100 bylines by the Bay: Former editor in India reclaims reporter’s stripes as U.S. freelancer

AS I WRITE this essay, I have one foot in 2025 and the other in 1959. That’s the year British-Canadian novelist Arthur Hailey published his novel The Final Diagnosis, a staggering saga about medical decisions and hospital drama in Burlington, Pennsylvania. In the climax of the book, an experienced pathologist cautions his younger colleague about the perils of seniority, specifically, the way the managerial mantle slowly chips away at one’s core skill.

“You’ll sit in that chair and the phone will ring, and it’ll be the administrator — talking about budgets. Next minute one of the lab staff will want to quit; and you’ll have to smooth that out. Then someone wanting some piece of information. And when you’re through seeing him there’ll be another and another and another. Until at the end of a day, you’ll wonder what happened to it and what you’ve accomplished, what you’ve achieved.”