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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.”

Up from Peasantry to Wizardry

Prof Dr Anand Patil
Prof Dr Anand Patil

The Government of Maharashtra’s Academy of Literature and Culture has recently published an ambitious trilogy of Marathi works on cultural theory and criticism — a project entrusted to one of India’s senior comparatists, the former Head and Professor of English at Goa University, Prof Dr Anand Patil. Despite spending two decades in Goa, where much of his experimental work in Marathi and English went largely unnoticed in Maharashtra, his contribution is formidable: 10 books in English and 52 in Marathi. The editor of The Cambridge Companion to Comparative Literature, World Literature and Culture (2011) had also invited him to contribute to that prestigious volume.

 

For a man who began his education in a village primary school conducted in a temple near the Masai Plateau, the journey is extraordinary. Born into an illiterate, marginal farming family in Shittur, Kolhapur district, he remained unaware of his own genealogy well into his seventies. It was this search for ancestry — and the surprise it revealed — that nudged him towards writing the bestseller Maharashtrala Mahit Nasalele Samrat Shivaji? (Emperor Shivaji Unknown to Maharashtra, 2017).

 

His paternal lineage indicates that his ancestral surname was Sankpal, and that land had once been granted to his forefather by Jijabai, who was killed in the Battle of Ghodkhind. His maternal genealogy proved even more startling: the neighbouring village of Save was founded by the Mahadik family of Tarale in Satara, and the only Lad Patil household there is identified as Mahadik — hinting at a link to the clan of Shivaji Maharaj’s son-in-law. This discovery led him to study Modi script and publish life narratives of Shahaji, Shivaji and Jijabai, dedicating these works to the men and women of both families who carry the legacy of the Bhosale rebels.

 

A committee of intellectuals at Shivaji University will release these volumes and felicitate him on Thursday in Kolhapur.

 

Spanning 2,100 pages, the titles themselves suggest both range and rigour: 1. Cultural Analysis — Society, Culture and Literature; 2. Cultural Theories Across the World; 3. Cultural Studies — Old and New. The 60-page introduction and exhaustive bibliography testify to his extensive reading and multidisciplinary approach. He has acknowledged the early encouragement of his former Head, Dr S. K. Kulkarni — an immigrant from Karnataka — who urged him to teach creative writing and comparative literature. This support helped him secure the state government’s approval for this large-scale project. His book on creative writing earned him his fourth state literary award, and several of his works — translated into Hindi, Kannada and English — are taught in more than 100 universities across India.

 

Rural writing

Yet his creative journey in Marathi began in Kolhapur, when Prof Dr Anand Patil joined Rajarshi Shahu College as a lecturer. His early rural stories and radio plays drew praise from renowned writer Shankar Patil, who described him as “a rising sun of rural writing”. Patil would later remark wryly that “Maharashtra turned that sun lukewarm”, but his subsequent years in Goa — and six international tours — broadened his perspective, enriching his literary output in both languages.

 

A student of Shivaji College, Satara, he was shaped by its Earn and learn scheme, and Shivaji University once showcased his autobiography-like résumé at a NAAC evaluation. The upcoming felicitation in Kolhapur will be attended by noted scholar Padma Shri Ganesh Devi from Dharwad and Dr Deepak Pawar of Mumbai University.

 

Prof Anand Patil's contribution to literature is vast: three novels, six short-story collections, three travelogues, a play, four translations, four radio plays, character sketches, 25 forewords and 18 collections of essays in comparative and cultural studies. His doctoral thesis, Western Influence on Marathi Drama (1818–1947), remains a pioneering comparative study and is lauded in Aparna Dharwadker’s Indian Drama (Cambridge University Press). The Marathi translation of this thesis won him an MS University, Pune award.

 

His career began as a tutor in English; he later secured a merit scholarship for his M.A. and ranked second in English at Shivaji University. His years of service in colleges under the Rayat Shikshan Sanstha brought him recognition. His travelogue Patalachi Londonwari and its one-man stage adaptation remain popular. His novels have fetched awards, and he has received a total of 20 honours, including four from the Maharashtra government. A UGC-sponsored national seminar was organised on his work in Goa, and three critical books have since been published on his writings.


(The writer is a senior journalist based in Kolhapur. Views personal.)

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