Goan publication Lokbhoomi will release a special commemorative issue on the life and works of Dr. Dwarkanath Shantaram Kotnis at a function at KEM Hospital in Mumbai on January 14. Manorama Shantaram Kotnis, sister of Dr. Kotnis, will be present.
Baban Parulekar, chairman of the Goa Citizens' Co-operative Bank Ltd., will chair the function. Editor of the special issue Ramesh Kolwalkar; the former north Goa MP and advocate, Amrit Kasar, and Suresh Nagarsekar will also be present.
Dr. Kotnis, then 28, went to China as a member of the Indian medical team to assist that country during the Japanese aggression in World War II.
Arriving at Yan'an in January, 1939, he worked there and then went to the anti-Japanese base area in North China where he acted as the physician-in-charge of the surgical department of the Eighth Route Army General Hospital. Besides giving meticulous treatment to the wounded and patients, he paid much attention to training Chinese medical workers. Eventually, he brought on illness by overwork and died on December 9, 1942 in China. Dr. Kotnis is a legend in China.
The year 2011 being Dr. Kotnis' birth centenary year, Mr. Kolwalkar, a senior journalist who has worked to bring out the commemorative issue, decided to come out with the special issue.
