Dr. Pundalik Dattatreya Gaitonde (3 July 1913 – 13 November 1992) was a surgeon from Goa and an active participant in the Goa liberation movement. Along with Antonio Colaco, Gaitonde was nominated by the President of India to the 3rd Lok Sabha in 1962 following the incorporation of Goa, Daman and Diu into India on 19 December 1961. Early life Pundalik Gaitonde was born on 3 July 1913 to Dattatreya alias Mangesh Gaitonde and Anandibai at Borim, Goa in Portuguese India. Pundalik Gaitonde's father Dattatreya hailed from Palolem in Canacona while Anandibai hailed from Borim. Pundalik Gaitonde was the third among nine siblings. His father Datatreya was a local landlord. His younger brother Nanda was also a participant in the Goa liberation movement. Aged five, Pundalik was initiated into education and he attended a local school. Aged eleven, the Upanayana ritual was performed. Gaitonde pursued his higher education at the Escola Primaria de Canacona at Chaudi, Canacona. Since there were no further opportunities for higher education in Canacona, Gaitonde joined the A. J. de Almeida College school at Ponda in Goa to pursue his first year of Lyceum. It was at this school that Gaitonde befriended poet Balakrishna Bhagwant Borkar. During these years, Gaitonde mastered the Portuguese language. But since the A. J. de Almeida College did not have the facility to study the third year of Lyceum, Gaitonde went to Margao. After successfully completing the course of Lyceum, he joined the Lyceum at Panaji. Aged twenty, Gaitonde delivered a lecture on Albert Einstein's Theory of relativity. This lecture was appreciated by many. Gaitonde also benefited from the various programmes organised by the União Académica in Panaji. Thereafter, he attended the Escola Médico-Cirúrgica de (Nova) Goa to study medicine. Gaitonde went to Portugal in order to pursue higher studies he medicine. He graduated in surgery from the Faculty of Medicine at the Lisbon University, where he was taught by António Egas Moniz (who went on to become a Nobel laureate in 1949) and Reynaldo dos Santos. During the same period, Gaitonde started his independent research regarding cancer. Marriage After Gaitonde studied medicine and surgery, he started his practice of medicine in Portugal. He met a Portuguese young woman named Edila Brum Dutra de Andrade. Edila was born at the Faial Island of the Azores and had studied music at the National Conservatory of Lisbon. Pundalik and Edila decided to marry,