Google Doodle Honours Indian Ophthalmologist Dr Govindappa Venkataswamy On His 100th Birth Anniversary

On October 1, 2018, Google came out with a doodle houring Indian ophthalmologist, Govindappa Venkataswamy, on his 100th birthday.

Born in 1918 in a small vill of Vamalapuram in Tuticorin district of Tamil Nu, Dr. Venkataswamy was crippled by chronic rheumatoid arthritis at a young 30. Despite his physical health, he earned a M.D. degree from Stanley Medical College in Mras. He, n, went on to join Indian Army Medical Corps and worked under obstetrics department, a short-lived career owing to his severe health condition. Fighting all odds, at of 33, he studied ophthalmology and learned fairly new procedures of cataract surgery, which was one of prime reasons of blindness.

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Dr. Venkataswamy joined Murai Medical College and was promoted as he of department of ophthalmology. During his tenure, he introduced a number of programs and workshops for awareness regarding eye health and eye diseases.

Recognizing his work towards fighting blindness, Dr Venkataswamy has numerous national and international awards to his name. He was awarded prestigious Pma Shri by Government of India in 1973.  A movie titled ‘Infinite Vision’ documents his life and work dedicated to service of humanity.

Post-retirement, Dr. Venkataswamy, founded Aravind Eye Hospital in 1976. In his endeavour to eliminate blindness, hospital started with merely 11 beds and 4 medical officers. Today, it has nearly 4,000 beds making Aravind Eye Hospital one of largest facilities in world for eye treatment. scale and self-sustainability of hospital also led to a 1993 Harvard Business Case Study.

Affectionately called Dr. V, he is best kwn for developing high quality, low-cost service delivery lens models (AuroLabs) that brought back sight of countless people from across world. He has performed over 6.8 million surgeries related to eye and its problems and is kwn to perform over 100 surgeries a day. He passed away on 7 July 2006.

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Being a staunch follower of Mahatma Gandhi and Sri Aurobindo, Dr. V is kwn to blend spirituality in his daily life. He has also spoken at Harvard Divinity School on me of living a spiritual life in modern times. He is well kwn for his selfless public service.

In his words, “You don't have to be a 'religious' person to serve God. You serve God by serving humanity”.