Remembering Padmbhushan Dr R D LELE Sir 🙏🏻
It was in 2012 when me and my colleagues Dr C K Shetty and Dr Sameer Gholap got an opportunity to get close to Dr Lele sir at his Lilawati Hosp OPD, he was 84 then, age was just a number for him. Always smiling, energetic and a man full of knowledge and enthusiasm . We had thought of his name as a guest speaker as he had immense knowledge of Ayurveda and had many research papers and books on his name related to Ayurveda which was very fascinating as he was a pioneer in nuclear medicine, hence we wanted him as a distinguished speaker to speak on the topic ‘Newer Insights while managing lifestyle disorders’ during the launch of an Ayurvedic medicine (meant for managing lifestyle disorders ) a product by our then owned PHARMA company.
The Ayurvedic product which we were going to launch had 4 herbs in extract forms in it and Dr Lele sir had already done research on all the four in BARC. But , question was how to convince him to grace our event?
I still remember the first time we met him . He gave us a homework to search for the study materials available on ‘loh bhasma in correcting anaemia’.
He was assigned by the central govt to tap any possibility of making milk powder more efficient in combating anaemia in rural and tribal areas ( pregnant women ) as he was concerned for alarming death rate due to anaemia in pregnancy in downtrodden section of our society and thus he had this innovative idea to try adding loh bhasma in its nano form with milk powder to be supplied for the downtrodden section of our country to improve their iron and haemoglobin levels on the line of iodised salt solving the problem of goitre since it’s introduction in seventies . We were asked by him to go for detail studies for Lohbhasma nano particles and it’s efficacy in treating anaemia in pregnant women and thus we were referred to chemistry dept of prestigious IIT Powai .
Somehow that project couldn’t proceed further but our dedication in doing so satisfied him and he happily agreed to be our chief speaker.
I remember the date, 12 th July 2012 , and our venue was hotel Fortune , near Jupiter Hospital, Thane .
As expected,Dr R D Lele’s name attracted eminent Thane Drs and thus it was a jam packed capacity houseful hall.
It was nice to see Eminent physician Dr Anand Bhave who took the responsibility of being the host from our side on our request!
As expected, the talk was mesmerising and full of knowledge in depth which was followed by questions and answers session which really gifted a fantastic knowledgeable treat to the audience which was followed by a Standing ovation to the maestro.
During lunch hours he was surrounded by the drs and was seen taking keen interest during conversation.
Specially on Dr R D Lele sir’s request my wife Anita and Dr Sameer Gholap’s wife Sneha prepared delicious कडवे वाल and वांग्याचे भरीत which he really enjoyed and seeing him enjoying the food and our hospitality made us happy too.!
We will never forget you sir , you were and will always remain our inspiration!🙏🏻
It’s a great loss to our medical fraternity and he will always be remembered for the great human being he was!
Bhavpurna Shraddhanjali.🙏🏻🌹🙏🏻
