In June 1980, when Shobha Dani chose Orthopaedics at Government Medical College, Nagpur, there were exactly 12 women orthopaedic surgeons in India. The raised eyebrows were numerous; the predictions were confident: she would not last three months. She lasted long enough to head a department at AIIMS Rishikesh, to start India’s first MCh programmes in Paediatric Orthopaedics and Spine Surgery, and to watch the number of women orthopaedic surgeons in the country grow to 435. Two of them were in her own department.
She describes herself, with a precise economy, as a “fighter cock.” It seems accurate.
From Akola to the Operating Theatre
Shobha was born in Nagpur into a family of academicians. Her father, Dr. Govind Vinayakrao Dani, headed the Department of Dairy Sciences at Panjabrao Krishi Vidyapeeth, Akola. Her mother, Mangala Dani, taught at Holy Cross Convent School, Akola. Shobha went to school in Parbhani, Pune, and Akola — Zilla Parishad Primary School, Modern Girls’ High School, Bharat Vidyalaya — before completing her premed year at RLT College of Science, Akola, and entering GMC Nagpur in 1973.
At GMC, she was part of a group that called itself SHARP — Shobha, Hema Deoras, Arun Deshmukh, Ravi Kasat, and Prakash Kataria — one of those informal fraternal bonds that form in final years when examinations clarify who can be relied upon.
When she opted for Orthopaedics in 1980, the discipline was barely separated from General Surgery. The resistance she encountered was not subtle. But Padmashree Professor Vikram Marwah, GMC Nagpur’s formidable Dean, stood behind her. It was on his encouragement that she pursued super-specialisation in Paediatric Orthopaedics — fellowships in Japan and then the United States. She returned to build a career in academic surgery that neither the sceptics nor the doubters had imagined possible.
Delhi, Rishikesh, and Forty Years of Surgery
Shobha spent 25 years at the University College of Medical Sciences and Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital in Delhi. She operated. She taught. She trained students who went on to hold faculty positions in multiple AIIMS across the country. Then she moved to AIIMS Rishikesh, where she headed the Department of Orthopaedics.
The achievements in that final stretch were not incremental. She established the first MCh programme in Paediatric Orthopaedics in India. The first MCh in Spine Surgery. A fully licensed, registered Bone Bank — the only one in Uttarakhand. In 2019, she suffered acute cardiac and metabolic illness. She recovered, and kept going.
She married Sunil Kumar Arora on 30 May 1982. He was a senior officer at the currency chest of Punjab National Bank, Parliament Street, Delhi, and retired in 2016. Their elder son Nikhil completed postgraduate work in Microbiology in Texas, then chose a different dream entirely — he drives trains for Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp at Amarillo, the largest freight railway network in North America. Their younger son Ashwin holds a PhD in Petroleum Geology from IIT Mumbai and works with McKinsey in Gurgaon.
Shobha retired from AIIMS Rishikesh on 30 June 2021. She now lives in Gurugram and consults twice a week at Delhi University South Campus. She is not entirely done.
What 435 Means
When Shobha entered Orthopaedics in 1980, the department was a stronghold — physically demanding, culturally exclusive, resistant. The argument against women was rarely stated directly; it did not need to be. The assumption was sufficient.
Shobha’s response was the only one available to her: she became very good at her work. Over four decades, she operated, published, trained, and administered. She built a department at a premier national institution. She started programmes that did not exist before her. She did not argue for women in Orthopaedics; she demonstrated it.
The 435 women who now practice the specialty in India are the answer to the question her senior colleagues thought they were asking in 1980. She was its proof of concept. They became its proof of scale.
The fighter cock, it turns out, had a long reach.
I retired from AIIMS Rishikesh in June 2021 as Professor and founding Head of Orthopedics. Looking back, one of the most satisfying achievements was building a department that became the first in the country to start full three-year superspecialty M.Ch programmes in Pediatric Orthopedics, Orthopedic Spine Surgery, and Joint Replacement & Reconstruction Surgery.
Several batches have now graduated, and it is gratifying to see that almost every newer AIIMS institution has at least one faculty member trained at Rishikesh.
After retirement, I returned to Gurugram, where I now live with my younger son. In 2023, I joined the Delhi University Staff Health Centre as a consultant. The work is quieter now—consultations without procedures—but meaningful in a different way. The clinic serves university staff, retired employees, students, and support workers along with their families.
Family life has grown fuller over the years. Last October, our younger son was blessed with a baby boy. Our elder son, who lives in the United States, has two sons of his own. Between the grandchildren, our home often feels like an “Arora boys’ hostel.”
A quieter personal journey has also deepened with time. The Bhagavad Gita has become a source of reflection and companionship, and I feel fortunate to be part of a small Gita Swadhyay group devoted to its study.
Life has been generous on many fronts. And among its sweetest gifts are the friendships and memories we continue to carry from our GMC days.