At 63, granddaughter recalls medical legacy of Doctor Ajji who served across continents

Mumbai: Most children grow up hearing fairy tales from their grandparents. For Dr Nilima Kadambi, now 63, the bedtime stories were real life medical adventures from her grandmother, Dr Sarladevi Khot.

One story she asked to hear again and again was of her father’s birth. In 1932, her grandparents were living in Maswa village in Tanzania, East Africa. Dr Sarladevi, pregnant with her second child, was not due to deliver for another 20 days. When she went into labour early, her husband Dr Gopalrao Khot was not there to help.

Dr Gopalrao routinely travelled to nearby villages under his care, treating communities for malaria, gastroenteritis, kala-azar, and sleeping sickness. At the time, a malaria epidemic had kept him in one of the villages to supervise medication, monitor patients, and document deaths for hospital medical records.

That meant Dr Sarladevi delivered her own baby. Nilima grew up on stories of her grandparents’ journeys through Africa, helping communities battle kala-azar, her grandfather observing an operation by Gandhiji, and her grandmother’s grit in the field. Today, at 63, Dr Nilima Kadambi shares that legacy. It is a reminder of a generation of Indian doctors who carried medicine across continents, and of a grandmother whose courage became family lore.