MITRANIKETAN - 3 km. The Mitraniketan Hospital near the Kurisumala Ashram was founded in 1964 by the English architect Laurie Baker who chose Vagamon to build a home for himself and his Kerala-born doctor wife Dr. Elizabeth Baker. Dr. Hildegarde Sina,a physician from Germany, served as the first doctor and Alina Cattani, a trained nurse from Italy, as the first nurse, till the Bakers chose to move over to Trivandrum. On the demise of Dr. Sina and Ms Cattani, Dr. Mercy Kappen,who learnt acupuncture in China, returned from Srirampur in Maharashtra, to look after the hospital. Dr. Mercy and her social activist husband Ajith Murikkan, are the present owners of the house built by Laurie Baker.