Tamil Nadu: CM Stalin Attends ENT Conference in Chennai with Over 400 Allopathic Physicians in Attendance
On Sunday, almost 400 allopathic physicians—the majority of them in veshtis and shirts—flew into Chennai for an ENT (Ear, Nose, and Throat) specialists’ mid-year conference. Possibly the first conference on western medicine to be organised in Tamil and have talks and papers presented in Tamil took place at this event. The event was opened by Chief Minister M K Stalin and featured 12 technical speeches on the various ENT procedures and treatment options, all in Tamil.
Stalin, who was speaking at the occasion, remarked his surprise that most of the doctors were donning veshtis and shirts as opposed to their usual coats and jackets.I notice that several organisers and participants are wearing veshti.
Furthermore, prominent medical leaders are frequently quoted at conferences for Western medicine. However, the most of these quotations come from books like Thirukkural.
The programme’s invitation card, “Selvathul Selvam sevi selvam,” had some great passages from Thirukkural, which was organised by Dr. Mohan Kameswaran. (The wealth of wealth is the knowledge acquired by hearing), “enaithanum nallavai ketka,” “ketpinum kela thagaiyave,” “sevikku unavu illadha podhu,” and “let a man listen to good even if It is small (when there is no food for the ear, give a little also to the stomach).
Isn’t this similar to Dr. Kameswaran declaring Thiruvalluvar, the author of Thirukkural, to be an expert in ENTs? Stalin enquired.
According to Stalin, Tamil is now used in every aspect of society, including music and the courts as well as administration, government, schools, and colleges.”This government is giving priority to Tamil in all sectors, following in the footsteps of (late CMs) CN Annadurai and M Karunanidhi. We recently published medical literature in Tamil, and technical education materials are also being translated into that language,” Stalin remarked.
Scientific papers authored in Tamil were presented during the conference and discussed in Tamil throughout each session. The sessions included endoscopic ear surgery, head and neck surgery, the crucial role of ENT surgeons against neurologists in managing vertigo, and the law of physics in ENT.
There was also a schedule sheet provided with Tamil terminology for each session. Tamil-language articles on important medical subjects like sleep apnea, paediatric ear ache, and poetry emphasising the value of ENT physicians were all published in a memento. A Tamil-language seminar on medical education was also held.
This is the first medical conference to be organised in Tamil, claims Dr. Kameswaran. He claimed Tamil had limits in terms of scientific applications. “Language is not at fault. It is our responsibility as professionals to try to give scientific studies and terminology in Tamil. We’ve already started it. The only language used for today’s discussions is Tamil. If academics and researchers continue to interact in English, how will Tamil develop? Every material discussed today will be included in a booklet that will be released soon.Our objective is to produce an ENT-specific Tamil medical dictionary. We’ll talk about this with the Tamil Development Directorate, Tamil University, and MGR Medical University. Our objective is to study medicine in Tamil. This is the first step in reaching that challenging objective,” he declared.
