Science, Stories and Sevagram: A Physician-Teacher's Reflections
SP Kalantri Another DNB thesis lands in my inboxโjoining its MD cousins. My task is to evaluate it. A formality, really. The postgraduate has written it, the professor has supervised itโor so the paperwork claims. I enter the username, type the password, and open the fileโwithout hope. An immaculate PDF appears. Crisp formatting. Polished grammar. Elegant English. … Read more
This Sunday, Dr. Sudhakar Joshi passed away. An alumnus of the GMC Nagpur class of 1969, he was four years senior to me. Between 1979 and 1982, during our postgraduate years in Medicine at Government Medical College, Nagpur, we found ourselves gravitating more toward the residents and lecturers than the professors. They were closer to … Read more
This morning, my friend Ramesh Mundle called to inform me that Dr. H.C. Attal, former Professor of Medicine at GMC Nagpur, passed away yesterday at the age of 86. He taught us medicine during our residency at Government Medical College, Nagpur, in the late 1970s and early 1980s. He led one of the six medicine … Read more
Exactly a week ago, I landed in Indore to visit my elder sister. But my heart tugged in another directionโtoward someone I had to see. Dr. Karunakar Trivedi. That morning, I dialed his number. His voice, gentle and warm, hadn’t changed with time. He welcomed me without pause. By noon, I was standing before Trivedi … Read more
โYesterday, I took three drops of Sarpagandhaโmorning and evening. Walked and talked. Still, my blood pressure was 196/ 112. But thereโs no cause for worry.โ โI took three drops of Sarpagandhaโmorning and evening. Walked. Talked. Still, my blood pressure is 196 over 112. But thereโs no cause for worry.โ A letter. Dated October 28, 1941. … Read more
This afternoon, while leafing through the brittle pages of a dusty medical journal, I paused. There it wasโa paper from ๐๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ช๐ข๐ฏ ๐๐ฆ๐ฅ๐ช๐ค๐ข๐ญ ๐๐ข๐ป๐ฆ๐ต๐ต๐ฆ, dated August 1942. The author: Dr. Sushila Nayar. I blinked. Could it be ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ Sushila Nayar? The physician who walked beside Gandhiji and founded ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ MGIMS? The young doctor who became … Read more
“Enough is enough,” thundered Dr. Sushila Nayar, her voice cutting through the hall.“No more free PG seats for MGIMS boys and girls. If they want postgraduate degrees, they must first serve two years in the villages.” She meant it. In 1969, Dr. Nayar had built MGIMS on a dream: to raise doctors who would live … Read more
Every institution has its unsung buildersโsome lay bricks, others teach, a few lead. And then there are those who, in quiet corners, type history into being. One keystroke at a time. Mr. Manilal Pathak was one such man. He was born on 5 February 1944 in Jethwara, a village in Uttar Pradeshโs Pratapgarh district. His … Read more
22nd April. One Year. Exactly a year ago, in the quiet hours of the morning, Dhirubhai left us. He was 86. It still feels unreal. Time slows when I think of him. When Dr. Sushila Nayar invited him in 1982 to take charge of MGIMS, he hesitated. โI couldnโt even pronounce the names of half … Read more
(December 9, 1931 โ April 19, 2025)Dr. Keshao Narayan Ingleyโknown to all as Dr. K.N. Ingleyโwas born on December 9, 1931, in the dusty heartland of Buldhana. As the eldest of five siblings, he learned early what it meant to lead, to share, and to wait his turn. The home was always fullโvoices echoing through … Read more