In November 2014, at the main auditorium of the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research in Chandigarh, Chandrashekhar Meshram was installed as National President of the Indian Academy of Neurology. Sitting in the audience were Ramesh Mundle, Shriram Kane, Uday Gupte, Avinash Deshmukh, Rajendra Phadke, Pradeep Desai, and Vivek Deshpande \u2014 classmates from Government Medical College, Nagpur, 1973 batch, who had come to Chandigarh to see one of their own reach the highest office their specialty could confer. The Academy had never before elected a neurologist from private practice to the presidency.<\/p>\n\n\n
Chandrashekhar was born in Seo village, Taluka Umred, 65 kilometres southeast of Nagpur. His father was a government medical officer. He spent most of his childhood and early schooling with his uncle and grandfather \u2014 a particular kind of Vidarbha upbringing, shaped more by village life than by urban ease. He attended Jeevan Vikas Vidyalaya in Umred and moved to the Institute of Science, Nagpur, for his premedical education before joining GMC Nagpur in 1973.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After graduation, he completed his rural internship at Rural Health Training Centre, Saoner, alongside Murtaza Akhtar, Siddhartha Kumar Biswas, and Sanjay Warhadpande; the urban posting was at GMC Nagpur. He was one of only two students from the class of 1973 to earn his MD from the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research in Chandigarh \u2014 a highly competitive programme. He then stayed at PGI to complete his DM (Neurology), the highest postgraduate qualification in the subject. He spent a year at Bombay Hospital and Jaslok Hospital in Mumbai, and returned to Nagpur in 1987 to set up private practice.<\/p>\n\n\n
Neurology in Nagpur of 1987 was thin ground. There was little equipment, a small patient base, and few colleagues who could discuss the intricacies of the field. Chandrashekhar built his practice one patient at a time, earning a reputation that eventually drew patients from across central India.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He was the first private-sector neurologist elected President-Elect of the Indian Academy of Neurology. The Academy conferred upon him its Fellowship \u2014 FIAN \u2014 for academic excellence, organisational work, publications, and research. He has served as a national delegate to the World Federation of Neurology in Bangkok, Marrakech, Stockholm, Vienna, Santiago, Kyoto, and Dubai, and is a member of the WFN’s Constitution Committee \u2014 one of seven members globally. He organised the first International Tropical Neurology Conference in Mumbai in 2017, and the second in S\u00e3o Paulo, Brazil, in 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His publication record includes 45 papers, 300 articles for public awareness, and service as Editor-in-Chief of Indian Clinical Updates Neurology, a Wiley-Blackwell journal. He has participated in 18 international clinical trials as principal investigator and received recognition from the United States Food and Drug Administration for the quality of that work.<\/p>\n\n\n
Beyond neurology, Chandrashekhar has built a cultural organisation \u2014 the Orange City Cultural Foundation \u2014 through which he has run four Orange City International Film Festivals in Nagpur, screening films shortlisted from more than 1,200 entries across 130 countries. He organised retrospectives of films by Dr. Jabbar Patel and V. Shantaram. He founded Samyak Medical Foundation, which gives scholarships each year to 50 meritorious students from slums and villages. The income tax department has named him among the most honest taxpayers in Nagpur. Nagpur Municipal Corporation appointed him brand ambassador for the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His sons are a study in disciplined imagination. Aashay, the elder, trained in animation and film design at the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad, then at Vancouver Film School; he works in Vancouver. Aviral followed his father into medicine \u2014 MBBS and MD (Medicine) at NKP Salve Medical College, Nagpur \u2014 and completed his DM (Neurology) at KLE, Belgaum. Both boys, their father notes without any attempt at modesty, held solo painting exhibitions before they turned 10.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Chandrashekhar organised a series of webinars on neuroinfection under the Tropical and Geographical Neurology Specialty Group of the World Federation of Neurology \u2014 covering cerebral malaria, arboviral infections, meningitis, rabies, HIV, and COVID-19, and including sessions on the lives and contributions of neurology’s great figures. It was, his classmates agreed, exactly what you would expect from someone who has spent 40 years treating the diseases of the brain while simultaneously refusing to let the world of culture, law, and public life pass him by.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the sweltering summer of 1973, while most of his contemporaries were content to chart their futures within the familiar geography of Vidarbha, a quiet, slightly built young man was dreaming of the distant, planned vistas of Chandigarh. Chandrashekhar Meshram, the son of a government medical officer, had spent his formative years in the village of Seo and the classrooms of Umred, rooted in the soil of rural Maharashtra. Yet, there was an intellectual restlessness about him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The GMC Nagpur campus provided the foundation, but for Chandrashekhar, it was merely the trailhead. He became the only one of his class to venture north to the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh. It was an arduous path\u2014obtaining an MD and then a DM in Neurology at a time when the specialty was a fledgling frontier in India. When he returned to Nagpur in 1987, he did not just bring back degrees; he brought a standard of clinical excellence that would eventually alter the medical landscape of Central India.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To witness Dr. Meshram in his clinic on Central Bazaar Road is to observe a masterclass in economy and empathy. The OPD is a microcosm of India: a farmer from Gadchiroli with a puzzling gait sits alongside a high-ranking official from Nagpur, both waiting for the same thing\u2014an audience with a man whose clinical eye is legendary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He stands tall, his frame lean, with a perpetual twinkle in his eyes that softens the clinical gravity of the room. He is soft-spoken, never imposing, yet his movements have the rhythmic efficiency of a seasoned conductor. He listens to a history, his mind already filtering the noise from the signal. A quick, deft neurological exam follows\u2014the tap of a reflex hammer, the tracking of a gaze. Within minutes, the diagnosis is crystallized. Before the patient has fully processed the news, Dr. Meshram has ordered the necessary MRI or nerve conduction study and, with a speed that borders on the miraculous, drafted a “thank you” note to the referring physician. It is a practice built on the rare combination of rapid intuition and deep courtesy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2023, the Government of India conferred upon him the Padmashree, a rare distinction for a private practitioner and a historic first for a neurologist from the 75-year history of GMC Nagpur. This was not merely an award for longevity, but a recognition of a man who bridged the gap between a busy street-side clinic and the highest echelons of global academia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Following in the footsteps of the legendary Dr. G.M. Taori, Chandrashekhar became the second neurologist to anchor the specialty in Nagpur. However, he took the city\u2019s name further than anyone anticipated. He became the first private neurologist to be elected President of the Indian Academy of Neurology. His influence radiated outward to the World Federation of Neurology, where he sits as one of only seven members on the Constitution Committee. From organizing international tropical neurology conferences in Mumbai and Sao Paulo to lecturing in Seoul and Paris, he has navigated the world with the same effortless ease with which he navigates the narrow lanes of Nagpur.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While many in private practice view Sundays as a sanctuary from the profession, Dr. Meshram is almost invariably found at Hotel Centre Point, either moderating a session, chairing a committee, or challenging a thesis. His commitment to the “academic life” is not a chore but a vital part of his constitution. He is an editor-in-chief, a researcher with 45 papers to his name, and a principal investigator for USFDA-approved trials\u2014roles he wears as comfortably as his white coat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yet, to describe him only through his stethoscope would be a disservice. Chandrashekhar is a multifaceted aesthetician. He is as much at home discussing cinema with Dr. Jabbar Patel as he is treating a Janardan or a Janabai from a remote village. As the Chairman of the Orange City Cultural Foundation, he brought world cinema to Nagpur\u2019s doorstep, curating festivals that showcased the human experience through the lens of a camera rather than a microscope. His sons, Aashay and Aviral, reflect this duality of art and science\u2014one excelling in the world of animation in Vancouver, the other following the arduous path of neurology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Beneath the titles and the international acclaim lies a man deeply invested in his 1973 batch. Whether it was the group of friends who traveled to Chandigarh in 2014 to watch him being installed as National President, or the poor students from slums who receive scholarships through his Samyak Medical Foundation, his life is a testament to the power of connection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He remains the quintessential physician-citizen: a brand ambassador for Swachh Bharat, a trustee of Baba Amte\u2019s Anandwan, and a national convener for Brain Week. Dr. Chandrashekhar Meshram has proven that one can be a global authority without losing the common touch, and that the most complex neurological puzzles are best solved with a sharp mind, a soft voice, and an ever-present twinkle in the eye.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"