Returning to their Alma Mater is already a beautiful tradition for Indian graduates. Muthiah Ramanathan returned to Armenia 30 years after entering the university, this time not as a first-year student, but as a doctor who has established himself in his homeland.
The specialist, who graduated from Yerevan State Medical University named after Mkhitar Heratsi with honors, came to our country in 1995 to study medicine. “Yerevan became a second home for us. We learned not only medicine here, we learnt the life here. We learned to overcome difficulties. When we returned to India, we were able to easily overcome all obstacles, we became strong and invulnerable,” he said.
Speaking with satisfaction about the education he received, Muthiah Ramanathan emphasized the high quality of textbooks in terms of discovering diagnostic methods, because, according to him, diagnosis is already 70% of treatment. “We learned a lot here, we gained knowledge that we are now applying in India. I was very happy when I received an invitation to a business meeting in Armenia and, taking advantage of the opportunity, returned to Yerevan. I cannot describe and fully express my joy,” the Indian graduate said frankly.
Now he works in the city of Chennai (formerly Madras), which, by the way, has a large Armenian community, in two hospitals, one of which is the medical director. “We are implementing a unique treatment – hyperbaric oxygen therapy, which is being implemented by only 3 medical centers in India,” Muthiah Ramanathan, a cardiologist and intensive care specialist; said.
The medical university has been providing medical education to Indian students for almost 4 decades. During a meeting with Yervand Sahakyan, Vice-Rector for International Affairs and External Relations (who was then the Dean of the Department of International Students), the Indian graduate recalled when a fire broke out in the student dormitory on December 12, 2000.
According to the graduate, no one was injured thanks to the Vice-Rector, who was the first to arrive there and, having sorted the foreign students into rooms on the field intended for outdoor games, was able to save everyone by personally going up and taking two missing students out of the room. After the fire, in just 3 days, the dormitory rooms were renovated and handed over to future foreign doctors again.
“The lecturers were very supportive of us during those difficult years when there was no constant electricity and water supply,” the Indian graduate said. He also has many Armenian friends.
Vice-Rector Sahakyan showed an article about them published in the “Future Doctor” magazine back in 2002.
“At that time, we were in constant contact, I knew all the foreigners. They were learning Russian very well, which also contributed to the intensity of communication,” he recalled.
According to Muthiah Ramanathan, they are constantly in touch with their classmates as well, they have created a group and were planning to return to Armenia with their families in October 2020, 25 years after the start of their studies, but the COVID-19 pandemic canceled all plans. They even printed special T-shirts with the slogan “25 Years of Brotherhood”.
Nevertheless, they have not backed down in implementing the initiative: next year, in 2026, they intend to visit their Alma Mater together, meet their beloved professors, and reminisce about the sometimes difficult, but memorable path of personal and professional development.
