Dr. Mani Kumar Chettri
(Padma Shri, 1974 – Medicine)

High in the tea gardens of Teesta Valley near Darjeeling, a Gorkha boy named Mani Kumar Chettri was born on 23 May 1920. From the quiet hills he carried a lifelong sense of discipline and quiet determination to the busy medical wards of Kolkata. After schooling in Darjeeling and intermediate studies at St. Paul’s Cathedral Mission College, he graduated in medicine from the Medical College and Hospital, Kolkata. A government scholarship took him to London, where he earned the FRCP in 1956—an achievement that prepared him to help shape modern cardiology in eastern India.

In 1960 he joined the Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education and Research (IPGMER) and SSKM Hospital as Director and Professor of Cardiology. At a time when specialised departments were still emerging, he worked to establish and strengthen cardiology, endocrinology and related services. Under his leadership clinical standards rose, training programmes expanded, and the hospital became a centre where young doctors learned both rigorous science and careful clinical judgement. He later served as Director of West Bengal State Health Services and was the trusted personal physician of Chief Minister Jyoti Basu for many years. In 1976 he was elected President of the Cardiological Society of India. He was also an elected Fellow of the National Academy of Medical Sciences.

Colleagues and students remembered a physician who believed in simplicity and precision. One junior doctor, watching him reduce a complicated regimen to a few essential medicines, once asked for the secret of his approach.
Chettri answered with a characteristic smile, “Minimum medicine, maximum results. The patient should leave stronger, not weaker from our treatment.”

In 1974 the Government of India recognised his contributions with the Padma Shri. Even after official retirement he continued to guide younger doctors, serve as an adviser at SSKM, and remain associated with medical institutions, practising well into advanced age. He lived to the remarkable age of 106 and passed away in Kolkata on 5 April 2026.

Dr. Mani Kumar Chettri is remembered as one of the architects of cardiology and related specialties in eastern India—a teacher, administrator and clinician whose long life mirrored the steady, thoughtful care he gave his patients for more than eight decades.