By Ramesh Kebbehundi
Street services are hardly an anomaly in Mysuru like any other cities and villages in India. Around the corner, you can find a man sitting on the street side repairing bicycle tires with his tool kit in his lap. Move a little further, you will find a puncture shop guy ready with a smile to close the nagging hole which has taken off the wind from your vehicle tyre and you can find sidewalk chefs preside over vats of hot oil to fry sweet and savoury pastries. You can also find self-proclaimed roadside dentists performing complicated dental procedures on patients with limited funds using almost medieval equipment. There’s no clinic, no costly chairs, no electric drills, there’s no need for an appointment and consultation fees even. Patients just pull up a plastic stool and hope the dentist will relieve any pain with a set of steel pliers. Street dentist Babu Rao, whose ancestors are from Rajasthan, learnt the dentist trade from his family. He’s now been in this business since many years. Babu Rao is currently settled at Mahadeshwara Layout near Kumbarakoppal.
