In 2019, a few weeks after the Indian National Congress suffered yet another resounding defeat at the hands of the Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party ( BJP), a small group of Delhi-based journalists, including this writer, had an occasion to interact with Rahul Gandhi in the precincts of the Congress Parliamentary Party office within the Parliament Building. During the brief, impromptu interaction, Rahul Gandhi said that he and the Congress had worked hard and to the best of their abilities but were found wanting in making the big change.
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Oommen Chandy with Rahul Gandhi during Bharat Jodo Yatra
Hearing this, I came up with a totally unsolicited advice. “Bring Oomen Chandy to Delhi on a special organisational post. Give him authority to prod your line of leaders in the organisational structure across the country. He will make your units across the country spring to a new life. He himself will not sleep. And he will not let other leaders in your party sleep too.” Rahul Gandhi, just smiled and moved on. 
Later, I sent word to Chandy through one of his close associates, about my “message” to Rahul Gandhi. The associate reported back saying that Chandy too responded to my suggestion with a smile, but had later added that he wished he could actually live up to my impression about him, if given a chance. Apparently, he used to talk about this “organisational possibility at the Congress centre” from time to time. “In a sense, he had taken up this as a promise to himself”, said the associate of Chandy. But several factors, including Chandy’s ill-health, prevented him fulfilling this promise in the past four years. 
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Oommen Chandy sloganeering
Political observers who have observed the organisational abilities of the former Kerala Chief Minister would agree with my assessment. There was little doubt about his connect with the people. Also that 24×7 activity characterised Oomen Chandy’s political life throughout his nearly six-decade long career. Fellow politicians, political observers and journalists have often been dumb founded by Chandy’s capacity to put in inhumanly long hours of work.
Senior politicians belonging to different parties, including his arch rivals in the Communist Party of India (Marxist) have seen how he could be on his feet for almost as long as 10 hours, meeting and interacting with people.
A fellow journalist recounts often an unbelievable official encounter with Chandy. Chandy was Chief Minister at that time and the journalist, an elected leader of a journalists’ union. The latter had an important issue to discuss with the Chief Minister. The union was building an office in one of the Kerala districts and had to get some official clearances. To an official request for an appointment, the Chief Minister’s office replied that the meeting was fixed for 4 a.m. in a train reaching Shoranur Junction then. Looking at the time and place of appointment, the journalist and his colleagues had surmised that the meeting would not happen. The Chief Minister would most probably be asleep at that time, they thought. However, they decided to take a chance and reached the station. The train reached the railway station and the man who opened the train’s door was a fully awake and bright looking Chief Minister himself. The journalists had a fruitful discussion with Chandy in the train. Later, the union’s project came to a smooth completion.
There were several leaders in the Congress as well as many regional parties in northern India such as the Samajwadi Party (SP), the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Janata Dal (United) who knew about this passionate working style of Chandy. Old timers in the Uttar Pradesh Congress, such as Ram Kripal Singh and Pramod Tiwari, used to term it “Chandy’s personal value addition to a long-standing Kerala stamp in Congress politics”. They remember how, when Indira Gandhi was leading the party, young leaders from Kerala, such as A.K. Antony, Vayalar Ravi and Oomen Chandy had occupied important positions in the central bodies of the party. They viewed it as a period of creativity in the grand old party.
In the view of these leaders, it was Chandy and K.C. Venugopal, organisational secretrary in the current Congress Working Committee (CWC), who essentially represented this Kerala stamp in national politics in contemporary times. Interestingly, Venugopal considers himself a sort of protege of Chandy. Both Singh and Tiwari had pointed out to The AIDEM that Chandy’s political personality had particularly captured, the attention and imagination of the political class as a whole, particularty Congress functionaries, in different parts of India during the two terms when he was Chief Minister of Kerala. 
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Oommen Chandy meeting the then Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh in New Delhi
This began right from his first tenure as Chief Minister in 2004. The very fact that he was chosen to replace somebody like Antony after the rout of the Congress in Kerala in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections had evoked interest across the country. This had grown steadily over his first tenure as Chief Minister until 2006. “It rose to greater heights during the, second tenure, which began in 2011,” Singh said.
Chandy’s tireless physical dynamism and energy were often cited as examples of the new-age political quotients of high value. Even politicians like Akhilesh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party, who stands at a considerable distance from the Congress in political and ideological terms have commented on this aspect to me personally.
At the level of larger politics, however, there have been questions on Chandy’s ideological orientation and commitment. I had myself raised a pointed question on this when he was Chief Minister. Chandy had responded by stating that he did not believe in categorisations such as Left, Right or Centre and his basic ideology was welfare of the people and overall development. Many journalists and observers who had heard this interaction immediately categorised it as mindless generalisation by the leader. 
Even in the midst of this criticism, there was also an acceptance that at the policy level, there were many things that Chandy had done as Chief Minister which had the potential to evolve into more ideologically coherent political plan. Indeed, there were many things that militated against any form of ideological orientation. 
There is a general impression that the present-day Kerala, by and large, does not produce the kind of mature politicians that the larger society of the State deserves. This is a view shared even by those academicians and analysts who have showered praise on the Kerala model of development. Clearly, there is a need for greater application, enhanced creativity, and better innovation to make Kerala adapt itself to the new, emerging world.
Perhaps, Oomen Chandy’s passing away would trigger a broader and more involved debate on this issue in the days to come. Even as one mulls on this possibility, there can be little denying that Chandy had a very high application quotient and that he had brought back some attention to the Kerala stamp in Congress politics at the national level.
In such a context, the unkept promise that he made to himself on bringing more vigour into the Congress at the national level would pain a large number of his followers and friends.

Oomman-Chnadi-05.jpg

In 2019, a few weeks after the Indian National Congress suffered yet another resounding defeat at the hands of the Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party ( BJP), a small group of Delhi-based journalists, including this writer, had an occasion to interact with Rahul Gandhi in the precincts of the Congress Parliamentary Party office within the Parliament Building. During the brief, impromptu interaction, Rahul Gandhi said that he and the Congress had worked hard and to the best of their abilities but were found wanting in making the big change.



Oomen Chandy and an Unkept Promise to Himself

Milan Kundera was part of my youth and growing up, and I toted his works and held on to them as if my life depended on them. During my post-graduation, I lived through his novels, empathized with his female characters, and slipped into the glum of existential angst throttling me from my imagined reliving of his books. Often, I walked under the shadow of his graphomania, entangled or surrounded “with his own writings as with a wall of mirrors cutting off all voices from without.” Significantly, Kundera often talked about being immersed in ‘alien cultures’ and the theory of two civilizations and the essential conflict between them. While he argued for the cultural significance of then Czechoslovakia in the contemporary age, he believed that his country was “culturally in the West and politically in the East” and resented being bundled off as part of the Western civilization. I, too, weighed under the heaviness of cultural alienation, a small-town Malayali girl, weighed down by the distant gloomy chimes of the death knell of the Prague Spring in a far-away time; and, almost intellectually titillated by it, I was enamoured with a novelist who defied all categorizations thrust on him. In an interesting anecdote, when The Joke (1967), his first novel, was simplistically dubbed as “an epitome of the utter denunciation of the Stalinist regime,” Kundera protested with his razor-edged vehemence. “Spare me your Stalinism, please. The Joke is a love story!” 
Incidentally, I picked up The Joke from a lending library, misled by its title. I searched for the joke throughout the book as I realized it was the story of Ludvik, who was still a grudging fan of the ‘still-young Communist regime.’ During his summer break, a girl in his class wrote to him about “optimistic young people filled through and through with the healthy spirit” of Marxism; he replied, “Optimism is the opium of mankind! A healthy spirit stinks of stupidity! Long live Trotsky!” It is evident that Kundera pursued laughter and humour rigorously and persistently in many ways than one. In The Joke, The Book Laughter and Forgetting (1979) and Laughable Loves (1974), he explored the gruelling semantics of black humour, piecing together the jarring elements of history, philosophy, broken love affairs, unconsummated sexuality and personal reflections, through the narration of social commentary and existential contemplations. In these novels, as in most of his other works, through individual and collective memories, the complexity of relationships, memory and forgetting, political repression, love, and the nature of laughter flock together as reflections on human conditions. 
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<pre><code>Milan Kundera’s Books
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Ironically, in his extended treatise on modern aesthetics, Testaments Betrayed (1993), Kundera observes, “If I were asked the most common cause of misunderstanding between my readers and me, I would not hesitate: humour”. Referencing Octavio Paz, he believed, humour is the great invention of the modern spirit” and by claiming that this humour’s birth, coinciding with that of the novel in Rabelais and Cervantes, is absolutely fundamental to modern European culture. Milan Kundera believed that his stories led to a fresh approach to specific knowledge of life. On the other hand, he also argued that “the novel doesn’t answer questions” but leads the reader to reread and find new surprises every time she reads.
The novel never provided an absolute truth for him. Instead, he defined the genre as “the great form in which the author thoroughly explores some great themes of existence, using experimental selves (characters).” But he often wrote them as “wisdom of uncertainty”, especially like many other writers like Kafka, Broch and Hasek, who were ardent adversaries of totalitarian truths, and peppered their writings with ‘irreverent truths.’ Kundera was also obsessed with the concept of betrayal, both in literature and in real life became manifested in artistically different forms, such as political, artistic, and personal betrayals. Kundera examines various historical events and figures, drawing connections between their actions and the theme of betrayal. 
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 The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Interestingly, while Kundera loosened the knots of conventionality, he simultaneously rebuilt nihilistic, self-destructive meanings with the same vigour. Sometimes, inter-genre interference of music can be read into many of his works. The Book of Laughter and Forgetting and The Unbearable Lightness of Being can be read as polyphonies or musical interfaces where the narrator’s and the characters’ voices fuse into a mixture creating new strains of non-linear meanings. 
Kundera’s treatment of ‘sexuality in his novels’ had elicited strong and unfavourable responses over time. For him, sexuality is a microcosm of power struggles, almost always involving the dominance of one person over another, of strength over weakness. There’s nothing personal or pleasurable in sexuality; in The Joke, Ludvik’s pursuit of Helena is an expression of his desire for revenge against Zemánek, but his sexual tyranny is equated as brutal as that of the Communists, and the reader becomes increasingly uncomfortable about Ludvik’s obsession with violating women. Kundera’s outspoken sexual narratives satirize the taboos and individual prejudices regarding sexuality. He effaces the spaces of sacred and profane with his erotic descriptions and non-apologetic violence in sexual engagements and, sometimes, collision. Out there, the personal and political are closely knit, and the comic sexual faux pas are tied to the extensive struggles of the state, where the state suffers a similar, ridiculous predicament. Interestingly, since the same impulses and ambitions underlie public and private life, Kundera argues that the personal and the political cannot be separated as distinct entities. In his words, “Politics unmasks the metaphysics of private life; private life unmasks the metaphysics of politics.”
Milan Kundera has been criticized for the excess of violence and misogyny in his novels. Critics like John O’Brien exposed the strands of misogyny in his novels in caustic terms. He wrote, “Kundera might see himself as a paradoxical, post-structural, or an eroticist exploiting the taboos proliferated by cultural stereotyping”, and at the same time, he critiques Kundera for ‘types’ of women portrayed ad-nauseum in his novels. His vignettes of women are often fragmentary and often couched in the patriarchal idealism that is unconsciously built into his works. The erogenous bodies of women and the brutal violence perpetrated on them in his novels were also subjected to bitter criticism. 
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 Church of Our Lady before Týn, Prague, Czechia 
Kundera consistently rallied laughter and satire against the grim realities of the history of persistent repressions and subjugations Czechoslovakia had undergone for ages. Before the World War, the country wilted under the iron boots of the Austro-Hungarian empire and was eventually invaded by Hitler during the Second World War. Once liberated from German occupation by the Red Army in 1945, the country formed alliances and fell apart under the instability of the coalition till the Communist Government completely took over in 1948. After twenty years of an oppressive Communist rule, Czechoslovakia saw the brief dalliance of liberalism and humanity in the euphoria of the “Prague Spring” whipped up under the leader Alexander Dubcek, the General Secretary of the Community party, in 1968. But the uprising ended disappointing, as Dubcek and his followers were under duress and forced to sign a treaty which meant the end of reform. Along with the moment begins “the struggle of man against power”, which is synonymous with “the struggle of memory against forgetting.” (The Book of Laughter). He adds that the Prague streets were haunted by the ghosts of “moments demolished – demolished by the Czech reformation, demolished by the Austrian counter-reformation, demolished by the Communists.” In an autobiographical account, “The Angels”, Kundera confessed his entrapment in the initial days of Communist euphoria. “I, too, danced in a ring. It was the Spring of 1948. I took other students by hand… and we took two steps in place, one step forward… and we did it just about every month., there being always something to celebrate, an anniversary here, a special event there, old wrongs righted, new wrongs perpetrated, factories nationalized, thousands of people jailed… and we smiled the smile of happiness.”
Exiled to France in 1975 for forty years, the writer never hesitated to fathom the deep and existential questions — “the lightness/weight opposition is the most mysterious, most ambiguous” — and wrote with a relentless indictment against totalitarianism, “The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting.” Interestingly, his writer’s journey, hemmed into interesting phases, voiced the totalitarianism of the state (The Joke), unleashed a direct attack against the Communist regime (The Book) and slowly metamorphosed to political narratives under the gossamer veils of allegorical subjectivity (Identity, Immortality). However, his last novel, The Festival of Insignificance (2014), talked about four men bumping into each other, recounting anecdotes, their mothers, narrating philosophical and playful conversations, and received mixed reviews. 
Years later, in1990, following the Velvet Revolution and the fall of the Communist regime in Czechoslovakia, Kundera was invited back to his home country, though he declined and remained in France. At ninety, in a touching, symbolic gesture, his Czech citizenship was revoked, eliciting the author’s tongue-in-cheek response. “”All I know is that before I left, I was terrified of ‘losing home’ and that after I left, I realized — it was with a certain astonishment — that I did not feel loss, I did not feel deprived.” 
Twenty-five years later, at the news of Kundera’s death, I was again taken back to memories of my small-town world where I was grieving the rise of a totalitarian regime and the fall of liberalism and human rights in a distant country. Back home, though I was deluded by the ideals of democracy, Kundera’s novels evoked the horrors of fallen optimism and the stories of totalitarianism where oblivion aces over memory as the only strategy to survive. The red flags of human suffering swept over the borderlines of the nations and reached out to me and the readers worldwide echoing Kundera’s words, “The Czech anthem begins with a simple question: ‘Where is my homeland?” The homeland is understood as a question. As an eternal uncertainty.” The world’s tribute to the great writer is in remembering the fact that between the effaceable lines of certainties and uncertainties, laughter and tears, memory and forgetting – some great stories were told, pickled in the horror of laughter.

Kundera-1.jpg

Milan Kundera was part of my youth and growing up, and I toted his works and held on to them as if my life depended on them. During my post-graduation, I lived through his novels, empathized with his female characters, and slipped into the glum of existential angst throttling me from my imagined reliving of his books. Often, I walked under the shadow of his graphomania, entangled or surrounded “with his own writings as with a wall of mirrors cutting off all voices from without.” Significantly, Kundera often talked about being immersed in ‘alien cultures’ and the theory of two civilizations and the essential conflict between them.

Stoking Unbearable Memories against Forgetting: Reading Kundera’s Works from a Different World

Professor Imtiaz Ahmad, renowned social scientist, passed away on June 19, 2023. He taught at the Centre for Political Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi from 1972 to 2002. As a political sociologist, he was well-known for his work on caste among Muslims in India. Among his notable works is the book Caste and Social Stratification Among Muslims in India (1973) which he edited.
A lot will be written on Prof. Imtiaz Ahmad and his work by domain experts and his close associates. Here, I’d like to share a fond memory of his magnificent response he gave at an event.
I joined JNU as a student years after Prof. Imtiaz Ahmad retired; nevertheless I had the fortune of listening to a few speeches that he gave in the post-dinner public meetings, an attractive, regular feature of life in JNU, which are organised in hostel mess halls by various student organisations, used to be a regular and attractive feature of life in JNU. There is one particularly unforgettable meeting in which he was the main protagonist. That meeting was organised by the Students’ Federation of India (SFI) in the mess hall of Kaveri Hostel, at a time when the country was debating the Sachar Committee report on the social, educational, and economic status of Muslims in India. There were three speakers: Prabhat Patnaik, Imtiaz Ahmad, and one more speaker whose name I fail to recollect.
Prabhat Patnaik spoke brilliantly, discussing the political economy of the backward conditions faced by Muslims in India, with the historical background of Partition which led to the migration of a major section of well-to-do Muslims to Pakistan (West and East).
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Imtiaz Ahmad
Imtiaz Ahmad gave an illuminating speech on the condition of Muslims in the country. Among the many things he said, he mentioned the prevalence of caste discrimination among Muslims in India. This caused a furore.
As soon as the three speakers were done with their speeches and the floor was opened for questions, something unusual happened, that is, the speakers themselves raising questions. The third speaker stood up to pose a question to Imtiaz Ahmad challenging his arguments. Similar questions were asked by several students. Their core argument was: there is no caste in Islam and hence it is not possible for caste discrimination to exist among Muslims. It was the most vehement verbal attack on a speaker that I had ever seen in a public meeting.
The speakers began to give their answers, one by one. Imtiaz Ahmad was the last one to respond. He looked almost crestfallen, reluctant to answer, as if he had been shaken by the barrage of questions and comments directed against him. Prabhat Patnaik smiled and prodded Imtiaz Ahmad to get up and speak.
And then Prof. Imtiaz Ahmad rose, to give a majestic response. He took on the questions one by one. There is no caste in Islam, true, but the caste system does exist among Muslims, he said. He then gave the names of some Muslim castes in India which are considered untouchables by the “upper” castes among Muslims. He also talked about some practices prevalent among Muslims in some parts of India – for example, during major festivals, upper class Muslims would throw feasts for the entire community, but “lower” caste Muslims would be given food on the other side of the road, and not be allowed to enter the host’s house. Prof. Imtiaz Ahmad’s response, rich in detail and based on long years of in-depth research and experience, was so powerful that it softened the attitude of those who attacked him ferociously.
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He also said that scriptures should be considered social texts that emerged in certain historical contexts and which can be critiqued. That caused another uproar. Scripture is God-given, some argued. But he insisted that as a social scientist, scriptures were social texts. (Unsurprisingly, Prof. Imtiaz Ahmad was hated by the reactionary sections among Muslims, and also by the peddlers of Hindutva.)
The discussion continued even after the public meeting had formally ended. People surrounded him and accompanied him to his car, with questions and answers flying back and forth.
That was an era when there was no practice of recording the speeches at public meetings, forget live-streaming the even. So many brilliant speeches and Q&amp;A sessions have, therefore, remained unrecorded. I don’t think anybody even has an audio recording of the speeches, questions and answers at this marvelous public meeting at Kaveri mess hall that night. 
Farewell, sir! You would be sorely missed. People will continue to learn and get inspiration from your work and life.

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Professor Imtiaz Ahmad, renowned social scientist, passed away on June 19, 2023. He taught at the Centre for Political Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi from 1972 to 2002. As a political sociologist, he was well-known for his work on caste among Muslims in India. Among his notable works is the book Caste and Social Stratification Among Muslims in India (1973) which he edited.

Farewell, Professor Imtiaz Ahmad!

Trial 04.jpg

മലയാളം കണ്ട ചലച്ചിത്ര പ്രതിഭകളിൽ മുൻ നിരക്കാരനായ കെ. ജി ജോർജ് യാത്രയായി. സ്വപ്നാടനം മുതൽ ഇളവങ്കോട് ദേശം വരെയുള്ള അദ്ദേഹത്തിന്റെ ഓരോ സിനിമകളും വ്യത്യസ്ഥമായ മനുഷ്യാവസ്ഥകളുടെ വ്യാഖ്യാനങ്ങളായിരുന്നു. മഹാനായ ആ ചലച്ചിത്ര പ്രതിഭയ്ക്ക് ദി ഐഡം ആദരാഞ്ജലികൾ അർപ്പിക്കുന്നു.

KG George Test

<figure class="image image-style-block-align-left image_resized" style="width:62.74%;"><img style="aspect-ratio:undefined/undefined;" src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/images_2024_07_18_T121121_858_f791bd9501.jpeg" alt="images-2024-07-18T121121.858.jpeg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_images_2024_07_18_T121121_858_f791bd9501.jpeg 245w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined"></figure><div class="post-body clearfix single-blog-header single-blog-inner blog-single-block blog-details-content" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(85, 85, 85);font-family:Manjari;font-size:17px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;"><div class="entry-content clearfix" style="box-sizing:border-box;counter-reset:footnotes 0;margin:0px;padding:0px;">Dr. MS Valiathan, the iconic cardiologist and one of the pioneers of health technology innovations in India passed away on July 17, 2024. The legendary medical technology innovator is one of the celebrated sons of Kerala, who literally advanced the concepts of Kerala Renaissance in the realm of modern medicine. He also sought to bridge diverse streams of traditional medicine with modern medicine.<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/IMG_20240718_WA_0012_768x346_a4eacd21b3.jpg" alt="IMG-20240718-WA0012-768x346.jpg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_IMG_20240718_WA_0012_768x346_a4eacd21b3.jpg 245w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_IMG_20240718_WA_0012_768x346_a4eacd21b3.jpg 500w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/medium_IMG_20240718_WA_0012_768x346_a4eacd21b3.jpg 750w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined">The AIDEM pays its tribute to Dr Valiathan here, through this obituary written by Balagopal Chandrashekar, himself a renowned serial entrepreneur, who was also a civil servant and former Chairman of the Federal Bank. The AIDEM is also reproducing a special audiovisual episode of its series “<a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://theaidem.com/tag/people-and-places/">People and Places</a>” dedicated to the exploration of Dr Valiathan’s contributions in the field of medicine in general and the State of Kerala in particular. This episode is practically a historical record, which highlights the social, political and entrepreneurial milieu of the 1970s and the 1980s and the immense boost it gave to India’s overall industrial and economic growth.&nbsp;<h2 style="box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:25px;line-height:1.2;margin:0px 0px 15px;padding:0px;text-align:left;">Remembering Dr. MS Valiathan</h2>Balagopal ChandrashekharThis morning I got the news that Dr. MS Valiathan had passed away the previous day at Manipal. Dr Sanjay Behari, Director of Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology (SCTIMST) called me to convey the news, and to also invite me to the memorial meeting being held at SCTIMST on July 18 at 1 PM. Since I am at Kochi, and it will be difficult to get there on time, I plan to join online in paying respects to the great soul.I first met Dr. MS Valiathan in March 1983 in his spacious office at the SCTIMST Hospital wing. I was then 30 years old, and in the IAS. I had visited the Institute to look around, since a friend had told me about the interesting work happening there. I met Dr. Valiathan, who was the Director, SCTIMST and I listened to him speak animatedly about the vision behind the setting up of the Institute.<figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="border-width:0px;box-sizing:border-box;clear:both;display:block;height:auto;margin:15px auto;max-width:100%;padding:0px;vertical-align:middle;width:944px;" id="attachment_28985" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-28985"><img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/Photo_MOU_between_SCTIMST_and_ANAHA_Public_Charitable_Trust_page_00012_199e762267.jpg" alt="Photo-MOU-between-SCTIMST-and-ANAHA-Public-Charitable-Trust_page-00012.jpg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_Photo_MOU_between_SCTIMST_and_ANAHA_Public_Charitable_Trust_page_00012_199e762267.jpg 245w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_Photo_MOU_between_SCTIMST_and_ANAHA_Public_Charitable_Trust_page_00012_199e762267.jpg 500w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/medium_Photo_MOU_between_SCTIMST_and_ANAHA_Public_Charitable_Trust_page_00012_199e762267.jpg 750w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing:border-box;display:block;font-size:15px;line-height:20px;margin:0px;padding:12px 0px 0px;text-align:center;" id="caption-attachment-28985">Dr. MS Valiathan (second from left) and Balagopal Chandrasekhar (third from left) at an MoU signing at SCTIMST</figcaption></figure>Even then, I felt an inexplicable bond beginning to form with this handsome dapper man behind the desk, in a wood panelled office that was adorned only with two other photographs. He explained, noticing my eyes on the photos, that they were Dr. Charles Hufnagel and Dr. Wilhelm Gott, who were his teachers.Answering the then Kerala Chief Minister C Achutha Menon’s call to return to the State and set up an advanced institute for medical sciences and technology, he went on to set up the SCTIMST, ushering in modern cardiac and neuro surgery in the country in a public hospital. He then went on to set up the Bio Medical Technology Wing in a large campus across the city, that went on to become the only institute of its kind in India and Asia, and one of the few in the world.<figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="border-width:0px;box-sizing:border-box;clear:both;display:block;height:auto;margin:15px auto;max-width:100%;padding:0px;vertical-align:middle;width:440px;" id="attachment_28989" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-28989"><img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/Picture_of_Dr_Charles_Hufnagel_and_Prof_M_S_Valiathan_jpg_edcbb245a6.webp" alt="Picture_of_Dr_Charles_Hufnagel_and_Prof._M._S._Valiathan.jpg.webp" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_Picture_of_Dr_Charles_Hufnagel_and_Prof_M_S_Valiathan_jpg_edcbb245a6.webp 208w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing:border-box;display:block;font-size:15px;line-height:20px;margin:0px;padding:12px 0px 0px;text-align:center;" id="caption-attachment-28989">Dr. MS Valiathan and Dr.Charles Hufnagel</figcaption></figure>As fate would have it, I was so stirred by his vision, that I went to the BMT Wing and met AV Ramani, who headed the research campus. These two meetings combined to become my epiphany! Till then I was a young guy who was doing well in his IAS career, and had not given much thought to the rest of his life. I resolved by the end of the day to quit my job, and set up a venture to commercialise the blood bag knowhow that had been developed at SCTIMST and was ready for technology transfer.Against great odds and confounding the pundits, my small startup succeeded, and went on to become the largest maker of high quality blood bag systems in the world! Although my father did not live to see this happen (my mother fortunately did), I was most gratified when Dr. Valiathan spoke about me and PENPOL (the firm I had set up) in the warmest terms, going so far as to say that it was this venture that established the SCTIMST as an institute for translational technology development in the medical domain.<figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="border-width:0px;box-sizing:border-box;clear:both;display:block;height:auto;margin:15px auto;max-width:100%;padding:0px;vertical-align:middle;width:768px;" id="attachment_28987" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-28987"><img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/Terumo1_768x567_1_6cbce9b9b0.jpg" alt="Terumo1-768x567-1.jpg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_Terumo1_768x567_1_6cbce9b9b0.jpg 212w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_Terumo1_768x567_1_6cbce9b9b0.jpg 500w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/medium_Terumo1_768x567_1_6cbce9b9b0.jpg 750w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing:border-box;display:block;font-size:15px;line-height:20px;margin:0px;padding:12px 0px 0px;text-align:center;" id="caption-attachment-28987">A blood bag manufactured by Terumo Penpol</figcaption></figure>Dr. Valiathan will be remembered for many accomplishments during his long and illustrious career. I will always remember him for inspiring a young man to take a huge risk and venture out on strange seas, propelled by a vision he set before me. RIP, Dr. MS Valiathan, surgeon extraordinary, great scientist and institution builder and inspiring leader.&nbsp;Watch the seminal special episode of “People and Places” with Balagopal Chandrashekhar on Dr. MS Valiathan below.<div class="raw-html-embed"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/J6yy4yyt5fY" title="MS Valiathan: A Visionary Whose Contributions are Waiting for Better Follow-up | People and Places" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></div>&nbsp;More details about Dr. MS Valiathan can be found <a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M._S._Valiathan">here</a>.</div></div>

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Remembering Dr. MS Valiathan

<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/images_1_6258d15665.jpeg" alt="images-1.jpeg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_images_1_6258d15665.jpeg 245w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_images_1_6258d15665.jpeg 500w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined"><div class="post-body clearfix single-blog-header single-blog-inner blog-single-block blog-details-content" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(85, 85, 85);font-family:Manjari;font-size:17px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;"><div class="entry-content clearfix" style="box-sizing:border-box;counter-reset:footnotes 0;margin:0px;padding:0px;">People who read literature in India knew him, MT Vasudevan Nair. Language was no hurdle for his works to reach out beyond the state borders of Kerala. While Malayali diaspora took a handful of nostalgia along to the places they went, a little bit of MT was also in that.Today, the big business of literature finds translators to translate anything that moves. All tetrapods of literature are given awards that stink of corporate imperialistic nexus. But MT belonged to a different era when blood recognised blood, genius recognised genius. He got translated not once but several times.Basheer, Takazhi and MT were the triumvirate that could transcend the borders and stand tall among the Indian modernist literature. Yes, MT’s literature also had a fair amount of auto-fiction but he hoodwinked it with the magic of text. He was a persuasive minimalist both in writing and in person.An unsmiling MT could generate generations of readers who could smile through tears. MT wrote about a collapsing social structure that divested the old feudal class with their ill-gotten properties. But their social capital remained intact and could exert a lot of influence among the readers by becoming the surrogate emotional ethos of a transition time of Kerala’s socio-political history.<figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="border-width:0px;box-sizing:border-box;clear:both;display:block;height:auto;margin:15px auto;max-width:100%;padding:0px;vertical-align:middle;width:1196px;" id="attachment_31084" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-31084"><img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/mt_1024x575_251dd09907.jpg" alt="mt-1024x575.jpg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_mt_1024x575_251dd09907.jpg 245w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_mt_1024x575_251dd09907.jpg 500w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/medium_mt_1024x575_251dd09907.jpg 750w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/large_mt_1024x575_251dd09907.jpg 1000w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing:border-box;display:block;font-size:15px;line-height:20px;margin:0px;padding:12px 0px 0px;text-align:center;" id="caption-attachment-31084">MT during his Interview with Sabha TV (Watch <a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:0.4s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NttnjeaVqn0">Here</a>)</figcaption></figure>When society evolved into a different being altogether, MT turned to the treasure trove of myths and itihasas to eke out allegories that explained the pain of loss, of class, roots and love. His literature spat on the face of bigotry, whether it was religious or familial. He was so stoically poised in his literature that none could have challenged him and expelled him from the world of literature.MT’s literature spoke of love and separation as vehemently as he wrote about the changing social complexions. But he was not sentimental. There was something in his writing that touched some chord in every reader. Before initiating themselves into Ambedkarite politics, the Dalit ideologues also, in their torturous nights of youth, pined for MT’s characters.Those who call the modernists, Dad Vibes, have really lost the sight of the forest while focusing on shrubs and thicket. MT was a forest that moved, as in the great tragedies. He remained a serious writer while the post modernists fell in the trap of publishers and wrote lightning stories and became laughing stokes.MT remains, so is the MT critique. That’s the beauty of a great writer’s life and of course, death.</div></div>

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MT: A Forest that Moved

Malayalam (ml)

Tamil (ta)

English (en)

Hindi (hi)

Telugu (te)

Kannada (kn)

<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/images_9_45ef5452cd.jpeg" alt="images-9.jpeg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_images_9_45ef5452cd.jpeg 245w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_images_9_45ef5452cd.jpeg 500w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined"><div class="post-body clearfix single-blog-header single-blog-inner blog-single-block blog-details-content" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:Manjari;font-size:17px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;"><div class="entry-content clearfix" style="box-sizing:border-box;counter-reset:footnotes 0;margin:0px;padding:0px;">The following article is part of the Trailblazing Women of India series. A series presented by The AIDEM, exploring the lives and ideas of women who played a decisive role in shaping India’s social, political, and intellectual history.The AIDEM underscores the enduring contemporary relevance of revisiting the lives of these women leaders and the ideas they championed. Click <a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:0.4s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://youtu.be/G_sxvcXO0tg">here</a> to watch the video.<hr>Picture this: It’s 1930. A 27-year-old woman stands before Mahatma Gandhi, telling him he’s making a historic mistake.Gandhi is planning the Salt March. His vision? Men march and women stand on street corners selling salt and singing songs.Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay says: No.“Women have stood shoulder to shoulder with men, building the Congress party. They deserve to march,” she insists.<figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="box-sizing:border-box;clear:both;display:block;margin:15px auto;max-width:100%;padding:0px;width:654px;" id="attachment_42087" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-42087"><img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/Kamaladevi_Chattopadhyaya_Leading_a_Congress_march_in_the_early_1930s_a72f010da1.jpg" alt="Kamaladevi-Chattopadhyaya-Leading-a-Congress-march-in-the-early-1930s.jpg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_Kamaladevi_Chattopadhyaya_Leading_a_Congress_march_in_the_early_1930s_a72f010da1.jpg 102w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_Kamaladevi_Chattopadhyaya_Leading_a_Congress_march_in_the_early_1930s_a72f010da1.jpg 327w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/medium_Kamaladevi_Chattopadhyaya_Leading_a_Congress_march_in_the_early_1930s_a72f010da1.jpg 491w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing:border-box;display:block;font-size:15px;line-height:20px;margin:0px;padding:12px 0px 0px;text-align:center;" id="caption-attachment-42087">Kamaladevi Chattopadhyaya leading a Congress march in the early 1930s</figcaption></figure>Gandhi concedes. But she’s not finished. “Issue a formal call to action.”“Why?” Gandhi asks. “Don’t you know your sisters?”Her response? Pure political genius: “Because history will record that YOU called them to participate.”&nbsp;History did record it. Women marched beside Gandhi, breaking salt laws. Kamaladevi became one of the first women arrested for civil disobedience. She auctioned “freedom salt” at the Bombay Stock Exchange for Rs. 501. On January 26, 1930, she clung to the Indian tricolour during a scuffle with authorities, refusing to let go.Who was this woman bold enough to challenge Gandhi?Born in 1903 in Mangalore, married at fourteen, widowed at sixteen. She remarried—scandalous. She divorced—one of India’s first civil divorces. In 1926, encouraged by Margaret Cousins, she became the first woman to contest a legislative office, losing by just 55 votes. In 1927, she founded the All India Women’s Conference as its organizing secretary.In 1936, she became a founding member of the Congress Socialist Party, working alongside Jayaprakash Narayan and Ram Manohar Lohia. Yet when we celebrate Indian socialism, we remember only the men.<figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="box-sizing:border-box;clear:both;display:block;margin:15px auto;max-width:100%;padding:0px;width:300px;" id="attachment_42084" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-42084"><img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/Kamaladevi_Chattopadhyay_aa0f5dde3b.jpg" alt="Kamaladevi-Chattopadhyay.jpg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_Kamaladevi_Chattopadhyay_aa0f5dde3b.jpg 113w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing:border-box;display:block;font-size:15px;line-height:20px;margin:0px;padding:12px 0px 0px;text-align:center;" id="caption-attachment-42084">Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay</figcaption></figure>Her ideas were revolutionary. She connected capitalism, imperialism, and women’s subjection: “This imperial capitalist system encourages endless wars and expects women to produce children who become soldiers.” She challenged glorified motherhood itself.In the 1930s—decades before global women’s liberation—she championed bodily autonomy and birth control. Not for population control, but for women’s choice. She traveled to America, worked with Margaret Sanger, and in 1951 established India’s first family planning commission centered on women’s autonomy.She championed what we now refer as feminist economics, preceding the Feminist Care Ethics Debate by decades. She documented sexual division of labor, wage discrimination, and systematic underpayment of women workers in industrial and agricultural sectors—when labor movements barely acknowledged women as workers.Interestingly, she refused the label “feminist,” understanding that in her hostile patriarchal environment, strategic pragmatism mattered. But her ideas? Profoundly feminist.<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/Kamaladevi_4_58727afc75.jpg" alt="Kamaladevi-4.jpg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_Kamaladevi_4_58727afc75.jpg 216w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_Kamaladevi_4_58727afc75.jpg 500w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined">After Partition, heartbroken, she resettled 50,000 refugees from the North-West Frontier Province, helping create Faridabad—independent India’s crucial early industrial township. In 1948, she founded and led the Indian Cooperative Union for the rehabilitation of the refugees.Her greatest legacy? Reviving India’s dying crafts as economic empowerment. As chairperson of the All India Handicrafts Board for twenty years, she understood that handicrafts meant livelihoods for millions, grassroots democratic participation, and India’s answer to exploitative industrialization.Her institutions still stand: Indian National Theatre established in 1944, which later became National School of Drama, All India Handicrafts Board established in 1952, Sangeet Natak Akademi in 1953, Crafts Council of India in 1964, and Delhi’s Crafts Museum in 1967. She made Indian handicrafts a major export, serving as an Advisor to the World Craft Council and first President for the Asia-Pacific Region.<figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="box-sizing:border-box;clear:both;display:block;margin:15px auto;max-width:100%;padding:0px;width:555px;" id="attachment_42085" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-42085"><img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/Leading_Their_Imperial_Highnesses_to_the_dias_60795d4aa2.jpg" alt="Leading-Their-Imperial-Highnesses-to-the-dias.jpg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_Leading_Their_Imperial_Highnesses_to_the_dias_60795d4aa2.jpg 216w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_Leading_Their_Imperial_Highnesses_to_the_dias_60795d4aa2.jpg 500w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing:border-box;display:block;font-size:15px;line-height:20px;margin:0px;padding:12px 0px 0px;text-align:center;" id="caption-attachment-42085">Kamaladevi Chattopadhyaya leading their Imperial Highnesses to the dias</figcaption></figure>From UNESCO Awards to the Padma Vibhushan, her legacy endures in every artisan earning a dignified living today.Kamaladevi died in 1988, but her question echoes: What does freedom mean without bodily autonomy, economic independence, and cultural sovereignty?As you explore her work—and I hope you will—ask yourself: What would Kamaladevi be fighting for today?<div class="raw-html-embed"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/G_sxvcXO0tg" title="Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay and the Idea of Cultural Sovereignty by Priyanka Jha | New Series | EP 02 " frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></div></div></div>

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Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay: The Woman who taught Gandhi a Lesson

<div class="post-body clearfix single-blog-header single-blog-inner blog-single-block blog-details-content" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:Manjari;font-size:17px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;"><div class="entry-content clearfix" style="box-sizing:border-box;counter-reset:footnotes 0;margin:0px;padding:0px;">Shuruart Foundation has been using art to make education more joyful and effective since 2017. Does your child often draw the same thing again and again? Should parents be worried if this happens? In this episode of Child and Art: Myths &amp; Facts, we talk about why children repeat drawings and what it really tells us about their confidence and emotional growth. Learn how your positive feedback and encouragement can help your child express freely, think creatively, and build genuine self-confidence. Watch the video to learn more.</div></div>

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Same drawing again? Is that good or bad for your child’s growth?

<div class="post-featured-image" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:Manjari;font-size:17px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px 0px 50px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">&nbsp;</div><figure class="image"><img style="aspect-ratio:undefined/undefined;" src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/Wearing_My_Face_Before_a_Media_that_Has_the_Power_to_Make_and_Unmake_4_optimized_100_f65d7f55f3.png" alt="Wearing_My_Face_Before_a_Media_that_Has_the_Power_to_Make_and_Unmake_4_optimized_100.png" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_Wearing_My_Face_Before_a_Media_that_Has_the_Power_to_Make_and_Unmake_4_optimized_100_f65d7f55f3.png 245w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_Wearing_My_Face_Before_a_Media_that_Has_the_Power_to_Make_and_Unmake_4_optimized_100_f65d7f55f3.png 500w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined"></figure><div class="post-featured-image" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:Manjari;font-size:17px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px 0px 50px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">As advocates, our lives are consumed by briefs and arguments, leaving little room for leisure. For me, the finest pastime is research and writing, a legacy I proudly inherit from my late grandfather, Shri S.A.A. Rizvi, IAS (Retd.). He was a gold medallist and a remarkable scholar of his times. His example instilled in me the conviction that the pursuit of knowledge is not merely an adornment, but a discipline that enriches both profession and personality.</div><div class="post-body clearfix single-blog-header single-blog-inner blog-single-block blog-details-content" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:Manjari;font-size:17px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;"><div class="entry-content clearfix" style="box-sizing:border-box;counter-reset:footnotes 0;margin:0px;padding:0px;">It was in this spirit that a casual exchange with my colleague Nadeem Murtaza at the High Court rekindled this passion. His query, whether I had ever heard of “Douglas” or “Kinnaird Hospital” of Lucknow was not a passing remark, but a spark that illuminated a forgotten chapter of Lucknow’s medical heritage. His mother, Zahida Auntie, had often spoken of it, pointing to the site near today’s Lari Cardiology Centre, where the geriatric and mental health departments of KGMU (King George Medical University) now stand. That conversation became the bridge between my inherited love for inquiry and the living memory of our city, compelling me to delve into archives and dissertations, and to uncover the remarkable story of a hospital that once stood shoulder to shoulder with Queen Mary and Lady Dufferin Hospitals in Lucknow.&nbsp;<figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="box-sizing:border-box;clear:both;display:block;margin:15px auto;max-width:100%;padding:0px;width:426px;" id="attachment_41918" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-41918"><img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/Kinnaird_Memorial_Hospital_1_1_1024x666_2b0c4cee0d.png" alt="Kinnaird-Memorial-Hospital-1-1-1024x666.png" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_Kinnaird_Memorial_Hospital_1_1_1024x666_2b0c4cee0d.png 240w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_Kinnaird_Memorial_Hospital_1_1_1024x666_2b0c4cee0d.png 500w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/medium_Kinnaird_Memorial_Hospital_1_1_1024x666_2b0c4cee0d.png 750w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/large_Kinnaird_Memorial_Hospital_1_1_1024x666_2b0c4cee0d.png 1000w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing:border-box;display:block;font-size:15px;line-height:20px;margin:0px;padding:12px 0px 0px;text-align:center;" id="caption-attachment-41918">Lady Kinnaird Memorial Hospital</figcaption></figure>The story begins in 1875, when Elizabeth Bielby, a nurse sent by the Zenana Mission Society, began her medical mission near Lucknow. Though beset by tragedy, her sister Alice died soon after arrival, and Bielby herself fell gravely ill, the mission still endured. By 1891, through the efforts of Dr. Grace Mackinnon, the Lady Kinnaird Memorial Hospital was established on government-granted land, named after Lady Kinnaird. She was a devout Presbyterian philanthropist remembered for founding the YWCA.&nbsp;<figure class="wp-caption alignnone" style="box-sizing:border-box;display:block;margin:15px auto 10px;max-width:100%;padding:0px;width:416px;" id="attachment_41915" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-41915"><img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/CMS_CRL_IW_1899_08_0007_cropped1_7b434dba61.jpg" alt="CMS_CRL_IW_1899_08_0007-cropped1.jpg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_CMS_CRL_IW_1899_08_0007_cropped1_7b434dba61.jpg 244w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing:border-box;display:block;font-size:15px;line-height:20px;margin:0px;padding:12px 0px 0px;text-align:center;" id="caption-attachment-41915">England Zenana Missionary Society</figcaption></figure>In 1910, Dr. Ethel Douglas took charge, and for the next 36 years she transformed the institution, expanding facilities, raising standards, and establishing training protocols that led to the North India Board of Examiners and State Registration Councils. Her dedication earned her the Kaiser-i-Hind Medal in Gold in 1927, and government grants that enabled new wards and modern equipment. As Beth Bullock Spencer’s dissertation records, Douglas’s “extraordinary influence” kept the Lucknow hospital “overflowing,” even as she grappled with challenges ranging from reluctant purdah patients to the infamous monkey menace.“Even the veteran doctor Ethel Douglas struggled to find a solution to the monkey problem, for some of the local people regarded the monkeys as sacred; harming the monkeys was out of question. Douglas resorted to shouting and shaking her rifle at the monkeys, but with little effect.”Snakes, too, were a recurring hazard, and cultural beliefs often complicated medical practice. Patients observing purdah resisted operations, some postponed surgeries at the last minute deeming the hour “inauspicious,” while others consulted village elders who determinedhe hospital became a sanctuary for women’s health, normalizing dental extractions, eye surgeries, and maternity care in a city where traditional practices often prevailed.The British contribution to Lucknow’s health system was profound. Alongside Lady Kinnaird Memorial Hospital, the Lady Dufferin Hospital was established in 1889 under the Countess of Dufferin Fund to provide safe maternity care. Later, the Queen Mary’s Hospital arose in the early 20th century as a centre for women’s medical education. Together, these institutions marked the colonial effort to embed Western medicine into the city’s fabric, particularly for women and children. They were not merely hospitals but symbols of reform, philanthropy, and the gradual acceptance of modern medical practices in a society negotiating tradition and change.<figure class="wp-caption alignnone" style="box-sizing:border-box;display:block;margin:15px auto 10px;max-width:100%;padding:0px;width:396px;" id="attachment_41916" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-41916"><img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/Lady_Dufferin_Hospital_Virabijee_Katrak_Maternity_Wing_768x432_4cbd6e4487.jpg" alt="Lady_Dufferin_Hospital-_Virabijee_Katrak_Maternity_Wing-768x432.jpg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_Lady_Dufferin_Hospital_Virabijee_Katrak_Maternity_Wing_768x432_4cbd6e4487.jpg 245w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_Lady_Dufferin_Hospital_Virabijee_Katrak_Maternity_Wing_768x432_4cbd6e4487.jpg 500w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/medium_Lady_Dufferin_Hospital_Virabijee_Katrak_Maternity_Wing_768x432_4cbd6e4487.jpg 750w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing:border-box;display:block;font-size:15px;line-height:20px;margin:0px;padding:12px 0px 0px;text-align:center;" id="caption-attachment-41916">Lady Dufferin Hospital, Lucknow</figcaption></figure>By 1965, however, Lady Kinnaird Memorial Hospital succumbed to financial constraints and closed its doors. In 1971, the site was absorbed into King George Medical College, now popularly known as KGMU, housing its neurosurgical and mental health departments. Today, its memory lingers only in archives and recollections, overshadowed by its contemporaries. Yet, its legacy remains unique – a Christian missionary hospital that combined philanthropy, medical progress, and social reform. A place where doctors braved not only disease but monkeys, snakes, and cultural resistance to bring care to the women of Lucknow. An institution that has produced some of the world’s finest medical professionals, researchers and administrators. The pictures of these alumni are featured below.&nbsp;<figure class="wp-caption alignnone" style="box-sizing:border-box;display:block;margin:15px auto 10px;max-width:100%;padding:0px;width:276px;" id="attachment_41910" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-41910"><img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/download_4_26ce212e58.png" alt="download-4.png" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_download_4_26ce212e58.png 235w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing:border-box;display:block;font-size:15px;line-height:20px;margin:0px;padding:12px 0px 0px;text-align:center;" id="caption-attachment-41910">Dr. BM Hedge – Alumni of KGMU</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;<figure class="wp-caption alignnone" style="box-sizing:border-box;display:block;margin:15px auto 10px;max-width:100%;padding:0px;width:293px;" id="attachment_41911" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-41911"><img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/download_5_c239ac1c62.png" alt="download-5.png" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_download_5_c239ac1c62.png 245w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing:border-box;display:block;font-size:15px;line-height:20px;margin:0px;padding:12px 0px 0px;text-align:center;" id="caption-attachment-41911">Dr. Sanduk Ruit – Alumni of KGMU</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;<figure class="wp-caption alignnone" style="box-sizing:border-box;display:block;margin:15px auto 10px;max-width:100%;padding:0px;width:300px;" id="attachment_41912" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-41912"><img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/images_1_d076bb83d3.png" alt="images-1.png" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_images_1_d076bb83d3.png 245w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing:border-box;display:block;font-size:15px;line-height:20px;margin:0px;padding:12px 0px 0px;text-align:center;" id="caption-attachment-41912">Dr. Naresh Trehan – Alumni of KGMU</figcaption></figure><figure class="wp-caption alignnone" style="box-sizing:border-box;display:block;margin:15px auto 10px;max-width:100%;padding:0px;width:211px;" id="attachment_41913" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-41913"><img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/images_1_1_300x300_b57c8c7015.png" alt="images-1-1-300x300.png" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_images_1_1_300x300_b57c8c7015.png 156w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing:border-box;display:block;font-size:15px;line-height:20px;margin:0px;padding:12px 0px 0px;text-align:center;" id="caption-attachment-41913">Dr. Anil Kohli – Alumni of KGMU</figcaption></figure>As I reflect upon this heritage, I am convinced that Lucknow’s medical history is incomplete without acknowledging the forgotten jewel that was Lady Kinnaird Memorial Hospital. Its story is not merely of bricks and mortar, but of pioneering women doctors, missionary zeal, and the evolution of healthcare in colonial and post-colonial India. Remembering it is essential to preserving the dignity of our city’s cultural and medical legacy.</div></div>

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