He was the archetypal gentle doctor, taking the local train every day for 40 years to reach his suburban clinic half an hour away, never slacking even at age 71, and not once raising his voice during those decades of dedicated practice.

“For all that compassion,” said a young patient outside Dr Girish Parmanand’s clinic at Goregaon (East), “he didn’t deserve such a brutal death.” Dr Parmanand died when a bomb tore through a local train compartment he was travelling in on July 11. His body was found at V N Desai Hospital, Santacruz.

“He was very dedicated to his practice,” says son Amit, employed with a multinational bank and posted in Singapore now. “For him his patients came first, everything else later. He would forego even his own comfort for his practice.” That single-minded commitment may have sometimes irked wife Sulbha, a doctor herself. Still, that clinic is now drawing her back to Mumbai. With her son, daughter-in-law and grandchild since the tragedy, she’s now planning to return home, to take over her husband’s practice.

In July, when Amit was still in Mumbai, scores of patients requested the family not to allow the clinic to shut. “It will be a challenge,” admits Amit. The small dispensary, where regular patients gathered in large numbers on July 12 when they heard of the tragedy, is now being run by a doctor appointed by the family.

He was the “typical” cricket fanatic, though he also loved watching soccer matches on television. Bollywood and the daily newspaper were the other staples.

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