The News Bureau
Dr Anand Kumar is an established surgical gastroenterologist in the city. He braved the hardships of life to reach the goals he set for himself as a child. He’s now riding success on his merit.
He was born in a small remote village called Agrahara in the border districts of Andhra Pradesh and Kamtaka with merely 20 houses and no access to roads or electricity whatsoever. He was the last among six children to his parents. Despite financial problems, he received utmost care and affection.
Anand’s journey in education started with primary school. He had to walk bare foot for almost 4-5 km to reach his school, National High School, Hosur. Although it was tough, he was determined that only education can help him lead a good life. Later, he graduated from MES, Bangalore Medical College. It was a tough two-year stint for him as he had to babysit his brother’s kids while attending college.
Anand’s brother, Devaraj Yadav supported him in everything, especially in pursuing medical education. He also received help from his friends in one way or the other. “I would like to mention my friends Devaraj (Dong), Anand (HS), Lamboo Anand, Ajoy, Karthik and Anil Mehta who helped me improve my English during this phase. I could secure the 27th rank in PG entrance and complete MS in general surgery purely due to their support,” says Anand.
Next in Dr Anand’s life, his senior and mentor, plastic surgeon Anand, compelled him to appear for FRCS. As Dr Anand couldn’t complete the exam in the first attempt, his mentor Anand took care of him as a brother to help him achieve the task of clearing the exam. After he came back from England, he implored surgeon Dr Gopinath to take him as his student.
During this struggling period to earn a little money, Dr Anand came across a wonderful person, Prof. M. Chandrashekar, who turned him into a successful surgeon. Dr Anand settled in Hyderabad after his marriage and joined NIMS. His journey continued from Oncosurgeon to GI surgeon.
Dr Anand says that he is fortunate to have such an understanding wife, Dr.Sreekavitha who is an ophthalmologist and lovely kids, Ankur and Ananya Lakshmi, who are his strength to move forward, especially during difficult times.
Another major event of his life was in 2011 when Dr Anand had a medical condition while he was in South Korea for his liver transplant training. Since no test could diagnose his problem, the only hope he had was to take a chance with empherical treatment. He requested a senior physician to treat on him blindly. The physician called him foolish for the idea, but to their surprise, Dr Anand’s intuition worked in his favour. “I won that battle, my family was very supportive during this period, after which, I felt I scored a bonus life. So, I dedicated my life to my work ever since. Caught up in bettering people’s lives, I didn’t even realise that I completed more than 75% of my life’s journey,” says Anand.
Dr Anand has started a patient-friendly gastroenterology daycare centre in his daughter’s name called Ananya Gastroenterology. This is for patients who can’t afford corporate hospitals.
“At my centre, the aim is to provide holistic care, especially for liver, pancreas, and solutions for obesity-related diseases.” They provide prenatal and postnatal care, high-risk pregnancy painless labor, and infant to adult care. Here, diseases like asthma,
high BP, diabetics, and heart diseases are also taken care of. Ananya Gastroenterology was initially started in Ameerpet and is now an established state-of-the-art corporate hospital in Kukatpally along with his long term extended family friends Dr Usha and Surender Rao and family. I am so fortunate to have the family of Dr Usha and Surendar who are god gifted, supporting me in every aspect of my professional and personal life. I am indebted to them for my life. Only me and my inner soul understands the value of this relationship. I owe them a lot in life. All my stress is forgotten when I spend time with them,” Dr Anand said.
“I am very thankful to professors Dr N. Bheerappa and Dr RA Sastry of NIMS who shaped my surgical skills. I learnt about professionalism and how to make life successful after I associated with Dr Ravindranath, Chairman of Global hospitals, 
Dr G. S. Rao, Managing Director of Yashoda Hospitals, and Dr A.V. Gurava Reddy, MD of Sunshine hospital. I consider them as my business gurus.”
Dr Anand performed a mind bogging 10,000 surgeries, including rare surgeries of shunt and pancreatic surgeries, and proudly claims that 99% of his surgeries were successful. He thanks his near and dear for this achievement. “I would like to thank all those who stood by me during the hard times of my life. I will keep doing good work and let destiny take its course. My father always said, you’re born for a purpose and you should always be a reason for others happiness, even if you are not happy yourself,” he said.
Dr Anand loves watching movies and listening to Kishore Kumar’s love songs. Now, he makes time to listen to Sadhguru’s preaching and read his books.