A SAGAA SAGA OF OF INDIAN NEUROLOGY Reflections of Former Presidents Editor Dr. HV Srinivas INDIAN ACADEMY OF NEUROLOGY A SAGA OF INDIAN NEUROLOGY Reflections of Former Presidents Editor Dr. HV Srinivas Consultant Neurologist Sagar Hospital & Agadi Hospital Bangalore INDIAN ACADEMY OF NEUROLOGY i A SAGA OF INDIAN NEUROLOGY Reflections of Former Presidents A book of historical interest published on completion of 20 years of Indian Academy of Neurology and released at Pune Conference in September 2011 Copyright © 2011 by the Indian Academy of Neurology All rights reserved Printed by: Aditi Enterprises #18/5, 22nd Cross, Bhuvaneshwari Nagar, Magadi Road, Bangalore - 23 Email: [email protected] ii CONTENTS Page Preface ------------------------------------------------------------------------- v Foreword --------------------------------------------------------------------- ix President’s Message ------------------------------------------------------- xi Secretary’s Message ------------------------------------------------------ xiii Executive Committee (2010–2011) ------------------------------------ xiv Presidents - Indian Academy of Neurology ---------------------- xvii Presidents (Neurologists)-Neurological Society of India -------- xviii History of Indian Academy of Neurology ------------------------- xix Presidents of Indian Academy of Neurology Dr. J S Chopra --------------------------------------------------------- 1 Dr. Anupam Das Gupta -------------------------------------------- 6 Dr. K Rajasekharan Nair ------------------------------------------- 9 Dr. Zaheer Ahmed Sayeed---------------------------------------- 25 Dr. C U Velmurugendran ----------------------------------------- 28 Dr. G K Ahuja -------------------------------------------------------- 32 Dr. Devika Nag ------------------------------------------------------ 35 Dr. D Nagaraja ------------------------------------------------------- 44 Dr. S Venkataraman ------------------------------------------------ 48 Dr. S Prabhakar ------------------------------------------------------ 52 Dr. S M Katrak ------------------------------------------------------- 56 Dr. Ambar Chakravarty ------------------------------------------- 63 Dr. R S Wadia -------------------------------------------------------- 67 Dr. Madhuri Behari ------------------------------------------------- 71 Dr. H V Srinivas ----------------------------------------------------- 73 iii Dr. K Radhakrishnan ----------------------------------------------- 80 Dr. Ashok Panagariya ---------------------------------------------- 87 Dr. P Satishchandra - President Elect -------------------------- 92 Presidents (Neurologists) of Neurological Society of India Dr. T K Ghosh ------------------------------------------------------ 103 Dr. Menino De Souza -------------------------------------------- 114 Dr. E P Bharucha ------------------------------------------------- 117 Dr. Baldev Singh -------------------------------------------------- 122 Dr. N H Wadia ----------------------------------------------------- 127 Dr. Anil D Desai --------------------------------------------------- 144 Dr. K S Mani -------------------------------------------------------- 151 Dr. G Arjundas ----------------------------------------------------- 162 Dr. Vimala Virmani ----------------------------------------------- 175 Dr. K Jagannathan ------------------------------------------------ 180 Dr. S Janaki --------------------------------------------------------- 186 Dr. M Veera Raghava Reddy----------------------------------- 188 Dr. B S Singhal ----------------------------------------------------- 193 Dr. Shyamal Sen --------------------------------------------------- 198 Dr. K. Srinivasan--------------------------------------------------- 207 Dr. Gourie-Devi ---------------------------------------------------- 210 Dr. M C Maheshwari --------------------------------------------- 230 Other Information Fellows --------------------------------------------------------------- 235 Office Bearers ------------------------------------------------------ 237 Annual Conferences ---------------------------------------------- 238 Orations at Annual Conferences ------------------------------ 339 Executive Committee list–1992 to 2010 ---------------------- 243 Revised Constitution and Bye-laws -------------------------- 253 iv Preface he Indian Academy of Neurology (IAN) is twenty years T old. For an Association, twenty years is very young. In the last executive committee meeting of the Association, it was decided to celebrate the completion of the “teens of IAN” and to take stock of what we have achieved so far, what is being done and what should be done to improve the activities of the Academy. There will be a session dedicated to this topic during the forthcoming IANCON 2011 at Pune. I suggested that we should compile a book containing the biographies of all the Presidents of IAN and also of the neurologists who were Presidents of Neurological Society of India (NSI )—our parent body. The committee immediately agreed to this suggestion and put me in charge of the project. The Neurological Society of India was started in 1951 and neurologists, neurosurgeons and allied neuroscientists were members of this body. As the number of neurologists gradually increased, it was felt that the academic growth of neurology required a separate organization; this is how IAN was formed in 1991. Dr. Chopra has elaborated on this topic in his article on History of Indian Academy of Neurology. The IAN was started in 1992/93, and Dr. Krishnamoorthy Srinivas was the working committee President. In spite of my repeated requests, he declined to give his biographical write-up for this book. The growth of neurology as a discipline in our country is interesting and fascinating. We need to record its history and publish it for v future generations. The growth is not uniform, since India is a vast country with different cultures and people with varied socio- economic backgrounds. Some of the biographies chronicled here give glimpses of the struggle to establish a department of neurology and of the difficulties faced in convincing the rest of the medical fraternity of the need for a separate department. The biographies of the pioneers, in this book, speak of the efforts and the ground work done by them. The contributors to this volume come from different parts of the country; there are regional differences and the experiences and impressions too are different. The book also gives an insight into the honors, awards and achievements of our colleagues and senior members. Some biographies have been written with a personal touch, quoting interesting incidents from their personal life, apart from their academic careers. On reading some of these biographies, one gets a clear picture of sustained growth of the departments and the efforts which went into the process. It was indeed a huge task writing to so many people and repeatedly reminding them to keep to their commitment. Of course, the electronic mail greatly simplified the procedure. I had made a general suggestion of what the biography should contain, but several members had their own methods — some of them sending the material in a CV format and some being very brief as though submitted in a hurry! I had to again plead with them to revise the write up, a suggestion which, fortunately, they accepted gladly. Several phone calls, requesting them for some more necessary information, also met with a positive response. A few contributors wrote back asking whether they could exceed the word limit suggested; I had no problem about this. I do think, however, that, perhaps, if all the contributors had been able to give more of their time and their commitment to the task, we would have had an excellent account of the development of vi Neurosciences, which would have been appreciated by readers. There was also a question: who would write the biographies of those who were deceased. It took some time and effort to locate the right people for the job. The book is a compilation of biographies and provides an insight into the travails and tribulations of neurologists to establish the speciality of neurology in our country. The younger generation of neurologists, as well as future neurologists, will get a glimpse into the status of neurological sciences as it existed earlier. The book also includes a great deal of important information, spanning twenty long years: a list of office bearers over the years, places where conferences were held, list of several orations delivered, including the topics on which the oration was given and the names of Fellows of IAN. In a sense, it will be a ready reckoner, besides being of historical interest. My sincere thanks to all contributors for their willingness to share their experiences and to write about themselves. I also take this opportunity to thank those individuals who have prepared write- ups on those persons who are no more amidst us. I am extremely grateful to Dr. Rajasekharan Nair, with whom I had a fruitful discussion; I profited by his suggestions. Above all, he gave us permission to refer to his book in order to write some of the biographies, of course with due acknowledgement. I thank Dr. NH Wadia for readily agreeing to write a Foreword to this book. I must thank the President of IAN, Dr. Ashok Panagariya and Dr. Meshram, Honorary Secretary for their kind cooperation. My sincere thanks to Ms Meena Chandramohan, for copy-editing, Mr Mohan of Aditi Enterprises and Mrs Theresa Pinto for secretarial