his profession making his Pharmacy only one to serve customers 24x7 from early eighties till 2020 when he had to retire because of a cardiac issue.

“People needing to buy medical prescriptions at 03 or 04 past mid-night will directly drop at Janta Medical Stores fully assured and confident that I will be there to their service”, Badruz Zaman told ummid.com.

“Doctors and patients both should come to you”

The opening of Badruz Zaman’s Janta Medical Stores in itself is an interesting story. He recalled his uncle, Abdul Aziz, after completing MBBS and BDS from Grant Medical College (JJ Hospital) Mumbai wanted to open a clinic like his colleagues. Badruz Zaman’s grandfather Ahmed Ghode Wale however had a different idea.

“He asked my uncle Dr Abdul Aziz to do something which brings to his doors not only the patients but the doctors too”, he recalled.

Ahmed Ghode Wale was a Member of Malegaon Municipal Council. Badruz Zaman credits construction of the Water Tank at the maidan where freedom fighter Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan had addressed a rally and which currently hosts Malegaon Filter Plant to his grandfather.

Ahmed Ghode Wale had a social instinct and used to help the poor weavers of Malegaon who because of insufficient funds would sell their Sarees to adhtis and beoparis - the traders of Sapati Bazaar, on through-away prices thus regularly incurring losses. Ahmed Ghode Wale would support the weavers by purchasing their Sarees on fair prices.

“So on my grandfather’s advice, my uncle Dr Abdul Aziz opened a medical store instead of running a clinic. Janta Medical Store is also one of the earliest medical stores opened in Malegaon and remained for years the only pharmacy serving customers 24x7”, he added.

The doctor-turned-pharmacist Abdul Aziz, who later married former Maharashtra Minister Nehal Ahmed’s sister, also obtained a B.Ed. degree and joined ATT High School as a teacher.

“Napoleon Bonaparte of Malegaon”

Badruz Zaman never felt uneasiness because of the lack of sleep. But, his typical characteristic of staying awake during the night made him a darling of the people who love spending nights chatting and in gossip, and his Janta Medical Store a hub of such people.

Dr Pervez Faizee, Taluka Medical Officer (TMO) Malegaon, who very often visited Badruz Zaman’s pharmacy right below the Janta Lodge on Mohammed Ali Road developed a kind of bond and friendship with him.

“Dr Ambekar in our friends circle would lovingly call Badru Bhayya Napoleon Bonaparte of Malegaon”, Dr Pervez Faizee said.

Napoleon was famous for sleeping very little, with some even claiming that the French Emperor was suffering from sleep apnea syndrome – potentially a serious sleep disorder.

[Badruz Zaman (R) and Dr Pervez Faizee]

Dr MS Ambekar - a famous Sexologist currently based in Nashik, compared Badruz Zaman with Napoleon. But unlike Badruz Zaman, Napoleon used to have a nap during the day that his colleagues said repaired his fatigue.

Talking further about Badruz Zaman, Dr Pervez said he never met in his more than 30 years of practice any patient with such a typical “sleep disorder” if it indeed is a “disorder”.

“We can at the best describe Badruz Zaman’s condition a rarest of rare type of permanent insomnia”, he said adding that Badru Bahayya feeling no uneasiness or fatigue because of sleeplessness in itself is a mystery.

“Unusually High Blood Pressure”

Sleepless nights became part of Badruz Zaman’s life and people now stopped wondering and even noticing it. However his rarest of rare case of insomnia came for a discussion once again in 2020 when he reported some cardiac problem and went to doctors for medical assistance.

“I went to Dr Nazeer Jawale of Mumbai, Dr Dharmadhikari of Nashik and Dr Gaurav Thakre of Malegaon – all popular cardiologists, for medical assistance. An angiography was also conducted on me. Upon enquiry, they too were surprised about my sleeplessness and prescribed some tablets. Even after consuming these tablets I did not feel like sleeping”, he said.

During the course of the treatment, however, it turned out that Badruz Zaman’s blood pressure (BP) is always around 180-190.

“It was surprising for the doctors but I did not feel uncomfortable. On the other hand, the tablets they prescribed to lower my BP made me uneasy. So I stopped taking any tablet for High BP”, he said.

Due to the cardiac problem, Badruz Zaman’s sons persuaded him to call it a day. Badruz Zaman said good-bye to his pharmacy after serving customers for more than fifty years, with a body still in excellent physical and mental condition.

And to company him while he is awake in the nights … no not a smartphone as Badruz Zaman believes the grand-old Nokia 3310 is enough to keep him connected with the world, are the books he has collected all these years.

[The writer, Aleem Faizee, is Founder Editor of ummid.com. He can be reached at aleem.faizee@gmail.com]

 

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