Hospital of Emotions
Shailesh Joglekar
Dr Anand Pathak
By Vikas Vaidya
IN society many people lose their
near and dear ones because of various
reasons. The two young boys,
who are close friends, also lost their
close relatives — one his father
while the other lost his wife — long
back. The cause of death in both
the cases was cancer. Both of them
tried hard to save their near ones.
During the ordeal, they saw not
only the plight of their own people
but also of others. After witnessing
such sufferings, people express
their feelings and say that
‘Somebody need to do something.’
But these young boys did not think
like that. The feeling of sadness or
zeal to do something big for the
people so that they would not suffer,
triggered these young minds
and after 25 years, the dream got
fulfilled and National Cancer
Institute (NCI) came into being.
Devendra Fadnavis, now Chief
Minister of Maharashtra lost his
father Gangadharrao due to cancer,
and Shailesh Joglekar, who worked
hard to materialise the NCI, had to
bear the pain when his wife, a cancer
patient, died. Union Minister
Nitin Gadkari rightly said that the
hospital came out of emotions.
Gadkari’s statement was endorsed by Fadnavis himself when he said, “I along with my mother and brother used to visit Tata Cancer Hospital in Mumbai. We witnessed
the workload on the hospital and the problems faced by
general public. Even we had to wait for long. After our father’s
death, the bad memories became alive when we again witnessed
the sufferings as Shailesh’s wife Vaishali also died because of cancer.
That prompted us to think of building up the hospital that
would cater to the need of people.” It has also the background of
deaths of second Sarsanghchalak of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh
(RSS) Golwalkar Guruji and senior BJP leader Arjundas Kukreja,
both died of cancer.
Both, Fadnavis and Joglekar, approached Dr Anand Pathak, wellknown
Oncologist, and put an idea in front of him hesitantly. To
their surprise Dr Pathak agreed to guide them. The meeting took
place 20 years ago. Joglekar was then developing Bhonsla Military
School and taken it to greater height. Since Fadnavis was building
his political career, the whole responsibility came on the
shoulders of Joglekar and he handled it very meticulously. His
sincere approach and hard work started bearing fruits. He was
equally supported by Dr Anand Pathak who was finding time out
of his busiest practice (Dr Pathak is most busy Oncologist who
work round the clock with patients keep coming to him from
morning to night) and worked with Joglekar.
Joglekar and company became desperate to bring the institute
into existence so five years ago Dr Anand Pathak and team started
rendering cancer treatment to patients in a small set-up at
Manorama building at Dharampeth under the banner of Dr Aabaji
Thatte Seva Aur Anusandhan Sanstha. Till now hundreds of
patients have been benefitted. Joglekar during his speech has
rightly said that it all started 25 years ago. Finally on Sunday the
phase I of NCI commenced in a glittering ceremony. Ratan Tata
the doyen of Indian Industries and also the Chairman ofTataTrust
that runs Tata Memorial Cancer Hospital in his speech has patted on the back of Devendra Fadnavis saying that he showed courage
to build such a world class institute with advanced sophistication.
Fadnavis did not forget anybody’s name who helped him in
his journey including Vilasji Fadnavis, Sunilji Deshpande,
Sarsanghchalak of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh Dr Mohanji
Bhagwat. He expressed his wish that he wanted to shape this institute
in such a way that it would have cheapest charges in the
country. This institute has paved the way for Nagpur to come on
world map as far as healthcare is concerned, this was what everybody
expressed after the programme.
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