The Valley loses its healer
Srinagar, Dec 21: Dr Hamid Durrani, one of Kashmir’s most respected physicians and a towering figure in Indian medicine, passed away on Tuesday in Srinagar at the age of 92.
A distinguished gastroenterologist, educator, and clinician, Dr Durrani devoted more than six decades to the practice of medicine, earning admiration across generations of patients, students, and colleagues.
Widely regarded as one of the finest gastroenterologists in the region, Dr Durrani studied medicine at Lucknow’s King George’s Medical College, part of a generation of Indian physicians shaped by an unwavering commitment to the Hippocratic Oath. He later pursued advanced medical training in the United States, Canada, and Japan before returning to Kashmir with his wife, Dr Massarat Durrani, a gynecologist. Together, they settled in Srinagar, where Dr. Durrani served for decades as a senior professor at Srinagar Medical College while maintaining an active clinical practice.
Even in his nineties, Dr Durrani’s discipline and sense of duty remained undiminished. Until just ten days before his death, he continued to report to his clinic each morning, dressed in a suit and tie, driving his long-cherished blue Honda Civic through the Valley’s winter cold. Patients traveled from distant villages to consult him—some, colleagues recall, with no medical complaint at all, seeking instead the reassurance of his presence and counsel.
Revered by the medical fraternity and beloved by patients, Dr Durrani was known not only for his clinical skill but for his generosity, modesty, and uncommon grace. Many of Kashmir’s practicing physicians today were once his students, shaped by his exacting standards and humane approach to medicine. Beyond the hospital and lecture hall, Dr Durrani was a man of refined tastes and wide interests.
One of ten siblings in a family that produced doctors, civil servants, and officers in the armed forces, he was widely admired for his elegance, kindness, and cosmopolitan outlook. He loved tailored jackets and ties, poetry, music, sweets, and the natural beauty of Kashmir. An avid traveler in his earlier years, he later turned to sketching flowers inspired by the garden of Tribute, the family home, often sharing poems and drawings with friends and relatives via WhatsApp.
Birthdays and anniversaries rarely passed without a recorded greeting accompanied by photographs of newly bloomed flowers he had tended himself.
Dr Durrani died in the intensive care unit of a private hospital in Srinagar, attended by physicians he had once trained. News of his passing prompted an outpouring of tributes across social media, with admirers, former students, and patients offering prayers and remembrances.
Friends and family gathered, phone calls arriving from across India and abroad, as a quiet pall of grief settled over the Valley.
He is survived by his children, Afshan, Zeba, and Sarfraz, who were by his side in his final hours, as well as by countless students, colleagues, and patients who regarded him as a mentor and moral compass. His longtime assistants, Khurshid and Bilal, remained with him throughout, reflecting the loyalty he inspired in all who worked with him.
Dr Hamid Durrani is remembered as a devoted husband, a dedicated father and grandfather, a revered teacher, and a healer whose life exemplified dignity, service, and compassion. In a region and a profession often tested by hardship, he stood as a steady presence—one whose passing marks the end of an era.
