A foreword from ‘Superstar’ Rajinikanth, who was the first actor to do a public service announcement to encourage people to donate their eyes, is a fitting beginning to a biography of one of India’s premier eye care hospitals, Sankara Nethralaya (SN).
The Chennai launch of Insight – A Passion for Compassion, the story of how SN came to be, and how it has grown over the years, was held on Friday. Penned by entrepreneur and biographer VV Ranganathan, along with eminent authors George Skaria and Meera Prasad, the book takes readers on an interesting journey – starting with its humble beginnings on a modest rented premise to its present stature as a sprawling state-of-the-art hospital with several centres across the country.
The book also has a foreword by former President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, and several chapters written by people like Gopalkrishna Gandhi, N Murali, Rahul Bajaj, AM Naik, Mallika Srinivasan, Rakesh Bharti Mittal, Prathap C Reddy Amitabh Singh, Deepak S Parekh and Dr Vasanthi Badrinath.
Dr Mayil Vahanan Natarajan, Vice Chancellor of the Tamil Nadu Dr MGR Medical University released the book by handing it over to Ashok Mehta, Board Member of SN. The launch was followed by a panel discussion on evolving models of healthcare in India. Moderated by journalist and founder of Spending & Policy Foundation Govindaraj Ethiraj, the discussion revolved around issues like hospital management and modernisation of techniques.
Columnist S Gurumurthy; CMD of Star Health and Allied Health Insurance Company V Jagannathan; former head and professor of Clinical Virology,CMC, Vellore, Dr T Jacob John; Chairman Emeritus, Sankara Nethralaya Dr SS Badrinath; Professor Emeritus, Department of Surgical Gastroenterology, The Seth GS Medical College and KEM Hospital, Mumbai, Ravindra D Bapat and author and entrepreneur VV Ranganathan were part of the panel.
The first copy of the book was released in Mumbai by Deepak S Parekh, Chairman of HDFC, on March 20 this year. The sale proceeds of this book are slated to go towards meeting the cost of providing free eye care and cost free surgery to the poor and needy.