Daijiworld Media Network – Udupi (SP)
Udupi, May 3: Dr Nirupama Nayak (91), first ever lady doctor from the illustrious Pangala Nayak family in Katapadi, breathed her last at Bangalore on Wednesday April 30.
When she was 11, Mahatma Gandhi had visited the town on February 25, 1934. In his presence, Nirupama had read out the citation presented in Gandhiji’s honour by the municipality here. When Gandhiji questioned the girl as to whether she was prepared to hand over the golden neck chain and bangles she was wearing then to him, she readily agreed, and handed over them to Gandhiji.
After Gandhiji asked Nirupama to take a vow never to wear golden ornaments again as India happens to be a poor country, Nirupama did so and never wore any ornaments except ear lobes till her death.
Nirupama’s father, Pangala Manjunath Nayak, had undergone jail term for participating in independence struggle at Kozhikode, while his mother, Manorama Nayak, had been confined to jail for the same reason at Vellore. Nirupama, who completed her MRCOG degree in England after completing MBBS in Madras, became an obstetrician and gynaecologist. She served at the hospital and nurses-cum-hospital employees training centre run by Kasturba Gandhi Memorial Trust in a village near Raas, Vadodara. She later joined the department of health services under the department of labour of the central government, and served in various hospitals in West Bengal, Bihar etc. After serving as professor in Jawaharlal Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education and Research in Pondicherry, she retired in 1981 as medical superintendent.
Dr Nirupama remained a spinster. After retirement, she served at Satya Sai organization at Jayanagar Bangalore as a volunteer. Since the last two decades, she had lived in Elders Home, Banashankari II Stage, Bangalore.