MAMCOAANA

It is with a sense of great exhilaration and responsibility that I embark upon my tenure as the president of MAMCOAANA for the year 2015-2016. I am honored to serve my fellow Maulanians in this capacity.

It has been 24 years since I graduated from MAMC and 18 years since I came to the USA. It has been an exciting journey indeed. I have been associated with MAMCOAANA since the Boston Convention in the year 2010. Some of my batch mates were also visiting, and it was simply on a whim that I decided to attend. I am so glad that I made the trip! It was truly memorable; and, the warmth of conversations, sense of bonhomie and camaraderie anchored me firmly to the MAMCOAANA family forever.

As a president this year, my efforts would be to bring more Maulanians into the fold. We have a special life-membership drive going on until the end of this year at a discounted price to encourage people to join. We have seen tremendous success in the very first month, with more people having signed up than in any similar time frame in the past! Please keep it going: MAMCOAANA is an organization that represents each one of us: over 1800 proud graduates from MAMC in North America!

These are exciting times for MAMCOAANA. There are several new initiatives for the year. We now have in place a guest lecture series program with MAMC. MAMC journal was launched last year and there is a keen desire to have our members contribute to it. These are both excellent ways for us to give back to our Alma Mater and in a larger sense, to the medical education in India. In addition, we do hope to encourage some form of charitable/service related undertakings and hope to have some trips focused on these activities guided by MAMCOAANA in the future. The discussions are afoot with regards to involving our school and college-going children to participate in such activities. I would encourage you to please get involved in whatever form you wish.

I am immensely thankful to the entire Executive Committee of MAMCOAANA for volunteering countless hours of their precious time towards the association activities. It would be simply impossible to run this organization without their selfless dedication.

The recent convention in Houston under the leadership of Dr Randeep Suneja was fabulous! Randeep and Seema touched everyone’s hearts with their warmth and friendship. We are planning another unforgettable event in Minneapolis for all of you in July 2016. So, please join in… MAMCOAANA will be all the more strong with your support and participation.

Alok Maheshwari, MD

The 30th MAMCOAANA Convention was held in beautiful Toronto at the Downtown Marriot Eaton Centre (Center) from July 24 to July 27, 2014. Dr. Bharat Kalra and Anu Kalra organized the BEST MAMCOAANA so far. Not only were the food and entertainment world class, but the love and warmth that the Kalra family shared with us all was the true highlight of the convention.

Dr. Dinesh Choudhry, the CME Chair, did a fantastic job putting together a CME that was a great learning experience.

We all were fortunate to have the Dean of MAMC, Dr. Deepak Tempe & his wife, Dr. Anjali Tempe attend the convention. History was created and a new milestone was established, as this was the first MAMCOAANA convention in which the Dean attended the meeting. We had an excellent brainstorming session with Dr. Tempe. I truly believe this is a turning point for our organization as this will lead to a stronger and mutually beneficial relationship between MAMCOANNA & MAMC.

I would like to take the opportunity to now welcome and congratulate the President-elect 2014-2015, Dr. Tarang Sharma who has done a superb job as Secretary for many years. We look forward to her leadership as the President in the future. In addition to Dr. Sharma, we have an extremely dynamic team of leaders, which include Dr. Ashutosh Gupta, Dr. Bhushan Pandey, Dr. Vikas Khurana, Dr. Alok Maheshwari, Dr. Bharat Kalra, Dr. Bhupesh Kaul, Dr. Nikhil Goyal and Dr. Dinesh Choudhry. They all have been working tirelessly and I want to thank each one of them and all the other members who are contributing in their own way for MAMCOAANA.

As we embark on this new journey with stronger and better ties with our Alma mater, I want all of you to start preparing for our next MAMCOAANA Convention to be held in Houston, Texas from July 23 to July 26, 2015. We would love you all to land “Your Eagle” in the Space City next year.

With wonderful memories of MAMCOAANA Reunions over the years, and many more to be created,

Love,

Randeep Suneja, MD, FACC, FSCAI, FASNC, FACP, FCCP

MAMCOAANA’s 29th Annual Convention was held in the Big Apple this year. The events started off with a meet and greet, followed by a cruise, and ended with a gala dinner on a rooftop restaurant. Good food and even greater company of old and new friends all under the organization of Dr. I.P. Chhabra was memorable. Kudos to Dr.Inderpal Chhabra and his family for arranging such an exciting event.

Recently, I came to know of the untimely deaths of two of our fellow Maulanians, Dr. Shiv K. Patil and Dr. Rajinder Sippy. My family and I send our deepest condolences and wish their loved ones the best in this difficult time.

To our new members, we give a warm welcome and thank you for joining our MAMCOAANA community. My family and I have been in attendance for the past four years and enjoy coming back every time. Please do encourage your MAMC friends to join as life members. I’m sure they will enjoy the social gatherings and events we have.

At MAMCOAANA we are proud of the quality of our CME program. The committee is constantly striving to set a high standard. Every year the lectures are found to be engaging and informative by attendees. We would especially like to thank Dr. Dinesh Chaudry, our CME coordinator for a fantastic program. I would also like to welcome Dr. Randeep Suneja as the incoming president elect .

Thank you to the executive committee for giving me the opportunity to serve as the president of MAMCOANNA for year 2013 to 2014. I carry forward the tradition of our annual event and would like to invite you and your family to the MAMCOAANA 30th Annual Convention in 2014 to be held in Toronto, Canada from 24 July to 27 July 2014. We hope to put together an exciting program for you all to enjoy. Details of the program will follow.

I wish you all the best for the rest of 2013 and look forward to seeing you all in 2014.

‐ Dr. Bharat Bhushan Kalra

I still cannot believe that it has been 20 Years since I left MAMC for the United States. Like all of us, I too struggled to get through training. I terribly missed all good friends I spent 6 years of my prime youth with.

And then fortunately, came back to MAMCOAANA. It has been a great experience. Reconnecting with some old faces and some new, it was rejuvenating. Especially since now the relationship is more collegial.

Some of us got exposed to giving back at MAMC through the leadership of teachers such as Dr G.S.Sethi, a phenomenal pediatrician and humanitarian; and the National Service Scheme programs run by P&SM. department at MAMC. I saw an X ray machine at Tilak Vihar widow’s colony with the inscription “Donated by Nargis Dutt Foundation.” (www.nargisduttny.com). I am lucky to have been involved with them since 1996. This foundation has donated millions of dollars worth of equipment to various charitable institutions across India. It has also helped contribute towards natural calamity relief funds such as in Bhuj, Gujarat and Haiti.

I wish we could have such a structure in MAMCOAANA as well. I brought this idea up a few years back to my MAMC1986 yahoo group. There was a very mixed reaction. Some were apathetic, most were warm and then there were some who were very enthusiastic towards this program. The way we envisaged it was to raise a small to modest endowment, which sort of pays for itself through investments etc. My good friend, Anupam Sibal from Apollo Hospitals gave this brilliant idea of utilising these funds to encourage real and original research at MAMC. The idea was to institute an award to be provided to any student of MAMC who publishes an original article in a well known peer reviewed journal. I am looking forward to creating this through my class and would like to welcome the larger MAMCOAANA group to contribute and participate as well.

Looking forward, I and my family invite all of you and your families to spend a few days of your summer of 2013 with us in our hometown of Long Island, New York. In order to keep expenses reasonable, we are working on getting the best deals possible. Have a great rest of the year and a bright future.

– Inderpal Chhabra MD FACP