Chitra Amladi

Chitra passed away on July 21st, 2024 after a heroic battle with cancer. She passed away in West Bloomfield, Michigan, where she lived most of her adult life. 

She was a gentle, brilliant, warm, loving, generous & compassionate person, who had the power to touch & inspire all those around her. Her empathy, unshakeable ethics, spiritual depth, radiating charisma and poetic, musical voice left so many considering her like their own mother, sister, daughter or grandmother. Her grandfather was a great poet and educator, her father was a High Court judge, and her older sister a celebrated physician, she distilled the virtues of so many in her family. 

Chitra loved to teach and dreamed of becoming an English teacher. Her father gently suggested that she could help even more people as a physician, while also teaching future generations of healers. His words proved prophetic as she blazed a brilliant path as a critical care physician. Her "encyclopedic mind", devotion and tireless work ethic led to her becoming the Director of Critical Care at Sinai Hospital, a role ideally suited for her. With authoritative knowledge and deep empathy, her comforting voice was the one any patient or family member would want to hear during such excruciating trials and  tribulations. She taught and mentored a generation of medical professionals. 

Although her career was cut short after being diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, Chitra remained active in the field of medicine for many years afterwards, attending CME courses, doing independent medical consulting work, and reading & learning about other aspects of healthcare, including "mind-body medicine". Thus, her impact on the profession continued, as she kept abreast of the field to satisfy her endless curiosity and continue to inspire future clinicians. 

Chitra embodied a lifelong commitment to honesty, fairness, justice and uncompromising ethics. Ethics were deeply personal for her, an almost spiritual practice. She harbored an unshakeable belief that her profession was sacred, never to be entered into nor practiced without selfless devotion.

She showed this same devotion towards her family, including her husband, children, and "informally adopted" children and grandchildren. She instilled in them her sense of ethics, political engagement and passion for social justice, curiosity, devotion to learning and education, spiritual depth, love for all cultural and artistic pursuits and even her mischievous sense of humor. Even during the peaks of her career and illnesses, she always found ways to ensure that her children and grandchildren could follow their dreams and pursue any educational, cultural, recreational or athletic activity they wanted to explore. She was particularly passionate about music and sang beautifully. She sang often for family, friends and usually at others' insistence for public gatherings.

She was deeply devoted to her spiritual practices, which included an ecumenical faith taking the best from all of the major religious traditions. She followed the bhakti (devotion)-based practice of Vaishnav Hinduism. She also practiced Transcendental Meditation, Isha Yoga, Sahaja Sthithi Yoga and Nichiren Buddhism. 

Her father perfectly described her as "a deep ocean full of unbounded love". Her family prays that this unbounded love washes over and purifies the world forever.

Chitra is survived by her husband of 53 years, Prasad, her daughter, Amita, and son, Amol, her "informally adopted" daughter & son-in-law, Nandini & Brijesh Rawal, grandson, Aahaan Rawal, her brother, Kishen, her sister-in-law Shaila Chickermane, and many cousins, nieces, nephews, grandnieces, grandnephews and friends. 

Chitra was preceded in death by her parents, Mira & Gopal, her parents-in-laws, Sundari & Ganesh Amladi, her sisters, Tara (Anand) Chandavarkar and Sudha (Kishore) Taggarse, her sisters-in-laws Sharmad (Narayan) Kalbag, Pramad (Ramdas) Nadkarni, Jashod (A.B.) Shah and nephew, Ashwin Taggarse.

A Celebration of Life Service for Chitra will be held on Saturday, September 27, 2025 in Orchard Lake, Michigan. 

For time & place, call: (248) 282-3978 or email: chitrasmemorial@yahoo.com

For those unable to attend the service in person, a livestream & recording of the memorial will be available for those who would like to attend virtually. Please contact via the above email for the video link.

In lieu of flowers, those wishing to honor Chitra's memory are invited to make contributions in her name to one of the following charitable organizations:

MAI Family Services:

https://maifs.org/donate/ 

https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=5LAFT7FJPUJDC (with "In Dr. Chitra Amladi's memory' in the Note on the Paypal page) 

Habitat for Humanity:

https://www.habitat.org/donate/?link=628 

Feeding America:

https://give.feedingamerica.org/a/donate-in-honor