The Meher-Homji medicos

Many members of the Meher-Homji family have been in the medical profession. My grandfather Jehangirji was a surgeon for the Bombay, Baroda and Central India Railway (now Western Railway) stationed at Bulsar. Among my grand uncles, Ardeshir joined the medical profession while Sorab was well known in Bombay as a gynecologist who had set up his own maternity hospital at Tardeo.
Jehangirji’s elder son Nosh joined the Meher-Homji Maternity hospital while the younger son Minocher served as a medical officer at the Damanwala Dispensary in Udvada and as a gynecologist at the adjacent maternity hospital.
Ardeshir’s son Munchi opted for dentistry while daughter Nergish graduated in medicine and married Dr Kersi Dastur, known for his pioneering work in cardiac surgery. Incidentally, Kersi’s father Nuserwanji was a doctor at the Damanwalla Dispensary before my father (Minocher) took charge.

Here I must make mention of two doctor uncles, Dady Meher-Homji of the Tata Memorial Cancer Research Hospital and Dara Variava of Rajkot.
In the next generation, Minocher’s son Behram Meher-Homji joined the Breach Candy Hospital and provided medical services for 50 years. Munchi’s twin sons Russo and Addie (father of eminent Australia based musician Cyrus) practiced dentistry.
Coming to the still younger generation, Behram’s son Jimmy is a psychiatrist in Hamilton, New Zealand and his wife Niloufer, a gynecologist. Their son Zal is also a doctor in Australia. Behram’s daughter Zarin was a dentist and her daughter Diana practices medicine in the USA.
My brother Kersi, the cricket historian from Sydney, is a virologist by profession; his wife Villie is a microbiologist. As for yours truly, the only very distant link with the medical sciences is through some knowledge of medicinal plants. During my tours of forests I made it a point to inquire with the tribals in remote areas about the plants they used to address their health problems. I thus came to know that a paste of the leaves of a climber Ormocarpum sennoides (botanical name) was very effective in mending fractures. The Tamil name Elum-botti is very suggestive as Elum means bone and Botti refers to healing property. Reportedly the well-known bone setting clinic at Puttur (a station very close to Tirupati) relies on such miraculous plant species.
To conclude, gynecologists keep sprouting in the family. The latest news is that my grand- niece Freyana has cleared her final exams in Melbourne.
Dr VISPY MEHER-HOMJI
vispymeherhomji@gmail.com