A medical and surgical store officer at GBH American Hospital in Udaipur, Gopal, has been working in the health sector since 2005. He has worked at various stores, including Hotel Lake Palace, Rajasthan Petroleum, and Udaipur Hospital. Gopal believes that a pharmacist with knowledge of medicines is essential for the medical and surgical departments.

Gopal Das is working as a medical and surgical store officer at GBH American Hospital, Udaipur. The store has five sales counters. All the purchases for the counters are done by the store manager. His main task is to control the inventory and purchase, and then to dispatch goods to all five counters.

Describing his journey, Gopal shares that after completing his M.Com., his first appointment was at Hotel Lake Palace. Then he worked at Rajasthan Petroleum. Thereafter, he got into the health sector by serving at Udaipur Hospital from 1995–2005. Since 2005, he has been working at GBH American Hospital.

Talking about the pandemic situation, Gopal says his department played a key role during the tough times. But they faced certain challenges, like the fact that distributors or suppliers were not ready to dispatch goods due to lockdown. The government permitted the functioning of such stores only for a limited amount of time. There was a scarcity of manpower, so the transfer of goods was a bit challenging. But his department ensured the timely supply and availability of medicines so that patients did not suffer.

It was a tough time. They had to protect themselves while fulfilling their responsibilities. He even lost one of his co-workers at the store due to COVID. After the incident, they became more alert, took more precautions, and saved themselves from Corona while doing their duties.

The government declared a lockdown for everyone, but as his service in the health sector falls under essential services, he and his coworkers worked 24/7 during the lockdown to serve people.

He says that to work in the medical and surgical departments, a person should be a pharmacist and have knowledge of medicines.

“Leadership comes from experience”, says Gopal. Only a few lucky ones are born leaders.

He considers his parents to be his source of inspiration. Also, he gets motivated by his elder brother, who is a retired RAS officer. His role models are his coworkers. He finds his manager, Mr. Porwal, very inspiring and supportive.

Gopal is a nature lover. He believes that nature has taught him a lot. Talking about his lifestyle, he mentions that he has built a small cowshed at his place. His day starts at 4 a.m. by reciting slokas and chanting mantras, and then he spends time with his cows, taking care of them and managing them. Then he does some exercises, and after breakfast, he leaves for the hospital at 9:30 a.m. Till 6:30 p.m., he works at the hospital and then returns home, looks after his cows, prepares dinner, and sleeps by 10 p.m. so that he can wake up early.

Gopal is a supporter of the ‘Atma Nirbhar Bharat’ call given by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi. During COVID time, he thought of doing something of his own apart from his regular job. He produced unique, ayurvedic, and herbal incense sticks from the by-products of his cowshed, which included cow dung, ghee, etc., and even Ganga Jal. It is a combination of nine herbal products. He named it ‘Gaumay gauyagya dhoopbatti’. Today, it is very popular in the market and is even exported to other nations, including Japan.

He believes that the biggest offering or deed that we can do is to not harm anyone and to not hurt anyone with our words, actions, or thoughts, knowingly or unknowingly.