BIOQUIZ 2015

Posted On April 12, 2015 By Shubhangi Tambwekar In Aditi /   No Comments

BIOQUIZ 2015 was organized by The Department of Biochemistry, Goa Medical College on 19th March 2015.

Dr Chitra Dhume, HOD, Department of Biochemistry, along with her team did an excellent job conducting the quiz.

As a part of the ADITI Scheme, The Arundhati Foundation sponsored Robbins Textbooks as prizes.

The recepients of these prizes were Mr Amogh Nishikant Prabhu and Mr Adithya Kamath.

Dr Ramesh Anant Dhume, Dr . Arundhati’s grandfather and Ex Professor of Physiology, Goa Medical College, presided over the function and gave away the prizes on behalf of the foundation.

We, at The Arundhati Foundation are grateful to Dr Chitra Dhume and her team for graciously helping us out in this endeavour.

The winners

The winners

The winners

The winners

Dr Ramesh Dhume felicitating the winner.

Dr Ramesh Dhume felicitating the winner.

Dr Chitra Dhume with her team.

Dr Chitra Dhume with her team.

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Shilpa Shree’s tribute to Aru

Posted On March 22, 2015 By Shubhangi Tambwekar In Arundhati /   No Comments

Shilpa Shree is a Mumbai-based writer. She has considerable experience writing for leading business dailies like the Financial Express, the Mint from Hindustan Times Media, the Financial Chronicle and the Economic Times, covering telecom, IT, real estate and infrastructure sectors. She has also provided writing services to educational firms, financial and infrastructure portals and a few leading magazines in India. She has experience of managing social media content and content for a few companies. She is enterprising and always looking for new adventures, the current one being to run a company while managing her two little imps. She would have been Aru’s sister in law.

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Aru – An inspiration for life

She had a small built, but had a large heart. We have all known her generosity. People who have known her told me about her poetic talents and her mom told me that she was an accomplished dancer. All this, she achieved while wanting to study medicine, a course that all of us shy away due to the struggle one has to go through while doing it. She not only gained an MBBS degree, but excelled in it.

That is Aru, a fiancé to my bro in law, a wonderful daughter to her parents and her would be in laws, a good friend to her sister in law and me and above all a wonderful human, someone who could be an inspiration and role model to many.

I remember every conversation with her. She wanted to know how my sons were doing, considering the fact that they fell ill frequently. She would get into the line of treatments my pediatrician had suggested and explained why it was being followed so. She loved them and made it a point to meet them and spend time with them at every available opportunity. I used to wonder, how someone with such a busy schedule could make time for an extended family member. I think she had the will and found the way.

A bad road killed her. But her parents keep her alive, in a way that they have turned to be an amazing inspiration to a lot of us. Despite the loss, they rose, gave away an award for Excellence in Pathology to Dr Eliza Koshy. Dr Eliza is a mother who studied and excelled in the postgraduate studies at CMC, Vellore. She went through the perils of this course during her second pregnancy and with young a son in hand. She deserves a standing ovation and it is admirable the Mr and Mrs Tambwekar (who have fondly become aaie and baba to me) could identify such a wonderful awardee despite being clouded in irreparable loss and grief.

My mother always tells me that someone who passes away do not really go away. They live in many ways. I am not sure if this is the way we come to terms with our loss. I loved my grandpa and I still pine for his loss. But many a times I feel his presence.  I feel he is around me, watching me while I do mundane chores on a daily basis.

The last time I met Aru, she spent the entire day with my younger son. Oh, I could see her fondness for him. She did not let go of him. He enjoyed her company too. He sat with her throughout the day, despite him going through a phase of stranger anxiety.  Sometimes I wonder if Aru is around him?

Are you watching Golu Aru? Be around him. Protect him, like my grandpa does to me. You will be missed dearly. Your death has created havoc in two families (only the degree varies). Be with them as they tread the path  ahead.

 

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Poetic Feelings

Posted On March 15, 2015 By Shubhangi Tambwekar In Arundhati /   No Comments

 

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Cambridge Road Spot-Fix

Posted On March 15, 2015 By Shubhangi Tambwekar In Vikram /   No Comments

14 Feb 2015 : Valentine’s day with a difference.

The residents of Wings, Cambridge Road, took on the task of making the neighbourhood clean. Little tots and senior folks all worked to clean the street, to remove debris from the footpaths, to paint the kerbstones. We moved down to the spot near Hopcoms on Cambridge road, and cleaned up the garbage dump there. The wall was also painted.

Thanks to all those who joined us in the effort :

  • the Ugly Indian for guiding us in the process and helping us with the Tere Bins that were installed.
  • the shopkeepers along the street who have taken interest in keeping the road clean
  • the residents of Ranka court who joined in with great enthusiasm
  • Corporator Goutham Kumar who provided us great support and also organised the cleanup of the debris on the footpath

Here are a few before-and-after pics.

BeforeFix                                AfterFix

 

Its been one month since then ….

the small Tere Bins have made a difference. We need a couple of more bins in this stretch, and we will get them fixed soon. The spot near Hopcoms is clean during part of the day, but invariably gathers garbage later in the day. We never assumed that our spot-fix would be a permanent solution. It has made a difference, but we have to continue, we have to fine tune, or find alternative solutions.

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Dr. Eliza Koshy receives the first Dr Arundhati Tambwekar Award

Posted On March 15, 2015 By Shubhangi Tambwekar In Aabha /   1 Comment

On 10 Nov 2014,  at the Convocation Ceremony, the Christian Medical College, Vellore, formally announced the introduction of  Dr. Arundhati Tambwekar Award for Excellence in Pathology.

Dear Drs Joy Mammen, Sukesh Nair and Dolly Daniel : Thank you so very much for making the Dr. Arundhati Tambwekar Excellence in Pathology gold medal a reality. We, the family of Arundhati shall never forget your kind gesture.  Thank you for making a place for her in your hearts. She has joined CMC and me in a strange way and your Department seems now to be a part of my family.

 

The first receipient is Dr. Eliza Koshy. Keep the passion and pursue excellence in your chosen field!

DSC03998

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Take a PLEDGE to Drive Safely

Posted On March 15, 2015 By Shubhangi Tambwekar In Vikram /   No Comments

 

Let us all take a pledge to do what we can to improve road safety :

I will always wear a helmet when driving a two-wheeler

I will protect my pillion rider by getting him/her a helmet

I will NEVER drink and drive

If I drink, I will NOT drive

If I need to answer or make a call, I will STOP

I will give pedestrians the first right of way

I will not allow my underage children to drive

I WILL OBEY TRAFFIC RULES

I will teach my children and friends the above

 

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Our Inspiration

Posted On March 14, 2015 By Sanjay Tambwekar In Foundation /   No Comments

My daughter Arundhati, was every thing any mother could have wished for. She was beautiful inside and out, hardworking, gentle, intelligent. She was a wonderful Bharathnatyam dancer and a sensitive poet. She was a giving person who would go out of her way to help others, generous to a fault, she put others before self.

Aru

If I were to describe my daughter in a word , it would be, ‘divine‘!  If I would describe how she treated everything from studies to art, to relationships in one word , it would be ‘passion‘.

When she set her goal on something, she would give it her all…no mater what obstacles crossed her path, she would surmount them.

She was a dedicated student an avid reader and an accomplished dancer. She was her house captain and a leader who lead from the front.She graduated from National Public School in 2008. I was dead against her joining medicine and wanted her to take up Life Sciences from Birla institute of Technology which she had aced. I wanted her to enjoy life and be able to devote time to things that she loved doing like writing, reading and Art. Which is not something one can do when one steps into the portals of Medical Studies and work. However, ever since she was a little girl, she would play with my stethoscope and wanted to be a doctor..Needless to say, once she set her heart on the goal, she gave it her all. She got into Sri Devaraj Urs Medical College where she joined on the 4th of August 2008.

Her 5 and 1/2 years at Sri Devaraj Urs Medical college, taught her a lot besides medicine. She did not enjoy all her years there but she remained grateful to the college for the knowledge and the special friends she made there. But most importantly, because, she met her best friend and the love of her life there. A childhood acquaintance to start with, friendship bloomed and turned into something much more deeper leading to a relationship of the soul.

She graduated in March 2014 topping in 11 of the 14 subjects in MBBS and  graduating at the top of her class.
She also managed to get into CMC Vellore for a Diploma in Clinical Pathology. Joining Vellore was a dream come true, Vellore being the top institute in the country and most importantly , for her, because her fiancé also had got into the MD pathology program. We, her elders were thrilled that our children had reached there with hard work and grit.

During her brief stint at CMC, she worked hard and I was amazed at how good and well she had started picking and learning the subjects. She was loved by the students she tutored. The seniors who came in touch with and her teachers who told us how good she was, unfortunately, after her death.

Her marriage was planned for the 15/5/15 a date she chose.

Unfortunately for us, we lost our wonderful child to a freak accident on a badly managed road in Vellore on the 9th of September 2014.   A beautiful life cruelly brought to a halt by a bad road…

Life without our daughter Arundhati is meaningless and empty to us. Crying will never get her back to us. We, her parents, have embarked on a journey to carry forward Arundhati’s unfinished work here on earth.

Thus on 27 th of December 2014, was born The Arundhati Foundation, a non-profit trust. The foundation  has embarked on a journey to keep our daughter’s passions alive not only in memory but also in deed. We have undertaken 4 programmes as of now:

  • Aabha: pursuit in excellence in pathology in the form of a gold medal, The Dr. Arundhati Tambwekar award for Excellence in Pathology to be conferred on the graduate from CMC who scores the highest marks at the MGR university in DCP, MD in Immunohematology and Transfusion Medicine, and MD in General Pathology.
  • Dhwani: sponsoring one hearing impaired person with a hearing aid. Rajan hearing clinic is our partner sponsoring 20% of the cost of the aid
  • Vikram: an endeavor for road safety and civic responsibility. We are also partnering with Savelife foundation in this regard.
  • Aditi: helping financially deprived girl students doing undergraduate medical studies with pathology books

 

This journey has just begun …in death, as in life, my daughter continues to me my inspiration and pride.

 

One of Aru’s favourite quotes

My candle is lit on both ends

It will not last the night

But oh my foes, and ah my friends

It gives a lovely light                                          …… Edna St. Vincent Millay

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