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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.”

Democracy Under Siege

Once hailed as the Black Sea’s democratic beacon, Georgia now teeters between its European aspirations and a return to post-Soviet authoritarian reflexes.

When protesters set fire to barricades in Tbilisi over the weekend, the smoke that rose above Freedom Square carried the residue of Georgia’s long and troubled struggle to define itself as a democracy, as a European nation and as a state still shadowed by the ghosts of empire.


Saturday’s local elections, marred by violence, arrests, and accusations of a coup attempt, mark the latest act in a drama that has stretched across three decades of fragile independence.


Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze called the protests an “attempted coup,” vowing severe reprisals against what he branded “foreign agents.” Opposition figures, meanwhile, denounced the government’s crushing of dissent as a slide into authoritarianism. Between these two narratives lies the uncomfortable truth which is that Georgia’s democracy, once seen as a model for the post-Soviet world, is fraying under the weight of paranoia and populism.


The weekend’s clashes were ostensibly over municipal polls - a routine event that should have passed with little fanfare. Instead, they became a referendum on Georgia’s political soul. The ruling Georgian Dream party, in power since 2012, claimed sweeping victories in all cities and councils, even as most opposition groups boycotted the vote, alleging manipulation and intimidation. For a country still recovering from the disputed parliamentary elections of 2024, the results only deepened public mistrust.


The roots of this crisis run deep. Georgia’s post-Soviet history has always oscillated between democratic promise and political repression. In 2003, the Rose Revolution toppled Eduard Shevardnadze’s corrupt regime, ushering in a new era of reform under Mikheil Saakashvili. But Saakashvili’s own rule grew increasingly autocratic, and by the time Georgian Dream ousted him, many hoped the pendulum would finally settle in the middle - a stable, European democracy grounded in the rule of law.


Instead, the pendulum has swung back. The current government has jailed opposition figures, muzzled the press, and raided civil-society groups — actions disturbingly reminiscent of Russia’s methods, not Brussels’. Western diplomats have accused the government of democratic backsliding and of deliberately stalling Georgia’s long-promised path to European Union membership, enshrined in its constitution but frozen by Brussels last year. Kobakhidze and his allies, for their part, claim that the West seeks to drag Georgia into the war in Ukraine - a conspiratorial refrain borrowed from Moscow’s propaganda lexicon.


At the heart of this confrontation lies a question as old as Georgia’s independence: who truly speaks for the Georgian people? The government insists it is defending stability and sovereignty against foreign meddling. The opposition argues that it is defending democracy against creeping authoritarianism. Both wrap themselves in patriotic rhetoric, but only one side controls the police, the courts, and the airwaves.


Georgia’s turmoil cannot be understood without reference to geography. Wedged between Russia, Turkey, and the Black Sea, it has long been a strategic prize.


Since the 2008 war with Russia, which ended with the loss of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, Tbilisi has sought security through integration with the West. Yet each crisis nudges it closer to the orbit of its northern neighbour. The rhetoric of ‘foreign agents’ and ‘subversive acts’ would not sound out of place in the Kremlin.


For Europe, Georgia’s drift poses a dilemma. Brussels has tied accession to reforms in judicial independence, press freedom, and transparency. But every crackdown in Tbilisi weakens the EU’s leverage and strengthens Moscow’s hand. A country once courted as the democratic success story of the Caucasus now risks becoming another cautionary tale of democratic decay.


Still, Georgia’s streets continue to speak. Even after police fired water cannons and arrested opposition leaders, hundreds of demonstrators returned to parliament on Sunday, vowing to save democracy. Their numbers were smaller, but their defiance echoed the courage that once inspired the Rose Revolution.


For now, Georgian Dream’s grip appears firm. But as history in this volatile region shows, repression often buys only temporary calm. Georgia’s rulers would do well to remember that legitimacy cannot be manufactured by force and that the dream of democracy, once awakened, is not so easily extinguished.

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