Narayan Rao was an ENT surgeon in Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia. He was born in a village in the princely state of Hyderabad on 9 October 1923. His father, Sita Ram Rao, was an agriculturist and zamindar (landlord); his mother, Rama Chudamma Rao, was a housewife. Being the first-born male and showing an aptitude for study, he was sent to the nearby city of Hyderabad for schooling. At the end of high school, he was awarded a scholarship to study medicine at Osmania Medical College, Hyderabad. He qualified in 1947. After house posts in Hyderabad, he was a district medical officer which, apart from public health, required him to certify the health of animals for slaughter. This job enabled him to study for the primary through correspondence and save enough money for the journey and initial expenses in Britain. From May 1951 to February 1952, he was a house surgeon at the Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital, London. He was then a registrar in ENT surgery at the Birmingham and Midland Ear, Nose and Throat Hospital. He achieved his FRCS in 1954 and returned to Hyderabad. He worked in the state medical service as an ENT consultant and established the first dedicated ENT hospital in Hyderabad. He returned to the UK in 1967 with his wife Norah (née Gardner) and two daughters (Priti and Nandita), and worked in Birmingham as a consultant ENT surgeon until 1969. From November 1969 to August 1974, he worked as a professor of otolaryngology at the Osmania Medical College and as an ENT surgeon and superintendent at the government ENT hospital, Hyderabad and visiting ENT surgeon to the Radium Institute and Cancer Hospital, Hyderabad. He was invited to work in Australia and emigrated with his family in 1974, settling in Darwin, Northern Territory, where he was a senior ENT specialist. His work in northern Australia involved treating the indigenous population with a high incidence of middle ear disease. He was awarded the citizen of the year award in 1995, followed by the Order of Australia in 1997 for services to the community. On retiring from the Northern Territory, he settled with his wife in Melbourne, close to his family and grandchildren. He continued ENT non-surgical work past his 90th birthday. He died on 28 August 2017 at the age of 93. From humble beginnings, he achieved a great deal in his long and illustrious career, and was held in high regard by his colleagues and students.