The Mantle of a Doctor: From Nalanda to Wardha

My father, Avinash Shankar, was born on a day when the horizon of Bisai Bigha—a small, quiet village in the Nalanda district of Bihar—seemed to stretch only as far as the local fields. He grew up in a home defined by the modest, honest labor of the land. My grandfather, Chamari Ram, farmed a small plot of earth, while my grandmother, Gulabi Devi, anchored the family of six children. My father was the second of three sons. It was his elder brother, Kishori Ram, a schoolteacher, who became the architect of my father’s future. Kishori Ram was more than a brother; he was a mentor and a father figure who ensured that the poverty of the village never became a poverty of the mind.

While his brothers went into engineering and his sisters attended local schools, my father was the first to feel the weight and the honor of the medical mantle. His early education took place in Warisaliganj at SGBK Sahu High School, where Kishori Ram taught. He later moved to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel College in Bhabua, encouraged by a village professor who recognized his potential.

Medicine was not a childhood dream—in Bisai Bigha, such dreams were luxuries—but after his intermediate studies, he moved to Patna to join the Bose Coaching Academy. When the results of the combined PMT arrived, he faced a choice: the prestige of BHU or the modest experiment in rural medicine at Sevagram. He chose MGIMS. The scholarship offered there made the impossible possible, and he would later tell me that this single decision was the pivot upon which his entire life turned.

The Solo Journey and the Simple Promise

In 1973, my father left Bihar for the first time in his life. He traveled alone, a young man with a steel trunk and a nervous heart, heading toward a village in Maharashtra he had only seen on a map. He stayed at the Gandhi Ashram, overwhelmed by the scale of the world outside his home state. He often recalled with deep gratitude a stranger in the Dean’s office who saw his confusion and gently helped him find his way.

When he finally stood before the interview panel, the questions were not about his mastery of science, but about his commitment to the soil. “You have come from so far,” they noted. “Will you stay or will you leave?” My father looked at them and gave the only answer he knew to be true: “I will stay.”

Sevagram was an awakening. The orientation camp at the Ashram introduced him to a mosaic of India—classmates from every corner of the country whose backgrounds were as diverse as the languages they spoke. He often described himself as “naive” during those early days, but he felt profoundly lucky. He found that MGIMS was the perfect confluence of rigorous medicine and deep humanity. Teachers like Dr. Swarnalata Samal didn’t just instruct him; they cared for him like family, providing the warmth he needed to bridge the gap between rural Bihar and professional medicine.

A Restless Pursuit of Knowledge

If Sevagram gave my father his moral compass, his post-Sevagram years revealed a man of extraordinary, almost restless, intellectual hunger. He didn’t just want to be a doctor; he wanted to master every facet of human healing. After leaving the red soil of Wardha, he embarked on a clinical and academic odyssey that few could replicate.

He completed his post-graduation in Internal Medicine, but his curiosity led him to the sub-specialties. He earned a DM in Endocrinology from AIIMS under the legendary Dr. Ahuja, followed by a DM in Critical Care Medicine from SRM Chennai. But my father’s vision of healing was not confined to Western medicine alone. He sought to understand the ancient roots of his culture, eventually earning a PhD in Ayurveda.

He understood that medicine existed within a social and legal framework, which led him to pursue an LLM in Forensic Science and Criminology. He was a man who lived by the pledge he made to “Behenji,” Dr. Sushila Nayar. He famously turned away from a potential engineering career at IIT Kharagpur because he believed his true calling was to stand beside the rural population.

The 2014 Email: A Life in His Own Words

In late 2014, my father sent an email to Dr. Kalantri that served as a rare moment of reflection. Even in his own words, his humility and drive are evident:

Dear Dr Kalantri, I am very much thankful to know that someone likes to know about me. After leaving Sevagram, I spent my time developing and establishing my career and fulfilling the ambition of my mentor Behen jee, as I left my Engineering career at IIT Kharagpur only to serve the rural population.

I did my post-graduation in Internal Medicine, DM in Endocrinology from AIIMS under Dr Ahuja, and further DM in Critical Medicine from SRM Chennai. After Sevagram, my passion has been acquiring qualifications, publishing research papers and medical books, and keeping my pledge. In addition, I did a PhD in Ayurveda and an LLM in Forensic and Criminology.

Regarding my family, my wife is a housewife. Both my son and daughter, as well as my in-laws, are postgraduates in various fields of clinical medicine. Presently, I am heading six organizations and am the author of nine books and 250 original papers.

With the blessings of my heavenly mentor, I am and will always be committed to rural health.

Sincerely yours, Avinash Shankar

The Legacy of Discipline

As his son, I grew up in the shadow of this incredible discipline. To the academic world, he was Dr. Avinash Shankar—the author of nine books and over 250 original research papers. But to me, he was the man who woke up before the sun to read, who spent his evenings writing by the light of a desk lamp, and who never turned away a patient who couldn’t pay.

He taught me that medicine is not a business or even a career; it is a way of life that demands everything you have. He carried Sevagram in his heart until 26 October 2020. His final wish for me was that I, too, should study at MGIMS—a wish he described as “non-negotiable.” He wanted me to breathe the same air and learn the same empathy that had transformed a boy from Bisai Bigha into a healer for the world. He was a man of his word, a man of his soil, and a man of the MGIMS spirit.

Dr Abhishek Shnkar is a MGIMS 1999 batch alumnus who after graduating from MGIMS obtained MD in Radiation Oncology. He serves as a faculty at AIIMS, New Delhi.