Alumni to restore Grant Medical College

To an average Mumbai resident, leakage cracks in rooms and files stashed beside Gothic columns at the Grant Medical College may not be the stuff nightmares are made of.
But if you knew that the heritage building is much older than Mumbai’s usually-celebrated BMC and CST buildings; was the first medical college in India and has produced some of the best doctors India boasts of, it ought to make you a tad concerned.

Two years ago, a reunion party held at the college campus left the alumni shame-faced. They called up Dr NH Wadia, a neurologist at Jaslok Hospital and suggested that the college was in dire need of conservation. “We called upon other alumni and formed the Friends of the Grant Medical College and Sir JJ Group of Hospitals Trust,” says Dr Wadia. He adds that the government has been cooperative and the trust is trying to collect funds for the restoration (approximated at Rs5,00,00,000) from alumni settled in India and abroad, charitable institutions and corporate bodies.

What makes the Grant Medical College unique is the fact that it is the oldest building in Mumbai built in Tudor style of architecture. Its foundation was laid in 1838 and the building was completed in 1849.

 “Old portraits on the walls, marble busts of former deans and staff members and the majestic Roll of Honours list put up on the wall — it was so thrilling to be connected to history. It’s a shame we don’t know where those remnants are lying today,” says Dr Shubha Pandya, co-founder of the trust.

Little wonder that Dr Pandya is most excited about the museum that will be built in the college. It will highlight the history of medicine and the college itself. “Back in 1957, I was stunned to find that the illustrator of the Gray’s Anatomy book — every medical student’s bible — was a dean at the Grant Medical College and did pioneering work on tropical diseases in India for 30 years,” she says. The less said about the library today the better, she adds wryly. Dr Pandya plans to get back the historic medical journals dating back to the 18th century in the restored library, too.

For younger alumni like Dr Jehangir Sorabjee, a consultant physician at the Bombay Hospital, it is the modern facilities the conservation plans to include which is exciting. “We plan to build a sprawling auditorium, an electronic library and a research society and introduce video conferencing which will help students learn surgeries performed abroad,” he says.

Abha Narain Lambah, the project’s conservation architect, says the project is unique because it will pose a healthy challenge to maintain heritage and the contemporary facilities that the trust dreams of. “Thanks to the efforts of the alumni, Mumbai will have one less reason to cringe at the way we maintain our heritage structures,” she smiles.