World Sight Day Celebration : Day 1

By Sabitra Kundu

The World Sight Day celebration from 5th October started to mark the launch of events that would culminate with the grand “eye-care mela” at Dharavi on the 8th of October 09. Lined up through the stretch of 4 days, are a host of events. On 5th Oct, launch of the MEC logo followed by inauguration of MEC logo and kiosks by by renowned cine star Mr. Naseeruddin Shah at Khan Bahadur Haaji Bachoo Ali (KBHB) Eye Hospital at Parel.

Day 1:
Monday the 5th of October was a dark and gloomy day and nature was conspiring against us with rains pouring torrentially all across the city. Contrary to the norms of mother nature for this time of the year it was raining cats and dogs and water logging was reported from various parts of the metropolis. Bhavana was forced to take recourse of her son’s school rhymes and was heard humming all morning imploring “rains to go to Spain” so that smooth flow of events could take place.

With the rains continuing to play spoilsport and roads getting water logged all of us had a tough time reaching the venue and we were more concerned with our star guest been able to make it to the venue in time. However, we were unnecessarily worrying as the guest dressed in beige jacket and navy blue shirt arrived on time.

On arrival, Naseerji was taken on a guided tour to the hospital. The official programme started at 3:15 PM at the KBHB conference hall which was beautifully decked up with one of the railway kiosks, banners (featuring the portrait and signature of Naseerji himself), posters and balloons printed with MEC logo.

Event Highlights
After welcome and introductory speeches by Ms Elizabeth & Ms Katrina, Naseer ji inaugurated the kiosk followed by the release of MEC pilot project report. As memento, metallic badges with MEC logo was pinned to all the dais members by Ms Prema (Lotus College of Optometry).

Naseerji then delivered a wonderful speech in which he not only spoke of his experience living in blind school during the filming of his epic film “Sparsh” but also about one of his beloved professor who had gone blind years ago.
His confession of the fact that often the cause is over shadowed by celebrity endorsement and is limited to inaugurations and high profile corporate dinners, which actually dilutes the purpose. This statement drew rapturous applause from the audience for his insight. He ended his stirring speech with a commitment to support the cause in whatever little way he could as he always felt that actor’s (like himself) were underworked and overpaid and he would feel having done something useful than just entertaining people.

Around 4:00 p.m., Dr. Chandrasekhar (KBHB) concluded with the vote of thanks and invited all to join for some light snacks and tea. From print media DNA and Times of India were present. While Doordarshan captured the glimpse in short recording. Naseerji went shortly after following a detailed discussion with Elizabeth Ma’am and pledging once more his support for the cause.

Let’s Call it a Day!
Come rain or hale the event we proved that we could pull off an event (even with last minute glitches) and it was elevating to hear that the railway kiosks were generating a large no. of footfalls and was a grand success in the opening day. But more of that on day 2 for series of MEC and WSD events… Not to mention Kalpana and Shrinivas was too happy to have rubbed shoulders with the celebrity in a group photograph. While Shweta, Ranjish, Rajesh and Ketan were busy discussing about his extempore speech.

While you are wondering who has taken these photographs, all credit goes to Andrew (photographer from UK). He will cover this entire week’s event.

Testing Moments on Ground Zero !
While we all breathed a sigh of relief after the event, there was much hoopla and topsy-turvy moments behind the screen. Here’s a shot at it.

The event for launch of MEC logo was scheduled at 3 p.m. and at the ninth moment, 10:45 a.m. SCB informed that they were had called off the press conference and calling their contacts in the “fourth estate” stating that since its raining heavily there is slightest of chances that our guest will attend. Since, media coverage was in the hands of SCB. Our hearts skipped a beat and blood pressure raised a little as we got down to crisis management as it was too late to inform Naseerji about the cancellation and ask him to give the event a skip for a latter date (as SCB wanted).

A quick (standing) meeting was conducted and we decided to go ahead any way as backing out was not an option at this stage. Following this, the team worked furiously to call up people and press and requested them for attending the event. An alternative schedule was worked out and braving the rains our team set forth for KBHB hospital.

Many thanks are due to Mr Nitin Makasare as he was instrumental in liaisoning with Naseer Ji all through this event.

“Kodak Moment of the Day”
While Naseer ji sat of the dais, he saw Ketan perched in second row. He stepped down and greeted him with a warm hand shake. Ketan was touched and so are we.

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