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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.”

A New Realism

Taiwan’s Han Kuang drills confront China’s coercion with grit and gunpowder.

In a show of force unlike any Taiwan has mounted in public before, its Armed Forces recently staged live-fire drills in the heart of a densely populated zone to simulate a Chinese assault on the capital.


The Taiwanese Armed Forces deployed live C4 explosives, combat obstacles and riverine defences as part of the annual Han Kuang military exercises. For the first time, the military demonstrated live ordnance deployment to block a potential amphibious landing by Chinese forces - a tactic Beijing is suspected of rehearsing through frequent grey-zone manoeuvres.


The message was unambiguous: Taiwan is preparing not just for a theoretical conflict but for a very real Chinese assault.


The Han Kuang (“Han Glory”) exercises are not new. Instituted in 1984, they are the crown jewel of Taiwan’s military preparedness calendar. But this year’s iteration was hardly routine as for the first time, Taiwan’s Army publicly demonstrated live explosive deployment on home soil in a break from decades of restrained messaging. At a moment when Beijing’s bellicosity grows more brazen, Taiwan’s response is moving from strategic ambiguity to blunt deterrence.


The focal point of the exercise was the Tamsui River. It leads directly to the capital and, in the event of war, would offer a direct amphibious corridor for Chinese hovercrafts, underwater drones and maritime militia, elements of what analysts now call China’s “grey zone” toolkit.


The Army’s 53rd Engineer Group simulated blocking such an incursion with three defensive belts: a floating wall of pontoons and nets, oil barrels, and amphibious vehicles. If this looked like a scene from a Cold War film, it was meant to.


The strategic calculus is not confined to the banks of the Tamsui. Over on Nangan Island just off the Chinese coast, the Matsu Defence Command intercepted simulated drone threats, echoing China’s real-life use of drones to buzz Taiwan’s outer islands and test the vigilance of its troops. On the Taiwan Strait, Beijing’s military has transitioned from symbolic flybys to near-daily air and naval harassment. In 2023 alone, Taiwan reported more than 1,700 Chinese aircraft incursions into its air defence identification zone.


That kind of pressure is precisely what Taiwan’s Han Kuang exercises aim to confront. Previous editions were criticised as choreographed affairs meant more for television than tactical readiness. This year’s response is different. According to Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense, the drills are simulating “realistic conditions” backed by 22,000 reservists.


Beijing’s response was swift and predictable. It accused the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) of stoking confrontation and insisted that such drills “cannot stop the historical trend of national reunification.”


Geopolitically, this year’s exercises also reflect a deeper shift in Taipei’s worldview. Gone is the assumption that international partners, especially the United States, will arrive in time. Washington continues to provide weapons under its policy of ‘strategic ambiguity.’


In a world reshaped by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and wavering Western resolve, Taiwan is recalibrating its expectations.


It is not alone. Across the Indo-Pacific, countries from Japan to the Philippines are watching Taiwan’s preparations with growing interest and anxiety. Japan has reinterpreted its pacifist constitution to allow for counterstrike capabilities. The Philippines is granting expanded access to American forces. Australia is rearming after decades of defence austerity. The region is increasingly hedging against the possibility of a Taiwan contingency turning into a wider conflagration.


None of this guarantees that deterrence will succeed. But Taiwan’s new realism is sobering and overdue. The Tamsui drill was a loud reminder that beneath the veneer of status quo lies a dangerously unstable balance. In demonstrating that it will not wait helplessly for allies or fall back on diplomacy alone, Taiwan is sending a signal to its own people as much as to Beijing: the island may be small, but it will not go quietly.


If the first rule of deterrence is credibility, then Han Kuang 2025 has made one thing clear that Taiwan is no longer rehearsing. It is preparing.

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