A medical scientist forgotten from the public view
Index Home Medical students know a deal about microscopists and scientists Robert Koch (who discovered TB bacillus), Rudolf Virchow (who gave us number of terms in pathology) , and Louis Pasteur…
Founders of healing: from ancient to the early medieval times
Index Home Healing is an art, and no one knows it better than the healers themselves. A system of healing is in place, since the beginning of mankind, much before…
Personalities related to health & medicine in Indian stamps
Index Home India gained its independence on 15th August 1947, and has issued more than 1100 postage stamps that feature a personality. Mahatma Gandhi featured in a first such stamp in…
Science gives a gentle nudge to the monarchs !!
Index Home The year 1923 was a landmark of sorts for medical philately. On 25th of May, France issued a Louis Pasteur postage stamp. This was the first time, a medical…
One stamp one story: Flexible endoscopy
Index Home Need and desire to peep through small holes, to identify and treat human diseases was always there. Challenge was how to make it happen. Real efforts started early in…
One stamp one story: Inflamed Bowel
Index Home Each stamp has a story to tell. These are lucky few, where I have either one, or just a few to weave a story. These medical themes may be…
A curious case of the “missing” anaesthetist
Index Home Many laurels in surgery rest on the shoulders of Anaesthesia and Antisepsis. Anaesthesia is a science that can make a person stuporous, and withstand pain during surgery. On the…
Empowering people with a disability
Index Home Valentin Hauy (1745-1822), a linguist and an interpreter in the Royal court, established world's first school for the blind, in Paris. This was in 1785, when families either kept…
Coming out of the disability closet
Index Home It took global community, more than thirty-five years just to come out of their disability closet. Thirty-five years is a gross understatement, as we shift our start-line to 1945,…
A mirror of the past and our wall of shame
Index Home Postage stamps are a mirror of our past. Often, less than a square inch of space, sums up prevalent societal, political, and behavioural norms. Our past perceptions, as well…