Vilas Mulay’s life took a decisive turn inside a mobile medical tent. In the late 1970s, while serving with the CR Das Mobile Unit in the rural stretches of Vidarbha, Vilas met Nilima Velankiwar. He was an intern fascinated by the microscopic world of anaerobes; she was a house officer in Gynaecology. That meeting in the hinterland was the beginning of a partnership that would eventually transform the medical and social landscape of Chandrapur. For Vilas, the “Science of Small Things”—microbiology and blood banking—has always been a tool to achieve “Large Things” for the community.
Anaerobes and Ambitions
Vilas was born in Hyderabad, the son of a central government employee. Like several of his peers, he was a migrant into the Class of 1973, transferring from Kakatiya Medical College in Warangal to the “EFGH” batch at GMC Nagpur. He was a student of quiet, persistent discipline who chose to specialize in Microbiology at a time when the specialty was often viewed as a support service rather than a clinical driver.
He obtained his MD in 1983, completing a thesis on the identification of anaerobic infections—a niche, challenging field that required painstaking laboratory work. This specialty reflects the historical sweep of the era: the 1980s were a time when Indian medicine was beginning to recognize that hospital-acquired infections and complex pathologies required more than just “broad-spectrum” treatment; they required the precision of the microbiologist.
Instead of remaining in the ivory tower of academic medicine, Vilas moved to Chandrapur in 1983 to start his private practice. He was part of a generational shift of GMC 1973 graduates who took high-level diagnostic skills into district towns, effectively decentralizing medical excellence from Nagpur.
The Blood Bank of Balaji Ward
In 1993, Vilas identified a critical gap in Chandrapur’s healthcare infrastructure: the lack of a reliable blood supply. He established the Ankur Hospital and Blood Bank in the Balaji Ward. Over the next three decades, he evolved the facility from a simple storage unit into a modern hub for component preparation (2007). In a region plagued by emergencies and surgeries, Vilas’s blood bank became a literal lifeline.
The central tension in Vilas’s life is between the isolation of the laboratory and the public nature of social service. He resolved this through his leadership in the Lions Club. As a District Governor in 2002-2003, Vilas oversaw a vast territory covering twenty-two districts. He was no longer just a pathologist; he was a “grant maker.” He secured substantial funding—nearly 60 lakhs—to develop the Department of Ophthalmology at MGIMS Sevagram and an eye hospital in Anandwan. He was using his professional standing to fix the “larger pathologies” of regional health inequity.
A Global Perspective
Vilas is a man who has traveled widely—Japan, New Zealand, Europe, and the USA—yet he has always returned to the “Balaji Ward” of Chandrapur. His family reflects this blend of local commitment and global success. His wife, Nilima, remains a busy gynaecologist in the same town where they settled decades ago. His daughter, Bhavana, is a senior manager at KPMG, and his son, Anand, manages a factory in Aurangabad.
Today, Vilas Mulay is the completion of the story he began in that internship tent. He has turned a specialty focused on the microscopic into a career of macroscopic impact. He remains a man who understands that a doctor’s worth is measured not just by the accuracy of a lab report, but by the strength of the infrastructure they build for the community. He is the microbiologist who saw the big picture.