Bengaluru: Most know him as an orthopaedist, but Dr Thomas Chandy is as much at home with jazz and playing various instruments as he is in the operating theatre doing joint replacement surgery.
Chairman and director of HOSMAT Hospital, Dr Chandy’s passion for jazz and other music began when he was still in high school. "I used to listen to the Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, Elvis Presley, Cliff Richard and many more," he reminisces.
He was even then a part of a band called Spartan Rock and later when doing his PUC and studying medicine he was part of two other bands, ‘Missing Link’ and Barber Shop Harmony.
In the years since he has played at many prominent weddings and various clubs in the city. Only recently his band played at the 2013 St John's Medical College's Golden Jubilee and at the St John's Blue and Gold ball this January.
Besides being the lead singer and vocalist, he is also a collector and has nearly 300 musical instruments in a museum of his own. “The collection is the highest in the country,” says the proud doctor.
His passion for music stayed with him when he went to the US to do further studies. Besides learning all about bones and how to deal with fractures and various diseases affecting them, he did a diploma at the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music.
“I stayed in the US for 17 years and when my wife and I moved to Oklahoma I began playing the saxophone and piano," reveals the doctor , who has some 200 shows under his belt since 2000.
"I was the leader and founder of a jazz revival band back in 2000. Now we do more retro, Latin and Spanish," he reveals, admitting, "Once you start loving music and getting used to it, music flows in your blood and you cannot let it go."
