Mohammad Abdul Hai, known to colleagues and students as Dr. M. A. Hai, was a distinguished physician of Bihar whose career bridged the late colonial period and the early decades of independent India. He held the qualifications of MD, FRCP (Edinburgh) and TDD (Wales), the last reflecting his specialised knowledge of tuberculosis — a disease that remained a major public-health challenge across the subcontinent.

He rose to become Emeritus Professor of Medicine at the Prince of Wales Medical College in Patna (later renamed Patna Medical College and Hospital). There he taught generations of medical students and shaped the standards of clinical practice in the region. His reputation for careful diagnosis and steady judgment led to his appointment as Honorary Physician to the President of India — a rare mark of national trust.

In 1964 the Government of India recognised his contributions to medicine with the Padma Bhushan. The honour placed him among the leading physicians of his generation and affirmed the place of Bihar’s medical community on the national stage.

Those who worked with him remembered a man of quiet dignity and high professional standards. One younger colleague later recalled a conversation in the hospital corridor after a difficult ward round:

“Sir, the cases keep coming and the beds are never enough. How do you keep the same patience every day?”

Hai’s reply was simple. “The patient does not choose the time of illness. We are here when they need us. That is the whole of the profession.”

He and his wife, Begum Alay Fatima Hai, raised a family that continued the medical tradition. Their sons — among them the noted surgeon Dr. Ahmad Abdul Hai, the cardiologist Dr. Hamid Abdul Hai, and the urologist Dr. Mahmood Abdul Hai — carried forward the family’s commitment to medicine in India and abroad.

Dr. Mohammad Abdul Hai’s own life was spent largely in Patna, serving patients, teaching students, and upholding the highest ideals of the profession. In the story of Indian doctors he stands as a figure of quiet excellence: a physician whose skill earned him the confidence of the nation’s highest office, and whose example helped root modern clinical medicine deeply in the soil of Bihar.