Reflections from Sevagram
Essays on medicine, memory, and life in Sevagram
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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 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.…
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A Night to Remember- Dammad, 1974
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…
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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. “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…
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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…
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Down Memory Lane
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),…
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Dr. Anita Borges passed away
Dr. Anita Borges passed away yesterday. A heart attack took her from us. What a remarkable pathologist she was. I never met her, but in 2017 I watched her hour-long YouTube talk, “𝗦𝘂𝗿𝗴𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗣𝗮𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝘆 𝗶𝗻 𝗞𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘆𝘂𝗴𝗮”. Professors are often stubborn, their egos rarely allowing them to acknowledge mistakes in public. She was the exception. She…
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𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗧𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗔𝗰𝗵𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗥𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴
Nostalgia. I use this word often. Perhaps it comes with age, a habit of looking back, of holding on to the past. But sometimes I wonder. Am I using it right? The ending -algia makes me pause. In medicine, algos means pain. Every day, I prescribe analgesics to my patients, medicines that take the algia…
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This is Not Cricket
A few days ago, Saurabh Ganguly switched off the India–Pakistan match after the 15th over and watched the Manchester Derby instead. I’m not surprised. As a medical student in the 70s and 80s, I grew up watching Pakistan at its peak—Imran Khan, Javed Miandad, Zaheer Abbas, Sarfraz Nawaz, Abdul Qadir, Mudassar Nazar, Wasim Akram, Waqar…
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Bappa and Joshi: The Gentle Legends of MGIMS Stage
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…
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Five Doctors, Five Roads Les 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…
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