Doing It From The ‘Heart'

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In the year 2000, when Pune’s Dr. Keki Byramjee Grant, at the age of 90, was seen walking from Ruby Hall Clinic, one of Pune’s oldest and most modern hospitals, to his home in Lulla Nagar – a distance of about 8 km with his car following behind, it did not raise many eyebrows. That’s because old-time Puneites were quite used to seeing the famous cardiologist undertake this exercise each day. It was his ‘fitness mantra’ that kept him active right up to the day he breathed his last on January 4, 2011, a few days before the announcement of the Padma Bhushan award for his services to the field of medical science. For Dr. K B Grant, life could not have been more fulfilling.

Keki Byramjee Grant was born on November 28, 1920 in Tamil Nadu to a Parsi family. His father, Byram Dosabhai, was an auditor employed with Indian Railways and the family moved to Pune in 1922. As there was no boys’ primary school locally, Keki studied in a girls’ school, St. Helena School. Later, he was shifted to Hutching’s High School and St. Vincent High School. Keki graduated from Wadia College and joined Grant Medical College and Sir Jamshedjee Jeejeebhoy Group of Hospitals, Mumbai from where he secured his MBBS. He started practising as a physician under E H Cowaji for a monthly stipend of Rs 200. A year later, he started teaching at the Sassoon General Hospital, named after David Sassoon, and moved his practice to Jehangir Hospital, Pune.