In the green, water-laced villages of Hingalganj in the Sundarbans, a boy named Arunoday Mondal grew up watching hardship. Doctors were rare. Roads were poor. His grandfather, a homeopath, treated neighbours for free and never turned anyone away. Young Arunoday absorbed the lesson without words.

He studied hard, earned his MBBS from Calcutta National Medical College, and began work at Dr. B.C. Roy Memorial Hospital for Children in Kolkata. The city offered comfort and steady pay. In 1980 he left the government job and opened a private chamber in Birati. Yet the Sundarbans never left his mind.

“I saw the suffering of my own people when I was a child,” he later said. “Government facilities exist, but they are far. Poor roads, no electricity, weak networks—people suffer.”

Every Saturday he began a six-hour journey—train, auto, boat, sometimes bike—covering more than 160 kilometres to reach the remote villages. On Sundays he treated patients from morning until night, then travelled home in the dark. Most of those who came were daily-wage earners, fishermen, and farmers. Eighty percent could pay nothing. He charged nothing. Medicines were free.

In 2000, after floods, he established a proper charitable clinic called Sujan. Word spread. Soon more than 250 people arrived each weekend. Heart problems, eye ailments, thyroid disorders, gynaecological needs, children’s illnesses—he handled them all. He organised camps for blood donation, cancer detection, diabetes, and more. Over the years the clinic has served around 12,000 patients annually.

A tired fisherman once sat before him after a long wait. “Doctor-babu, I have only gratitude to give.”

Arunoday smiled. “That is the best payment. Come next week if you need me. I will be here.”

He has not taken a proper weekend off in decades. Even during the pandemic he continued. In 2020 the nation awarded him the Padma Shri. He accepted it quietly. “It is an honour,” he said, “but the real honour is the love and respect of the people. That makes me prouder.”

Today, well into his seventies, Dr. Arunoday Mondal—known across the region as Sundarbaner Sujan—still makes the long journey. When asked why he keeps going, the answer remains the same: “I cannot afford not to go. These are my people. This is my home.”

From a childhood of watching free care under a village roof to a lifetime of weekend journeys across rivers and mud, he has turned one simple promise into thousands of healed lives.