Science, Stories and Sevagram: A Physician-Teacher's Reflections
We walk past her statue, work in her hospital, and invoke her name often. But how many of us know who Kasturba really was before she became Gandhiโs Ba? Ask anyone in Sevagram today, and chances areโnot one person might recall who she is. Or who she was. Until you pause and whisper her name. … Read more
It was 1974 โ a year when Sevagram went to sleep early, and the nights belonged to the crickets and a handful of restless medical students in the JN Boys’ hostel. MGIMS was still young then. The world had no screens or smartphones to stare at, and evenings found purpose on a small wooden stage … Read more
Dilip arrived in my outpatient room and settled on the stool with the solemnity of a man about to announce something of national importance. โI have a stone in the gall bladder,โ he declared. He did not sound like one in distress, but rather like someone unveiling a secret possession. I leaned forward. โYes, but … Read more
In Sevagram, some medical students chose roads no one expected. They arrived at MGIMS with one aimโto become doctorsโyet life, with its quiet nudges and sudden jolts, steered them into stories richer than fiction
Dr. Alhad Pimputkar (MGIMS Batch of 1971), the lead actor of the unforgettable Marathi drama ๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐จ๐๐ฎ๐๐๐๐, takes us back to February 1974โwhen this play brought the Sevagram campus alive and left the open-air auditorium ringing with laughter. Two of the playโs brilliant actors, Dr. Sudhir Deshmukh (1970 batch) and Dr. Narayan Daware (1971 batch), … Read more
Dr. Anita Borges passed away yesterday. A heart attack took her from us. What a remarkable pathologist she was. I never met her, but in 2017 I watched her hour-long YouTube talk, โ๐ฆ๐๐ฟ๐ด๐ถ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐น ๐ฃ๐ฎ๐๐ต๐ผ๐น๐ผ๐ด๐ ๐ถ๐ป ๐๐ฎ๐น๐ถ๐๐๐ด๐ฎโ. Professors are often stubborn, their egos rarely allowing them to acknowledge mistakes in public. She was the exception. She … Read more
Nostalgia. I use this word often. Perhaps it comes with age, a habit of looking back, of holding on to the past. But sometimes I wonder. Am I using it right? The ending -algia makes me pause. In medicine, algos means pain. Every day, I prescribe analgesics to my patients, medicines that take the algia … Read more
A few days ago, Saurabh Ganguly switched off the IndiaโPakistan match after the 15th over and watched the Manchester Derby instead. Iโm not surprised. As a medical student in the 70s and 80s, I grew up watching Pakistan at its peakโImran Khan, Javed Miandad, Zaheer Abbas, Sarfraz Nawaz, Abdul Qadir, Mudassar Nazar, Wasim Akram, Waqar … Read more
I still remember that evening in Sevagram in 1974 as if it happened yesterday. The dusty courtyard of the hostel had been swept clean, a few strings of yellow bulbs hung across bamboo poles, and students kept rushing about with last-minute instructions. We were ready to stage Kaka Kishyacha, a Marathi play that had already … Read more
Yesterday evening, in the quiet of the MGIMS library, I found Sushrutaโthe student magazine from 1974. Its cover was worn. The pages were yellow, some torn at the edges, faded with age. They carried the smell of time. As I turned them, I reached the Marathi section edited by Dr. Narayan Daware (class of 1971), … Read more