In these fifty years of our shared journey, twenty-four friends from the GMC Class of 1973 have quietly taken leave of this world. Two left us in our college days โ sudden, painful departures that reminded us, even then, how fragile the young heart can be. Some went later โ to a heart attack, a …
Written by
SP Kalantri
Dr. Rajendra Kokate
๐๐ฟ. ๐ฅ๐ฎ๐ท๐ฒ๐ป๐ฑ๐ฟ๐ฎ ๐๐ผ๐ธ๐ฎ๐๐ฒ (12 January 1956 โ 1 November 2025) Our GMC Nagpur batch of ’73 is a little emptier today. Weโve lost one of our own: Dr. Rajendra Kokate, our dear batchmate from B Batch, Roll No. 117. That small stretch of dissection hall benches, where Pramod Mahajan stood just ahead and Dilip Tikkas …
๐ Pantoprazole: The Darling That Broke a Few Hearts
Yesterday, I wrote about Pantoprazole โ the darling of the decade, the pill that has found a forever home in our drawers, handbags, and pockets. The post sparked quite a buzz. Some friends swore by this โmiracleโ pill; others whispered warnings about its darker side โ weak bones, fractures, damaged kidneys, fading B12 stores. Fair …
Pantoprazole: The Pill of Perpetual Peace
An hour from now, I will be sitting in the Medicine OPD, thinking about a drug that the whole world seems to prescribeโand, not to sound holier than thou, I must admit that I do too. Pantoprazole. If thereโs one drug that has quietly conquered the worldโwithout firing a single shotโitโs this one. This modest …
The Two Englishmen Who Shaped My Destiny
Two Englishmen entered my life when I was a schoolboy in Wardha: Mr. Bachelor and Mr. Reginald Craddock. A long road runs from the Wardha railway station to Arvi Nakaโtoday three kilometres of life and noiseโfull of doctors, banks, petrol pumps, shops and mangal karyalayas. In the mid-sixties, my father bought a house on this …
Kastur Kapadiya
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. …
A Night to Remember- Dammad, 1974
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 …
The Hundred Tests and the Missing Story
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 …
Five Doctors, Five Roads Less traveled
In Sevagram, some medical students chose roads no one expected. They arrived at MGIMS in 1969 and the early 1970s with one aim. To become doctors. Yet life, with its quiet nudges and sudden jolts, steered them elsewhere. What unfolded were stories richer than fiction, each marked by the sacred soil of Sevagram. _________________________________________ Take …
Down Memory Lane
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), …