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Dr Ratanlal Harichand Kalro was born on July 18, 1945. He studied at St Josephs High School, Coonoor (India;1950–1960) and passed with high grade from Cambridge. He did his undergraduate and postgraduate medical training (MD, General Medicine) from T N Medical College and B Y L Nair Charitable Hospital. He worked at West Middlesex Hospital, U.K. under Dr N F Coghill and passed MRCP (UK) at first attempt. He was also elected as a Fellow of Indian College of Physicians, India (FICP) in 1993.

Dr Kalro was a strict disciplinarian, and his students were intensely trained. He enjoyed teaching undergraduate and postgraduate students and was popular among his students. He was one of the most favorite students of Prof F P Antia because of his qualities of hard work, honesty, punctuality, and discipline.

He was an astute clinician who was admired for his bedside manners, his unfailing courtesy, and high standard of ethical practice. He was a postgraduate teacher for DM Gastroenterology from 1986 at T N Medical College. He headed the Department of Gastroenterology from 1990 to 1996. He took early retirement because of ill-health. He has several publications to his credit and has written chapters in API Textbook.

He was unfortunate to suffer from a wide variety of illnesses: agranulocytosis following Novalgin, total colectomy for ulcerative colitis, coronary bypass surgery, hepatic coma following blood transfusion, interstitial pulmonary fibrosis, etc. He never complained about his illnesses and everyone marveled at his composure and equanimity in the face of adversity. Despite his poor health, he and some of his colleages organized a large function to celebrate 50 years of the 1963 batch in 2012. Needless to say, the function was a grand success. A brilliant gastroenterologist died so young (68 years), suffering from several illnesses.

He will be remembered as a competent and compassionate gastroenterologist and a noble human being, by his patients, colleagues, friends, and relatives. His wife Jyoti expired in 1993. He is survived by his children Aarti, a fashion designer, and Mohit, an entrepreneur. May God give them the strength to bear this loss.