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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.”

Quiet Quitting, Slow Living: The New Lifestyle Choices

In a world obsessed with speed, Gen Z is choosing to live life at half the pace—and twice the depth.

The hashtag #slowliving has crossed the six million mark on Instagram. Tiktok stars are spouting terms like ‘quiet quitting’ and ‘lazy girl jobs’ and Gen Z is ready to take a pause, breathe and reflect. Albeit while posting these lifestyle changes and choices on social media.


In an age of everything instant and fast, a quiet revolution is taking place in the minds and the lives of a few—embracing slow living. Just as what our grandparents did. Cooking is slow and meaningful, selecting seasonal vegetables from local farmers, making gravies from scratch and bringing out the brass pots and pans instead of the microwaves and air-fryers. Fashion chooses sustainability, longevity and durability over synthetic, wear-and-throw fast fashion. Screen time and-coffee-on-the-go mornings are making way for slow starts with painstakingly brewed tea and yoga-in-the-sunshine. Hobbies are going off-line—analogue photography is testing creativity and skill in a way no digital image can, and book reading clubs meet on Sunday mornings at neighbourhood parks in a bid to replace the screen with a paper book and make new connections.


Don’t expect to see the middle-aged making the shift. It’s the Gen Z that’s teaching an older generation how to take it slow and live ‘mindfully’. Quiet quitting means that Gen Z is choosing to not ‘overwork’, rather, using the free time to pursue hobbies or long coffee breaks. Rushing up the professional ladder isn’t a priority. While these trends may seem flippant and a middle-class population in India may not have the luxury of shunning that extra one hour of work, the movement shows that younger people aren’t willing to burn out early like a generation before them.


At its core, slow living is all about mindfulness and well thought of choices rather than the proverbial going with the flow. It’s the way we lead our lives until the onslaught of gadgets and the highly hyped charm of multi-tasking. It’s about stopping to smell the flowers and diving into conversations with your children rather than scrolling on the phone. It’s about soaking in the simpler things in life.


Movies made fast living fashionable. Slick English movies showed people sprinting to work with coffee and a croissant in hand. Slow living was demonised as a waste of time. Why cook when you can order in? Why repeat the same clothes when you can don new styles every week? Clicking multiple photographs on the phone and then colour correcting them is faster than waiting for the light to fall at the right place and carefully planning the frame before using even one of the limited 36 shots in a reel. Books have developed a voice as people listen to audio books and podcasts instead of sitting down to read.


But as stress-triggered mental ailments grow, there’s an awareness that fast living isn’t healthy. The human mind, isn’t really supposed to ‘multi-task’, a Mumbai-based psychologist told me once. When we shift rapidly from one thought or task to another, multiple times in a day, the mind gets confused and loses its ability to focus. Completing one job at a time is a better way to be more productive. Over-scheduling our calendars leaves little room for rest, or reflection. Slow living clears up space for the mind to rest and recoup.


Many would argue that slow living isn’t a practical solution for busy, nuclear families. There’s no one to share the duties as work hours get longer, deadlines get tighter and a deluge of entertainment options make us want to pack everything into our day. It’s probably a lifestyle for the privileged few who don’t have to struggle with home, work and social life duties. But it isn’t true.


Living in the moment helps us live more meaningfully. And we don’t need life coaches for that. Mimicking the routines of our grandparents is a ready lesson in slow living. When you cook or eat, don’t discuss work or scroll on the screen. Focus on the colours and flavours in your plate. On a walk, don’t listen to music or a podcast. Instead, watch things around you—the pathways, the street dogs or even a random bloom hiding beneath a leaf. Nature heals and nurtures. Take off those smart sneakers and feel the mud under your feet. Gaze at the moon or the stars at night instead of logging into a streaming platform before bedtime.


Slow living heals and nourishes the mind. It’s a break from the furious pace of wanting to over-achieve. It’s about dropping out of a race with the world, not wanting to catch up all the time. In reel and video terms, it’s all about living at x 0.5 times speed.

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