Science, Stories and Sevagram: A Physician-Teacher's Reflections
“What is in a name? A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” Shakespeare’s famous quote is a cliché – a tired, stale phrase or idiom that, because of overuse, has lost its impact. Names matter. A name identifies us. It does so much more: it is our public face. Over the last … Read more
Ten thousand. This five-numerical figure has fascinated people for a long time. As an example, Sunil Gavaskar’s 10,000th run. I can vividly recall Gavaskar nudging a quick single through the slips to become the first cricketer to reach 10,000 test runs. I had watched that moment on TV—the fourth test match against Pakistan at Ahmedabad … Read more
On May 10, 2020, we admitted the first patient with Covid19 to our hospital. We did speedily ramp up critical care, to provide oxygenated hospital beds, ICUs, medicines, and ventilators, gloves, N95 masks, PPEs, and back up supplies. Oxygen. Perhaps for the first time we realised how important was Oxygen, the sole therapy for managing COVID-19-induced … Read more
Dr Priya Mendiratta wrote a post on my poem on Favipiravir and Covid. Thank you Dr SP Kalantri for still guiding us to always practice ethically, not abandon logical thinking and scientific approach . Dr Kalantri’s thoughts on Favipiravir, a new oral drug launched in India yesterday by Glenmark to fight Covid19 infection. He is … Read more
This is indeed a sad and agonizing moment for me to write on MVR. The light that illuminated the department of Biochemistry and indeed the MGIMS campus has suddenly gone out. What happened was absolutely incredible and inconceivable. Sevagram is stunned and shocked, and so am I. Beyond words. I am still unable to fathom … Read more
I wish I could have captured his photograph. Two days back, I was strolling along the Dean Office road at Sevagram where I live. I stopped when I saw a teenager- with a bucket in right hand and a sleeping bag in the left- running towards me. Panting, and perspiring profusely, he gathered his breath … Read more
Ask any old student about their training at MGIMS, and the Anji camp will certainly top the list of their most memorable moments. So where is Anji, what happens there and what makes it so special for MGIMS alumni? Anji is a small village located 22 km north-west of Sevagram. Since 1981, each winter, an … Read more
Smartphones and iPads are the future of medicine. In 2004 we introduced hospital information system in our teaching hospital. We realized that one day, we shall move from the desktops to the laptops, and subsequently to iPads and smartphones. Digital technology, to be effective, needs to be at the point of care. It cannot distance … Read more
MGIMS students, interns, residents, lab technicians, healthcare workers, teachers- yesterday night they all teamed seamlessly to deliver more than the musical night had promised- entertaining and enthralling the audience with super-hit Hindi filmy sangeet. Little wonder that they kept the audience- all ears to the musical melodies- spellbound for full three hours. So, when the singers kept … Read more
