From garage to hospital wards
WEST BENGAL: From cramped rented quarters in Behala to the high-pressure cath labs of eastern India, 55-year-old Debjit Ghosh, known widely as Bumba, today stands among the leading dealers of life-saving cardiac devices in the country, working closely with eminent cardiologists across West Bengal, Tripura, Assam and Odisha.
Entrepreneur Ghosh’s tryst with cardiology was never planned. A class XII commerce passout, he had no idea about the anatomy of the heart when he entered the medical devices field. About 31 years ago, in the mid-1990s, he was earning a living as a helper in a garage along Taratala Road, on the southern fringe of Kolkata, bordering the South 24 Parganas district. The job paid little and promised less.
Four decades ago, when he was 15, life revolved around football and a modest, rented house. Indian national footballers Manoranjan Bhattacharya, Krishnu De, Sibaji Banerjee and Dilip Palit were frequent visitors. They came to consult their astrologer father ahead of crucial matches. Watching his heroes from the doorstep, the teenage Debjit emerged as a promising goalkeeper.
That dream ended abruptly at the Maidan. At Town Club, where he sought professional training, his height of about 5 feet 4 inches went against him. Asked to shift positions, a heartbroken Debjit walked away, leaving his shoes, uniform and gloves under the statue of Mahatma Gandhi on Mayo Road. Football was abandoned forever.
After a brief stint at a Taratala garage and a year of unemployment, Ghosh found a foothold in 1996 as a peon at the Kolkata office of Elder Pharmaceuticals, a Delhi-based cardiac devices dealer. The monthly salary of `1,000 cost him a relationship, as financial insecurity drove his girlfriend away. He sought a transfer to the sales division, a move that changed his life.
Tasked with supplying temporary pacemakers to emergency cardiac patients at SSKM Hospital, Ghosh entered a world of urgency and responsibility. He carried four or five temporary pacemakers at all times, ready when doctors needed to stabilise patients. Years spent outside the operating theatres built trust. Senior cardiologists and students came to rely on his round-the-clock presence. His support gave thousands of critical patients a new lease of life.
His initiatives played a historic role beyond Kolkata. With his involvement, the first successful pacemaker implantation procedures were performed on critically ill patients at government and private hospitals in Agartala and Port Blair. Today, Ghosh heads M K Device, which supplies pacemakers, stents, balloons, cardiac occluder devices and other critical technologies used in advanced heart procedures across the country.
It employs 65 people and supports nearly 250 family members. “I started my career as a peon at a garage in my locality, and I was not satisfied with my job. With hard work and dedication, I have overcome every hurdle in life. A chaiwala can be the prime minister, and at the same time, anyone can rise as a big businessman after selling chops, tea, snacks, chana, etc., as our chief minister advises us,” Debjit said.
From an adolescent goalkeeper with shattered dreams to a presence in cath labs, Debjit Ghosh’s story reflects how grit, learning and timing can reshape destiny.