Dr. Munish Kumar Raizada is a Board Certified Neonatologist practicing in the USA, Chicago, and a socio-political activist. Dr. Munish received his medical degree from the Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Science and has been practicing for more than 20 years. He is also the Editor in Chief of the International online news portal NewsGram.
As a socio-political activist, Dr. Munish has also worked as a common co-convenor of the Aam Aadmi Party’s NRI Cell and was one of the founders of Lokpal.
He has also directed and produced a web series called Transparency: Pardarshita, which emphasizes the importance of truth and transparency in the political system. Dr. Munish started the project called MedBound in the year 2020, intending to connect Healthcare professionals from around the world. MedBound is an Educational & Networking platform for Medical and healthcare professionals.
Here’s the gist of an interaction that happened between the team MedBound and Dr. Munish Raizada on 17th November 2022, proudly named ‘A trip down memory lane: Dr. Munish Raizada.’
Dr. Tanya: Tell us something about the Gandhian philosophy you learned while in college?
Reminiscing about his College/University at MGIMS, Sevagram, Wardha, which is known for its rural ambiance and imparting medical education with a solid emphasis on Gandhian Teachings. Dr. Munish added: So, after entering the college, all the medical students had to attend a 15 days mandatory orientation camp at the Sevagram Ashram. During these 15 days, we used to stay in the dormitories and hear the morning prayers, yoga shramdaan, and the community breakfast. Several In-person teaching sessions, lectures, and camps were held by the philosophers talking about Gandhian philosophy, and wearing Khadi clothes used to be a big point of emphasis for them.
Dr. Tanya: Did you ever feel strange about these teachings? What’s your viewpoint on it?
Dr. Munish: As I was just talking about Khadi clothes and the emphasis that was put on them, as a young mind I found it to be a bit bizarre. I wasn’t exactly opposed to the Ideology itself, but being young and somewhat naïve, it was a bit difficult to comprehend the depth of such teachings, and it did feel weird at times when friends or batch mates would talk about it a bit adversely, but gradually these things keep shaping your personality subconsciously.
Dr. Tanya: Any specific event or experience that still puts a smile on your face when you think about it?
Dr. Munish: Yes, I remember, there used to be a very weird tradition in my college on Holi. Usually, students are not so connected with the professors/faculty, things are very formal and strict as they seemed to be unapproachable. But on holi, we used to go to the residential area of staff quarters, where faculties of all the departments like pharmacology, physiology, medicine, surgery, etc. used to live and play holi with them and they used to serve us sweets and other festive eatables.
But it used to be unbelievable for us that we’re standing so casually in front of these huge personalities with the image that we had in our minds. And specifically, there was Dr. Sharma, who was the head of the Pharmacology department, he would crack these hilarious jokes, which used to put us in a difficult spot as to how to react to them
Dr. Tanya: What did you do as a leisure or fun activity at that time?
Dr. Munish: One unique thing about our college was that the batch size wasn’t huge, comprising around 60-65 students, and the college is approximately 6-8 km from Wardha city, so as you can imagine there wasn’t much for us to do. Even if we planned on watching a movie, we would first have to take an auto-rickshaw to go to the city, and clearly, that wasn’t very smooth. So in our free time, we used to play cricket and in our canteen, there was this Indian Café House, where we would sit and talk.
Dr. Tanya: How would you describe yourself as a young college student?
Dr. Munish: I considered myself to be an all-rounder kind of student. I was good in academics, sports, and extra-curricular activities like discussions, and writing. If I were not a doctor, which I got into because of being from a medical professional family (a fun laugh), I would have been an editor, I particularly enjoy doing that. Other than that, I played cricket a lot during my college days. I was also my College’s cricket team captain, I played consecutively for 3 years. I was a medium-fast bowler with good out-swing. I was an all-rounder in cricket too. Cricket, at that time, used to be my passion and also our one major leisure activity.
It surely was a trip down memory lane, it was a pleasure talking to you Dr. Munish, it's fascinating to know this side of you. We look forward to having such conversations with you again.