Beginning 1969—and through 2015— fifteen MGIMS students have an alluring ancestry: their parents also graduated from MGIMS.

Will having parents who spent their formative years in Sevagram inspire their children? Or will it completely freak them out? 

It can cut both ways.  Being cut from the same Khadi could make life easy. And at times annoying. 

“Why did you want your son to go to MGIMS,” I asked a mid-eighty batch MGIMS alumnus whose son also went to MGIMS. “The desire to give our child the same kind of education comes purely from love for the alma mater and fear of the unknown,” he explained. “MGIMS helped me connect with the  people, their priorities in life, their culture and understand their unvoiced concerns about health and disease. These impressions have shaped my practice and have made me a better doctor. I was lucky to learn from my professors who were—are still are— role models for me.  I want my son to learn from them.”

Agreed an alumnus who is now heading the academic department at MGIMS. “I learnt what it takes to combine the art of medicine with social sciences—qualities I never would have had if I hadn’t been to MGIMS. Obviously, I would like my children to imbibe these qualities, too.”

Their children agree. But at times they sound agitated. “We are always compared with our parents- they set a daunting example which we don’t want to emulate,” complained a medical student whose mother is also an MGIMS alumnus.  Agreed her mother, “The dilemma for the children of parents who went to MGIMS is identity. Will I measure up? Will I be as good?”

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“And my dad keeps on telling me anecdotal memories of the Aashram, the Anji days, the hostel, the mess, the wards, the library, the Madras hotel and Babulal’s canteen. The auto rickshaws and the Durga talkies. The Sevagram station. They still like to relive their good old days, but we are bored to bone to hear those stories,” a grad student seems to be acutely irritated. I could see the point. They are desperately trying to get away from the long shadows of their distinguished—and not-so-distinguished—parents but the shadows continue to loom large.

You win some. You lose some.