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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.”

Waziristan’s Warning

A deadly bombing and a court ruling have thrown Khyber Pakhtunkhwa into political chaos, exposing Pakistan’s deeper crisis of governance.

Pakistan’s already fragile political centre is reverberating once more with tremors from the restive North Waziristan. A suicide bomber, operating under the banner of Hafiz Gul Bahadur’s faction of the Pakistani Taliban (TTP), rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into a military convoy, killing 16 soldiers and injuring two dozen others including children whose homes collapsed under the force of the blast. It was the deadliest attack on the military in months, underscoring the perilous fault lines crisscrossing Pakistan’s restive northwest.


Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), the province bordering Afghanistan, has long been a barometer of Pakistan’s internal stability. It is now shaking violently under the twin pressures of escalating militancy and deepening political dysfunction. This latest atrocity, claimed by a group affiliated with the TTP, coincided with a legal shock from Islamabad. Recently, Pakistan’s Supreme Court dealt a severe blow to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), the populist juggernaut led by the incarcerated former prime minister, Imran Khan. In a ruling laden with political consequence, the court barred PTI’s proxy—the Sunni Ittehad Council—from claiming 25 reserved seats for women and minorities in the KP Assembly.


Together, these events expose not only the volatility of a province on the edge but also the frailty of Pakistan’s democratic institutions and the emboldenment of militant networks in the vacuum they leave behind.


For much of the 21st century, KP, in particular the tribal districts like North Waziristan, has served as ground zero in Pakistan’s war against Islamist militancy. After 9/11, the porous Durand Line between Pakistan and Afghanistan became a corridor for Taliban fighters, al-Qaeda operatives and later, the Pakistani Taliban. Military operations launched by Islamabad succeeded in temporarily scattering militant groups but did little to resolve the deeper grievances of disenfranchised Pashtun communities.


In 2018, the merger of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) into KP was meant to integrate these frontier regions into the mainstream. But years later, infrastructure remains weak, economic development is sparse, and the security apparatus is both overstretched and resented. Since the Taliban’s return to power in Kabul in 2021, cross-border militancy has resurged. Islamabad accuses the Afghan Taliban of harbouring TTP militants—a charge vehemently denied by Kabul but corroborated by a rising death toll. By AFP’s count, nearly 290 people, mostly soldiers, have died in such attacks this year alone.


The security crisis in KP is now paralleled by an institutional one. Following controversial national elections in February 2024 in which the PTI was effectively barred from contesting under its iconic cricket bat symbol, Imran Khan’s party sought to maintain its grip in KP by aligning victorious independents with the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC). The goal was to regain access to the 25 reserved seats in the provincial legislature.


That gambit has now failed after the Supreme Court ruled that SIC, a minor religious party hastily repurposed for political survival, cannot inherit PTI’s electoral spoils. Though it commands the support of 98 members (including 58 independents once affiliated with PTI), it lacks formal party cohesion.


Pakistan’s anti-defection law, Article 63(A), only applies to party members. These independents can now align with opposition parties without penalty, potentially tipping the balance of power. If opposition parties (currently 27 strong) claim the reserved seats and woo the independents, they would command 88 seats in the 145-member Assembly, well over the majority threshold of 73.


The real question is whether any party can lay claim to legitimacy in a system that increasingly resembles a legalistic shell game. The judiciary has repeatedly intervened in politically contentious matters, often appearing less as a neutral arbiter and more as a participant in a broader campaign to sideline Khan. The implosion of PTI in the province it governed most effectively now leaves a dangerous vacuum as militant groups exploit the paralysis. Their message is brutally simple: when the state fights itself, it cannot protect its people.

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