Dr. Ravindranath Rangnath Tongaonkar (“Ravi”)

Excerpt

Rising from humble origins in rural India, Ravi graduated from the prestigious BJ Medical College, Mumbai with record Merit scores and chose Surgery for his career. He decided to settle in his birthplace of Dondaicha, Maharashtra State, which in the late 1960s was a small town of 17,000 population, 150 km from the nearest District hospital. Two buses a day stopped in the town and there was a railway halt on the line to Pune. Local transport was by bullock cart. During the next 50 years, the population tripled and Ravi established a thriving Clinic (some say a “Mayo Clinic”) providing humane and affordable (free for the indigent) care to the community. A chance meeting with a surgeon using mosquito net for hernia repair, inspired Ravi to take up this technique and instigate its global promotion, which will be his lasting legacy. …