PERSONAL LIFE (till 2026)

Dr Abhaya Indrayan, MSc, MS, PhD (Ohio State)

FAMS, FRSS, FSMS, FASc

 

Born on 11 Nov 1945 to Smt Shankuntala Prabhakar and Sh Mahesh Prakash at Meerut. The 

mother was a Hindi graduate (Prabhakar) from Punjab University and the father could not 

complete his education as he was arrested from college for freedom movement. The

grandmother and father’s three sisters also went to jail while fighting for India’s freedom. The

family tree is available at https://www.geni.com/people/Abhaya-Indrayan/6000000001882124252   

 

The early education form VI to XII was from NAS school, Meerut, and the Bachelor’s and

master’s from Meerut College, Meerut, with second position in the University. Statistics was

chosen for career because of tremendous success my chachaji (Dr Vinod Prakash) had, who

completed master’s from Indian Statistical Institute and PhD form MIT, USA (He started India

Development Relief Fund in the US after retiring from the World Bank and collected millions

of dollars for Indian poor).

 

First job as Investigator landed soon after completing MSc in 1965 at Directorate of Evaluation

of State Planning Institute, U.P., with office at Kalakankar House in Lucknow and Dr BC Das

(PhD, Iowa) as the boss. The colleague Mr Pradeep Tripathi helped me to get the post of Lecturer

at MLN Medical College, Allahabad, 1969. It was gratifying to see the entire office coming to see

me off at Charbagh Station while departing to Allahabad in 1969. Later, UP-PSC also selected

me for this post.

 

Dr RN Srivastava, who was Reader in Preventive & Social Medicine (now, Community Medicine) at MLN Medical College, Allahabad, led me to research by asking me to fit mathematical model to his filariasis data collected for his MD thesis. I did the analysis and drafted the paper. Despite my vulnerability as a new lecturer and non-medical in a medical college, he encouraged me by listing me as the first author of the paper on this model,  published in Indian Journal of Medical Research in 1971. This was the topmost medical journal in India.

 

Emulating chacha ji, I applied to some US universities in 1969 and admitted to three but none granted financial assistance; without this it was not possible to go to the US. Married to Asha in 1972.

Pursued my US study dream with more vigour and succeeded in getting Teaching

Assistantship at the Ohio State University (OSU) in 1974 after a US citizen (Principal of

the Ewing Christian College) gave a certificate that I can teach US students in English.

Both of us flew to New York in August 1974 and was mesmerized by the broad

highways, giant trucks, sodium lights on streets, and milk, juice, tea, coffee, at the same

price of 25 cents per cup at the Port Authority, New York. Stayed at Washington DC, with

my brother-in-law for a week, before proceeding to Columbus, Ohio. Was lucky to rent a

two-bedroom apartment on the 9th Avenue, for USD80 pm. First quarter was tough – difficult to understand and communicate in American English, lots of snow and stiff courses. Son Rahul was born there on 28 Dec 1974.

 

Three-years’ stay at OSU was both challenging and enjoyable. To ease finances, I was teaching,

taking courses, doing PhD thesis, and tutoring – all at the same time, but also visiting friends on

weekends for get-together, going to places such as New York, Smokey Mountains, Ohio Caverns,

and Old Man’s Caves. Straight A’s, except one B+ in a course in medical school, with Grade Point

Average of 3.88/4.00 (97%) was a feather in the cap. Dr Ransom Whitney (of Mann-Whitney

fame), who was the chair of the department at Cockins Hall, offered a job with GM but I wanted

to resume my job in India.

 

Returned to India in August 1977 with a child of nearly 3 years, and was posted to BRD

Medical College, Gorakhpur. The daughter Swati was born there in 1978. My professor at OSU,

Dr Jagdish Rustagi, recommended me to Dr Gopalan, D-G, ICMR, and he kindly offered a

deputation job as Senior Research Officer at the Institute for Research in Medical Statistics

(IRMS) in New Delhi. At the same time, I was also independently selected as Reader in

Biostatistics at Delhi University College of Medical Sciences (UCMS). In a brief tenure of 6

months at IRMS, we stared a diploma course in Biostatistics with Dr BN Bhattacharya leading

the efforts.

 

UCMS provided the opportunity to publish more than 200 papers, 6 books (including 3

published in the US), and to do assignments as Sports Adviser (6 years), Chairman of the

Computer Committee (15 years), In-charge of Annual Reports (12 years), and Coordinator of the

Medical Education Unit (5 years). The college started Computer Unit under my charge in 1987,

and we became first college in Delhi to start pay slips for the staff, MedLARS, and email facility,

which had just arrived in India. The College website was developed in 1995 and the Unit

became a full-fledged independent Division in 1995 and then Department with PhD students in

2005. We setup and managed the entire computer network of college.

 

While in UCMS, completed several assignments for the World Health Organization, World Bank,

UNAIDS, and the Danish Assistance for Prevention and Control of Blindness (DANPCB) that

eased financial constraints. A total of nearly 40 assignments were completed. Papers were

presented in 17 international conferences and the globe travelled. A total of 58 visits abroad

made to 27 countries so far – 24 visits to the US alone. In between came the assignment of

Visting Faculty at the Ohio State (1983-84) and of Visting Research Scientist at the University of

Massachusetts (1995).

 

After retirement, worked with WHO on different assignments and briefly with Ganga Ram

Hospital. Then came the job of Biostatistics Consultant at Max Healthcare in 2014, which is

continuing till date (2026). The responsibilities are consultancy, research and teaching.

Publications now in 2026 number 317. Besides several awards, Fellowship was conferred by the

National Academy of Medical Sciences, Royal Statistical Society, Indian Society of Medical

Statistics, and above all Indian Academy of Sciences of Dr CV Raman fame. I am privileged to be

the only biostatistician in the country to get this honour. I have instituted 6 awards myself with

different institutions/organizations for encouraging excellence in biostatistics. I look back with great satisfaction.

 

The God has given more than I expected. My last wish to die soon without falling sick!