On 6th September 2020, Sankara Nethralaya celebrated our 43rd Foundation Day very differently to previous years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Sankara Nethralaya family got together digitally to celebrate forty-two years of bringing vision to the haves and have-nots alike.
Our President, Dr. Girish Rao, opened the proceedings by thanking the front-line warriors and everyone who worked even during the intense lockdown and are the face of SN when patients walk into Sankara Nethralaya. He handed over the evening’s virtual program to the compere, Dr. N. Radhika. The melodious Dr. S. Meenakshi sang the invocation song, which is one of Dr. S. S. Badrinath’s favourites.
Founded on Ganesh Chathurthi (6th September) in 1978, Dr. S. S. Badrinath envisioned Sankara Nethralya as a non-profit hospital that provides vision to the sightless and enable them to be active contributors to society. Sankara Nethralaya’s unique not-for-profit model relies on contributions for all its community services and on paying patients for day-to-day operations.
Dr. T. S. Surendran guided us through SN’s journey to become what it is today. From the inaugural ceremony to the original building in which Sankara Nethralaya started, Dr. T.S.S led us back to the heady days of Sankara Nethralaya’s foundation He has witnessed every major event that occurred at SN and the many achievements in the field of ophthalmology
Our beloved Chief and Madam, Dr. S. S. Badrinath and Dr. (Mrs.) Vasanthi Badrinath joined the virtual celebrations to bless Sankara Nethralaya staff and their families. They recalled the long hard road to establish Sankara Nethralaya as the premier institute for eye care imbibed with the spirit of service to society regardless of ability to pay. Chief rededicated SN to the mission of bringing vision to the poor and reminded us to be resilient in these trying times, and to put more energy to take Sankara Nethralaya to new heights.
Following in the footsteps of our Chief, Dr. Badrinath, is indeed a tall order. The tradition of hard work and dedication was cemented by him during the early days when he used to start surgeries as early as 5 a.m. and continue work until 9 p.m, along with his administrative duties. Our Chief never visualised his life’s work as a corporate hospital, an unusual occurrence even today.
Dr. S. Bhaskaran; Dr. Ian Sundaraj; Dr. K.S. Vasan; Dr. L. Vijaya; Dr. Prema Padmanabhan; Dr. Nirmala Subramanian; Dr. J. Biswas; Dr. Pramod Bhende; Dr. S. Meenakshi; Dr. Suchetna Mukherjee (Kolkata); Ms. Surekha Mehta; Dr. Anuradha Narayanan; Ms. Sreedevi C G; Ms. Sudha Mohan; Ms. Malathi G. G; and Ms. Yuvarani were among the senior staff members who shared many of their unforgettable memories of training & working under Dr. S. S. Badrinath, and the valuable lessons they imbibed under his awe-inspiring tutelage.
Dr. S. Meenakshi, also presented a vivacious recap of all the celebrations and staff get-togethers that took place through the years.- a reminder that Sankara Nethralaya staff consider each other family.
View Sankara Nethralaya’s Founder’s Day virtual celebrations in the following link:
https://youtu.be/tIbNICmJV9Q