Dr. Dharmendra was born on 1 February 1900 in Lahore, in what is now Pakistan. As a medical student at King Edward Medical College he interrupted his studies for two years to join the non-cooperation movement after the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, answering Mahatma Gandhi’s call. He graduated MBBS in 1928 and later obtained a Diploma […]

Dr. Robert Brocklesby DavisThe British-born psychiatrist who made Ranchi a centre of modern mental health care in India Robert Brocklesby Davis was born on 27 December 1911 in Amritsar, Punjab, to missionary parents. He was educated in England, studied medicine at Cambridge and the London Hospital, and qualified in 1936. Drawn back to the land […]

Dr. Sivaramakrishna Iyer PadmavatiIndia’s first woman cardiologist and the “Godmother of Cardiology” Sivaramakrishna Iyer Padmavati was born on 20 June 1917 in Rangoon (now Yangon), Burma, into a Tamil family; her father was a barrister. She became the first woman to graduate MBBS from Rangoon Medical College. When Japan invaded Burma in 1942 she fled […]

Tulsi Das was born on 1 October 1901. He began his medical career in 1927 in the Provincial Civil Medical Service of Punjab. In 1939 he obtained the FRCS from Edinburgh and the DOMS from London, specialising in ophthalmology while remaining equally skilled in otorhinolaryngology. He joined the Medical School at Amritsar as a lecturer […]

Cheruvari Kottieth Lakshmanan was born on 5 April 1898 in Kannur, Kerala, into the Cheruvari Kottieth family. An outstanding all-round sportsman, he excelled in athletics, cricket and tennis. In 1924 he won gold in the 120-yard hurdles at the first All-India Olympic Games in Delhi and went on to represent India at the Paris Olympics […]

Amar Prasad Ray was born on 26 February 1913 in Kolkata into a zamindar family with roots in Hooghly district, West Bengal. He studied at the Raja Ram Mohan Roy Seminary in Patna and took his intermediate science at Patna Science College before graduating MBBS with distinction from the Prince of Wales Medical College under […]

Natteri Veeraraghavan was born on 1 November 1913 in Parangipettai, Tamil Nadu, to Natteri Venkatesa Iyer and Balambal. He graduated in medicine from Andhra University in 1936, topping his class, and completed a DSc in microbiology from the same university in 1944. In 1937 he joined the Pasteur Institute of India at Coonoor as a […]

Edith Helen Paull was born on 14 January 1902 in Chunar, in what is now Uttar Pradesh. She trained in nursing at Bedford College, London, on a Florence Nightingale scholarship and returned to India to begin her career in 1928. Over the following decades she served as Nursing Matron at some of the country’s leading […]

Jyotish Chandra Ray was born on 20 April 1899 in Narottampur, in the Bakarganj district of undivided Bengal (now in Bangladesh). The son of Bardakanta Ray, he showed early promise in science and went on to pursue advanced studies in Europe. In Berlin, under the guidance of Professor Martin Hahn, he conducted pioneering research on […]

Mambillikalathil Govind Kumar Menon — known to friends and colleagues as Goku or M.G.K. Menon — was born on 28 August 1928 in Mangalore into a distinguished Malayali family. His father, Justice Sankara Menon, and mother, Narayanikutty Amma, gave him a strong foundation of learning and public service. He took his BSc from Jaswant College, […]

Murugappa Channaveerappa Modi — better known as M. C. Modi — was born on 4 October 1916 in Bilagi, in what is now Bagalkot district of Karnataka. Inspired by a speech of Mahatma Gandhi, the young medical student resolved to take eye care to the poorest and remotest parts of the country. He began holding […]

In the dusty lanes of Jabalpur, on a sweltering August day in 1912, a boy was born into a well-to-do Maharashtrian family. Krishnaji Hari Datey, a practical engineer with ink-stained fingers and a head full of bridges and blueprints, looked down at his newborn son and smiled. “Annapurna,” he said to his wife, “this one […]

In the bustling lanes of Calcutta, on a cool December morning in 1915, a boy named Prafulla Kumar Sen entered the world. The only son of a civil servant in a middle-class Bengali family, he grew up with one sister and the quiet expectation that he would make something meaningful of his life. His father, […]

In the quiet village of Gabat in North Gujarat, on a warm July day in 1914, a boy named Vallabhdas Vithaldas Shah was born into a family of modest means and steady ambition. His father, Vithaldas Bechardas Shah, and mother, Muriben, came from lineages of businessmen—men who understood the value of hard work, careful calculation, […]

In the early decades of independent India, when the young nation was still finding its feet and its future, a man in uniform walked the corridors of public health with the quiet determination of a soldier and the gentle hands of a healer. His name was Bishen Lal Raina—Colonel Bishen Lal Raina to those who […]

In the bustling streets of Lahore in September 1917, a boy was born into a world already marked by loss. His father, Visheshar Das Anand, had passed away before little Bal Krishan ever opened his eyes. Raised by his mother Saraswati Devi with the quiet support of grandparents who themselves struggled, the child grew up […]

In the narrow lanes of old Delhi near Turkman Gate, on 25 September 1912, a boy named Krishna Gopal Saxena was born into a middle-class Kayastha family. His father, a soldier and a firm believer in homoeopathy, often spoke of the gentle power of small doses. “Beta,” he would say, holding a tiny vial, “the […]

In the fields and towns of Haryana in the early decades of the twentieth century, a young man named Nand Kishore Verma grew up watching the simple rhythms of rural life. He saw mothers walk miles for a doctor’s advice, fathers worried about fever in their children, and communities that depended on whatever healing knowledge […]

The Heart of the Nation: The Story of Dr. Ram Kumar Caroli In the quiet town of Bulandshahr in Uttar Pradesh, a boy named Ram Kumar Caroli grew up with a sharp mind and a quiet sense of purpose. Medicine called to him early. He completed his MBBS and then his MD from King George’s […]

In the heart of Uttar Pradesh, where the Ganga flows and centuries-old healing traditions still breathe, a young man named Ashutosh Majumdar grew up listening to the quiet language of herbs, pulses, and the body’s own rhythms. He was destined to become a Kaviraj—a title that carries both honour and responsibility in the world of […]

In the small town of Srikakulam in Andhra Pradesh, on 8 August 1921, a boy named Vulimiri Ramalingaswami was born into a Telugu-speaking family of teachers and civil servants. His father, V. Gumpaswami, served the government; his mother, V. Sundaramma, managed a large joint household. But the strongest influence on the child was his grandfather—also […]

In 1900, in the North-Western Provinces of British India (today’s Uttar Pradesh), a boy named Mahesh Prasad Mehray was born. He grew up watching the quiet suffering of rural people who lost their sight to cataracts, infections, and neglect, with no specialist within reach. Something in those helpless faces stayed with him. He studied medicine […]

The Steady Hand That Opened Hearts: The Story of Dr. Ajit Kumar Basu In 1912, in Calcutta, a boy named Ajit Kumar Basu was born into a city that pulsed with both tradition and change. He grew up walking the corridors of learning—first at Hare School, then Presidency College—before entering Calcutta Medical College. There, under […]

The Father of Indian Orthopaedics: The Story of Prof. Badri Narayan Sinha On 26 July 1910, in the quiet hill station of Chaubattia in Almora district of the then United Provinces, a boy named Badri Narayan Sinha was born. The mountains around him were beautiful, but the roads were rough and medical care scarce. Many […]

In the town of Salem in the Madras Presidency, on 29 November 1918, a boy named Coluthur Gopalan was born into a traditional household. His father was a police officer. At the age of ten the family moved to Madras, where young Gopalan studied at Madras Christian College Higher Secondary School and later entered Madras […]

In the official records of the Republic of India for the year 1970 appears a name that links the old Chettiar traditions of service with the new nation’s growing medical needs: Cuddalore Subramania Chetty Sadasivan, from Andhra Pradesh, honoured with the Padma Shri in the field of Medicine. Born into a family that carried the […]

The People’s Ophthalmologist: The Story of Dr. Perugu Siva Reddy In the quiet village of Dinnedevarapadu in Kurnool district of Andhra Pradesh, on 12 September 1920, a boy named Perugu Siva Reddy was born to Hussain Reddy and Pullamma. The family lived a simple agrarian life. What stayed with the child was the memory of […]