There is proverb in Marathi, “संस्था आपणहून कार्य करीत नसतात. संस्थेचे कार्य घडते ते तेथील लोकांच्या कार्यकुशलतेमुळे .” Meaning any institute doesn’t work by itself. It works only when people in that institute works efficiently. After all what is a institute? It is merely a building consisting of bricks and mortars. The reason behind quoting this proverb is to tell you that the importance of people working in the institute. Their dedication, their love, their zeal, their sincerity and affection towards institute contribute a lot in building the institute.

One such institute where staff of all cadres teaching, non-teaching, and class IV employees including daily wagers put all their whole hearted efforts in building the institute is Veterinary College, Parbhani. The birth of college was itself matter of surprise. Until 1972, there were two veterinary colleges at Mumbai and Nagpur in the state. Students from Marathwada used to get admission in these two colleges. It was during 1972, when Punjabrao Krishi Vidyapeeth was bifurcated to two regions viz. Vidarbha and Marathwada giving birth to separate agricultural university for Marathwada. The Veterinary College was also sanctioned with the formation of new agri university at Parbhani. The date was 18^th May, 1972. I joined the college on 16^th June, 1976. With my joining as Assistant professor of Surgery, the surgery department was also established in the college. Late Dr. Ghafoor M.A was Dean of the college and it was he who was responsible for bringing me from Mumbai to Parbhani.

My first impression of college was disappointing. The college was working in temporary sheds (barracks) and classrooms were also located in barracks. I came from a century old institute like Bombay Veterinary College to a hutment college at Parbhani. There was no clinic of the college. When I joined the college, I asked Dean where is my department? He replied, “You are the department.” I was asked to sit in a room near Dean’s office in the old and dilapidated building (quarter). It was very hard and tough time for me. No instruments, no equipments, no staff. Me and one daily wage attendant. That was all. I had big task of engaging two trimester courses at a time. Anyhow, I could collect some instruments from Veterinary Science Department of Agriculture College and started doing surgeries. We had put one trevis in open garden of Dean’s office (quarter) and started treating clinical cases. Meantime Prof. Bhoop Singh from Haryana Agriculture University, Hisar also joined in the medicine department. He had also no staff, instruments/ equipments. He was sitting in the adjoining room to me with the common attendant between us. Thus, the surgery and medicine departments were established and teaching from respective departments was started. This arrangement of teaching and clinic continued for about two years. Meanwhile polyclinic building was constructed. Let me tell you here that polyclinic was first building of faculty. The college administration has known the importance of giving service to the farmers. They knew that the college will be known and get recognition by serving the farmers and animal owners. Hence the polyclinic building was given priority over faculty building. Polyclinic was inaugurated on May 19^th 1978, by the then Chief Minister of Maharashtra Shri Vasantdada Patil.

I had big responsibilities of equipping surgery department in polyclinic. The polyclinic building has been meticulously planned keeping in view the needs and requirements of each department in clinics. In surgery section we had preparation room for surgeons and assistants, instrument room, sterilization chamber, operation theatre for small and large animals, recovery room and a radiology section. Now to equip and strengthen these facilities I had planned, prioritized carefully and purchased instruments and equipments of surgery department from reputed companies. The most important was purchase and installation of X -ray machine. This machine was manufactured by Siemens in Germany and had to be imported from Germany. There were lot of formalities to be done with central government ministries for clearance of the documents for import, waving of customs duty, opening of letter of credit in bank and so on. Up till now no one in our college was experienced in this matter since this was the first equipment which was to be imported. Only plant pathology department in the university had imported electron microscope. Even bank officials were ignorant about how to open letter of credit in the bank. But with the enquiry from Siemens India and cooperation from all including customs we could import X ray machine without any hassle. Waving of customs duty was also a challenging job. Since ours was educational institute, the customs department waved off entire duty

which was to the tune of Rs. 2.0 lakh in 1981. The installation of machine was equally challenging job. It involved fixing of I beam in the radiology department so meticulously that even 1 mm difference could have caused malfunctioning of the machine. Thanks to M/S Prem Engineering works and its proprietors Mr. Patel brothers who did the job so efficiently and marvelously that even engineers from Siemens were surprised to see the well aligned track in the X ray room in a small place like Parbhani. This time I had experience of well-known saying “बनी तो बनी नही तो परभणी.” Thus an advanced 500 mA, 3D movement X- ray machine was installed in polyclinic which was third of its kind in India after HAU, Hisar and PAU, Ludhiana, colleges. The machine was extremely unique and we mastered the precise technique of x- ray taking of large animals so much so that more than 1000 X -rays were taken during next 10 years. Based on this work I was invited to present a paper on “Reticulography in Bovines’’ at International Conference on Radiology at Netherland in 1991. This machine was giving excellent service even after 4 years of installation.

After x-ray machine I was given the task of purchase of ambulatory clinic mobile vans for attending emergency cases as well as for village clinics practical of students. During that time only Mahindra Company used to make chassis for ambulance and the body needs to be built separately. There was a long waiting time of more than 1.5 to 2 years for Mahindra vehicles and we had only 6 months’ time to utilize the money sanctioned by ICAR. I directly met GM of Mahindra Company and requested him to allot two chassis immediately. The request was conceded and the chassis were immediately delivered to Sion Garage for body building in Mumbai. The ambulances were at college garage within a record time of 4 month.

The first batch of 1972 admission was trimester batch of 5 year degree programme. In 1973 semester programme was launched and the duration was 4 years. In 1977 a new undergraduate programme consisting 4 and half years of BVSc & AH degree programme was launched. There were 8 semesters of course work and 1 semester of internship proramme. Nobody exactly knew about internship programme. This task was again assigned to me. I collected rules and regulations of medical colleges and other colleges in country who were running this programme earlier than us. Based on this we prepared model rules and regulations of internship which were implemented in all colleges in Maharashtra. I think these rules are still in vogue. Thus first batch of internship successfully completed their graduation in 1981.

On academic side of the department Dr Sarkate joined in 1979 and Dr Panchbhai joined department 1980. In 1982 Dr Usturge joined the department. Thus we had a strong team of four academic staff undertaking UG courses and busy in day to day surgeries. In 1980 college asked me to prepare syllabus for starting of PG programme in surgery. We started post-graduation in surgery in 1981 with admission of one student. Later on many student joined and completed their masters and PhD. Up till now 86 students have completed MVSc and 05 students have completed their PhD. The department has published more than 150 scientific and clinical articles in national and international journals. Also two gold medals have been awarded for the best article published in Indian Veterinary Journal. The department staff has presented more than 200 articles in national and international symposia and conferences. The department has hosted National Conference and Symposia in Veterinary Surgery, Radiology and Anesthesiology in 1992. Another most significant achievement of the department was making of a video film on surgeries performed in clinical cases during 1986-88. We had video filmed 12 surgical operations in different species of animals covering all important surgeries performed in field. The video film was acknowledged and liked by many academician and field veterinarian and provided valuable aid in teaching and guiding art of surgery to the students and field veterinarians alike. Many years after that I was known as video surgeon throughout country. Nobody has achieved this feat in any of the colleges in country. The main contribution of the department was in diaphragmatic hernia repair in ruminants under local anesthesia and sedation. Dr Usturge was pioneering architect for establishing the technique of repair of hernia through transabdominal and transthoracic approach for first time in the country. His work was acknowledged all over by veterinarian and repair of hernia was a common procedure in field. Second major contribution was in ophthalmic surgery by corneal transplantation and cataract surgery. Dr Panchbhai had all the credit for establishing the techniques. Third was in orthopedic surgery ie treatment of fractures by using different implants and easy technique of applying PVC splints to the fractured limb by Dr Sarkate. Basic research on peritonitis in animals was done by me using different models, studying its hemodynamics, biochemistry and treatment regime. A chapter on peritonitis was contributed in the book entitled Ruminant Surgery by Tyagi et al.

With the surgery department, medicine and gynecology department were also established with able guidance and leadership of Prof. Bhoop Singh and Prof. Pargaonkar in the polyclinic premises. The polyclinic soon after five years of commencement in 1978 got name and fame not only in Parbhani district but adjoining districts like Aurangabad, Jalna and Nanded also. It was mainly due to excellent and free service given by polyclinic staff to animal owners. The patients were transported and refereed from all over marathwada region. Thanks to the policies of university and mainly college administration and dedicated service given by staff of surgery, medicine and gynecology department. We used to treat on an average of 100 cases of large and small animals per day. Emergency services were also provided 24×7 hrs. The different types of clinical cases gave students a thorough standard clinical practice and trained them efficiently. The polyclinic was referred as ‘Jaslok’ by the animal owners and got name and fame during next decades so much so that every VIP visitors to the University shall visit polyclinic. There were many ministers including political heavy weight like Sharad Pawar visited polyclinic. H H Governor Idris Hasan Latif also visited polyclinic.

The college building was constructed soon after polyclinic building. The planning of college building was done meticulously and phase wise. The unique feature of college building was well planned laboratories, store rooms, offices of academic and non-academic staff of each department. The most important feature was design of classrooms. The classrooms were designed like Amphi theatre having capacity of 120 students with lavish furniture. We academic staff used to enjoy engaging lectures in theses classrooms which were well ventilated and had the facility of audio visual aid. The college premises including college building, polyclinic, hostels and farms were situated on 100 acres of land earmarked by the university. When you visit campus of college, it is well designed and compact that everyone admires the foresight of founder members of the college. I will give credit to Dr. M.A. Gafoor and Prof. M.N. Kulkarni who were the two pillars responsible for the planning and giving shape to the college campus. Besides these two stalwarts Prof P G Sakhare and Prof S K Auradkar of Animal Management department, were equally dedicated to built farms of different species of animals. Prof B B Deshpande of pathology department put his whole hearted efforts and dedication to handle the responsibities of maintaining academic data of students, timetable and examination schedule of college. Prof V P Vadlamudi of pharmacology department not only established the department but looked after the Gymkhana and students welfare activities efficiently. All these people mentioned above were real gems . Thus a sincere and dedicated team of academic staff built the college during the period of 15 years from establishment. Their sincerity, untiring efforts, dedication coupled with able support by university administration and college staff were the most important factors in building and giving physical shape and academic excellence to the college. The college shall remain in debt forever to all of those who toiled hard, sincerely and dedicatedly in bringing up one of the finest institute in the country.