The 73rd reunion of Calcutta National Medical College and Hospital, in association with The Telegraph, wound up on Sunday with the annual reunion debate, a much-awaited event on the college calendar.

The motion — this House believes that medicine is a grossly overrated profession — was defeated.

Over 2,500 doctors, including nearly 1,000 present students, were part of the reunion christened Plexus.

“We are happy it went off successfully. Hard work over an entire year paid off. I’d like to thank fellow core committee members Binayak Chanda (cardiac surgeon), the organising secretary; Suchandro Das (nephrologist); Suchetana Sengupta (infertility specialist); and Jayita Bhatta (paediatrician),” said orthopaedic surgeon Rajib Basu.

This year’s reunion was organised by those who entered the medical college in 1989. Each year, one batch is entrusted with the responsibility of organising the reunion.

Doctors from around the world attended the reunion.

Nilanjana Ray, a paediatrician with the National Health Service (NHS) in London, said: “Two years back, I only attended a reception at the end of that year’s reunion. This year, I was here on all three days. This is the first reunion I attended since I left college in 1995,” she said.

She was in Calcutta in November last year but flew back to the city within three months just for the jamboree. “It is not easy to get leave this frequently but I had to come,” she said.

Along with many of her batchmates, she went back to all the lecture theatres where they attended classes. She also went to the women’s hostel on campus where she stayed as a student. “The best part was reconnecting with old friends. There were many who I had not met since we left college,” said Ray.

Among the top draws were the performances by actor-comic-artiste Mir Afsar Ali, playback singer Antara Mitra and Bengali rock band Cactus.

Siddhartha Sankar Ray, better known as Sidhu, the lead vocalist of Cactus, is a doctor by training who chose music as his profession. Sidhu is from the 1989 batch of the college.

Mir read Rajsekhar Basu’s story Chikitsa Sankat.

Special scientific sessions were held on each of the three days on medicine and surgery. There were lectures on spine injury, cardio-kidney-metabolic (CKM) syndrome, asthma, neurosurgery, osteoporosis and hip surgery.

“The scientific sessions were especially popular among current students as they got an opportunity to learn about the specialities from successful doctors who have experience of decades,” said Basu.

This year’s Subhas Mukhopadhyay Memorial Oration, an annual feature of the reunion, was on “artificial intelligence in reproductive medicine”.

Mukhopadhyay, a former student of the college, is a pioneer of in-vitro fertilisation in India. He created India’s first, and the second in the world, child using in-vitro fertilisation. A garlanded portrait of him was on the dais.

When not in the audience or shaking a leg on the dance floor, large and small groups of doctors were engaged in long addas, reminiscing their days in the college.

The college in its earlier avatar was a private institution.

The website of the college says “Calcutta National Medical College is the new name of the Calcutta National Medical Institute (estd 1948) which was established by the amalgamation of National Medical Institute (estd 1921) and Calcutta Medical Institute (estd 1907)”.

The reunion committee’s annual general meeting was also held on Sunday.

The next reunion will be organised by the batch that
entered the college in 1990. The core committee members for next year’s programme were decided at the general meeting.