How a Bengali woman became a physician to King Prithvi Bir Bikram Shah and the Nepal royal family

Jamini Sen’s mornings and daytime hours were spent between her chamber at the palace and at the Prithvi–Bir Hospital. The hospital was in its nascent stages, and had other medical personnel, but the young Jamini poured her energy and her ideas into making it a place where recoveries outdid deaths, and where new mothers received the care they needed.

As word of this new centre of healthcare spread, patients started coming in from other regions as well. They had heard of a new doctor, a woman from Bengal who was often there. They said she was as fierce as a kukri41 but clever like the memsahibs. And that she didn’t turn anyone away. And so, the poor, the forgotten and the wild-born, all slowly came to Dr Sen.

Not only did they come to her, but she, using the medical machinery that was put at her disposal, reached out to places that needed care but had been neglected.

Jamini’s main concern was sanitation and clean water – for they alone could go a long way in reducing the burden of disease. To that end, she met with various officials and sought measures to execute her ideas. Fired with new zeal, and now with...

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