First Complete denture Camp in Kutch. Kundrodi Village. March 2014

Kutch - Kundrodi Complete Denture programme: The Beginning ..

                                                                   Dr. Rikin. A. Gogri

Greetings !

In the medical world, we always expect to be able to fix our patient’s problems in order to help them have a better life.  This is frequently interrupted by circumstances in the patient’s life that they are unwilling to change or simply cannot fix.  Those circumstances may be economical , social , or lack of facilities around. A visit to the Rural areas of kutch in Gujarat state of india clearly would lead to the observation of all of the above mentioned circumstances.

I feel priviledged and honoured to have been associated with Shri Bidada Sarvodaya Trust and its medical programmes since more than a decade , wherein we have had the opportunity to serve the most needy people in the state of Gujarat. The various activities of the trust have been well known and recognised and appreciated by people , with recognitions from even the President of the nation.

Over the years , there have been 40 annual medical camps and many more smaller monthly , quarterly or half yearly medical and surgical camps conducted by the institution. Thanks to the pioneering efforts of our chairman Shri Bachubhai Rambhia and all other trustees and volunteers associated with our monumental institution.

 According to a informal survey  or observations  we can say that we have over the years, every second geriatric person in kutch has multiple missing teeth and the percentage of people who are completely edentulous is alarmingly high. Not having teeth had a very bad effect on the well being of the individual right from low confidence , social stigma , lack of resources to get their teeth done ,financial crisis , improper food intake , improper digestion and thus a poor quality of life. Thus , this whole concept of conducting a complete denture programme was born so as to offer and give a better quality of life to these individuals.  It indeed seemed to be a herculean task to give a set of complete dentures to each and every individual

participating in the programme and that too in a limited time period. But thanks to the support we always have from our doctors , donors and volunteers , we were able to accomplish our mission and thus a new idea and a new concept was born.

The Programme:

Mr bachubhai rambhia , the chairman of our institute, as always , is supportive of each and every medical event that would benefit the people of kutch. A true role model for generations of doctors and volunteers.

Mr DevchandBhai Furia , Boston , USA has been the strongest pillar of support , and the concept of making dentures for the needy has been his idea and the whole programme has been conducted under his supervision throughout.

Mr Vijaybhai Chheda , the vice chairman of our trust , approved us a go ahead for conducting this landmark event.

Mr Dinesh M Chheda , he supported our programme right from the word go and was instrumental in making all the arrangements done at the base camp in kundrodi.We have been Truly blessed to have such supportive donors.

The Doctors and Volunteers:  the doctors and volunteers have been the heart and strength of our institution and any camp that we conduct or organise , we are always assured of smooth and efficient functioning. I would come to the list of the doctors and volunteers later on in the write up. Volunteers or social workers , what do we say… We're so proud of the women and men who comprise our volunteer pool! After all, they are the keys which make the ignition of our camps function.

 

The programme beginning:

Once the dates for the programme were scheduled and the venue finalised , we sent banners and leaflets in 15 surrounding villagesnear kundrodi  regarding the information about the complete denture programme that was scheduled to be held from 3^rd to 8^th of march.

An initial screening of patients was conducted by the local authorities , e.g , registering the names , address of the patients and mentioning the number of teeth present / missing  or duration of edentulous jaws( since how many years has the patient been without teeth). This helped us calculate and estimate the number of patients that would take the advantage of this project. Some 130 names were registered.

The Team:

The team comprised of 14 Doctors, 4 technicians , 4 volunteers and 2 dental assistants in all , including 2 prosthodontists , 4 senior dentists and 8 junior dentists.

All materials and equipment needed for fabrication of denture , taking various measurements was carried along from Mumbai , and the whole team together departed from Mumbai on the 3^rd of march 2014.

Day 1:

The inauguration of the programme was done by our chairman Shri Bachubhai Rambhia , Shri Vijaybhai Chheda , Shri Devchandbhai Furia and our donor Shri Dinesh M Chheda. The event was covered by almost all the local newspapers.

Primary impressions ( measurements) were taken for dentures

of 60 patients on the first day morning , followed by the final impressions in the afternoon , again followed by the vertical dimensions ( jaw relations) in the evening. It was pleasant and heartening to see all the patients wait till late in the evening without complaining. The team of doctors technicians and volunteers worked till late in the evening about 9.30 before ending the days work. The technicians then prepared the teeth setting and trials of dentures during the night and next day denture try-ins were taken for those 60 patients. It was the month of march and the weather gods weren’t too keen of providing a pleasant temperature. It was bright sunshine throughout and a temperature of around 36 degrees.

Day 2:

This was crazy. 80 new patients lined up for primary impressions and 60 patients of day1 came for their try ins. Was a very long day in office. Tiring but pleasing and satisfying. So by the end of day 2 , we had attended and prepared models and try ins for 140 patients. That itself was very satisfying for all of us. A lovely musical programme was organised by dineshbhai in the night , and after the event , the technicians got back to their job of preparing the try ins of day 2  patients.

 

Day 3:

Try ins and corrections for the previous 140 patients were done , and 25 new patients were also registered and their denture work started. By now , the word of mouth had spread like wild fire , with authorities and people from various places visiting the camp to have a look at the extravaganza that was taking place at kundrodi. Many people requested us for more such camps and their support whenever we conduct these camps.

Day 4:

Final try ins and adjustments and corrections of 165 patients during the day was done. Another striking and interesting thing that happened on day 4 was… that we received 65 new names of patients who wanted to register themselves and get their dentures prepared. Their names were registered and the patients were given assurances that they would be attended In the next camp that would be conducted in the month of august. By now , many newspapers carried over stories in their dailies , local politicans and authorities from neighbouring villages visited and saw the work that we had done in the past 3 days.

A few patients , had tears in their eyes , for they had never imagined that they would ever get dentures , they had never imagined that they would be able to eat properly , they had never imagined that they would smile again, the feel good factor was amazing and we signed off from kundrodi with a lot of memories with us.

Denture Delivery:

On reaching Mumbai , we processed and fabricated the denture try ins that we had brought and the dentures were ready to be delivered. Another team of 3 dentists , 1 technician and 2 volunteers went back for kundrodi to deliver the dentures to those 165 patients , witnessing the greatest of the great soul pleasing smiles that one would ever come across.

The pictures themselves tell the story.

We are looking forward to many more such programmes in kutch , one of which is planned in the month of august.

It was one of the great moments for the people of kutch , the doctors participating , the self less  service rendered by the volunteers and incredible hard work for the technicians who toiled day and night to make those patients smile better…again.

As Far as the junior doctors are concerned , they said that they learnt more in this programme than they could have managed in their dental school , because here , they treated patients of all different varieties, different psyche and a different level of understanding. From easy cases to complicated ones. That made it icing on the cake for them.

We hope that this programme continues for a long period of time , we look forward to conducting 2 such denture camps annually  and ofcourse serve the mankind in every possible way we can. We specially thank our trustees , donors and all the support staff for their cooperation.

Hope to scale more landmarks and make everyone smile…with a new set of teeth.. a smile that would come straight from the heart… Thank you.

 

Jain temple tour of Palanpur Taranga route

Gujarat and Rajasthan have innumerous ancient jain temples of historic importance as well as immense faith amongst followers of Jainism.
Having done a lot of travel touring and worshipping some of the most magnificient and incredible jain shrines all around I decided to pen my trip through this Palanpur Taranga route. It might help others as well who might be planning a religious pilgrimage tour in this route.

The districts of Sabarkantha, Patan , Mehsana and Ahmedabad city have a huge huge count of ancient jain temples and awe striking idols of tirthankars. Most of the idols being installed by king Samprati. And the temples have undergone a series of renovations ( jirnoddhar) in the due course of time over the past 2500 years.

The closest and convenient place to alight from train or via flight is Ahmedabad. A vehicle can be arranged from Ahmedabad.

We planned the route in the following sequence.

Ahmedabad - mehsana (breakfast) - palanpur - valam ( night halt )- Visnagar - Siddhpur - vadnagar - valam ( night halt) - Taranga - (night halt can be taken here as well if available) - Ahmedabad.

After alighting at Ahmedabad at about 6 am in the morning , we directly drove towards palanpur on the highway via Mehsana. The route to Palanpur is via Mehsana - Unjha  - Siddhpur. Each of the places in the route have jain temples , dharamshalas and bhojanalayas.
We had our breakfast at Mehsana , in the Bhojanalay of Mehsana tirth ( Shri Simandhar Swami bhagwan)
Palanpur is an ancient city and the temple of Shri Pallaviya Parshwanath is considered to be very miraculous and soothing. We had planned to directly drive to Palanpur so as to be able to feel blessed by doing seva puja in the Pallaviya Parshwanath Jinalay.
There are two dharamshalas which have now been very well renovated and very good for stay.
The food in the bhojanalay of these dharamashalas is certainly to the mark.

After our seva pooja and lunch in Palanpur , we went to Juna Deesa which is approximately 40 kms from Palanpur to seek blessings of param pujya Acharya shrimad Vijay Yasho Vijayji maharaj saheb.

From Juna Deesa , we drove back via the same highway towards Valam. Valam is situated 16 kms from Unjha.  While there are other dharamshalas and places to stay like the bhramanwada tirth ( shri ajit shanti tirth ) , we chose the silent and serene atmosphere and rural charm of Valam.
Old and New dharamshalas here too have been renovated and it makes the stay a perfect feel of Interior Gujarat rural area.
Shri Neminath Bhagwan is the mulnayak of Valam tirth.
The idol of Shri Neminath Bhagwan in Valam is also very ancient. One can feel the holiness of the place while doing Ashtaprakari puja of the 22nd Tirthankar Shri Neminath Bhagwan.

Places of Visnagar and Vadnagar are in Close proximity to Valam.
Shri kalyan Parshwanath Bhagwan is the mulnayak of Shri Visnagar tirth ( kadaa road). The absence of dharamshala in visnagar makes devotees skip seva puja many a times in this place. Though there are open spaces in the premises where bathing and changing can be done.

After seva puja at Visnagar , we drove to Siddhpur , to get darshan of Shri Sultan Parshwanath, another miraculous idol , historicity of all these places can be obtained from various jain tirth sites.
The Idol of Shri Sultan Parshwanath Bhagwan has been shifted to a new premises located near Sujanpur patiya, 7 kms from Sidhhpur on the Siddhpur - Palanpur road.
In the city of Siddhpur , we took darshan of an ancient jain temple of Shri ChandraPrabhu swami.
Dinner can be taken at any of the restaurants on the Palanpur - Unjha road.
We then drove back to our night stay halt at Valam.

Next morning , we left for Shri Taranga Tirth via Kheralu.

The positivity , divinity , serenity and holiness of the places makes one feel blessed.

Mulnayak Shri Ajitnath Bhagwan, in his own life size image. No words can effectively and completely describe the joy and happiness one gets after worshipping Bhagwan Ajitnath. So truly the lines of a Stavan say - Pritaladi Bandhaani re.. Ajit jinanada jo........

The Drive to Ahmedabad is via Himmatnagar.

One can visit Tirths like Aglod and vijapur on the way to Ahmedabad.

I shall mention Tirths in Ahmedabad in my next blog.
I hope this blog is useful for a first time visitor to these places...

Jai jinendra . jai Ajitnath , jai parshwanath...
 

Must visit places in KUTCH

I have been getting a lot of phone calls and messages about people asking what are the must visit places in Kutch. And this is while everyone is being planning their visit to the now famous Rann Utsav in the white rann of kutch.

Being a dry climatic region, inadequate rainfalls year after years adds up to the dry climates throughout the year. December to February is considered the best and the most pleasant time to visit the incredible land of the White Rann.

The two major railway stations connecting Kutch to the rest of the country are
1. Gandhidham
2. Bhuj.
 And Bhuj being the airport as well.

There are numerous hotels to stay in Gandhidham as well as Bhuj.

Those coming on their trip to kutch for atleast 4 days can visit the following places

1. Narayan sarovar .
2. Koteshwar Mahadev temple. ( Do attend the morning Aarti) view from the temple above is amazing. You can call it santorini of Kutch.
3. Lakhpat fort. Its a very ancient village located alongside the Rann. There is a UNESCO mentioned Gurudwara inside the fort, as well as tomb of a sufi saint Gosh mohammad.
4. Haji peer dargah
5. Mata Na madh ( the temple of Maa Aashapura)
6. 72 jinalay tirth (jain temples)
7. Tropic of Cancer ( passes through the road between villages Netra and Vithon)
8. White Rann - Dhordo
9. Siyot caves
10. Guneri caves
11. Vijay Vilas Palace
12. Prag Mahal palace
13. Aaina mahal
14. Pingleshwar mahadev
15. Karo Doongar
16. Mandvi Beach
17. Shopping at  Mandvi , Bhuj , Mundra and Gandhidham.
18. Jain temples at Naliya, Kothara, Suthri , Sanjan , Jakhau ,Tera , Vanki , Donn , Bhadreshwar.
19. Bird Watching Along the long roads of Abdasa taluka
20. India bridge at village Khavda
21. handicrafts made by women folk in Village Nirona
22. Taste Kutchi food like - Daabeli , Pakwan
23. Jakh bahutera ( Mota yaksh) temple
24. Aiyu mata mandir.
25. Dam outside village Godhra.
26. GIDC artificial lake near Vayor
27. The Harappa & Mohenjadro civilisation sites - DHOLAVIRA.

There is a lot to see and a lot to do in Kutch.
Finding a place to stay for a night halt is not difficult. Whilst in the interiors of kutch, the many pilgrimage places and temples have their own wonderful Dharamshalas with all the facilities.
You need to hire a car for your entire visit if at all you would want to visit the above mentioned places and do not want to miss out on anything.
 Experience it to know more , I am sure you would fall in love with this quiet, serene and extravagant place on the westernmost border of the country.


 

The kutch complete denture camp

Shri Bidada Sarvodaya Trust, is a charitable organisation located in the village Bidada, Taluka-  Mandvi. It has been involved with and conducted hundreds and hundreds of medical treatment camps wherein free treatment is provided to the rural poor and needy people who have been under privileged and haven't had the access to quality medical care.
Since its establishment in the 1970 's there have been always an annual mega camp conducted of all faculties, doctors from mumbai and even abroad come here for a social cause. The volunteers always have their days marked in the calender for this mega event. Its now become a part of life for all of us who have been  visiting this magnificient institue. The Cataract camp and the dental camp have been the hallmark of this camp, where in our doctors and volunteers go door to door, village to village to offer their medical services.
Our source of inspiration, The former chairman of the trust Shri Bachubhai Rambhia, who has been a pioneer in establishment of this hospital and institute, though no more in this world, showers his blessings on us from right up there!
Coming back to the topic of the blog, I have been a part of this humanitarian extravaganza since 2002. In 2014 , we decided to start another project, providing complete dentures to the people who would never themselves can get it done, mostly due to financial restraint or inavailabilty of services in those rural areas. The place selected for this project was village kundrodi in mundra taluka of kutch district. It is approximately 45 kms from the nearest railway station Gandhidham.
Earlier we had done one such project of a smaller magnitude for Jan seva Foundation trust, in their old age home in village Ambi. So, setting up and planning a similar kind was never a mammoth task.. that was what we thought.. untill the day registration of the patients for the camp started. In the first day of registration, we got as many as 110 registered patients.
March 2014.
We had a team of 15 dentists, 2 post graduate residents from karad, 5 technicians, 2 dental assistants, and 5 volunteers. The registration of patients went up to 165. We had 4 working days to complete the try in of the complete denture sets of registered patients.
Day 1.
We began at 9 am. Patient allotment to all the dentists was done. first batch of 18 patients taken for the first step of denture fabrication-  primary impression. It is a time consuming procedure for beginners as well as due to working environment where we did not have a dental set up. So it took a bit longer than usual. After the primary impressions, the patients were made to wait in the makeshift pendal. And second batch of patients calles for the same. We did primary Impressions for 66 patients on day1. By afternoon 3.30 pm, the final impression trays were ready and one by one the patients called for recording their final impressions on the special trays made on the basis of the primary impressions. The technicians had a tough time getting things ready and also because we wanted to complete the third step called Jaw relations of all the 66 patients on day1. For the doctors and patients, the day ended at about 10 pm while the technicians had to work for almost till dawn doing the teeth set up for the patients whose JR was been completed.
Day 2 Another 60 patients were started and similar procedure followed till the thirs step of denture procedure.
Day 3 was a chaos since more and more people started pouring in for getting their dentures made. we took a last batch of some 40 patients and registered another 80 with the assurance of conducting a similar camp very soon.
Day 4 : The remaining work of previous days was done and one by one the patients were called for the trials of their dentures.
For those patients who had lost their teeth long back, and had never dreamt of getting them done, the sight of the denture trails in their mouth, their sparkling smile and the happiness on their faces gave many a emotional moment to all the participants of the camp.
Shall upload the pictures of the Camp in my next post soon.
A few people do need special mention here :
Shri Bachubhai Rambhia,  Chairman of our trust.
Shri Vijay  Chheda, the then Vice chairman
Shri Devchandbhai Furia, Camp Coordinator
Shri Dineshbhai Chheda-  donor of the camp
Shri Sharadbhai Rambhia- Trustee and our supporter as he has always been
The local media.
The doctors who were the soul of our project
Dr Priya Jhala
Dr Vishal Kale
Dr Pinky Mathur
Dr Darshika Gandhi
Dr khyati Shah
Dr Karishma Rohra
Dr Riddhi Shah
Dr Jini Shah
Dr Ritu Shenoy
Dr Charmi Gala
Dr Zarna Gala
Technicians-  Mr Ratnakar Suvarna and his team.
The dentures were delivered to the patient after 10 days. Soon a second camp was planned and it was organised at the same venue in August, And in August we did a staggering 270 complete dentures.
We hope to continue our medical social work for the benefit of the under priviledged sections of the society.
Thank you.
-Dr Rikin Gogri.

Kutch - Spectacular places in the dry paradise

 There has been a lot of curiosity among travellers and tourists about this destination called the great white Rann of Kutch and surrounding important historical or geographical sites. Many of them are heritage sites , listed by UNESCO as well as ASI.                                                                                   In this post , I shall share a few places that shall interest travellers and tourists looking out for more to explore rather than only the white Rann of Kutch. I have been visiting this magnificent spectacular place since the last 14 years as a part of voluntary doctors team that serves poor and needy people in the area. Been there first in 2001 , and since then it has been a part of my schedule.                             1. Lakhpat fort /village.  This village called Lakhpat was once supposed to be the busiest business cities in ancient India, now it's almost in ruins . Though it gives an amazing picturesque view of the rann from the top of the fort. The historicity and the feeling of its ancient riches can be felt when you hear stories from the locals about the place. The presence of a Gurudwara which is a declared heritage site by UNESCO within the village assures us of its historic importance. Then a few lanes away you would find a mazar of a Sufi saint named Gosh Mohammad. It's historicity dates back to the fifteeth century. Stone walls and incredible carvings on the quba as it is locally referred to do drive the interest of travel lovers and archeology enthusiasts. The trail towards the top of the fort would slowly give an incredible picturesque view of the Rann. Indeed an incredible place to visit. For the information of the readers , most part of the movie Refugee has been shot in this village . Can be recollected when you visit.          
   2.Siyot caves. The historicity of these caves date back to the Buddha era or even more ancient. It is believed that  there were underground roads or Suranga in this area which are ow been closed. There is an ancient Step well just ahead to these caves. Siyot is located about 30 kms from Lakhpat. Similar caves are found in a place called Guneri , might as well be the overground extension of the Siyot caves itself. These two sites are rarely visited by the tourists visiting Kutch , probably due to lack of information regarding these places. Many locals in urban Kutch also are still unaware of these places.   3.Haji Peer Dargah   Is located at an hours drive from the Mata na Madh temple. The locals there have a stories too many to tell about the Haji peer and the history of the peer baba. Many Hindus also visit the place as a matter of belief and trust in the haji peer Dargah. It's a very remote place like Lakhpat .         Other places of interest for Kutch travellers , budget places to stay , travel tips and photographs I shall update in my next post which shall have information about  vijay vilas palace , prag mahal , Aaina mahal , Dholavira , Dhordo , Khavda , Nirona , Bhuj , Mandvi and also about delicacies of Kutch , places to treat your taste buds.