Padma Shri Shri Surinder Mehta, Chairman, Prime Group address the audience on the occasion of felicitation ceremony to honour Dr. K.H. Sancheti on getting Padma Vibhushan Award on 22nd March, 2012 at New Delhi.

Excellencies, Dignitaries, Chief Guest of the Day Padma Vibhushan Dr. K.H.Sancheti, Mrs.Sancheti, The entire Sancheti family present here this evening, all the Padma Award winners from previous years present here today, distinguished guests and dear friends.

It is indeed a proud moment for me personally and indeed for all of us, to welcome, honour and felicitate Dr.K.H.Sancheti here today, on his getting the most coveted, the second highest civilian award in the country, from The Hon'ble President of India which he received just about two hours ago. In fact, he is straight coming here to this Reception in his honour, direct from Rashtrapati Bhawan and the Padma Vibhushan Medal that you see on his proud chest, has been put there by none other than The Hon'ble president of India personally, just a short while ago.

It’s a great day today and our Heartiest congratulations to you sir, on my own behalf, on behalf of my family, the entire Prime Group and of course, on behalf of each one of our distinguished guests and all our friends present here today who have all gathered here to personally greet you and to personally congratulate you for this great honor that has been conferred upon you by the Hon'ble President. We are indeed very proud of you sir, for all your achievements, and today, our joy has no limits. A big round of applause for Padma Vibhushan Dr.K.H.Sancheti, please

Only 268 Padma Vibhushan awardees in the entire 65 years of the Independent history of our country, and to be one amongst them is itself a huge achievement. The other and a still more significant part of this achievement of Dr. Sancheti is that, perhaps, he is the only Doctor in the history of this country to have received all the three Padma awards in the field of medicine i.e. Padma Shri, Padma Bhushan and also now The Padma Vibhushan. This rare achievement and this rare distinction, is indeed laudable.

Heartiest congratulations, sir, and we all wish you many more laurels and accolades in the years ahead.

Incidentally, probably I have also become the only person in the history of the country, other than the spouse of the award winners of course, to have personally attended and personally applauded a three time Padma award winner at all his three award functions at the Rashtrapati Bhawan having attended all the three Padma award ceremonies which I did for Dr. Sancheti in 1991 for his Padma Shri, in 2003 for his Padma Bhushan, and today, a short while ago, for the Padma Vibhushan award.

As we all know, Dr. Sancheti got the complete series of Padma awards based on his extra ordinary and exemplary skills, his noteworthy achievements, and his immense and highly valuable contributions to the society and to the world in the field of orthopaedics over the last five decades, some of which have been well recognized and appreciated in many advanced countries of the world. But his bigger qualification that I know of, and in fact all who may have touched his life in any manner during the last almost half a century, and they all know very well. And that is, his absolute humbleness and down to earth nature and above all, his being such a wonderful human being that he is, and added to that is his extra ordinary quality that he simply charms his way to your heart through his great sense of humour, immense simplicity and above all, his absolute humility. And that too deserves a big round of applause, as much.

It was exactly 40 years ago that, and most fortunately for me, a chance meeting brought me into contact with Dr. Sancheti and he then performed on me a unique surgery, a little below my knee, which was based on a brilliant idea of his, more in the nature of a an extremely complex bio-engineering surgery, a masterpiece in itself and particularly so at that point of time, and we are talking of 40 years ago, when medical science and complex surgical techniques and procedures were not so advanced as today, and yet, that masterpiece surgery that he did on me, has stood the test of time and has kept me mobile and going till date for almost four decades now, and hopefully, for the rest of my life.

Thank you so much Sir, for what you did on to me 40 years ago and I remember that every day, and I am sure that you have done such kind of wonderful and miraculous surgeries on hundreds and thousands of patients in your career spanning over half a century, thus transforming their lives altogether like what you did to me. We all pray for your continued efforts, initiatives and endeavors particularly for young children, like I was 40 years ago, for many many more years to come, in the service of humanity at large and we all pray every day for your continued success, good health and long life.

Dr. Sancheti for the last couple of decades, has focused on The knee joint replacement and the The Hip joint replacement surgeries and in which field he is today a master and a well-known and an acknowledged authority in the country and Internationally too, having done hundreds and thousands of such complex joint replacement surgeries in his long and illustrious career.

About your humbleness sir, and your down to earth nature, I am reminded of one incident of around 1975 which I may share today with all of you here. I was there in Pune together with my mother, my sisters and my brother for summer holidays and on the request of my father, Dr. Sancheti provided us one of his personal car to us for almost a month. It was only later that I realized, that at that point of time Dr. Sancheti had perhaps only two cars and I also realized as to how much of inconveniences he must have faced in the process. Suddenly, all that became visible when waiting on a red light in Pune in HIS car, I just happened to turn my eyes towards my right to see, and to my great surprise and shock, and of course to my great embarrassment as well, Dr. Sancheti sitting in a three wheeler scooter. I tried my best to convince him to take back his car back but he refused. And that left on me an incredible and a permanent mark and a lasting impression on my mind, that as to how humble and caring a person can be.

And Dr. sancheti undoubtedly is the ultimate in that respect and the best example of humility and simplicity. And undoubtedly, he very well deserved all the awards and recognitions in that respect too, and not just in the field of medicine.

On another occasion just a few years ago, if I may share another incident with you all, I took him to one of my dear and respected friend who had some ortho problems. And to demonstrate the exercises for his ailment, Dr.Sancheti, already a Padma Shri and a Padma Bhushan at that time and over 70 years of age, in his sparkling white dress that he is always in, did not blink his eyes even once, to personally lie flat on his back and then on his belly, right on the carpet in his room and personally did all the exercises as a practical demo, to a great surprise and almost a shock to me and to my friend. But in the process he had actually demonstrated to us his utter simplicity and his humbleness which touched our hearts instantly and immensely. This showed to me once again, that how genuinely Dr. Sancheti does whatever he does because only genuine feelings and genuine simplicity can be so lasting in a person of which I already had the continued personal experience with him and of which I had been a witness myself for almost four decades.

Such is the simplicity of this Great person with us here today, whom we will all know, now onwards, as “Padma Vibhushan Dr. K. H. Sancheti ”.

And I must say that this DNA of humbleness and simplicity is so deep rooted in the Sancheti family and it is an absolute pleasure and delight that Dr. Sancheti's son, Dr. Parag Sancheti, who is also a leading and a highly successful orthopaedic surgeon already in his own rights at this young age, is a true replica of Dr. Sancheti not only in clinical and surgical skills, but also in terms of humility and simplicity and I am sure he will make his father proud one day by becoming the second Doctor in the history to be awarded all the three Padma Awards on the lines of his Illustrious and legendry father.

Being a person full of humour and wittiness, I learn't of this funny story from Dr. & Mrs. Sancheti themselves very recently, that on his getting the Padma Bhushan award in 2003, one of his very humorous friend came to his house to congratulate him and he told Mrs. Sancheti that "Bhabhi ji, it is because of you that Dr. Sancheti got the Padma Bhushan. Otherwise he would have got the Padma Vibhushan".

Obviously, Mrs. Sancheti must have got rather annoyed at this crude joke but I am sure she must have taken it up as a challenge and a resolve that day, and as they say, “there is always a woman behind every successful man”, I am sure, she played that role very vigorously since then, much more than ever before, and I am sure that since that day, she must have very strongly pushed and supported and prayed for Dr. Sancheti, for him to get the Padma Vibhushan Award that he finally got today.

Nearly a decade of hard work, sacrifices and prayers by her, and for sure, the hard work of Dr.Sancheti, and that joke became a reality.

And now, I, want to repeat that joke and congratulate her and say it to her that "Bhabhi ji, Dr.Sancheti got the Padma Vibhusan because of you. Otherwise he would have got the Barat Ratna".

And I am sure, you know what to do now !

I know that with his commitment, hard work, sincerity and perseverance, even THAT is not an impossible thing to happen. One would normally think that having got the Padma Shri, Padma Bhushan and Padma Vibhusan in the field of medicine, what more can an orthopedic surgeon look for or what more can he really to do,to even think of anything more? But I am sure, Dr. Sancheti is made of a different material. He does not see any limits to his horizon. A very hard worker that he has been since his teens, getting up at four in the morning, in operation theater by six and performing nearly 8-10 major surgeries every day apart from seeing 50 to 100 patients and sometimes even more, on a daily basis and working nearly 16 to 18 Hrs a day. Travelling extensively all across the country and abroad, holding camps at remote locations across the country to help the poor and disabled people free of charge.

And then, to top it all, I have seen him working in an engineering facility that he has created in his own huge and state-of-the art and fully equipped 200 bedded hospital at Pune, which is an absolutely unheard of thing in the medical world i.e. for a Hospital to have in-house engineering facility and then for him to personally work on Hi-tech CNC machines as an engineer, even being a Doctor, to personally give shape and design to prosthetic parts like the knee joint and the hip joint which he has already designed, developed and produced in his own engineering facility and got them patented, with absolutely unique and revolutionary features and material specifications and at nearly one third the price of a similar imported joint.

I am sure Dr.Sancheti will continue his efforts and his activities and development plans, with still greater vigor and zeal here after, not just for getting any more awards or recognitions, but more as a service to the society and to humanity at large.

With these words, I once again congratulate Dr. Sancheti, Mrs. Sancheti and the entire Sancheti family and their entire team of Doctors, professionals and staff associated with him, on my own behalf, on behalf of my family and on behalf of each and every member of Prime Group and on behalf of each and every one of our esteemed guests, present here today, for getting the Padma Vibhushan Award and wishing you many more such National and International awards and recognitions to follow in the years ahead.

I would also like to take this opportunity to express my sincere thanks and gratitude, to each and every one of our distinguished and respected guests present here to take part of this ceremony of felicitation to honour Dr. Sancehti.

Thank you so much for being with us today.