Warden · Orientation In-Charge · Eight Years at Sevagram · The Kettle Was Always On Laxman Radhakrishna Pandit — known to every student, nurse, clerk, driver, and doctor who passed through the early years of MGIMS as Pandit Kaka — was the quiet human infrastructure of the institution’s founding years. His door was always open. … Read more
First Principal of MGIMS · Professor of Physiology · Soldier · Scientist · The Man Who Gave MGIMS Its Academic Spine On September 1, 1969, a man in a neatly tied turban stepped onto the sun-baked platform at Wardha station. He had traveled a thousand kilometres from Punjab on a slow-moving train. He carried the … Read more
President, Kasturba Health Society · Chartered Accountant · Gandhian · The Last of the Founding Generation “When Dr. Sushila Nayar met me in the summer of 1982 and asked me to oversee MGIMS, I was taken aback. I didn’t even know how to pronounce the names of half the departments, let alone understand what they … Read more
Most people walking past the quiet stretch along the Dean’s office at MGIMS today do not know the story behind Anna Sagar. They see a serene pond, but they do not hear the echo of the hands that dug it—medical students, nurses, clerks, technicians, doctors, petty shopkeepers, and villagers, all working side by side in … Read more
Founding Trustee, Kasturba Health Society · Secretary to Jamnalal Bajaj · Disciple of Vinoba Bhave · The Continuity of Sevagram When Raghunath Shridhar Dhotre died in Wardha on May 16, 1967, the President of India sent condolences to his widow. It was a gesture that would have puzzled Dhotre himself, a man who spent fifty … Read more
Founding Trustee & Finance Manager, Kasturba Health Society · Disciple of J.C. Kumarappa · The Third Pillar of MGIMS He began work at four in the morning. “Son,” he would chuckle, “four a.m. — that was my happy hour. Three quiet hours, just me and the numbers. No phone calls, no meetings, no interruptions. I … Read more
Kamala Desikan’s story begins in 1927, in the quiet village of Nalluru in Andhra Pradesh. She was the only child of her parents, but her mother’s death from tuberculosis within months of her birth left her in the care of her grandmother. Her father remarried, but his influence on Kamala was profound. An intelligent landlord … Read more
Founder of Kasturba Health Society • Builder of MGIMS • Chhoti Behenji of Sevagram A Woman of Sevagram The year 2023 marked the birth centenary of Manimala Roy Choudhary — “Chhoti Behenji” of Sevagram. Hers was a remarkable life: one of struggle, dedication, and quiet devotion. She was born in Bengal in 1923, though the … Read more
The bullock cart left before dawn. Two figures sat in it as it lurched down the red dirt roads of Vidarbha — a young doctor in white khadi and a determined nurse named Manimala Chaudhary. They were going to the villages to collect the harvest premium. Not cash. Jowar. A handful from one family, a … Read more
Dr Sushila Nayar (1914–2001) was the physician who turned a Gandhian village experiment into one of India’s most influential rural medical institutions. Personal doctor to Mahatma Gandhi, Union Health Minister, and founder‑director of MGIMS, she spent a lifetime proving that modern medicine and social justice could walk together. In the winter of 1938, a twenty‑four‑year‑old … Read more