SP Kalantri
SP Kalantri
This morning an old man stepped into my office, his jacket sagging, a faded muffler loose around his neck. His wooden tulsi beads had deepened in colour with age. He studied me, then joined his palms with a shy, familiar smile. It took me only a second. “Gabbar,” I said. “So you have come.” His …
(12 July 1942-17 November 2025) In the Sevagram of the early 1970s—when nights seemed darker, trees stood taller, and time itself moved at an unhurried pace—a young man arrived with a small kitbag, a quiet smile, and a heart that beat for badminton. His name in the school register read Bhaskar Marotrao Tupkar. But for …
Yesterday, I wrote about Pantoprazole — 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 “miracle” pill; others whispered warnings about its darker side — weak bones, fractures, damaged kidneys, fading B12 stores. Fair …
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 Naka—today three kilometres of life and noise—full of doctors, banks, petrol pumps, shops and mangal karyalayas. In the mid-sixties, my father bought a house on this …
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 Gandhi’s Ba? Ask anyone in Sevagram today, and chances are—not one person might recall who she is. Or who she was. Until you pause and whisper her name. …
It was 1974 — 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 …
Dilip arrived in my outpatient room and settled on the stool with the solemnity of a man about to announce something of national importance. “I have a stone in the gall bladder,” he declared. He did not sound like one in distress, but rather like someone unveiling a secret possession. I leaned forward. “Yes, but …
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 …
Dr. Alhad Pimputkar (MGIMS Batch of 1971), the lead actor of the unforgettable Marathi drama 𝙆𝙖𝙠𝙖 𝙆𝙞𝙨𝙝𝙮𝙖𝙘𝙝𝙖, takes us back to February 1974—when this play brought the Sevagram campus alive and left the open-air auditorium ringing with laughter. Two of the play’s brilliant actors, Dr. Sudhir Deshmukh (1970 batch) and Dr. Narayan Daware (1971 batch), …
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 …