Dr. Jai Kelkar – Presidential Address as an outgoing president
Greetings dear members,
This is my last official address as Hon President of POS to you all. When I took over last year, I had decided that I will talk at length after my tenure is over, and I am glad that there is lots to talk about!
My motto for this year was “keep it simple” By that I meant that, let’s keep our year uncomplicated. This year was full of academics (read CME points), some camaraderie opportunities with the fraternity, and several extracurricular activities. There is a lot of young blood in POS now and I wanted to tap that. And a majority of women members and I wanted them to get the spotlight and they all took their responsibilities with élan. All in all it has been a good year for POS.
There were 3 excellent well attended CMEs covering cornea, glaucoma, and retina with masters who came over as invited faculty . I am proud to say that we also had very different kinds of programmes this year, like the POS safari (and yes, the tiger was sighted!), POS Art katta, POS Art exhibition, POS trek and the POS cultural event and the POS overseas tour with MOS, Public awareness rally about diabetes with MOS and the POS cricket tournament. I would like to thank Dr Sameer Datar, Dr Suchi Smita Behere, Dr Baban Dolas, Dr Geetanjali Sharma, Dr Jignesh Taswala, Dr Santosh Bhide and Dr Sachin Kale respectively for these amazing programmes.
The POS spectrum saw a whopping number of registrations from delegates not only from Pune and neighboring districts but also national level. The faculty were par excellence with the likes of Padmashree Dr GN Rao, Dr Virendar Sangwan, Dr Rohit Saxena , Dr Mamta Agarwal, Dr Santosh Honawar and few more, and of course our own Padmashree Dr TP Lahane sir and Dr Ragini Parekh madam. Local faculty were no lesser and they participated with zest. The design on the bag given to delegates was my creation as I wanted the guests to get a feel of our Pune city. Dr Vrushali Varad took over as conference coordinator and thanks to her that I could rest assured about managing a huge task of 78 free papers, 28 posters from delegates. I want to thank Dr Sanjay Shah sir who consented to be the organizing secretary of POS SPECTRUM and stood by me like a rock and  guided me in each and every step of organizing the conference. Live surgeries were conducted at Deenanath Mangeshkar hospital and I am happy to say that they were executed with clinical precision and for that special thanks to team DMH, specifically, Dr Madhav Bhat sir, Dr Shrikant Joshi sir, Dr Roopali Nerlikar and Dr Nilesh Uplenchwar. I wish to thank past president Dr Subhash Bijlani for conducting the POS Quiz at the POS Spectrum and Dr Mandar Paranjpe and Dr Prasad Walimbe for conducting the SSTC , in which the highlight was the introduction and use of Simuleye models imported from the United states of America which were used for the first time in India for hands on training for phacoemulsification. The enthralling orchestra was put together by nightingale of POS, Dr Vaijayanti Gadre
The POS website work was very ably handled by Dr Sandesh Doshi He also created easy payment gateway due to which almost all CME as well as POS SPECTRUM have had online monetary transactions thus keeping everything simple and transparent. I wish to express my gratitude towards him.
Would also like to thank Dr Sanjay Patil, who always accommodated my requests for the IMA hall at the last minute!
My tenure wouldn’t have been successful without mentorship from 3 seniors, namely, Dr Udayan Dixit sir, Dr Praksah Marathe sir and Dr Jeevan Ladi sir. Thanks to their guidance and blessings that I was able to not only conduct my duties as president, but at times even double up as secretary of POS however frequently the situation demanded. They were truly the rising sun giving light to my life!
Having said this, I must add this all has not been possible without the support of the enthusiastic managing committee which I was lucky to get. First mention is of Dr Nirupa Timble, Hon. treasurer. She gets kudos for impeccable bookkeeping and accounting. I knew I could always lean on her and she did her job like no other. Dr Sagar Vardhamane helped me for several progammes of the POS, which was over and above his duties as joint secretary of POS. Both have been my backbone this year.
The managing committee members comprising of Dr Nikhl Rishikeshi, Dr Ashwini Misal, Dr Sarika Sethiya, Dr Smita Mohod, Dr Nishita Beke, Dr Shilpa Patil , Dr Sucharita Paranjpe, Dr Nitika Tripathi were all fantastic and were ardent in their participation as well as completing the jobs given to them. Dr Devika Joshi did an excellent job as Editor POSTER and each issue of the magazine is testimony to that fact.
Lastly and most importantly, I wish to thank my better half, past president Dr Aditya Kelkar who must have felt like he is the president again, but never complained! And my dearest daughters who were pretty excited that I am President and their dad is the first gentleman of POS! I won’t forget my pets who provided the solace I needed when things were not exactly on path, well, pets always do that! And I hope now my friends will stop calling me madam president and get back to calling me Jai!
As I hand over the reins of POS to the next President, Dr Mandar Paranjpe, I have mixed feelings of reticence as I enjoyed the process and of exhalation as it’s a huge responsibility off my shoulders! And now I heartily look forward to having my name etched on the big black board at IMA office amongst the august list of esteemed past presidents of POS!
I wish Dr Mandar Paranjpe and his team all the best and I am sure they will take POS to greater heights.