AFVOA Newletters of Year 2002

Page 60 of 84 healing touch could not make it to the meeting at the last minute - due to a mild indisposition. As such, the members were sorely deprived of the tonic effect that his very presence in our midst would have had. However, we were privileged to see and meet the four other octogenarians, who were honoured by being presented with the traditional shawls. The accompanying wives were presented a rose bud. Their lives have been set out all too briefly, considering that lives such as theirs are an inspiration to us. a) Brig CR Suryanarayan, AMC Brig Suryanarayan was born on 19 Feb 1918, and is another distinguished physician, and is an alumnus of the famed Madras Medical College (MMC ~ 1937-42). He joined MMC after completing his Intermediate course (two years at that time) at Presidency College (1935-37). On joining the IMS (which later became the IAMC, and then, post independence, the AMC) in 1942, he was posted as the RMO of the Royal 1/1 Gorkha Rifles. From 1943 till 1946, the Brigadier served in the Middle East theatre of the Second World War. He also saw active service during the 1962, 1965 and the 1971 wars, with postings in J & K alone for six years. The Brigadier did his postgraduate training in radiation medicine, nuclear medicine, and cancer chemotherapy in the UK and in Germany, following which, in 1958, he was instrumental in setting up the first Radiation Medicine Centre in a Military Hospital (Delhi Cantt), which was inaugurated by the then PM, Jawaharlal Nehru, in the presence of the Defence Minister, Mr VK Krishna Menon. In 1960, he was responsible for labelling “bovine bile derivative or BBD” with radioactive iodine for its effect on cancer cells. In 1964, he represented India in the first Indo - European radio linked panel discussion on the treatment of cancer by chemotherapy. In the following year, at an International Conference in Vienna, he presented a paper on “Hypothermia in Cancer Chemotherapy”. One of his noteworthy papers is on the “kangri” induced cancer that is seen in the Kashmir Valley, which was published in the American Journal of Oncology. Not only this, he was the Chief Medical Officer of the DGOF. After retirement from the Army in 1975, the doctor has been active in rendering free medical education and in the field of early detection of cancer he has focussed on slum areas. He has kept himself very active academically, visiting prestigious foreign facilities such as the Radio Surgery Centre at the UCLA in 1997, and the Loma Linda Medical Centre, also in California in the US, to learn about Proton Beam Therapy. He is associated with Schering-Plough Research Institute in New Jersey, in the treatment of brain tumours with the new and successful drug, “Temozolomide”. The doctor’s wide-ranging intellectual interests can be gauged from the fact that he was the visiting professor for the MA (Defence Studies) programme of the Madras University, and from the fact that he was invited by the International Conference on Forensic Odontology, held in Jan 1998, to deliver the keynote address on the “Value of Nuclear Medicine in Crime Detection and Terrorism’. The Brigadier is associated as an honorary consultant with many hospitals such as the Southern Railway Hospital at Perambur, the Durgabai Deshmukh Hospital, as chairman of one of its study groups. He is the Honorary Secretary of the St John’s Ambulance Brigade for Tamil Nadu. Brig Suryanarayanan resides at Anushakti Apartments, 2 nd Main Road, Gandhi Nagar, Adyar, Chennai 600020. His telephone Number is 4917910. b) Maj Gen TB Poduval, EME Born on 25 Apr 1920, Maj Gen Poduval graduated in 1942 from the Engineering College of the Madras University at Guindy, after his early education in Kerala. The following year saw him commissioned as a Lieutenant in the EME. In 1946, upon completion of his war service, he was selected for postgraduate training in mechanical engineering at the Royal Military College of Science, UK, specialising in vehicle production and development, with special reference to military vehicles. In 1948, on his return to India, promotion to Lt Col came with a posting as Superintendent of Vehicle