Some of the senior alumni of the Madras Medical College have got together to launch a foundation to help restore the institution to its former glory.
The Madras Red Fort Doctors Foundation has three signatories to the Memorandum of Association. The signatories are senior retired medical practitioners who graduated from the MMC. The aim of the non-governmental organisation is to collect funds and work towards improving the college’s image.
K. Badrinath, a retired orthopaedic surgeon from the United Kingdom and alumnus of the MMC, said, “When I went to England 50 years ago, we got so much importance as we were from MMC. It is not so well-known now as it was then. Our institution is a very old college and now it has deteriorated.”
The other two signatories are Paluvai R. Bharani and Subbaraya Mudaliar Vaidhianathan. The idea emerged by watching the Indian Institutes of Technology. The foundation will bring together the alumni and remain an independent body, Dr. Badrinath said. “We will assess how things are and what we can do to help the students and graduates. The present Dean is keen and enthusiastic. The funds for the college will come from the membership fee collected by the Foundation,” he said.
The foundation will initially collect some amount and then it will start seeking donations, he said. It already has 49 members, mostly from Tamil Nadu. There are a few from Karnataka and from other countries such as Malaysia, Mauritius, the U.S. and the U.K. The foundation organises a monthly online meeting in which a senior alumnus is invited to speak.
The meetings are held on the last Sunday of every month. The audience can participate through invitation. “We wanted to take care of the graduates and take part in our work. We are also inviting dentists who have graduated from the MMC,” Dr. Badrinath added.
