Caduceus as a symbol of medicine emblem of the physician [...] it is most unfortunate that the 'confusion' exists." In an anonymous rebuttal contained in a letter to the editor published three months later in "The Military Surgeon" it was claimed that the late Col. John R. van Hoff was a member of the board that selected the emblem ("if he was not the one who was chiefly instrumental in its adoption"). In the letter to the editor reproduced by Emerson, the anonymous author claims According to this view the caduceus was not intended to be a medical symbol (and, though explained differently, this reflects the
Margarita with a Straw into the narrative. Bose and Maniyar worked for two years on the script as it went through over forty revisions before becoming the final screenplay. Bose originally intended to cast actors with the same disabilities as the characters of Laila and Khanum. Since there were no actresses with cerebral palsy in India, she held auditions for the role in institutions that catered to patients, but could not find a suitable person to play the central role. Bose also had a meeting with a blind actress in her early thirties to discuss the role of Khanum, a character she associated herself