Dr Chandrakant Umakant Patil
“Dr Chandrakant Umakant patil was one of the team members of DFY’s first humanitarian relief work during Bihar floods in 2008-09. We lost him on 21st September 2008 due to lightening while on field.”
Chandrakant was a small town boy with extra-ordinary determination and dedication, who was inspired by the idea that every small contribution counts. Through his immeasurable and ultimate sacrifice, he has left an indelible impression on the people who knew him. Born in a small village called Saturkhe in the Nandurbar district of Maharashtra, he had humble origins. His father worked in a textile mill and mother was a housewife. The family had to move to several different villages and towns of state due to transferable nature of his father’s job. His childhood is speckled with illustrations of determination to learn and excel in the face of all odds. For instance, most of his schools were located at distances of several kilometers away and the path to them was punctuated with jungles and sewers. Young Chandrakant was not daunted by these obstacles and continued his education one way or the other. Unfortunately, at one point (Sakharkheda village, Buldhana district), the school was so far away from the family’s dwelling that he had to miss school for two years! For most other kids of his age this would have marked the end of education forever. But Chandrakant was made of a different mettle. As soon as the family moved to a different town (Pusad taluka in district Yavatmal), he was enrolled again in the school. Not that the school was no closer to their dwelling this time – it was a good 5 kilometers away with around 1 kilometer of the path being a veritable jungle.
It was just that the family thought that Chandrakant, who was 6 by this time, was old enough to make his way to the far-off school this time! So eager was Chandrakant to make up for his lost education and so impressive he was in his scholastic performance in this new school that his teachers asked him to appear for the combined exam of standards II and III! He did so and came out with flying colors. Thus, he managed to partially make up for the years that he had to lose earlier.
However, to his dismay, the family had to move again to a different town (Khurajgaon village in the Saoner taluka of district Nagpur. This place was much bigger and more modern as compared to the other places where the family had stayed. In the school, Chandrakant had to make many adjustments. Incidentally, he found his knowledge inadequate as compared to some students in the school who were used to the advanced curriculum. At one point, the disparity and the efficacy became so overwhelming that these teachers requested his parents to consider enrolling him in one of the lower standards to given sufficient time to cope-up with the curriculum. However, the manner in which the family tackled the situation is a case in point. His father wanted him to get another chance. He asked the school authorities to grant him a time of just 7 days to tackle the inadequacies. He promised that if they did not find him up to the mark at the end of day 7 then he would voluntarily enroll him in standard 1! Chandrakant was profoundly influenced by this episode and by the self belief of his father. Together, they managed to put up a performance that satisfied the school authorities.
Chandrakant learnt a great lesson from the episode. His father specifically advised him that he had all the potential and therefore, he should not consider himself lesser than others in the class. After that, there was no looking back for this young man of simple yearnings. Subsequently, he went on to secure distinctions in every subject that he studied in the school. In fact, he switched to English medium school and excelled there as well. He narrowly missed the merit list of standard 10th board exams. However, he more than made up for it by securing rank 15 in the merit list of standard 12th board exams. The icing on the cake was the first rank that he secured in the medical entrance test. He completed his medical school from BJ Medical College, Pune and graduated with first class marks.
After completing medical school and a rigorous internship at Dhule, Chandrakant join the post of a medical officer and served the poor at the Kalambhir primary health center. For further training, he secured admission into his dream course in the Department of Preventive & Social Medicine at the Seth GS Medical College & KEM hospital, the twin institutions which are often rated as the Mecca of medical education. During the second year of his course, he came in touch with Ravikant Singh, who was senior to him in the department. When Ravikant decided to take a plunge towards helping the flood- sticken populace of Bihar, Chandrakant was the first doctor who pledged unequivocal. support notwithstanding the circumstances that were heavily stacked against them. This is notable since for most other medicos completing the chosen specialty of medicine often takes precedence over almost everything else in the world. On the other hand, here was a man who had swum against the tide to reach his destination and yet did not hesitate to sacrifice it all for the welfare of his brethren.
True to his words, Chandrakant took the lead in mobilizing support and manpower for the flood relief operation. In fact, he was part of the first team that set sail for the uncharted territory. In Bihar, Chandrakant went about his task like a possessed man. He extended medical relief to hundreds of patients at a relief camp at Kataiya, Supaul supported by noted filmmaker Mr. Prakash Jha. However, as they say, God takes soonest those he love the best. On the fateful night of September 21, 2008, at around 10.30 PM, Chandrakant was out in the open along with his colleagues after a hard day’s work. There he was struck by lightning and suffered severe burns and ultimately succumbed to them.
Without doubt, it marked the most poignant day in the history of DFY. It will not be too much to say that it was a water-shed in the history of the organization. The fact that one of the members had become a martyr in the struggle for the cause further galvanized others into working towards the mission with renewed zest and enthusiasm. And rest, as they say, is history. In recognition of his incomparable and selfless sacrifice, we the members of DFY salute him and regard him as our guiding angel. It will be a fitting tribute to Dr. Chandrakant Patil if we can accomplish the work that he had started – if not in the same measure then at least in the same spirit.
Dr. Dwarkanath Kotnis
Dr. Dwarkanath Kotnis was one of the five physicians dispatched to China to provide medical assistance during the second Sino-Japanese war. Widely revered for his exemplary dedication and perseverance, he is till date remembered as the champion icon of Sino-Indian friendship and collaboration in times good and bad.
Dwarkanath was born to a lower middle class family with two brothers and five sisters, in Solapur district of Maharashtra, and studied medicine at the Seth G. S. Medical College, University of Mumbai. In 1938, a medical team of five doctors was dispatched by the Indian Medical Mission Team to China. Only 28 at that time, he was selected as one of the youngest member of the team. The team sans Dr. Kotnis returned to India safely. He stayed there for 5-yrs working incessantly in mobile clinics to treat wounded soldiers. Taking due cognizance of his self-less service and commitment, he was soon made the director of Dr. Bethune International Peace Hospital. Subsequently, he joined the Mao Zedong’s Eighth Route Army at the Jin-Cha-Ji border near the Wutai Mountain Area, armed with nothing but big plans to serve the wounded brave warriors. As a front-line doctor, he often had to work for up to 72-hours at a stretch. During his stint with the army, Dr. Kotnis provided medical aid to thousands of soldiers and conducted more than 800 major operations.
However, the hardships of suppressed military life finally started to take its toll on him. As they say, whom the Gods love, die young. On December 9, 1942, at the age of just 32 years, he died of epilepsy. He was buried in the Heroes Courtyard in Nanquan Village with very high honors. At that time, none other than the eminent Mao Zedong mourned his death by observing that "The army has lost a helping hand, the nation has lost a friend. Let us always bear in mind his internationalist spirit." His legacy has been immortalized in the Chinese history. In the Northern Chinese province of Hebei, in Shijiazhuang city, a famous attraction is the Martyr’s Memorial park. The north and south sides of the park are dedicated to the veterans of the Korean and the Japanese wars. The west side is dedicated to Norman Bethune, a Canadian who fought for the Chinese, and the South side to Dr Kotnis. There is a great statue in his honor. A small museum there has a handbook of vocabulary that Kotnis wrote on his passage from India to China; some of the instruments that the surgeons used in their medical fight for life, and various photos of the doctors, some with the Communist Party of China’s most influential figures, including Mao.
The influence of this young man on the contemporary generations can be gauged by the number of masterpieces that have been created in his memory. He has been immortalized in the acclaimed 1946 V. Shantaram movie - Dr Kotnis ki Amar Kahani. China, too, had its own dedication to Dr Kotnis in the form of 1982 movie Dr D.S. Kotnis. There is also a best-selling biographical novel by K.A. Abbas - And One Did Not Come Back (1945). In 1982, China released two postal stamps on the 40th anniversary of the doctor’s death. In 1992, on his 50th anniversary, the Chinese Government did an encore. In 1993, the Indian Government followed suit by releasing a stamp showing him conducting a surgery.
He is such a towering and respected figure in China that every Chinese Premier who visits India makes it a point to pay the nation’s respects to Dr. Kotnis’ relatives. They include Zhou En Lai in (1954), Jiang Zemin (1996), Li Peng in 2001 and Zhu Rongji (2002). On his recent visit, the President Hu Jintao met Dr. Kotnis’s relatives, including his two surviving sisters, and remembered him as "a bridge between China and India”.
His life is perhaps best recapitulated in Mackey's lines:
"The smallest effort is not lost,
Each wavelet on the ocean tossed,
Aids in the ebb tide or the flow.
Each raindrop makes some floweret glow,
Each struggle lessens human woe."
Long live the legacies of Dr. Dwarkanath Kotnis!
We at DFY wish to perpetuate Dr. Kotnis’s selfless work and his yeoman service to humanity, if not in the same measure, then at least in the same spirit.
