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 …
The Birth of a Dream: How MGIMS Sevagram came into Being
In May 1964, after Prime Minister Nehru died, Lal Bahadur Shastri assumed office. One day, during an informal conversation, Shastriji shared a concern with Union Health Minister Dr. Sushila Nayar: “We produce thousands of doctors every year, yet our villages remain without care. These doctors are trained in cities. And stay there. Why can’t we …
Why I remember Dr Sandeep Kumar Dey Today
Last Thursday, a plane crashed in Ahmedabad. In just a moment, 274 lives were lost—people on board and on the ground. As the news scrolled across my screen, something stirred deep inside me. A long-healed scar began to ache again. In that moment, I was transported back 25 years—to another plane crash, another tragedy, another …
Two Tragedies
Yesterday’s Air India tragedy in Ahmedabad, where 241 lives were lost within moments of takeoff, has left the nation grieving. For many of us, the news brought a wave of shock and sorrow. For some, it also stirred the memory of another flight, another heartbreak, from a time long past. In January 1966, 𝗟𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁 Mahajan …
𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗟𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗛𝗼𝘀𝗽𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗧𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗚𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗕𝗶𝗿𝘁𝗵 𝘁𝗼 𝗠𝗚𝗜𝗠𝗦
When Gandhiji was assassinated in January 1948, the world Dr. Sushila Nayar had built her life around collapsed. She was just 33. In the chaos that followed, she threw herself into relief work—rescuing abducted women from the violence of riot-torn Punjab. Something inside her had broken. She had lost Bapu. And with him, the compass …
The Jouney of MGIMS Library
Long before Sevagram became a sprawling campus of healing and learning, something quietly profound took root beside the Biochemistry lab on the ground floor of the old Kasturba hospital. It was 1969. The college was just finding its footing—and so was its library. A single almirah, 35 books, one table, and two chairs. But what …
More than Books: A Tribute to MGIMS Library and Dr. R.V. Agrawal
Bhupendra Nath Das—widely known as B.N. Das and one of the earliest members of the MGIMS library team—called me this morning. Now in his early 80s, his voice quivered with emotion as he reminisced about Dr. R.V. Agrawal’s role in establishing the MGIMS library. B.N. Das, then a 24-year-old from Calcutta, would later retire from …
A Voice that built MGIMS
August 8, 1968. A date like many others in the national calendar—almost forgotten. But in a modest meeting room in Delhi, something quietly historic stirred. Three minds met. The agenda: to build a medical college in Sevagram Morarji Desai, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister, was from Delhi—famoulsy frugal. Beside him sat Vasantrao Naik, Chief …
The Dark Room
This evening I was walking past the old Kasturba Hospital building—the one that now houses the Department of Community Medicine. I had walked past it hundreds of times, but today, something made me stop. There it was: a small, weather-beaten board that read “𝗗𝗮𝗿𝗸 𝗥𝗼𝗼𝗺.” It hung askew on the aging wall, its rusted edges …
Happy Birthday, Pendsey!
𝘎𝘶𝘵𝘦𝘯 𝘔𝘰𝘳𝘨𝘦𝘯, Pendsey. 𝘞𝘪𝘦 𝘨𝘦𝘩𝘵 𝘦𝘴 𝘐𝘩𝘯𝘦𝘯? 𝘜𝘯𝘥 Happy Birthday! It’s the 18th of May. Like always, I wake up thinking of you, 𝗗𝗿. 𝗦𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗮𝗱 𝗣𝗲𝗻𝗱𝘀𝗲𝘆. For years, I’d call and surprise you with my rusty German. You’d laugh, loudly. “𝘝𝘪𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘯 𝘋𝘢𝘯𝘬,” you’d say. Your accent was better. Your joy, louder. That laugh still echoes. …
Doing away with MD thesis
I must admit that I, too, was—and still am—a medical teacher who guided—or is misguided the more appropriate word?—over three dozen postgraduates in writing their MD theses. I do not wish to stand on a pedestal or adopt a “holier than thou” posture. I have erred, misjudged, behaved badly, mishandled situations, and at times, been …