She’s a woman who wears many hats — as an entrepreneur in healthcare and hospitality, and a promoter of art and design. Among all her roles, the closest to Madhu Neotia’s heart is that of being a healthcare entrepreneur. Because that’s what has helped her nurture her innate “healing touch” and taught her to be “humble and sensitive”. The recipient of The Telegraph She Award in the entrepreneur category, Madhu shares her journey with t2 and also lets us in on the trick to juggle diverse fields.

Tell us about your growing up years and how that shaped your career choices...

It’s strange how life unfolds. My father was a doctor, an eye surgeon, and he wanted one of us to become a doctor… we were four sisters, we all studied science. But of the four sisters, if any family member fell ill, it was me who would always take care, it was me who had the healing touch. I never realised that one day my destiny would lead me to healthcare.
I grew up England in a place called Sunderland, in north-east England. I was born in Calcutta but moved to England when I was seven, when my father moved there. I did my schooling there and came back when I was 19. Then I got married. 

When did Bhagirathi Neotia Woman and Child Care Centre happen?

When we decided to set up Bhagirathi Neotia (Woman and Child Care Centre), I remember Harsh (Neotia, her husband) coming and telling me that he wanted to open a hospital in his grandmother’s (Bhagirathi Neotia) name. She was a huge influence in our family. So it was only right that when she died, we thought of building this hospital. We had never thought we would go into healthcare and expand or anything, it was just that we would do this hospital as a trust in her name. 

Then Harsh asked me what we should do and I said we should open a hospital for children. Because I hadn’t seen anything like that in Calcutta. I had a very good experience of a children’s hospital back in UK when my sister was admitted there. I loved that hospital. So I realised that agar karna hai toh we should do something for children and if there’s children there has to be women, because women and children are inseparable. So we did BNWCC, in 2003. It was a challenge, because we didn’t know anybody in the medical world. So we took baby steps. 

Have you been involved with the daily operations of the hospital?

I thought that in a hospital the patient must be able to relate to somebody, it shouldn’t be just about the treatment. So my assistant and I used to go around meeting all the patients and interacting with the doctors. We would ask them what they needed, and we would provide that. The pain was enormous when I used to see children coming for chemotherapy or other treatments. I remember my administrator telling me “Mrs Neotia, we will talk after one year, you will become seasoned. You will be able to take the pain”. But it was very, very difficult, to see the children suffering from such close quarters, and you were like koi bhi tarah se unko help karna hai…. 

There was this one child who came with brain tumour last stage, he had come for pain relief, he was in the paediatric emergency, I used to go visit him every day. I became so attached to him. But the child died and all of us were so affected. It was the first time I saw someone die from such close quarters…. So we became more determined to make a difference to the people coming in for treatment. 

Also at that time we wanted to position the hospital as a maternity hospital where people came to deliver babies, because we also wanted it to be a place for celebrations… we didn’t want people to come with pain only. 

How did you go about expanding your healthcare initiatives?

Then we added the infertility section, Genome, after three-four years. This was something I wanted to do ever since we opened the hospital, because I saw more and more couples coming in wanting to have children but couldn’t. So Harsh being the honorary consul of Israel, I reached out to the ambassador of Israel and said that we wanted to open an infertility hospital and whether they could help. We got some doctors to go there and train in infertility treatment and when they came back, we opened Genome. 

We grew, then we decided to expand Genome and took it out of the hospital and opened a standalone centre on Shakespeare Sarani. Then we took Genome to Siliguri and Raipur. After the success of Bhagirathi Neotia, I thought we were in a position to open a multi-speciality hospital. So we opened this hospital in Siliguri, it’s a 250-bed multi-speciality hospital, Neotia Getwel Healthcare. This was around five years back. 

We still wanted to open another hospital in Calcutta, to expand BNWCC. So we decided to open the second Bhagirathi Neotia in Rajarhat. We followed the model of the first BNWCC, and the nursing care remains the same, but it is so well-equipped and updated. A lot of thought has gone into it to make it easy for the parent and the child. We have given people more space. Because the child needs the mother to be there and she should be in comfort, we have given separate beds for mothers in the paediatric ward. We have also added pranic healing there. 

What are your learnings from your stint in healthcare?

I think you need to have the desire to give unconditional care yet have a little detached feel, because if you are too attached you will not be able to take decisions you need to take, and deal with situations and issues more wisely. 
Many years back I was taking the rounds of the hospital, when I went to the lobby level, one man came up to me and said, “Mrs Neotia, I want to give this book to you”. The book was called Many Lives Many Masters. The book is about people who come into your life. He said “You were meant to come into my life and heal my daughter”. It was really very humbling, it was like there was a message there, ki continue doing what you are doing. I can’t forget that ever in my life. So yes, it is very, very humbling, makes you humble, and very sensitive. 

In Genome, there was a patient who couldn’t have a baby for a long time, because she had quite a few miscarriages. Israel had taught our doctors how to handle miscarriages and how to avoid them. I was so happy when I heard she was pregnant. So in Genome there are many cases where I think I have added value to people’s lives and brought them hope. 

In BNWCC, in the neonatal intensive care unit, there was a farmer’s child who came from a village. It was a difficult case and we funded that treatment. The baby was there for about two months and finally the baby was fine. These are some incredibly satisfying experiences. 

Now tell us how The India Story was born...

My uncle-in-law was involved in this craft and design school called Indian Institute of Craft and Design in Jaipur. That was his passion, his baby. Three years ago when we was diagnosed with cancer, he wanted me to take over, so I became the chairperson. Then when he passed away in 2015, I got involved with it fully and many of the dreams and aspirations that he had for the institute, I was able to fulfil them. 

Once when I was in Jaipur, I was staying in Fairmont. One day I was going for my morning walk and I thought everything is so beautiful and everything is made in India. So I started looking at things with a different eye, the craft and design eye. And then I thought why is India projected so poorly overseas… we always project the poor side of India, why are we not showing this richness that India has. So with that idea in my head, I did an event showcasing all things Bengal in Jhaal Farezi. People loved that concept and idea and that idea grew to be The India Story. 

The India Story is a design experience. We fortunately had a venue like Swabhumi where we could bring out our dreams of what we wanted to do. We thought let’s just make this a property for Calcutta so that people from all over the world can come to Calcutta for this. That’s our aim.

You have also been quite involved in the F&B part of the Ambuja Neotia Group...

Hospitality has been a huge learning. We started with The Conclave, that’s my first involvement in F&B. When we opened Afraa, I travelled to different places with my team to check out restaurants to learn how the world is thinking… Bombay, Delhi, Bangkok, Dubai, New York…. So it was a learning. From that to Sonar Tori… six months I tried out every Bengali dish, that’s another learning. Then Afraa Deli, Tea Junction, Jhaal Farezi, Swisstotel, Orient…. I was intensely involved with hospitality for five-six years… it took up all my time and energy, and I was also putting on weight with all the tasting (laughs). Then I withdrew and moved on… 

Of these diverse fields, which one have you enjoyed the most?

I have enjoyed every role and given every role my 500 per cent. If anyone wants to do anything in their lives they can do it. Nothing comes to you on a platter, I have worked hard in everything I have been involved in. I was always very hands-on.

Smita Roy Chowdhury