top of page

By:

Bhalchandra Chorghade

11 August 2025 at 1:54:18 pm

Healing Beyond the Clinic

Dr Kirti Samudra “If you want to change the world, go home and love your family.” This thought by Mother Teresa finds reflection in the life of Panvel-based diabetologist Dr Kirti Samudra, who has spent decades caring not only for her family but also thousands of patients who see her as their guide. As we mark International Women’s Day, stories like hers remind us that women of substance often shape society quietly through compassion, resilience and dedication. Doctor, mother, homemaker,...

Healing Beyond the Clinic

Dr Kirti Samudra “If you want to change the world, go home and love your family.” This thought by Mother Teresa finds reflection in the life of Panvel-based diabetologist Dr Kirti Samudra, who has spent decades caring not only for her family but also thousands of patients who see her as their guide. As we mark International Women’s Day, stories like hers remind us that women of substance often shape society quietly through compassion, resilience and dedication. Doctor, mother, homemaker, mentor and philanthropist — Dr Samudra has balanced many roles with commitment. While she manages a busy medical practice, her deeper calling has always been service. For her, medicine is not merely a profession but a responsibility towards the people who depend on her guidance. Nagpur to Panvel Born and raised in Nagpur, Dr Samudra completed her medical education there before moving to Mumbai in search of better opportunities. The early years were challenging. With determination, she and her husband Girish Samudra, an entrepreneur involved in underwater pipeline projects, chose to build their life in Panvel. At a time when the town was still developing and healthcare awareness was limited, she decided to make it both her workplace and home. What began with modest resources gradually grew into a trusted medical practice built on long-standing relationships with patients. Fighting Diabetes Recognising the growing threat of diabetes, Dr Samudra dedicated her career to treating and educating patients about the disease. Over the years, she has registered nearly 30,000 patients from Panvel and nearby areas. Yet she believes treatment alone is not enough. “Diabetes is a lifelong disease. Medicines are important, but patient education is equally critical. If people understand the condition, they can manage it better and prevent complications,” she says. For more than 27 years, she has organised an Annual Patients’ Education Programme, offering diagnostic tests at concessional rates and sessions on lifestyle management. Family, Practice With her husband frequently travelling for business, much of the responsibility of raising their two children fell on Dr Samudra. Instead of expanding her practice aggressively, she kept it close to home and adjusted her OPD timings around her children’s schedules. “It was not easy,” she recalls, “but I wanted to fulfil my responsibilities as a mother while continuing to serve my patients.” Beyond Medicine Today, Dr Samudra also devotes time to social initiatives through the Bharat Vikas Parishad, where she serves as Regional Head. Her projects include  Plastic Mukta Vasundhara , which promotes reduced use of single-use plastic, and  Sainik Ho Tumchyasathi , an initiative that sends Diwali  faral  (snack hamper) to Indian soldiers posted at the borders. Last year alone, 15,000 boxes were sent to troops. Despite decades of service, she measures success not in wealth but in goodwill. “I may not have earned huge money,” she says, “but I have earned immense love and respect from my patients. That is something I will always be grateful for.”

35K-year-old Ambadevi rock-art shelter may be Asia’s oldest

Amravati/Mumbai: Ostriches, the world’s tallest species of giraffe, cheetahs and other wild creatures once thrived freely in central India as revealed by paintings in the Ambadevi rock shelters along the Maharashtra-Madhya Pradesh border near Amravati.

 

Latest studies and research suggest that many of the Ambadevi rock shelters, could be over 35,000-years old – much older than the Bhimbetka rock art shelters, near Bhopal (MP), a UNESCO World Heritage Site, around 300 kms away, said multifaceted scientist and amateur archaeologist Dr. V. T. Ingole of Amravati.

 

Incidentally, Dr. Ingole and his team - Padmakar Lad, Manohar Khode, Shirish Kumar Patil, Dnyaneshwar Damahe, and Pradeep Hirurkar – discovered the rock shelters accidentally in January 2007, drawing global attention.

 

Later, the Archaeological Survey Of India (ASI) carried out extensive searches and diggings, revealing around 500 such sandstone shelters which bear a close resemblance to similar rock art sites in other parts of India, South Africa, France and Australia.

 

Dr. Ingole said that carbon-dating and other studies spanning a decade now suggest that the Ambadevi site is estimated to be around 35,000-years old, making it the oldest in India and Asia, overtaking Bhimbetka in ‘seniority’.

 

The Ostrich eggs discovered around Ambadevi and their carbon dating by Sonal Jain and others, indicate their origins to be around 35,000 BC, belonging to a similar painted image of the flightless bird ostrich species, found here.

 

“Further, Aardvarks (ant-eater) and one of the biggest giraffe species, Sivatherium – all now extinct in India - feature alongside the imposing ostrich painting. We surmise some of these species may have travelled from Africa via the Red Sea and Suez regions, traversing the Arabian deserts, then towards the east via territories of modern-day Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and into India till Kerala,” Dr. Ingole, 78, told The Perfect Voice.

 

Among the rock arts in Mungsadev Shelter is a striking four-feet tall painting of a long-necked, feather-plumed bird whose morphology matches the African ostrich, now extinct in India, but genetically confirmed to have lived here during the Late Pleistocene era, besides many other animals that prowled on earth in the prehistoric eras, he explained.

 

Images found

The images of these extinct creatures are found on the same wall of the rock shelters, plus a clutter of many other familiar wild animals and birds living around the primitive humans, who witnessed them at close quarters and engraved/painted them for posterity.

 

“Bhimbetka was considered the cradle of Indian rock arts, but the new discoveries in Ambadevi (Gavilgarh range) point towards an earlier genesis. My research paper on it proposed that the Ambadevi shelters - based on multi-disciplinary evidence of direct visual documentation of extinct fauna, genetic dating anchors and compelling neuro-visual logic - contain the oldest pictorial depictions in the subcontinent,” Dr. Ingole explained.

 

Of the 500-plus rock art sites scattered over 40 square km, around 230 are decorated with paintings, carvings, and though the colors have faded, still enthrall the visitors who flock here from all over the world.

 

Amravati: Extinct creatures grace rock art shelters

The paintings depicted in Ambadevi rock shelters – predating Bhimbetka - comprise humans, tortoises, fish, birds, human hand-impressions, geometric figures, hunting scenes, war stages, or abstract geometrical figures.

 

Painted/carved out on vertical walls, ceilings and rock cavities, the images are a collection of herbivores and carnivores like aardvarks, ostrich, sivatherium, tigers, leopards, hyenas, jackals, wild dogs, bears, spotted deers, nilgai, barasingha, sambars besides the one-horned rhinoceros, and is aptly named as the ‘animal zoo’.

 

While aardvarks, ostrich, sivatherium became extinct in India many millenia back, the majestic one-horned rhino, which once roamed vast regions, is now relegated to Assam-West Bengal in India, and parts of Nepal.

Comments

bottom of page