Our Founders
DR. APARNA GOVIL BHASKER
Dr. Aparna Govil Bhasker is a bariatric and laparoscopic general surgeon and practises in the city of Mumbai. She is associated with Global, Hinduja, Currae, Namaha, Suchak and Apollo group of hospitals. She has multiple publications and numerous book chapters to her credit. She is the managing committee member of many surgical societies and has a keen interest in clinical research. She is an avid reader and an artist. She is the co-founder of Debabrata Auro Foundation which was set up in 2016 to help the poor and needy. She is deeply involved in the activities of this foundation and through this she does her bit for the betterment of the society. Dr. Bhasker can be contacted at draparnagovil@gmail.com.
DR. DEBRAJ SHOME
Dr Debraj Shome is a surgeon, specialised in facial plastic surgery and facial cosmetic surgery, based in India. He is the co-founder and director at The Esthetic Clinics, which has multiple centres all over India. Dr Shome has received many awards from numerous agencies and is known for his breakthrough innovations in facial plastic surgery. He has more than 55 research papers written in top peer-reviewed international publications along with a US patent to his credit. He is the inventor of the QR 678 hair growth formulation. He was the first recipient from Asia and the youngest globally to be awarded the prestigious Davies Foundation Grant Award by the Royal College of Surgeons, Glasgow, in 2010. Besides clinical work, Dr Shome is the Director of the Debabrata Auro Foundation and dedicates a lot of time to philanthropic activities for the betterment of society. Dr Shome can be contacted at www.debrajshome.com.
SONALI S. NAMIRANIAN
Sonali S. Namiranian DRSc (2023) MBA-BT, CCRP – Founder and CEO of The Peace Warrior (TPW) is a compassionate human being and a compassionate leader who seeks to tap human connections every day. She is a well-established and certified clinical research & management professional with 15 years of comprehensive clinical research, clinical research management, and regulatory affairs experience. For the past 9 years she worked at UCLA, David Geffen School of Medicine of which 7 years she served as the Director of the Women’s Health Clinical Research Unit (WHCRU). She is an advisor, facilitator and consultant to research investigators, scientists, and BioTech & MedTech startups. Currently, she serves as the Director of Operations for a MedTech/Biotech spin-out company from UCLA Medical School. Through her work, she strives to make an impact – one human at a time. She knows that she was born to serve and help make this world a better place – every single day. She understands that everything she does directly or indirectly helps push the boundaries of the medical and biotech fields and this keeps her excited every day.
She is a Peace Warrior in spirit who has an awakening, a calling to initiate The Peace Warrior movement, so that together we can: Serve Humanity & Bring About Positive Transformations in Our World – through – Compassion, Creative Expression – & Manifestation of Our Good Voice. www.thepeacewarrior.org
She says: “You, I, each one of us can be a Peace Warrior. If we choose to speak up at the right time, if we choose to act when needed, if we choose to carry the right thought mindset, if we choose to fill our heart with love and compassion. If we care, if we want to make a positive impact, if we want to give back, if we feel the pain of others – if any of these or all of these happen to you, then you are a Peace Warrior.”
Our Story
Three years ago, we started thinking seriously about stories of inspiration, stories of grit, stories of success and some of failure. That was principally the reason for all of us to come together and to bring to the world, stories about what the doctor patient relationship actually entails! We decided to take a lead to initiate a dialogue between the two parties in the form of a book. We wanted to create a platform where doctors and patients come together and talk about their sides of the story. We wished to make a sincere effort to evade the negativity and initiate a positive discourse in the doctor patient relationship in India and across the world.
Of course, to publish a book, we needed a publisher. Two surgeons with no experience of writing a book are hardly the best combination for getting something like this accomplished. We sent the proposal to multiple publishers and waited with our fingers crossed. It was a beautiful Monday morning when we received an email from Mr. Rajiv Beri of “Bloomsbury” who was intrigued by this concept and was willing to explore. Well, the rest as you can see, is history. We shall always be grateful to him for having faith in us.
It was also heartening to see the response of all our contributing authors. In the beginning we were sceptical about being able to compile so many stories but almost everyone we approached was more than happy to write for this book. Slowly but steadily we started receiving stories where they spoke about the most touching experiences in their careers. Every story in this book is heartfelt. Some stories make us feel immensely proud of being a part of this profession and some bring tears to our eyes. Such is the life of a doctor. We also invited a few non-medical people to write about their stories as patients who deal with doctors and the healthcare system at large. This brings a unique balance to this book and was a part of our effort to not make this a one-sided dialogue.
It took us 2 years to put these 34 stories and 2 afterwords together. They say that sometimes, it is the journey that is more important than the destination. We have spent the last 2 years, practically living and breathing this book and it has been an immense learning experience for both of us. This is our first book and it has been a magical journey. We have enjoyed every minute we spent creating this.
We hope that it strikes a chord with people and our only prayer is that “doctors” be treated like all other “human beings” with dignity and respect.
Debabrata-Auro Foundation
Keeping this philosophy of Sri Aurobindo in mind, the Debabrata Auro Foundation (DAF) was set up by Dr. Aparna Govil Bhasker and Dr. Debraj Shome in November, 2016 in Mumbai, India.
The NGO actively engages in activities involving differently-abled children and has received praise in media for it many times. Another field of activities is in the sector of women upliftment, with focus of women healthcare needs and education.
The organization conducts charitable events, collecting voluntary donations and helps in channelizing these to the underprivileged sections of society. Some of the donation drives conducted by them (like the shoe and textbook donation at Ashadaan) have brought smiles on the faces of hundreds of recipients and immense happiness in the hearts of donors.
The ideology on which this foundation functions has been received with much positivity and this has restored our faith in humanity. Despite all the heart-wrenching incidences that keep happening in the world, there are still people who want to comfort the fellow human beings and support them whole heartedly.
