Dr K.V. Desikan, a legend in leprosy, passed away on 23rd October, 2022. He was ninety six. In a career spanning more than sixty years, Dr. Desikan invested considerable effort and time trying to understand the mystery that shrouds leprosy. He began working in an area few others cared about. Leprosy, in the early fifties, …
Dr BC Harinath
The passing away of Dr BC Harinath evokes so many memories. He came to Sevagram in 1970, fresh with a PhD in Biochemistry from the USA. Sevagram was a small village then and young Harinath had trouble adjusting to Sevagram. The first batch of medical students had arrived only a year ago and Dr Harinath …
Remembering Dr. H.C. Attal
This morning, my friend Ramesh Mundle called to inform me that Dr. H.C. Attal, former Professor of Medicine at GMC Nagpur, passed away yesterday at the age of 80. He taught us medicine during our residency at Government Medical College, Nagpur, in the late 1970s and early 1980s. He led one of the six medicine …
A Vist, A Downpour and a Suitcase Full of Yesterdays
Exactly a week ago, I landed in Indore to visit my elder sister. But my heart tugged in another direction—toward someone I had to see. Dr. Karunakar Trivedi. That morning, I dialed his number. His voice, gentle and warm, hadn’t changed with time. He welcomed me without pause. By noon, I was standing before Trivedi …
Gandhi and the Mystery of Blood Pressure
“Yesterday, I took three drops of Sarpagandha—morning and evening. Walked and talked. Still, my blood pressure was 196/ 112. But there’s no cause for worry.” “I took three drops of Sarpagandha—morning and evening. Walked. Talked. Still, my blood pressure is 196 over 112. But there’s no cause for worry.” A letter. Dated October 28, 1941. …
Anaemia Story 1942
This afternoon, while leafing through the brittle pages of a dusty medical journal, I paused. There it was—a paper from 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘐𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘢𝘯 𝘔𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘎𝘢𝘻𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘦, dated August 1942. The author: Dr. Sushila Nayar. I blinked. Could it be 𝘰𝘶𝘳 Sushila Nayar? The physician who walked beside Gandhiji and founded 𝘩𝘦𝘳 MGIMS? The young doctor who became …
𝗙𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗖𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗼𝗺𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗖𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗶𝗰𝘀: 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗠𝗚𝗜𝗠𝗦 𝗥𝘂𝗿𝗮𝗹 𝗣𝗼𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗙𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁
“Enough is enough,” thundered Dr. Sushila Nayar, her voice cutting through the hall.“No more free PG seats for MGIMS boys and girls. If they want postgraduate degrees, they must first serve two years in the villages.” She meant it. In 1969, Dr. Nayar had built MGIMS on a dream: to raise doctors who would live …
The Man Behind the Keys: The Story of Manilal Pathak
Every institution has its unsung builders—some lay bricks, others teach, a few lead. And then there are those who, in quiet corners, type history into being. One keystroke at a time. Mr. Manilal Pathak was one such man. He was born on 5 February 1944 in Jethwara, a village in Uttar Pradesh’s Pratapgarh district. His …
April 22. One Year.
22nd April. One Year. Exactly a year ago, in the quiet hours of the morning, Dhirubhai left us. He was 86. It still feels unreal. Time slows when I think of him. When Dr. Sushila Nayar invited him in 1982 to take charge of MGIMS, he hesitated. “I couldn’t even pronounce the names of half …
Dr. K.N. Ingley
(December 9, 1931 – April 19, 2025)Dr. Keshao Narayan Ingley—known to all as Dr. K.N. Ingley—was born on December 9, 1931, in the dusty heartland of Buldhana. As the eldest of five siblings, he learned early what it meant to lead, to share, and to wait his turn. The home was always full—voices echoing through …
The Mother and the Daughter
Once, in the bustle of Ashok Nagar, Wardha, near the now-quiet ruins of the old Model High School, lived a woman named Pramila. Born on October 3, 1976, in Gondia, she grew up like many others—wrapped in the routines of daily life, with little warning of what lay ahead. She married Ramesh, a mason with …
The Attendant and the Superintendent
Remember Rama Jagtap? You should. The boy from Hinganghat village, the one who worked in the Paediatrics OPD in the late 1970s. Thin, eager, barely twenty, with eyes that held more hope than fear. He had just married. Life was beginning to bloom when a bolt struck from nowhere. Without warning, his services were terminated. …