{"id":12265,"date":"2026-04-29T21:33:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T16:03:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sp.kalantri.co.in\/gmc73\/?post_type=classmate&p=12265"},"modified":"2026-05-03T11:41:34","modified_gmt":"2026-05-03T06:11:34","slug":"raymond-maughan","status":"publish","type":"classmate","link":"https:\/\/sp.kalantri.co.in\/gmc73\/classmate\/raymond-maughan\/","title":{"rendered":"Raymond Maughan"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Raymond Patrick Maughan remembers the old, beat-up ambulance that met him at the Nagpur airport in 1973. He was a “frightened young man” from Barbados who had traveled through London, Dubai, and Bombay to arrive in a land where he didn\u2019t see a single woman on the street. The humidity was a thick wall, and the “fantastically good” Indian food came with a bowl of warm water and lime\u2014a mystery he had to solve by watching his hosts. For Raymond, a career in medicine was just one thread in a tapestry that included ballroom dancing, karate, photography, and the quiet, rhythmic life of a two-acre orchard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Barbadian Arrival<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n

Raymond\u2019s entry into GMC Nagpur was a product of the Nehruvian era\u2019s commitment to internationalism. The Indian government reserved seats for students from the “Global South,” creating a diverse diaspora in the heart of Vidarbha. Raymond arrived late; the term had already started. He was a Barbadian of mixed ancestry\u2014African, Irish, and Indian\u2014who had no clue where Nagpur was until he looked it up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the boys’ hostel, he lived in a single-seated room in a wing that housed twelve foreign students from Singapore, Nigeria, and Mauritius. The central tension of his medical school years was the “cultural restriction” that kept him shy and isolated from his Indian classmates. He spent an hour every day playing table tennis with his classmate Looi, but much of his inner life\u2014his training as a violinist, a baritone soloist, and a boxer\u2014remained invisible to the batch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He excelled in the visceral science of Anatomy, enjoying a “best Christmas ever” spent with a demonstrator and a fresh cadaver for his sole dissection. He won prizes for javelin and photography, even winning an all-India photographic exhibition while studying in Nagpur. Yet, the boy who could perform opera and folk songs felt a lack of communication with the people around him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Virtuoso of the Ballroom<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n

After graduation, Raymond returned to the West Indies, eventually obtaining a Diploma in Obstetrics and Gynaecology from the University of the West Indies. For 41 years, he was a sentinel of women\u2019s health in Bridgetown. But his professional life was mirrored by an equally intense commitment to the arts. Raymond is a Licentiate degree holder in Latin dance and a member of the International Dance Teachers Association. He ran the Virtuoso Ballroom Institute, one of the most successful ballroom schools in Barbados.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His life represents a unique historical sweep: the fusion of the disciplined scientific mind with the fluid grace of the artist. He transitioned from performing hip hop and opera to becoming an International Ballroom Adjudicator. In the clinic, he was “quiet, serious, and caring,” but in the orchard, he was a farmer with ducks, turkeys, and sheep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The tension between his scientific training and his artistic soul was resolved through photography. His passion for artwork found expression in wedding photography and portraits of children, capturing the same “Science of Signs” that Hajari sought in the nursery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Longing for a Circle<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n

Today, at 72, Raymond\u2019s practice has slowed down. In a Barbados where “too many doctors chase too few patients,” he has found a renewed reason to live in his grandchildren. He remains a man of the GMC 1973 batch who feels a “deep sense of regret” that he never learned tap dancing or met his old friends Looi and “Kashmiri” in his retirement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He looks back at the 2013 reunion in Nagpur as a moment of profound blessing. The “shy” classmates of his youth had become “warm and welcoming” professionals, making up for the decades of silence. Raymond Patrick Maughan remains the boy in the rickshaw, a frightened young man who grew into a multifaceted healer. He has turned his life into a ballroom dance\u2014composed of complex steps, moments of isolation, and a final, graceful return to the soil. As he tends to his two-acre orchard, he is the completion of the circle: the international student who found his voice in India and carried the rhythm of the world back to his island home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ACF Fields<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n