Bhaskarnath Rughoonundon was a general surgeon in Mauritius. He was born in Surinam, a village on Mauritius, on 28 July 1939, a time when life was tough and money was scarce. His father, a small scale planter, wanted a different destiny for his only son, and decided he should become a doctor ‘…because the mortality rate of the Hindu community in colonial Mauritius was too high.’ Growing up among a posse of friends and relatives, Rughoonundon lost two cousins and his only paternal aunt to tuberculosis, which sealed his father’s decision to prompt him towards the medical field. A successful primary education at the village school allowed him to study at the fee-paying St Joseph College in Curepipe for secondary education up to higher school certificate. In 1960 he left to study medicine at Sheffield University in Yorkshire, England. After graduating in 1966 and completing the primary FRCS within two years, he decided to go back home on vacation and, as per the wishes of his parents, he agreed to get married, to Sheila. In 1971 he qualified as a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England and of Edinburgh, and then arranged to sit for the examination of the Educational Council for Foreign Medical Graduates with the intention of immigrating to Canada. His plans changed in February 1972 when he and his wife went to Mauritius with their three-month old baby boy for a short visit to their parents. His father persuaded him to stay and, as the only son in an extended Hindu family, he found himself in the uncomfortable situation of having to comply with the wishes of his parents. He started working for the Ministry of Health as a specialist surgeon straightaway and, during his career, did the round of the five main hospitals on the island. Very proud of his British training, he always upheld the prestige of the University of Sheffield, swearing to one and all about the overall wisdom and functional care of British medicine. He was an inspiring and enthusiastic mentor for a younger generation of medical students who were locally trained. As a skilled surgeon, he gave the same professional attention to all his patients, regardless of their status or creed. He accomplished his duty, day or night, whether on call or not; moreover, he never denied help to his colleagues. His mild sense of humour and courtesy made him popular among the medical staff, while his patients held him in high regard. His character was moulded by the fact that he grew up in an agricultural environment at a time when life was very hard indeed. His humane approach showed a personality that was unmoved by greed for more money or status. When patients knocked on his door at odd hours, he directed them to the hospital straightaway, even advising the doctor on call about procedures. His scrupulous professionalism led him to advise on matters of good administration in hospitals. On one occasion a project for a new unit was being discussed among high officials and Rughoonundon raised a fundamental question about parking space. It should be underground, he pointed out, and the whole plan was re-drawn. Although this may have seemed superficial at the time, when the island was still an underdeveloped country, such an oversight could have had unbearable consequences at a later date. On another occasion, he advised one minister for health about preparing young doctors to take over as specialists through scholarships. He was proved right when, a decade later, the lack of sufficient specialists in all fields was being strongly felt in Mauritius. Rughoonundon always thought long term as opposed to the myopic decision-making of government officials. His ability to tackle any surgical problem was highly appreciated. To help a junior colleague dealing with a patient with an injured pancreas from a road traffic accident he did a Roux-en-Y anastomosis. When a small boy caught his hand in a spaghetti-making machine, he stepped in to help without waiting for an orthopaedic surgeon. A patient with ureteric calculus, referred to him privately in the middle of the night, was sent to the hospital for an injection of Atropine – a routine treatment for instant relief some four decades ago. Two incidents that marked him for a long time were the death of a boy with a ruptured spleen whose Jehovah Witness parents had refused a blood transfusion, and that of another child who went blind after surgery due to anaesthetic negligence in the operating theatre. He was a true professional who carried out his duty with integrity. As a man of probity, the honesty of his intentions were never put to question; work to him was a matter of conscience. He always had a serene and compassionate look when dealing with patients and showed extreme patience when challenged. He will be remembered as one of the last of the old school who was vehemently against unnecessary X-ray investigations and rarely prescribed antibiotics post-operatively. One gets the impression he served the majority of the population who were poor while naively neglecting his own private practice. At the same time, he was fully aware that altruism would not take him far, hence his decision to grab the opportunity to work in Saudi Arabia from 1984 to 1987 for a higher salary than previously imaginable. Like so many of us, the sporadic tragedy, pathos and hard life at work sometimes impinged on his home life. He was lucky in that his wife allowed him to indulge entirely in his profession. He and his wife had three boys, Rudi, Nikhil and Amish, all settled in the USA, who, to his regret, did not follow him into medicine. Rughoonundon died on 21 July 2019 following a heart attack. He was 78.