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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.”

The Empire Slips Further Away

Britain’s decision to hand the Chagos Islands back to Mauritius is just and profoundly symbolic.


It is not every day that a colonial relic is returned with the flourish of legality, diplomacy and emotion. Britain’s quiet retreat from the Chagos Archipelago, a volcanic chain of over 60 islands in the Indian Ocean, represents the end of one of its last major imperial entanglements.


The decision, finalised after a High Court ruling and ceremonially sealed by Prime Minister Keir Starmer, completes the decolonisation of Mauritius and perhaps foretells the fate of other far-flung outposts of the British empire.


Chagos has long been a geopolitical anachronism. Detached from Mauritius in 1965, three years before the latter’s independence, the islands became the British Indian Ocean Territory. Its largest island, Diego Garcia, was leased to the United States, which transformed it into a major military hub. The airstrip has hosted secret rendition flights, supported bombing campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan, and, more recently, launched missions targeting Yemen’s Houthi rebels. It was described as “almost indispensable” by the Americans.


Yet what was long deemed indispensable is now politically indefensible. A 2019 advisory opinion by the International Court of Justice, backed by the UN General Assembly, declared the UK’s administration of Chagos unlawful. India, ever attuned to its Indian Ocean backyard, applauded the new agreement as a step towards a rules-based order. For Britain, it marks not just the loss of a territory, but the steady erosion of imperial exceptionalism.


PM Starmer has insisted that the agreement protects British and American interests, noting that the Diego Garcia base will remain operational for the next century under a 99-year lease. That provision is meant to soothe Whitehall’s national security hawks, but it has done little to calm critics. The Conservative opposition, led by Kemi Badenoch, derided the move as an act of “Labour chaos,” lamenting the surrender of British territory and the multi-billion-pound price tag footed by taxpayers. The more vociferous are muttering about dominoes: if Chagos can go, what of Gibraltar? Or the Falklands?


The symbolism is potent. For Chagossians, many of whom were evicted between 1967 and 1973 to make way for the American base, the return marks a kind of homecoming. The mood in Pointe aux Sables was one of joyous vindication.


That emotional release is mirrored by cold logic in Whitehall. Foreign Office mandarins had long warned that further delay would fray ties not just with Mauritius but also with Washington.


The Americans, though never keen on reopening the sovereignty debate, prefer strategic continuity over colonial baggage. This deal offers both. Diego Garcia remains a launchpad, but the diplomatic taint of colonialism is scrubbed clean by treaty. The parallels to other British overseas territories are hard to ignore.


Gibraltar, despite its centuries-old loyalty to the Crown, exists in a permanent state of diplomatic friction with Spain. The Falklands, whose residents overwhelmingly identify as British, still irk Argentina. Though neither faces imminent handover, the Chagos deal sets a precedent. The sun may have set on the empire, but its shadow lingers—and grows fainter by the day.


To British nationalists, the Chagos handover will feel like another loss in a litany of retreats. For them, Brexit was meant to be a reassertion of sovereignty; handing over islands steeped in military utility and symbolic power will appear counterintuitive. But empires are not rebuilt by clinging to legal fictions. They are disassembled often reluctantly, but sometimes wisely.


Britain’s modern role in the world rests less on the illusion of control and more on its ability to shape outcomes through rules, alliances and legitimacy. In this instance, all three have aligned. Chagos returns to its rightful owner. The base stays. The West’s security architecture holds firm. And a wrong, however belatedly, has been righted.


It is, at the very least, the close of one chapter in the long and contested history of British imperialism. For Mauritius, it is a reunion. For Britain, it is a reckoning.

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