The (bloody) good doctor and his biz-savvy better half

“While I was seated in the mandap getting married, a friend whispered in my ear that I had cleared my MBBS exam,” says 82-year-old Dr Ghanshyam Mundhada, recalling that momentous news way back in 1961. He and his wife Pramila have since continued to chart their destinies and professions together. Today, he is the chairman of Jeevan Jyoti Health Care and Research Trust and she has the distinction of setting up the first private health club in the city and has constantly innovated and evolved it.“My friends would often call me ‘Bloody doctor,’ reminisces Dr Mundhada, for his distinction of setting up the first blood bank in the city in 1967. “I was working with Matru Sewa Sangh and every 6^th child in the city was born there,” he says, returning to the days when he was working with the organization for a paltry salary of Rs125 and also having his own practice in Itwari. “One night, a woman needed blood and her relatives ran from pillar to post trying to procure it. They could not and the patient died,” he recalls the trigger for the blood bank.
The next day, he was called for a meeting with Dr Kusumtai Wankar who was president of Matru Sewa Sangh then and was asked to set up a blood bank. “I was given a place under a staircase where I set up a microscope given to me by Dr Vilas Tambe’s mother and a refrigerator given by Dr PM Paliwal. I was sent to Haffkine Institute in Mumbai for training. The first bottle of blood at this facility was donated by Dr CG Ashtikar,” he recalls.
The experience and the expertise that he gained while running this blood bank prepared him to set up another more advanced facility later. “During those days there was no trend of voluntary blood donation. So we had to pay Rs15 to those who would come and donate a bottle of blood. But by early seventies we banned professional donors who then opposed us and took out a morcha in front of Matru Sewa Sangh,” he says remembering those times. “A lot of well -known people in the city donated blood to help us keep going.”
Changes in rules and administrative directives led to the closure of blood bank at Matru Sewa Sangh in the 1980s. “New rules had come into force for which that institution was not equipped. So, along with Dr Ravi Wankhede, we set up a new blood bank, Jeevan Jyoti, which was more geared to the new environment,” he says.
The equally enterprising Pramila also made the best out of opportunities that came her way. “My husband always wanted me to make good use of my time. I used to travel with him whenever he would visit different cities for training or medical purposes. On one such trip to the erstwhile Madras, I happened to visit a health club and decided to set up a similar one here for women,” she says. That’s how Face and Figure came to be set up in their home at Laxmi Nagar in 1978. “Those were the days when health was not a fad. My clients were mostly married women in their early forties who wanted to check their weight gain,” she says and adds that her facility had a vibrating belt and treadmill for the purpose. “I learnt yoga and aerobics and later introduced them here too.”
The couple have continued to strive to give back to the society a bit more than what they have received. “It was Dr Wankar who created quite a formidable impression on my mind. She was the one who taught me the difference between necessity and craze,” says Dr Mundhada about the current trend of greed among his fraternity. “What I find unacceptable is that so many doctors who graduate from here do not go outside the city. This is not good as it reduces their exposure.”
Lamenting the fall in human approach and touch among the medical fraternity, the octogenarian doctor adds, “I would go up to the villages near Wadi and there sitting at a tapri, I would see patients and provide treatment. Today, doctors keep themselves confined to cities and remain closer to their homes.”
Commenting on the gradual development and changes that have crept in the city, Dr Mundhada says, “When my wife started a beauty parlour, there were murmurs in our community that ‘Marwari ghar ki bahu baal kat rahi hai.’ But today, so many young girls are coming to her parlour for grooming and to learn this craft.” The health facility has continued to incorporate all new trends like Zumba. “When my husband had gone to New York for training, I had accompanied him and had done short courses in health and fitness. These have helped me to include the latest that is happening in this field,” she says.
Not just their professions, the couple has been equally active in the social sphere too. The senior doctor has been the president of the Laxmi Nagar residential association for long and says that he had the vision to ensure that it develops as a good residential area. “In the 1970s, very few people were living here. I realized that slums would crop up on this vacant land soon. So, with the help of the civic authorities, we sold plots at very reasonable rates. The middle class found it very affordable and it all sold fast and raised a lot of money.”
Making an observation that it requires a vision to develop a city, he laments that the development has not been very planned. “Municipal commissioner T Chandrashekhar set up garbage bins at various places, police commissioner Arvind Inamdar set up traffic signals and Nitin Gadkari had the vision to build fly overs. All these things have been positive initiatives for the city,” he says, and adds the city needs more such visionaries.
(This occasional feature focuses on couples in the city who have made a name not only for themselves but also made Nagpur known to the outside world)