Dr. Walia, Hon’ble Minister of Finance, Delhi, Guest of honour Prof. Dr. N.K. Ganguly, Diector General-ICMR, Dr. Sama, Chairman, Board of Management, SGRH, Dr. Mahajan, Chairman, Academics & Research, SGRH, Dr. Nundy, Ashi Bhabhi, Gyan Burman fellows,  and distinguished guests.

It is indeed a great privilege for me to welcome you all to the First Fellowship Dinner for the Gyan Burman Liver Surgery Unit.

I shall say a few words about Gyan  and the setting up of the Liver Unit.

Gyan  was my elder brother and a part of the Burman family which owns a substantial part of Dabur India Limited. Some information about him is in the Souvenir you already have.

From the years 1951 to 1959 he attended boarding school  at St. Paul’s, Darjeeling, and after obtaining his GCSE (O) level certificate, he attended the Phildelphia College of Pharmacy and Science in the US.  On his return, after obtaining his B Pharm, he joined the family business in 1964

Gyan quickly took charge of manufacturing at the Dabur Factory in  Garia Calcutta,  from his uncle late P.C. Burman, while his cousin  Vivek  looked after the sales.

On account of the major industrial unrest in West Bengal between 1967-1970, Gyan came to Delhi in 1970 and set up the Production facilities for Dabur India in Faridabad and later Sahibabad.

For the next 30 years he led the transformation of  production in  Dabur India to very modern, state of the art factories in Nepal, Baddi-HP, Egypt and  Dubai.

It was the  brilliant team work between his cousin Vivek  who looked after sales and Gyan which laid the foundation of  the vibrant and forward looking company Dabur is today.

As a man Gyan was   was highly disciplined  and would invariably be at the factory at 8.30 in the morning. It did not matter what time he went to bed and how important his social obligations were, his work was workship. He was completely focused and took a trip abroad every year to bring in new technology and update the manufacturing facilities.

He loved his work but after office hours were devoted completely to his family.  All the social matters were left to his wife Ashi, their family was always a picture of harmony.

When he died suddenly in 2001,  his extended family wanted to perpetuate the values he lived for.  Dr. Nundy, a school friend  suggested the setting up of Liver Surgery Unit at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital.  It was very appropriate, for the family had suffered immense pain during 1997-1998 when my younger brother Sidharth had to wait for 1 year to have a liver transplant in the United Kingdom. Tomorrows world is going to be knowledge based; if the country is to develop, knowledge and skills must travel to all corners   The Unit’s  aims are to  train young doctors from all over India in advanced liver surgery and to proliferate the knowledge gained,  for the benefit of those suffering from liver ailments throughout India.  The Unit also provides help to  poor patients and funds research in this area.  Several papers have been produced and published to  date. Some of these you will find in your souvenir.  For the unit’s success we could not have chosen a better person than Dr. Nundy, the Burman family would like to express their gratitude and congratulate him on his success. The family would like to express their appreciation of the support of Board of Management of SGRH and the support received from Dr. Mahajan.

I am happy to see a number of Gyan’s  friends present here who are supporting our family to perpetuate his memoy and I would like to especially welcome some of his very close friends,  Kum Kum and Nicky Talwar, Minu & Kami Bakshi, Ritu and Gopal Ansal, Mrs. Pam Gupta, and his classmate Prat Ray and his wife Mintu.

In the Hindu scheme of things, “the Atma is eternal”.  This is aptly summed up in the poem by John Donne from which I shall quote a few lines.

 

DEATH, be not proud, though some have called thee

Mighty and dreadful,  thou art not;

……   One short sleep past, we wake eternally,

   And death shall be no more. Death, thou shalt die.

In essence, Gyan’s guiding spirit will continue to perpetuate the values which he always stood for. A very warm welcome to you all once again.

Thank you,