Celebrating sixty glorious years of KMC, Manipal
August 04, 2014
Sixty glorious years of Kasturba Medical College, Manipal was eloquently portrayed by speakers, with interesting anecdotes thrown in, at the Diamond Jubilee College Day and Awards Ceremony at the Greens here on Saturday. What Manipal looked like when KMC started in 1953, the transformation of the place and college in all these years was presented by former deans and alumni at the function which was celebration time for the graduating students.
Dr Krishna Rao, the third dean of KMC from 1963 to 1985, recalled the early days. When he came to join on December 6, 1954, it took him three hours to reach Udupi by bus from Mangalore via Moodbidri, Karkala, Hiriyadka and Manipal. “Manipal had no place to stay those days so I had to go to Udupi,” he said. The only buildings present then were the residence of Dr TMA Pai, a heritage building and the anatomy block. He mentioned the names of the professors who shaped the destiny of KMC.
“The first batch of students passed out in 1957 and in 1965, the General Medical Council of Great Britain recognized this degree to open the doors of admission for international students,” and he congratulated the management, staff and students for the present ranking of KMC in the country. He hoped the University “Inspired by Life” would one day be among the top ten in the world.
Dr Hebri Sudarshan Ballal, MD and Chairman, Medical Advisory Board, Manipal Hospital, Bangalore said that it was a great feeling for him to be an alma mater of KMC. “It is a wonderful profession to pursue and if you have studied here, it is a great feeling,” he said. Talking about becoming a doctor, he said it was a great profession to be in,but he lamented the rot that was taking a grip on the profession. “Unfortunately, what has happened is that the nobility seems to be wearing off, for which we are partly responsible. Nowadays, doctors are not respected as much as they used to be. I think doctors have started becoming greedy. They have become less professional. We hear about kickbacks, unnecessary procedures being done, patients not being taken care of well and so on and so forth. Please ladies and gentlemen, if you want to be greedy then get into some other business, don’t become a doctor,” he said.
A word of advice to the budding doctors was, “You have to be compassionate to patients if you have to be a good doctor, have empathy for them, feel for them otherwise you will never be a good doctor. Speaking of skills he said that a doctor has to be reasonably skilled. “However, more than professional skills what you really need are soft skills which are very important. You need to treat patients with dignity. And only then will we be treated with dignity”.
Dr P Laxminarayana Rao, Registrar Evaluation who is also a former dean from 1985 to 2001, Dr Raj Warrier, former Vice Chancellor of the University, also an alumnus and Dr H.S.Ballal, Pro Chancellor spoke on the occasion. Dean of KMC, Manipal, Dr Pradeep Kumar presented the annual report highlighting the achievements of staff and students in classrooms and off it, he gave an overview of the new initiatives and also the rankings of the College in the media, which continues to be among the top 10.
Awards: Mr. TanTeck Wei: Dr T M A Pai gold medal for the best out-going MBBS student of Kasturba Medical College, Manipal for the year 2012-2013. Ms. Rachana: Best outgoing lady MBBS student of Kasturba Medical College, Manipal for the year 2012-13. Ms. Saniya Pervin: Gold medal for the Best student in the First MBBS University Examination held in June 2013. Dr. Nishanth K R: gold medal for the best out-going student in M.D.(general medicine) for the year 2013. Dr Saumitra Goyal: gold medal for best out-going student in M.S. (orthopaedics) for the year 2013. Dr Priya l: gold medal for best out-going student in M.D.(anaesthesiology),for the year 2013. Dr. K V Kishore Babu Gonuguntl : gold medal for the best out-going student in D.A.(anaesthesiology), for the year 2013. Dr. Parmar Prachi Vikramsinh: Gold medal for the best out-going student in D.O.(ophthalmology) for the year 2013. Dr. Paruthikunnan M Samir: gold medal for the best student radiologist for the year 2013. Dr. Senthilvel Rajan R: gold medal for the best out-going postgraduate resident in psychiatry for the year 2013.
Click here to view the message by Dr A. Krishna Rao, former Dean, KMC Manipal, on Diamond Jubilee College Day & Awards Ceremony 2014.
