Science, Stories and Sevagram: A Physician-Teacher's Reflections
Reading Time: 6 minutesThe images flashing across our screens over the last three days are grim. The skies over the Middle East are streaked with the exhaust of ballistic missiles. The geopolitical chess match between the USA, Israel, and Iran has escalated into intense bombardment, leaving cities damaged, civilians terrified, and world peace hanging by a dangerously frayed … Read more
Reading Time: 7 minutesI have known Ulhas Jajoo for nearly five decades, and in all that time I have never seen him wear a shoe. This creates a problem at retirement. The usual cliché — he hung up his boots — simply does not apply. For days I searched for the right phrase and found nothing that fit. … Read more
Reading Time: 2 minutesYesterday evening I watched India vs New Zealand (T20) at VCA Stadium, Jamtha, with my son and my granddaughters. Three generations, one match, and my mind full of old memories. It took me back to another India–New Zealand game I saw in Nagpur long ago, in 1969, at the old VCA ground at Sadar. I … Read more
Reading Time: 5 minutes(4 February 1937 – 19 January 2026) I have just learnt that Dr. Madhao Dattatraya Khapre passed away this evening in Nagpur. He served MGIMS as Professor and Head of Pharmacology for many years—from February 1971 to August 1987. Outside the campus, he was a devoted senior member of the Shri Dnyaneshwar Madhuradvait Sampradaya. In … Read more
Reading Time: 3 minutesA song my mother loved returns on her hundredth birthday, carrying with it a life lived quietly—of faith, family, endurance, and an unspoken understanding that, in the end, we walk alone.
Reading Time: 2 minutesYesterday morning, the MGIMS campus was very quiet. It was Badi Behenji’s death anniversary. We gathered around her samadhi in the garden—students and staff sat on the grass, and the elders took the chairs. The Sevagram winter air was sharp and clear. The Friday prayers had just ended. Usually, we leave after the readings from … Read more
Reading Time: 2 minutesWe pause today to remember our beloved Dr. Sushila Nayar—fondly remembered by generations as Badi Behenji—on the anniversary of her passing. Looking back at records from 1938, it is humbling to glimpse the world she stepped into. At a time when India had barely ten medical colleges, she was one of just 51 women in … Read more
Reading Time: 7 minutesI call her Badibai—the elder mother. It is a heavy title, perhaps, for a woman who is my sister, but from the moment I opened my eyes to the world, her affection has been as encompassing and natural as a well-worn cotton sari.
Reading Time: 3 minutesThis morning an old man stepped into my office, his jacket sagging and a faded muffler loose around his neck. His wooden tulsi beads had deepened in colour with age as he joined his palms with a shy, familiar smile. ‘Gabbar,’ I said. ‘So you have come.
Reading Time: 3 minutesThe bustle of modern elections brings back memories of an older, quieter contest in Sevagram. I recall the Lok Sabha battles of Dr. Sushila Nayar, ‘Behenji’, and the humble scooters that powered a movement of great medical and social work.