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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.”

Ballot Brutality

Maharashtra has just delivered a troubling paradox. The same state that conducted a largely peaceful Lok Sabha election and a hard-fought Assembly poll without disorder now cannot manage violence-free municipal elections. On Tuesday, as voting began across the long-awaited 264 municipal councils and nagar panchayats, the democratic ritual was quickly overshadowed by stone-pelting, vandalism, bogus-voting allegations and open clashes between workers of the very parties that rule the state together. If big elections can pass peacefully, why has grassroots democracy turned into a street battle?

Nearly one crore voters were eligible to choose representatives for 6,042 seats and 264 municipal heads. Instead of routine democracy, Maharashtra got a travelling circus of clashes between workers of the BJP, Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar’s NCP who, while, partners in the ruling Mahayuti at the State level, transformed into street-level adversaries armed with sticks, stones and political impunity at places where they contested separately.


From Gevrai in Beed to Roha and Mahad in Raigad, from Jalgaon to Sangli, Hingoli to Nandurbar, violence chased voters from one booth to another. An SUV was smashed in broad daylight. An elderly candidate was assaulted in Parbhani. In Hingoli, a sitting MLA was caught on video entering a polling booth while a woman voted. In Buldhana, suspected bogus voters had to be physically caught by Congress workers.


The Bombay High Court’s directive to postpone counting, fearing that early results might influence later phases, has added a judicial footnote to a political mess. If India can manage peaceful parliamentary elections involving nearly a billion voters, why can Maharashtra not conduct municipal polls without lathi-charges?


The responsibility for this squarely rests with the power-packed troika of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and his deputies, Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar, whose parties govern the State. Each controls a formidable cadre network. Each routinely lectures the opposition on law and order. Yet when their own workers clash across half of Maharashtra, it appears that the ruling alliance has lost operational control over its own foot soldiers or, more disturbing still, has chosen not to exercise it.


Local-body elections in Maharashtra are not small beer. They control contracts, cash flows, patronage networks and the political oxygen that sustains regional satraps. This is precisely why Mahayuti allies fought one another as ferociously as they confronted the opposition. The cost is being paid by voters made to run a gauntlet to exercise their franchise.


Maharashtra’s ruling leaders like to present the state as India’s industrial engine and reform laboratory. Yet its municipal elections resemble the bad old caricature of Indian politics.


Maharashtra’s rulers like to speak the language of stability and governance. But stability cannot be claimed in air-conditioned press rooms and abandoned at the polling booth. If the Chief Minister and his deputies cannot enforce discipline among their own allies in local elections, then their authority over the wider state machinery is a carefully curated illusion.

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