The Sankara Nethralaya family celebrated the 64th Republic Day with great enthusiasm at it main campus, the event witnessed participation by the senior management members, Consultants, staff members, students of Sankara Nethralaya’s various educational institutions and SWAN Volunteers in good numbers. The proceedings started with the hoisting of the National tricolor by the Chief Guest Shri M. Murali, Proprietor, Sri Krishna Sweets followed by the rendering of the National Anthem by the entire Sankara Nethralaya family. The patriotic group song by the students of the Elite School of Optometry which followed the flag hoisting captured the spirit of the day.
The day was marked by the delivery of insightful talks by the speakers of the day the Chief Guest, the Chairman Emeritus, Chairman and Senior General Manager, Sankara Nethralaya, providing rich food for thought to the participants. The founder and Head of the institution Dr SS.Badrinath used the August occasion to drive home the need for persistent hard work and faith to reach one’s goals, he started his address with rich compliments to Dr Sundaram Natarajan, Head of the Aditya Jyot Eye hospital Mumbai an alumni and great well wisher and supporter of Sankara Nethralaya for being conferred the Padma Shri and Shri Ramamurthy Thyagarajan, Head of the Shriram Group and a generous supporter of Sankara Nethralaya’s cause for being conferred the Padma Bhushan award by the Government of India. He also paid rich compliments to Dr Shikha Talwar Bassi, Director, Department of Neuro-ophthalmology and Dr Alay Banker former Vision Research Foundation Fellow for being awarded the S.D Athawale award and Colonel Rangachary award at the recently APAO-AIOS 2013 at Hyderabad. Dr SS. Badrinath emphasized that these were fruits of hard labour and cited Dr Alay Banker’s 6 year follow up as a marathon effort to substantiate that hard work never goes in vain and appealed to the members of Sankara Nethralaya to reach Himalayan heights through hard work and honest introspection, he expressed his desire to see the Vision Research Foundation supporting the Medical Research Foundation in the not too distant future and closed his speech with the hope that the Vision Research Foundation should win 82 such awards, implying that every researcher belonging to it is recognized.
This was followed by a warm introduction of the Chief Guest Shri M.Murali, Proprietor, Sri Krishna Sweets by Ms Akila Ganesan, Senior General manager, Sankara Nethralaya, with an inspiring account of how the family run business grew from humble beginnings into one of the most successful confectionary chains in the State and a household name for quality sweets, she highlighted his simplicity and single minded purpose as the primary factors behind the amazing success story. This was followed by a very absorbing Chief Guest’s address by Shri M.Murali, paying his rich tribute and respect to Dr SS.Badrinath he described him as the life and breath of Sankara Nethralaya the institution which served thousands of patients every day, the honourable Chief guest touched upon a broad spectrum of subjects ranging from modern management principles to the spirit of giving and the need to have a value system in place, he described true growth of a man as the forward movement towards the Almighty and one’s fellow human being which is possible only by giving back to society. Speaking on the occasion Dr S.Bhaskaran, Chairman, Sankara Nethralaya underlined the significance of the day as the day when the nation declared itself a sovereign democratic republic, he observed that the Government of India confers its highest civilian awards on this day and announced that Sankara Nethralaya would also be honouring an employee every year for outstanding performance, dedication and most importantly for allegiance to the basic Sankara Nethralaya philosophy in word and spirit from the next Republic Day.
The thoughtful munificence of Shri Ram Dhingra which has helped children of Sankara Nethralaya employees pursue their studies was recalled and the cash certificates to the Dhingra Trust awardees and other deserving students were distributed along with service completion certificates to staff members by the Chief Guest and the senior management members to the loud applause of the gathering.
The function came to an end with a Vote of Thanks by Dr PS.Rajesh, In-Charge of the C.U Shah Sankara Nethralaya.