(Contributed by his wife Savitri Goswani)
Former Director General of Medical Services of the Indian Railway Board, he died of end-stage chronic obstructive pulmonary disease on 21 September 2009.
He was born in Pegu, Burma, where his father was a lawyer in practice. He travelled to Kolkata for higher education, qualifying MBBS at King George V Medical College, Lucknow, in 1949, proceeding to MD in 1954. He developed an interest in tuberculosis early in his career, obtaining further training in Edinburgh. He qualified MRCPE in 1956 and worked for a while as Assistant Physician in Bournemouth Chest Clinic. On his return to India he joined the Medical Service of the recently nationalised Indian Railways. He was posted to different locations, including 8 years as Chief Medical Officer for the South Eastern Railway system. Despite his administrative duties, his skills as a Physician were much appreciated. Advancing to seniority, he was appointed Director General of Health Services of the Indian Railway Board based in New Delhi. He retired in 1985 at the compulsory retirement age of 58 years. Defying social convention of an arranged marriage, he married for love a student he had met in Lacknow. His wife, Savitri, became a much published author in the Urdu language. He moved to Australia in 1999 to be nearer their two married daughters living in Perth, Western Australia.. Over the years he developed crippling chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and died of end-stage respiratory failure during a protracted stay in hospital, on 21 September 2009. A man of wide and varied interests, he read widely and was up-to-date on matters of current events including cricket, and also religious matter such as the constituents of laddu, a sacramental offering customarily given to pilgrims at the Vaishnava Temple at Tirupati. He leaves his wife, a son in the US and 2 daughters in Perth.