The Sankara Nethralaya family woke up to a bright sunny Friday morning eagerly joined by a team of Management Maestros to unfurl the tricolour to the accompaniment of band and parade and devout delivery of the National Anthem, followed by the highly emotive invocation “Thaayin Manikodi Paarir”, by Dr.S. Meenakshi, Director, Academics.
Welcoming the gathering, Dr.Sumitha Agarkar, Deputy Director, Pediatric Ophthalmology quoted Rabindranath Tagore’s immortal lines
“Where the mind is without fear
and the head is held high,
where knowledge is free.
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls.
Where words come out from the depth of truth,
where tireless striving stretches its arms toward perfection.
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost it’s way
into the dreary desert sand of dead habit.
Where the mind is led forward by thee
into ever widening thought and action.
In to that heaven of freedom, my father,
LET MY COUNTRY AWAKE! ”
Capturing the spirit of a free and independent India where every citizen lived without discrimination and did what he wished.
Introducing the Sankara Ratna Awardee Dr. T.V.Subramanian as an extended member of the Sankara Nethralaya family , Dr.V.V.Jaichandran, Anaesthetist, lauded the Management Guru, as a multifaceted personality, an epitome of high thinking and simple living, whose buzz word was “Quality” and recipient of several awards including recognition as “Trainer of the year” award for 3 consecutive years, by the most prestigious Tata Management Centre, Pune. He highlighted his high academic and professional accomplishments and hailed his critical role in winning NABH accreditation to Sankara Nethralaya.
Dr. Angayarkanni Narayanaswamy, Reader, Department of Bio-Chemistry in her introduction of distinguished guest and Sankara Ratna Awardee, Dr.M.S.Jayaraman recalled Swami Dayananad Saraswathi showering praise on him as the only person to have prefixed his native place “Manjakudi” along with his initials. She highlighted that Dr. Jayaraman specializes in IT Strategies and Business Process Reengineering (BPR), Deeper Learning & Systems Thinking. Prior to starting his firm Lumino Strategies, Dr. MSJ worked with ICL at London and Manchester and with ICIM at Bombay, New Delhi and Chennai and that he had co authored two books on Business Process Reengineering published by Tata McGraw-Hill ltd. Dr. Angayarkanni recalled with gratitude the strong support for I.T and total quality management (TQM) initiatives extended to Sankara Nethralaya by the expert in these fields.
Delivering the presidential address, the distinguished guest of honour, Dr.T.V.Subramaniam, enthralled the audience by his spellbound lecture that invoked the intellect to action.
Quoting profusely on the “Eternal duties of a Human being” from the Bhagavad Gita,
देवान् भावतातेन ते देवा भावयन्तु व: |
परस्परम् भावयन्त: श्रेय: परमवाप्स्यथ ||
इष्टान् भोगान् हि वो देवा दास्यन्ते यज्ञबभाविता: |
तैर्दत्तान्प्रदायैभ्यो यो भुङंक्ते स्तेन एव स: ||
योग: कर्मसु कौशलम् ||
He remarked that every being, both animate and inanimate were inter dependent for sustenance. He cited the example of Mother Nature immaculately delivering Oxygen, Sunlight and life without seeking anything in return and reiterated that it was our moral obligation to “Give back to the Society”.
He emphasized that every human endowed with intelligence to meticulously follow the rules of “being self disciplined in doing our duty perfectly”, “perform the right act at the right time” and “Co-exist harmoniously” for a perfect living as the very “Essence and Conduct of Life.” Dr.S.S.Badrinath, Chairman Emeritus in his brief address quoted that everyone must be inspired to imbibe the quality of sacrifice and charity while he profusely thanked Mr. Arogyasamy, Counsellor, Department of Genetics, whose son generously donated his first salary to the great institution.
The distinguished guests honoured Mr.Sreekanth from the Department of Patient Services and Ms.Subashini of Patient Relations Department as “Man of the Year” and “Woman of the Year” award respectively. The day also witnessed distribution of “Service Awards”, “Outstanding performance awards”, “Cricket Awards”, “Eye donation pledging recognition”, “recognition for coordinators at the FRCS exam”, “Exemplary Department award”, “recognition for active role HIC”.
The momentous day concluded with a vote of thanks and breakfast for all.