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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.”

Damascene Folly

In embracing a former jihadist as Syria’s leader, Donald Trump is risking the future of West Asia.

U.S. President Donald Trump has always fancied himself a dealmaker. But his latest diplomatic coup in form of a sudden decision to lift all U.S. sanctions on Syria and embrace its new president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, veers less toward shrewd statesmanship and more toward reckless romanticism. Al-Sharaa, better known by his nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, was once a commander in al-Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate, Jabhat al-Nusra. Now, he is feted by Trump as a “strong past” fighter with a “real shot” at national redemption. This is geopolitics with a reality-TV script and nuclear stakes.


Al-Sharaa’s path from jihadist leader to head of state would stretch credulity if it weren’t true. Captured two decades ago by American forces in Iraq and incarcerated in the infamous Camp Bucca, the breeding ground of the Islamic State, he returned to Syria to wage war against Bashar al-Assad’s regime. Over time, and after multiple bloody schisms among the opposition, al-Sharaa emerged as the de facto ruler of Syria’s Idlib province. A tactical break with al-Qaeda in 2016 helped distance him from global jihadism, but did not erase his past.


Still, his victory over Assad late last year with quiet assistance from Turkey and tacit nods from Gulf states, propelled him from warlord to powerbroker. Al-Sharaa’s regime, forged from the embers of civil war and bolstered by Islamist networks, may not resemble a Western liberal democracy. But in Trump’s eyes, it represents something far more alluring: a ‘winner.’


The timing of Trump’s pivot is as cynical as it is symbolic. Less than seven months after the collapse of the Assad regime - long one of the world’s most sanctioned - Trump’s Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent confirmed that Washington would unwind all sanctions. This effectively ended the ‘Caesar Act’ regime of pressure imposed on Syria since 2020, which sought to hold the Assad government accountable for war crimes and deter reconstruction partnerships with malign actors like Iran and Russia.


Syria today is a wasteland. Fourteen years of civil war have devastated its cities and decimated its economy. A third of the country’s buildings are uninhabitable. Aleppo, once a cosmopolitan beacon of Levantine life, is now a shattered skeleton. The country’s institutions are either non-functional or in the grip of armed militias, some linked to criminal syndicates. The currency is worthless, the middle class has vanished, and even survival is a luxury.


Trump’s decision to lift sanctions, then, is not born of humanitarian concern. It is transactional. In exchange, Washington expects Syria to evict foreign fighters, expel Palestinian factions and take full responsibility for Islamic State (ISIS) detainees in the northeast. Trump also wants al-Sharaa to sign the Abraham Accords by normalising ties with Israel. It is a maximalist wishlist, implausible and delusional given Al-Shaara’s past.


And yet, al-Sharaa is playing along. His government is cooperating in operations against ISIS, reaching out to former American proxies such as the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, and even allowing quiet talks with Israel’s intelligence agencies. Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed bin Salman, long hostile to Assad but pragmatic in their realpolitik, have pushed for al-Sharaa’s recognition. Trump, ever impressionable, is listening.


None of this sits well with America’s national security establishment. Figures like Joel Rayburn and John Bolton are aghast. Rayburn, a former special envoy for Syria and a seasoned military officer, warns that al-Sharaa is a jihadist in presidential clothing.


Al-Sharaa’s ideological reformation remains suspect. His rule over Idlib was marked by brutal repression, religious policing, and the marginalisation of women and minorities. The infrastructure of jihadism may have been papered over, but it is not dismantled. With militias still armed and civic peace tenuous, the chance that Syria backslides into war or exports instability, is high.


History may remember this as Trump’s Syrian folly, or his most audacious diplomatic bet. Either way, it is a reminder of how personal charisma, power and the illusion of strength often seduce American presidents.

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