Hailing from Mumbai, little did homeopathist Dr Farokh Master, realise that he would one day be the first Indian recipient of an Honorary Doctorate in Homeopathy and Honourary Fellow of Registration Consul of Homeopathy in the UK. At a conference in Dubai recently, Dr Master got a personal letter of appreciation from Mr Charles Tinkard Hahnemann, the great, great grandson of Dr Samuel Hahnemann, the founder of Homeopathy.

The document recognises the amount of work and experience that Master has spent in understanding the psychology of pregnant mothers, unborn children and the effects of the family and environment.

A visibly excited Dr Master says, I have written 40 books on this subjects that have been translated into German, Russian, Japanese, Polish, Italian and Hungarian and it was then that I realised that my work had withstood the test of time and are now noted as influential works of their kind.

And how did Dr Master feel when he received the honour? I felt honoured that I had represented my country at that level and felt that my 27 years of hard work in this field had paid off.

And were there any interesting anecdotes from the occasion? When Lord Aaron Kenneth Ward Atherton (Lord of Witly and Hurcott-Worcestershire) presented me with the award, he said that even though he is a layman, he could understand the depth of the work which I have put in over so many years.

And what's food for thought literally is that Dr Master has been invited for a Christmas Eve dinner with the Royal Family as a Learned Guest.

If you thought homeopathy was all about sweet pills in a little vial, then it couldn't be more true for this doctor, as the same pills have taken him far indeed.