Sevagram General Store: The One-Stop Shop for Village Life In Sevagram in the mid-seventies, the medical college was just six years old. There were neither big showrooms nor fancy shops, no cinemas or luxury shopping malls. Only one bus would ply between Sevagram and Wardha; a cycle rickshaw would take an hour and a half to carry passengers and a …
Kiran Munjewar: The PQRST Man
ECG is the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Kiran Munjewar. He met me this morning in the hospital and I seized the opportunity to speak to him. Munjewar was an ECG technician. He is estimated to have recorded close to half a million ECGs in a career that spanned four decades. Little wonder that in …
Dr. Anant Ranade
Dr. Anant Ranade arrived in Sevagram in 1942, inspired by Mahatma Gandhi’s vision. The Ranade family hailed from Jamkhandi, a city in Bagalkot district, Karnataka, once ruled by Shrimant Gopalrao Patwardhan. The rulers of Jamkhandi bore the title ‘Raja’ and belonged to the Patwardhan dynasty. Dr. Ranade’s father, Damodar Ranade, served as the Diwan of the Jamkhandi state. Dr. Anant, …
Bhaiji – My Father
We all fondly addressed him as Bhaiji, a term deeply rooted in the Marwadi language that is used to convey reverence and respect when referring to one’s father. My father overcame a difficult childhood to build a successful life. A man who lived a full and meaningful life, he was a survivor, an entrepreneur, a family man, and a friend …
Bai-My Mother
Bai—this is how most Marwaris address their mother. We too followed the tradition. Born to Shri Shriram and Gopi Bai Mundra on 5 January 1925, she was the first of the five children. She came from Barshi, a town in Solapur district of Western Maharashtra. As was the norm those days, she completed her primary school education and didn’t study …
Simple, Inexpensive, Effective, Implementable. What more can a Surgeon ask for?
Some research studies make you sit up and take notice when you eye their titles and read the findings. The Lancet study published on 31 October 2022 is one such. A study everyone entering an OT must read. Why did I like this study? Because, hundreds of thousands of studies are published every year. But very few are capable of …
Medical Education: Does language matter?
Twenty-four medical schools in Madhya Pradesh have made an offer that makes one sit up and notice. Now the teachers can teach and assess medical students using medical textbooks in Hindi. Students have also an option of writing their exams in Hindi. For first MBBS students, the state government has developed, and recently released Hindi textbooks to learn anatomy, Physiology …





