Dr. Suranjan Bhattacharji retired as Director on September 22, 2012. Dr. Suranjan brought to this august office his inspiring qualities of visionary leadership, teamwork, integrity and a deep commitment to the institution’s heritage and its values.

His achievements during his five year tenure – expanding the vision of CMC through the Chittoor and the Kagithapattarai campuses, the exacting process of NABH, consolidating the institution’s finances, structuring systems and procedures, the increase in clinical specialities, engaging with stakeholders at the local, state, national and international level, increasing housing facilities, increasing the corpus of funds available towards charity in healthcare and education – to name a few, are accomplishments that he wore lightly. New services, no matter how small, were important to him, for they all played their perfect part inthe organization called CMC. He was emphatic that the increase in number of patients must be matched by those little things that health care is desperately in short supply of – kindness, patience, compassion and love. A line from one of Dr. Suranjan’s favourite poem reads: ‘Give me the strength to make my love fruitful in service’ and he exhorted all of us to seek the Divine in the spaces and faces of CMC.

Dr. Suranjan articulated a vision of the institution based on its illustrious past. Deeply aware of the changing economies, technologies and resources, he engaged with the present while broadening the institution’s canvas for the future. He was particularly concerned that CMC’s mandate should continue to be the inclusive health care that challenged Dr. Ida and so many others after her. His simple and humble persona belied an extremely well read, articulate, philosophical and erudite man. It was a delight to hear him speak, for the eloquence of his speech came not so much from his words, as from the depth of his faith and beliefs.

The CMC Community and friends of Vellore around the world thank Dr. Suranjan for the dedication, passion and strength with which he so ably led our beloved institution during the past five years. May God bless him and continue to make him a blessing to many more people in the years ahead.