SPANDANA — Alumni Association of SDM Dental College & Hospital ®

It was the summer of 1999, the last summer of the millennium. SDM College of Dental Sciences and Hospital had already established nationally and internationally as a name to reckon with in the field of dental education and service. However there was feeling that something was still missing, and that was an Alumni Association—the forum where past gradutes of the college could get together to celebrate the source that has given them their current professional identity.

To fill this void, a group of enthusiastic house-surgeons in 1999 (from the batch of 1994) got together to unite old friends. No sooner was the idea conceived, our Principal gave the go ahead to form and run the association which was named ‘SPANDANA', which meant ‘to get together' in Sanskrit.

Under the guidance of the Principal, alumni staff members the house-surgeons and students formed an ad hoc committee to work towards realising this dream. Prof. Sanjay Ganeshkar was nominated as pPesident while Prof. Shrikanth Mallan was the Hon. Secretary.

Then began the task of collecting the addresses and contact numbers of all former students (an exercise that continues to this day!), inviting the alumni and guest speakers. After thorough planning, the first meet of the association was held in March 1999 at the College—a meet which brought a feeling of joy and nostalgia to all the old students who had left the college years ago.

The meet was attended by more than 300 alumni. The hallmark of the meet was a brilliant scientific session conducted by Dr. Sandesh Mayekar on Aesthetic Dentistry, and Drs. Rajeev Narvekar and Dileep Deshpande on Implant Dentistry.

The 2nd alumni meet was held in the college in 2000, and was organised along with the college Annual Day. Dr. Nilesh Patel, an alumnus, addressed the gathering on the use of Lasers in Dentistry, which was followed by a surgical demonstration on the use of lasers. Apart from the students, the alumni participated in large numbers to entertain the large audience and relived the past. The meet was a grand success with more than 250 members attending. The grand banquet that followed at the college grounds was enjoyed by one and all.

At this meet Prof. K. H. Kidiyoor and Dr. Sangamesh took over office as President and Hon.Secretary, respectively. Under the new office-bearers the 3rd meet of Spandana was held in 2001. More than 300 people witnessed an informative scientific session by Dr. Pradeep Shetye from Goa on Orthodontics for the general practitioner. We also had one of our alumnus, Dr Sandeep Arora, addressing the members on ‘Orthodontic Problems and Solutions'. Prof. Vijay Chava took over the office of the President of the association while Dr. Sangamesh was retained as the Hon. Secretary. It was decided here to hold the alumni meet once in two years in the College and a 'mid-term meet' at a place other than Dharwad. Dr. Ravi Hebballi, proposed to host the meet in Bangalore in 2002 and was named Organising Secretary. The mid-term meet in Bangalore was a runaway success.. The grand event comprised of scientific sessions by Dr. Sureschandra on 'Advances in Endodontics' and by Dr. B. Krishnamurthy on 'Oral Surgery for the General Practitioner'. The event was followed by an unforgettable banquet at the Tennis Courts of the fabulous Bangalore Palace.

In 2003 it was the turn of the Alma Mater to host the alumni meet. Since the incumbent president Prof. Vijay Chava was on an overseas assignment, Prof. Venkatesh Naikmasur was appointed Acting President and, along with Dr. Sangamesh, took the onus of hosting a memorable gathering. An interesting scientific program was conducted by Dr. Anish Naware on 'Advanced and Single Sitting Endodontics' and by Prof. Shrikanth Mallan on 'Dental Implants'. The banquet on the lawns of Hotel Naveen was a memorable one in deed. The alumni danced away to the beats of the music played by a DJ until the wee hours of the morning. At this congregation, Dr. Ravi Hebballi took over charge as President of the Association, Dr Sudhindra Kulkarni as Hon. Secretary and Dr Satyabodh Guttal as Treasurer. The new office-bearers had some challenging tasks at hand: First and the foremost was to get the Association registered in accordance to the laws of the Government of Karnataka, frame the Constitution and laws by which the Association would be run in the days and years to come. The office-bearers also set out to create a database of all alumni members and have a website.

The Association registered itself with the Registrar of Societies of the Government of Karnataka in January 2006, in time for the 6th Alumni congregation at Dharwad on 18 February 2006. The meet coincided with the 20th year of our college's existence and had more than 250 alumnus participating. It was touching to see the get-together of 25-30 from the first batch of SDMites. At the meet, the exclusive website was launched by the chief guest, Prof. M. I. Savadatti in the presence of our Principal and the Secretary of SDM Society, Sri. Jinendra Prasad. Spandana 2006 included a scientific session by Prof. Srikanth Mallan, as well as an audio-visual show that took viewers thro' the past 20 years of SDM. One of the highlights of the show was an interview with our Principal. Also, some new office bearers took over the reigns of the association—Dr. Achut Devarhubli was appointed as the new President while Dr. Satyabodh Guttal took over as Secretary and Dr. Anand Tavargeri as Treasurer.

It gives us— the office bearers—immense pleasure in informing all of you that we have been able to accomplish most tasks we set out to achieve. The alumni association is now a registered body as the Alumni Association of SDM Dental College, Dharwad (R). This helps us now to raise funds for the benefit of the association and pursue the goals of a responsible alumni association. The constitution has been approved at the Special General Body meeting. We endeavour to make ready the alumni database on the website at the earliest.

On behalf of all office bearers and members, we now invite you to join us in celebrating the feeling of togetherness and to relive the golden daysonce again on the last week-end of April 2008 at Dharwad.

Looking forward to your enthusiastic interaction with the alumni association.