Being the treasurer of the reunion committee was not my choice, but I had to take it up for lack of volunteers. I am glad to report that we have a surplus of about Rs 50,000.
As David Byrne sang; And you may ask yourself... how did I get here?
As seen in the photos :
Credit - Rs 315475.48
Debit- Rs 251028.00
Balance- Rs 64447.48
I am waiting for 2 more cheques to clear , about 11,000.
We knew that we were working with a small budget for expenditure; about 50, 000, we thought at that time. I decided to look at the big picture. After discussing with the rest of the organising committee , we decided not cut back on any projects we thought were essential to the event. I also estimated that if the cost should overrun, it would be in the range of 10- 20,000 . I hoped to collect it at that time.
And many of you kindly donated Rs 500 or more on August 9th, 2009. Though in retrospect we didn't need the money, it gave me peace of mind while settling the bills. So thank you again.If any of you who paid Rs 500 or more on August 9th, 2009 would like a refund , please email me.
Now what do we do with the surplus. Please comment, on this issue. In the mean time I am going to set up the KMC reunion account and this will be managed by 3 of our classmates and transfer the surplus amount to the account. Any decision to spend will have to be approved by all three.
I would like to thank everyone for their help and support in this.
Prabhakar Devavaram.
Wow...prabhakar great news....
ReplyDeleteMay be we could increase this corpus fund to something substantial.. ...so that the interest could sponsor a deserving student at KMC (a girl student perhaps!!)
Suma
That's a wonderful idea Suma. I thought of on the same lines too.It would be some sort of giving back to where we came from.
ReplyDeleteBig things come out of small ideas Prabhakar!It should'nt matter if it is a girl or boy student,but she /he should be a financially deserving student. May be if this idea is acceptable to many,we should call for more donations, perhaps set up a non profit organization,so that we can have some tax benefits for the donations.
What do you think friends?
Dear Friends
ReplyDeleteI appreciate the work by prabhakar and his known transparency and dedication. Regarding the sponsor for deserving candidate is very good idea but before that i feel we have to do certain basic things such as registering ourselves as charity organisation etc., so i feel for the moment we can save the money and use it for future programmes during which time we can contribute to deserving candiate or KMC worker for their well being or set up ambulance services for free
Ravi
What about poor boys!! what have they done not to deserve it. You sexist women!!!. Can you buy us all a quarter next time at the reunion. We shall call it even.
ReplyDeleteNo offence meant-Charity is a very good thing. But may be you can keep some part of it for the next organiser to work with. Money is not always at hand when you start planning things. The organiser then doesnt have to shell out from his/her pocket before retrieving it. Something to think about
Hi Prabhakar,
ReplyDeletethe purpose of preparing the address book is to reach the unreached classmates of ours. Many of our classmates, especially those in India are still computer illiterates. (If u take a census of those visiting the blog or replying to your mails, they are mostly NRIs.) They might still not be able to benefit from the CD as hard copy is a ready reckoner for them. The purpose of contacting classmates at times of need becomes difficult for this group. Now that you have some fund, y dont u reconsider printing the address book and deliver to each and everyone whether they demand it or not. You can allot this job to the new organizing committee provided it is agreeable to many. this is my opinion and request on behalf of computer illiterates.
Priscilla.
dear priscilla
ReplyDeleteI am computer literate but have not received the CD yet. Can you send it to me through someone to UK.
Ravi
Ravi
ReplyDeleteI have posted your CD only today. Sorry for the delay. Can you let me know when you receive them. I still have 4 CDs if anyone else would like to have them.
Obviously, it will have to be sold at black market price. £200/ CD. Proceeds will go towards Zen Pen's Dharma ADi Fund.
Raghu
Hi everyone,
ReplyDeleteI will try to comment on views expressed. Suma and Premalatha have expressed a good option. But we have to plan, so that its a yearly award , maybe alternate with a girl and a boy student. We also have to setup a committee which will review such applications and choose every year. Since Viswanathan has a working relationship with the Dean , we can start with a meeting and see if this is feasible.
During the reunion there was also talk of having a charitable arm to our group. We need to explore this more.As Ravi mentioned this involves setting up a charitable organisation etc. I have some contacts and can look into this .
Priscilla suggested an address book , since most of our Indian colleagues use computer infrequently.Yes most of the comments are from NRI's , but if you look at followers of the blog , Indian docs are about 40%. I think participation matters. Even if people are not familiar with computers , I am confident that their children certainly are. Also the ability to get connected in India is very easy. To create an address book its about 600 per book and with a minimum order for 100; we will face a 10,000 rupees deficit. Collecting funds again will be time consuming.
Having said all this I am only the negotiator , not the decision maker. Our class of KMC decides.
Prabhakar,I fully agree with you about net connectivity in India, I certainly wouldn't call them computer illiterate. I think it is the general willingness to blog that matters. Even among the NRIs of our class, probably only about 30- 40% seem to be blogging. I think our Indian friends work much harder than we do!May be a good project for our 'Excel spreadsheet queen' Banu to come up with the exact percentage of bloggers in each country????
ReplyDeleteSponsoring deserving candidates & having a charitable arm are both excellent ideas but like you said both need meticulous planning.
Raghu, would you please leave Zen pen alone, the guy issued a genuine apology & lets leave it at that & move on!
Kalyani
Hi Prabakar,
ReplyDeleteForget about the adress book.
As Suma said we can try to increase the corpus fund,there are are lot of things we can do.
Think beyond KMC.First in the place let us register the organisation .Names for the same &suggesstions for charitable work are most welcome
Dey Raghuram,i enjoy all your comments,inc.previous one,What happened to your beloved friend BUFFALOWWW!!!!Any news about NAGA
Dear Raghu, Prabhakar, Priscilla
ReplyDeleteI received the the CD today and quickly gone through it. Great work. Who ever involvd hats off. i have to go through it several times to see details and changes. it is a Pokkisham(treasure).
Ravi
Kalyani
ReplyDeleteChill out, have you heard of Poke your friend in face book? This is exactly how you do it? We have to work to get Zen Pen back in action and DAF will go a long way in doing so.
Zen Pen
No offence meant, Please come back in action.
Regards
Raghu
Dear All,
ReplyDeleteAs for the Indian side (since no representation other than the visible organizeders!) may I request who are the other two deciding authority?
May I point out that Rs.50,000/= is about Rs.5000/= only when it comes to spend; even in those days (1980s) my mess bill used to come around Rs.5000/= per year (though I'm a vegie)!
You can kindly calculate about the fee (for any - saappaadu or padippu) now after 2 decades.
So, when it comes to 'care taking' of something or someone by leftovers of reminisce 2009 we may need more funds! As already pointed out it wont be enough even for a book for all of us!
May I suggest a yearly payment towards anything (which will be decided latter) for and by all of us without fixing any upper limit but with a lower limit?
Kannan (again!)
I agree with Kannan. Though our intentions are noble , I think we are being a tad overzealous. Sponsoring a student is going to take a whole of dough , and it needs a commitment from all of us, for a period of time. And then, we have to decide who wants to take up the cudgels and be the treasurer, to make sure the money makes it into the coffers yearly.
ReplyDeleteAnd Raghuram, Kalyani is right, I dont think tough love is going to work with Zen Pen. I think he is going to shy away from the blog, unless he ventures out with another pseudonym.
Ramzan
Friends,
ReplyDeleteI am truly excited about the response from you all.
Seems like a lot of us,the bloggers, are in favour of the idea of a charity fund to help those in need.
Would like more input from those who are not regular bloggers and those who don't blog at all but do occasionally peep into the blog.So please show if you are interested. We have to spread the word and see what their interest is.
I am already dreaming of the big picture, wherein, we, the KMC Alumni of the 84-89 batch, can give back to the community on an ongoing basis.
To begin with, let us wait for a few more days to see the response from our other friends,and once we have a substantial number of people to get involved, we can start the project full fledged.
In the meantime,may I suggest,we can dig into how to start the charity organisation,and set up the Account in a suitable name so that we can send in the funds. Prabhakar,would you please find the appropriate help in this?
Friends in India, Call for Action > Please get involved.
In all we are 25 friends in US and 15 of us in UK.40 in all. Even if a 50% of us get involved initially, with a starting contribution of a $100 each minimum, we will have a working fund of an additonal $2000 ( Rs96000 )atleast.And ofcourse a lot of our friends in India can open up their hearts, and we, together can grow the funds.Just a suggestion. There is no limit.
Major thing to look into this ,we need an ongoing commitment from a bunch of our friends in India to oversee these operations. But I see this as such a wonderful oppurtunity for them to get involved in this, as nothing but Charity can bring so much peace and happiness to our souls.And ofcourse,those who benifit from our charity will forever bless all of us.
Hope it grows from here!!!
Regards to you all.
Dear Ramzan, Let us not conclude as being overzealous already.Because if the funds are not sufficient initially for a full scholarship, it can be in many small ways like sponsoring for just the fees or books or boarding and loadging- in small ways you know.... Something is better than nothing. I hope you agree.
ReplyDeleteThe balance sheet is just a beginning of a continuum.
ReplyDeleteI was surprised to see the amount left,coz I thought the slate was clean!
Spending it now would be a trifle unwise.
Can we put it in a term deposit for now?
Voluntary contributions can still be entertained(esp. if tax exempt!)
A trip to orphanage ,to celebrate with the kids and gift them goodies..or
to an old age home , will fit into this budget and it brings joy unspeakable.
Hey guys, here are my thoughts on this issue.
ReplyDelete(1)Address book is not a good idea at this point. A few more updates are to be done on that CD, plus, closer to 15+ of our batchmates are still "lost" and have to be found - which should still be one of our priorities.
I am working on putting together everyone's personal and professional information along with past & present pictures in a format, which could easily be sent to everyone by internet.
(2)Charity, I believe, is definitely the way to go. We need to set up an organization first. Since, some of us call ourselves the '89 batch' and the others want to go with '84 batch', the name should include "KMC 1984-1989" to keep both the parties happy. Awards to students, and, setting up a committee to review those applications etc. annually...will be a lot of work! I am not sure if we should take that route. I also feel that our ultimate scope should extend beyond KMC.
(3)I met with Kanagasabai(current KMC Dean) personally before leaving Chennai. He took me around KMC hospital and hostel and shared the sorry state of affairs with me. He seemed really interested in working with us, should we decide to have a project on improving KMC in any way. Kala Achan's husband Suresh suggested repainting all of KMC externally, to give it a new and improved look. I forget the exact numbers that the Dean quoted but, it didn't seem to be beyond our reach. I will soon post some of the KMCH building pictures that I took in August.
(3)Like many of you have pointed out, we can give back so much to our mother community on an ongoing basis. We just need to gather everyone's ideas and come up with something solid and unanimous.
(4)I think I know who Zen Pen is. I see shades of many of the things that were discussed with me at the reunion by someone, in Zen Pen's writing. So, if you read this Zen Pen, (I hope you do) please return to the blog...just leave behind all the negativity!! Come to our world, which is full of Roses and Godiva!!
Banu.
Dear all
ReplyDeleteI am excited by everyone's response and most of us have similar thoughts of contributing back to the community where we spent our early years.
I feel we need to do something for the poor patients who use KMC and Royapettah hospital for their treatment. Most of us learnt our clinical skill from them when we were medical students and House surgeons. We never had appreciated their role in our learning and professional sucess when we were young.
We will not be able to do any major changes to their treatment but simple things like having proper stretcher or water fountain with clean drinking water etc will make their life slightly easier.
Premalatha, thanks for your enthusiasm, I also accept that we should start contributing voluntarily towards a fund whic will enable us to do something back to KMC. We should not delay this but start the process by end of this year.
Prabhakar thanks for providing the accounts and your hard work towards the reunion.
Prem
Guys looks like there is plenty of action on our blog ( just been engrossed in my work after a few weeks of hard partying in India ) - and also good to have a healthy bank balance out of the reunion .
ReplyDeleteI would suggest we select a poor patient who has got a organ confined curable cancer and sponsor his operation and post operative care ( I can understand how costly treatment for cancer can be in India , having lost my Dad few years a go )
If at least one patient's life is saved it would make our recent(KMC DOCTORS) reunion meningful.
mathi
Here are my thoughts.
ReplyDeleteSponsoring a student is good. But why not adopt a ward in KMC. Let us take say Paediatric ward(my bias) and take only one aspect of it as a pilot project.- say cleanliness. We can come up with what needs to be done - infrastructure, education etc.. and have a small project group to execute the plan. Based on the enthusiasm e can have multiple projects. This needs ppl living locally taking up the lead. We can work on the lines of ASHA org...
Deciding on a charitable course is always difficult as one needs to sacrifice another good cause which might seem to be crying out for more.
ReplyDeleteMy Dept. that always moved me to tears and still has the potential is the Labour ward. I am talking about the new-born who were left open for hours exposed to mosquitoes, covered only by a gunny sack. I am sure this carries on.
If we were able to change this in some way, then it would be a great start to these poor children- It might be along the lines of sponsoring a ward.
In any case I can see the fund being split into 2 or 3 parts.To help the ward, to help a student and perhaps one bit to kick start future re-union as raghu says.
Sorry.. I forgot to add.
ReplyDeleteThis is a true story.
One rainy evening, Prabhakar couldn't get out of rainy hospital. Our meeting was cancelled !
He desperately needs a new Scooter. So let's not forget the Scooter fund !!
I agree with you Vinod, Simple things like getting appropriate neonatal resuscitation equipment which will not be very expensive or radiant warmer etc.
ReplyDeleteWe could use proportion of the fund for next reunion. Banu has done a wonderful job to find out the needs of KMC from the dean. It is worth involving the some of our batch mates who are working in KMC as assistant/associate professore should be able to guide us about the real needs. RK ShivaKumar, Viswa, Paranthaman and Shanthi sorry if I have missed anyone work in KMC/Royapettah hospital. Please give your views.
Regards
prem
1.In addition to these, we can consider donating all the books that are lying in your study rooms gathering dust. (it does look great to pretend that we are constantly using it but the dust around them gives it all away).
ReplyDelete2.Used journals that we subscribe to is another thing we can donate. These can go to the library. Any audio visual aids can also be sent in the same way. (By the by do not send all the X-rated magazines that are hiding under the good ones- Send them to me personally!!!)
3. Used equipments, monitors, from hospitals that are post expiry are usually thrown away. We can collect them to be donated to KMC. I for one gave my department stuff for Pakistan Relief fund during the earth quake disaster. Enquiring with the estates department of your hospitals will get you this information easily.
To channel all donation, we should form a committee to co-ordinate these. Personally, I wouldnt donate anything as money to the hospital or the College since they tend to go walkabout into the deep pockets of greedy officials.
If there are any such collections from UK and US, we can look for volunteers to collect and pass them on to our Co-ordinator in Chennai. It works out cheaper to collect them all and post them in one go rather than individually sending them.
It is also very important to keep a record of the work that we are about to do for KMC and the Hospital.
For the Rs.50,000 that we have currently, (for which we are all making mega plans), it will only fund us for a boys night out under Sangam Theatre Bridge!!!!(strip club and dirty dancing). So get a move on guys/gals. We need more money and "I see Dead People".
I may not be corresponding on the blog for sometime (due to Dr.Shipman like activities in ICU). However, I agree to a consensus plan put forward by learned friends and will participate to my full ability. So please count me in on this charitable cause.
Raghu
Yup! This money is hardly enough for all the plans. PLUS
ReplyDeleteIt's not easy to deliver on the ground everything planned in a transparent and consistent fashion.
Keeping it simple might help. For eg. - one device purchased for the new born - It may just be nets, incubator or even clean baskets for the babies. It could be donated once funds ear-marked for this reaches a target - I think it'll work.
One A/C is set up and people could deposit into this fund . It will need 2 or 3 signatories to withdraw. That way it'll remain safe and transparent.
Donating the chosen device could take place when we meet next time. We'll probably need this much time to organise properly.
Hi guys,
ReplyDeleteI still feel a one off donation esp of equipment here and there may merely be of only tokenism. Instead we should try and adopt a ward. A small ward. Take one aspect of its functioning each year and work on it. If we put in some effort and look at what we want to effect so we can study our efforts and show tangible results then we'll be emboldened to do more...
Adopting gives a ownership for us and our collective thoughts could be put into improving patient experience....
We all know that merely donating equipments will not meet our goals, it has to be maintained, ppl have to be trained to use it etc-
That makes me ask the question- we must have a concise mission and vision statements of what we want to do. That will guide our way through....
If we adopt and show the way, may be other batches will follow and adopt other wards.. that'll be good for the hospital and for the patients....
I think we have some great ideas generated thro the blog. A few of us met last sunday to talk and will try to put all our ideas in a way that will work on the core principles in the next blog.
ReplyDeletePrabhakar
Hey guys & girls,
ReplyDeleteWhy this Hypobloggemia/ Abloggemia??
Kalyani
Hi Kalyani,
ReplyDeleteI like the cute new nomenclature!!!
Dear All!
ReplyDeleteIt is very interesting to note that some of us still regard KMC as our own! Let me remind you, it is a Government property! There are paid (salaried) care takers for all those things for which you felt as ‘need care’! Moreover there are these claws of politics which are already plunged too deep! Disturbing them might cause what, only God knows!
Let me point out at this juncture that we were not the only ones who had a reunion lately! If I am correct our immediate seniors too have a reunion someday during September this year! If you search in any browser with words like ‘kmc’, ‘reunion’, ‘yyyy’ etc., you can find similar blogs like us with similar impressions like us too.
So, by joining similar interested batch mates of KMC, say, ‘old students association of KMC, if it doesn’t exist already, we can make a room for ourselves permanently at KMC with staff working round the clock for the progress of KMC as we dream!
Next, if we are planning for a philanthropic activity for the society, there are plenty of organizations working for that aim methodologically. If I must suggest one, please find an organization named ‘vezhicham’ which is powered with multi national youngsters involved actively to help the deserving but poor students to complete their professional courses in Tamil Nadu to be specific but in other parts of India as well. Our Treasurer is already introduced to them by me.
My point of view is that, as we are already serving the community of earth at one part or the other, we may drag and involve other organizations which we consider as trust worthy so as to not to cause much trouble to our already over burdened batch mates for our cause of doing good to the humanity!
Kannan