 Pundalik (or Pundolica) D Gaitonde received his medical education first in Goa and Bombay and later proceeded to Lisbon in 1938 for further studies.He specialised in surgery and did research on the treatment of cancer.On his return to Goa, then still a territory of Portugal in 1948, he was appointed Surgeon-Director of the Hospital dos Milagres in Mapusa, the main commercial town in North Goa.