Floral tribute: Justice D.N. Choudhury places flowers in front of the bust of K.C. Das on Friday. Picture by Eastern Projections

June 8: When two of his brothers died of kala azar and malaria in a month, his desperate doctor father sold him to Arthur Henry William Bentinck (then Kamrup deputy commissioner) for a princely sum of Re 1 to make sure that he survived.

That was in 1914.

The boy grew up to be a doctor like his father and became friends with, hold your breath, the likes of Gopinath Bordoloi, B.P. Chaliha and Tarun Ram Phookan.

If this is reading like a quiz, the answer is: Kalicharan Das, the man who established the first private nursing home of the region. His bust was unveiled at a function organised this afternoon at the nursing home in Gopinath Nagar to commemorate his pioneering achievement and welfare initiatives on the occasion of his 93rd birth anniversary.

The 11th child of Bishay Ram Das, a health officer in the British Raj, Kalicharan graduated from the Berrywhite Medical School in Dibrugarh.

But, unlike his father, Kalicharan Das refused to join the government. Influenced by the death of his elder brothers, he tried to help the people in rural areas, who were in dire need of medical care. This earned him the sobriquet, Janata Doctor.

He even revolted against the regime, leading to his arrest in Calcutta. However, his godfather Bentinck helped him get away with a one-day sentence.

But the best was yet to come. The lack of healthcare facilities in the region prodded Kalicharan to fight all odds and set up the first private nursing home of the Northeast to supplement the government initiatives. He accomplished this mission in 1953 with the help of his wife and well-wishers like Gopinath Bordoloi, B.P. Chaliha and Tarun Ram Phookan. He also named the hospital, which was set up at his residence in Kumarpara, after his godfather — AHW Bentinck Nursing Home.

After his venture proved a success, Kalicharan started looking for a suitable plot to set up a full-fledged nursing home. His search ended when the government allocated 11 bighas of land at Gopinath Nagar in Kalapahar area in 1960. The nursing home became fully operational on June 8, 1966.

It was re-christened Kalicharan Das Nursing Home and Polyclinic after his death in 1983. Kalicharan, who did not have any children, also donated his property at Kumarapara to the Missionaries of Charity to set up Santi Sadan, an orphanage.

Retired Justice D.N. Choudhury, who unveiled the bust in presence of legislators Robin Bordoloi and Ramendra Narayan Kalita as well as Padmashree Hem Bharali, also recalled how the Janata Doctor used to visit his patients on a bicycle.

On the occasion, Justice Choudhury and Bharali called upon the medical fraternity to follow the ideals of the selfless man. The current management of the nursing home, headed by D.P. Neog, today committed itself towards carrying forward the principles practised by Kalicharan to run the nursing home.

Popular as a maternity clinic, the institution focuses on public service rather than making profit. The nursing home has 35 beds, of which 12 are in the general category for providing treatment to the poor at a comparatively cheaper cost.