Nabatosh Biswas spent his early childhood watching the monsoon rains swell the tributaries of the Ganges, the Brahmaputra, and the Meghna. He was born in Sonakhali, in the Barisal district of what was then East Pakistan. For Nabatosh, the concept of “home” has always been fluid, shaped by the historical forces of migration and the search for security. His life is a long trek from the waterlogged fields of East Bengal to the industrial towns of Vidarbha, and finally to the intellectual bustle of Kolkata.
The Refugee Student
In 1964, Nabatosh’s family migrated from East Pakistan to Raipur. It was a move dictated by the precariousness of the era. He completed his high school in Raipur and then moved to Maharashtra for his pre-medical education at Anand Niketan College in Warora—a college that became a surprising hub for the GMC 1973 batch, sending five students including Suresh Batra and Nandkishor Kasturwar.
After graduation, Nabatosh’s career was defined by the “rural medical officer” archetype. He spent four years at the Primary Health Center in Nagbhid, a small town on the Nagpur-Gadchiroli link. In 1986, he made the decision to resign from government service and start his private practice in Nagbhid. This transition represents a major historical movement: the exhaustion of the young doctor with the bureaucratic constraints of the rural health system and the leap into the autonomy of the “market.”
The Trustworthy Primary Care Physician
For over thirty years, Nabatosh was the man Nagbhid “banked on.” In a small town, the doctor is more than a clinician; he is a social arbiter. Nabatosh developed a reputation for being a trustworthy primary care physician, handling everything from snake bites to chronic fevers in a community that had few other resources.
Nagbhid was a place where I developed my own way. The support from the local people was sizable, and it was that trust that kept me there for decades. But as my children grew and moved into the tech-driven world of cyber security, the pull toward a major city became inevitable.
In 2017, Nabatosh made his final major migration. He shifted to Kolkata, returning to the cultural and linguistic roots of his childhood. He is currently building a new practice there, proving that for a doctor of the 1973 batch, “retirement” is a foreign concept.
The Security of the Next Generation
Nabatosh’s children reflect the dramatic professional shift of the 21st century. His daughter, Nabonita, and son, Niladrishekhar, are both cyber security experts—one in Dallas and the other in Kolkata. While their father spent his life securing the biological health of a rural community, they are securing the digital health of global corporations.
Nabatosh lives in Kolkata with his wife, Rinku. He looks back on his journey from the rivers of Barisal to the plains of Vidarbha with a quiet satisfaction. He has survived three major migrations and a career in the trenches of rural medicine. He remains the boy who watched the monsoon rains in East Bengal, understanding better than most that life is a series of crossings, and that the only true security a person possesses is the skill they carry in their hands.