The day before he died, Dr. Bipin Tirpude drove out to Bahera — the ancestral village in Raipur district where Radheshyam Naik had chosen to spend the final chapter of his life. The Parkinson’s had slowed him, and the dementia had loosened some memories, but that afternoon, sitting with his oldest student — now the … Read more
Professor & Head of Pharmacology · Principal · Forty Years at Sevagram · The Man Who Found the Place Where He Belonged Twenty-five years after teaching their first pharmacology class, the 1970 batch of MGIMS invited Dr. M.L. Sharma to teach them again. He accepted. He was in his late seventies. His scalp hair was … Read more
He had spent four years as a medical officer at a primary health centre in Sauja — a village of under a thousand people, seventy-eight kilometres from Chandigarh, poor road connectivity, unreliable electricity, the nearest bus stop reachable only by scooter. Five kilometres of bicycle riding at the far end. This was his daily commute … Read more
Microbiology lectures at MGIMS were scheduled after lunch. Post-lunch drowsiness was a known hazard. Dr. Pratibha Narang’s sharp eyes and, as Dr. Prabha Desikan recalled, her impeccable aim were the corrective: a piece of chalk flying through the air with precision, waking the unfortunate student before she had registered what had happened. The chalk landed. … Read more
Professor of Pathology · Fourteen Years at Sevagram · The Pathologist Who Wrote About Cells the Way a Naturalist Writes About Birds Before computers arrived at MGIMS, Dr. Arvind Bhake wrote his cytology reports by hand. Each one was meticulous — the cell described, its cytoplasm detailed, its nucleus examined, the structure and any deformity … Read more
Sixty years after his birth at Kasturba Hospital, he left Sevagram as Vice-Chancellor of KLE Academy of Higher Education and Research in Belagavi — having served along the way as the first MGIMS alumnus to become Dean of the institution, having earned a PhD from Umeå University in Sweden, having published over 180 papers from … Read more
In June 2016, visiting his sister in Nagpur, he sat on a swing. It broke. He fell, injuring his neck. Paralysis followed — arms and legs refusing to obey. Four years of physiotherapy. His wife Jyotsna’s care, constant and patient. Gradual, partial return. He never asked why. “Life unfolds as predestined,” he would say. Lord … Read more
Reader, Pathology · Nine Years at Sevagram · The Man Who Knew Viswanath’s Debut Scores The interview panel included Dr. Sushila Nayar and, to Santosh Gupta’s surprise, Pratibha Patil — then Maharashtra’s state public health minister, later India’s first woman President. Patil leaned forward. “Are you interested in sports?” “Yes, Madam. Cricket.” “Do you know … Read more
Professor & Head of Pathology · Forty-One Years at Sevagram · The Legacy That Is Quiet, Unresolved, and Real His father, Dr. M.L. Sharma, was one of the most commanding figures in MGIMS history — charismatic, dynamic, deeply admired, the kind of person around whom institutional memory organises itself. Satish Sharma arrived in Sevagram on … Read more
Professor & Head of Pathology · Twenty Years at Sevagram · The Rarest Kind of Life Three months after Dr. Narendra Samal died, on February 26, 2024, Swarnlata died too — at home, as if she could not bear to leave him alone on his final journey. They had spent fifty years proving, in the … Read more