Pain, like death, is a universal phenomenon.

The sour grimace on the woman’s face, registering her bodily complaints to Dr GP Dureja in his East Delhi office, would be recognised anywhere. Slouched shoulders, pinched forehead. She wore a willowy black kurta and cast a disapproving glance at the five pain physicians-in-training huddled behind Dureja, the founder of Delhi Pain Management Centre and one of India’s pioneering pain physicians.

The five trainees, participants in the centre’s acclaimed pain fellowship programme, recorded the woman’s consultation on their smartphones, eager to see the famous pain doctor do his work. After their fellowships, they will return home, to Chennai, Kashmir, Rajasthan, ready to forge careers in India’s exploding pain industry.