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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.”

Friends turned Foes

Hun Sen’s betrayal of the Shinawatras reignites tensions on the Thai-Cambodian border, exposing the fragility of personal diplomacy and the unfinished business of history.

It began, as it often does in Southeast Asia, with a mine and a leak. Five Thai soldiers were maimed by an explosive buried near the tangled, disputed border with Cambodia. By the following day, at least 15 civilians - mostly Thai - were dead while diplomatic ties had unravelled. Cambodia’s once-durable backchannel to Bangkok, forged through decades of Shinawatra diplomacy, lies in tatters. The proximate cause was a leaked phone call. The deeper reason lies in centuries of mistrust and the opportunism of two political dynasties playing for high stakes at home.


Relations between the two neighbours have always been uneasy. Their 800-kilometre border, carved by colonial cartographers and made murky by jungle and war, has been the site of recurrent skirmishes. The worst in recent memory came in 2008 and 2011, when artillery duels near the ancient Preah Vihear temple killed over 40 soldiers and civilians. Back then, saner heads prevailed quickly. But not this time.


The spark came in June when Hun Sen, Cambodia’s wily ex-premier and de facto regent to his son, Prime Minister Hun Manet, published a phone call between himself and Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra. In the call, Paetongtarn, Thaksin Shinawatra’s daughter, called him “uncle” and disparaged one of her own military commanders. The leak ignited nationalist fury in Thailand, embarrassed the Thai armed forces, and all but doomed Paetongtarn’s premiership. She has since been suspended, and the constitutional court is weighing her dismissal.


Why would Hun Sen sabotage a relationship that once served him well? The Shinawatras and Hun Sen go way back. When Thaksin was deposed by a coup in 2006, Cambodia offered him sanctuary. When his sister Yingluck suffered a similar fate in 2014, Phnom Penh again provided a safe haven for red-shirt loyalists. The rapport between the two political clans blurred the line between diplomacy and family ties, often bypassing formal institutions altogether. In 2020, Thai dissidents in Cambodia began disappearing - abducted, it was believed, by Thai agents with at least tacit Cambodian assent. Cambodian opposition figures, too, met grim ends on Thai soil.


Now that fragile pact has crumbled. Thaksin, newly returned from exile and weakened politically, could not shield his daughter from the fallout. Thai police have since begun probing Cambodian tycoons with ties to illicit online gambling and scam networks that Cambodia’s post-pandemic economy has come to rely on. Trade between the two countries has ground to a halt. Bangkok has expelled Cambodia’s ambassador and withdrawn its own. Hun Sen, in turn, has threatened to release documents allegedly proving that Thaksin insulted Thailand’s monarchy.


This personal falling out has escalated into a geopolitical crisis. Thailand’s ruling coalition is brittle and preoccupied with an economic slowdown and looming US tariffs. Paetongtarn’s suspension is only the latest blow. Cambodia, too, faces economic headwinds. Chinese tourists remain scarce, frightened off by horror stories of forced labour in scam compounds. Both nations desperately need stability. Neither is showing the maturity to deliver it.


That responsibility once fell to ASEAN, the ten-member regional bloc founded in 1967 with the express aim of preventing conflict between Southeast Asian neighbours. But ASEAN, perennially allergic to confrontation, has yet to intervene in any meaningful way.


Yet the strangest piece of this puzzle remains Hun Sen himself. The man who long played regional peacemaker has now set fire to a personal relationship that once defined Cambodia-Thailand diplomacy. Some speculate that Thailand’s crackdown on scam centres may have ruffled powerful interests in Phnom Penh. Others believe Thaksin’s bid to legalise gambling in Thailand threatens Cambodia’s own casino-driven economy.


Perhaps the answer is simpler. Hun Sen is nothing if not a survivor. Having handed power to his son, he may be seeking to bolster his own legacy as a nationalist stalwart. Burning Thaksin - no longer a kingmaker in Thailand - may cost him little and win him domestic plaudits. A calculated betrayal has once again put Hun Sen at the centre of regional intrigue.

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