Grant’s grit

Died: Tehmi Keki Grant, 75, former trustee of the Poona Parsee Panchayat (PPP) and erstwhile president of the National Council of Women in India on February 2, 2003 in Poona following lymphoma.

"A lady full of grit, determination, boundless energy and untiring stamina, every single department in the hospital benefited by her presence and mature advice,” notes a communiqué from the Ruby Hall Clinic. Since the time her husband Dr Keki Grant started the Ruby Hall Clinic in 1959 as a three-bedded nursing home she had been assisting him. Today, the well equipped 500-bed Clinic is among the largest private hospitals in the country with Tehmi overseeing all the para-clinical departments. As Tehmi had happily reported (see "What the doctor ordered,” Parsiana June 1999), "We do a lot of work for the poor and our general wards are always full.”

"She was an outstanding person who spent her life in the service of the hospital and the many associations she was involved with,” observed senior urologist Dr Fardoon Soonawalla. Her passing away "has left a void all over Poona and to us it is a personal loss,” noted orthopedic surgeon Dr K. H. Sancheti of the Sancheti Institute for Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation.

President of the National Council of Women in India, Pushpa Hegde viewed Grant’s demise as "an irreparable loss to the Women’s Council.” She had served the National Council for 15 years and had represented this organization at international fora in Nairobi, Tashkent, London and Moscow. For two years Grant had been president of the Pune Women’s Council.

Grant: boundless energy

In the mid 1980s she was elected PPP trustee when she actively pursued social welfare causes like a housing project for the community. "With her good rapport she was able to work in the interests of the community,” remarked then trustee Dinshaw Anklesaria. "She was one of the most dynamic persons I have come across in my professional career and during my tenure as trustee of the PPP,” commented the present PPP president Dara Irani. "She was always very encouraging and appreciated the good work being done by the trustees.” Being an influential person she was frequently approached for financial assistance as also medical aid "when she would go out of her way to help the needy,” remembered Irani.

As trustee of the PPP she would attend the executive council meetings of the Federation of Parsi Zoroastrian Anjumans of India when she voiced concerns of import to her: the plight of old people living singly in Poona, the Mahableshwar gymkhana acquiring non-Parsi trustees with plans to sell the property, the futility of subsidizing the foreign education of students who do not plan to return to India and diverting the money instead as capitation fees for prestigious institutes within the country.

Other community institutions to have benefited from Grant’s dedication were The Dastur Schools and The Ratanji Sorabji Fire Temple where she had served as trustee for many years, and the Poona Parsee Dramateurs’ Association of which she had been president. A liberal Zoroastrian, she had great respect for her religion.

Born in Karachi, Grant had graduated in science from the Bombay University after which she worked as a lecturer in a college in Karachi. On one of her visits to India she was introduced to Keki at a wedding. After marriage she settled in Poona and worked in the laboratory at the Jehangir Nursing Home.

Nurturing plants, trees and friendships were Grant’s chief interests. A regular swimmer, she termed herself "a fixture” at the Poona Club swimming pool. As recall her friends Jayashree and Arun Firodia, "She was a very warm and active person, always keeping herself busy and smiling...”

The social activist is survived by her husband Keki, son Dr Purvez and daughter Zarine.