Added to the problems were the superstitions which denied such cases medical care or worsened them even further. He had not heard of deaths due to scorpion stings till then and was surprised to know that such deaths were common in his area of clinical practice. It was here that he was introduced to the problem of scorpion stings for the first time. In a short time, he established himself as a dedicated, honest, and a skilled doctor. Yet he decided to work there with a great personal interest and slowly reformed the PHC. Rampant corruption, unclean premises, and lazy physician peers were the norm. PHC presented him with a grim picture of the health system. Fighting the red tape he managed to get posting at a small PHC in the costal district of Raigad. His strong roots with rural parts prompted him to opt for the position of a Medical Officer at a Primary Health Centre (PHC) rather than a housejob at a medical college.
He lost his confidence and it was only after the completion of his MBBS degree and a prolonged treatment that he came out of the mental trauma. However, certain circumstances made him depressed and disillusioned during his college days. He still recounts how he knew complete Gray's anatomy by heart and emphasizes his deep study of pathology which has proven useful for his research.
Misfit in college and with lack of guidance, hard work was the only asset he possessed. He was enrolled at Government Medical College, Nagpur for his MBBS degree. Adversity taught him that he would have to fight for everything in life and nothing would come easy. He had to take up all kinds of jobs from working in the fields, hotels, temples, bookshops, chemist's shop, brick kiln, and many such odd places to support his education. The determination to educate his children earned his illiterate father the nickname “barrister.” His childhood was marked with incessant hardships.
His father recognized that education was the only tool that would liberate the family from their sufferings. He was fondly named as “Himmatrao” meaning “one who is courageous” it was years later that he proved that no other name would have suited him better. Bawaskar was born in a small village with a population of 500 in rural Maharashtra to a poor farmer in the early 1950s.
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