Dear All

Positives and negatives—Positives first: Wishing you all a happy Diwali.

We lost Dr Prakash Pispati a few weeks back. Many of us received his emails only a few weeks before that. And at meets, his presence did not need to be specially looked into. We would know he is there. That he had been the APLAR and IRA president at one time is another thing. Motivated till the end and full of energy, he fathered the art of speaking and expressing. A detailed obituary will follow in the next issue. May his soul rest in peace.

This issue includes “Science” in the “Quarterly highlights” and “From the bench” in the “Fellows’ corner”. Two abstracts on microbiome—nasal microbiota in GPA and one on how antibiotics alter and affect gut microbiome and synovitis in the CIA model are the highlights. Vaccinations in rheumatologic diseases are discussed in the Clinical Pearl section, and an interesting masquerade has been described in the case in “Fellows’ corner”.

Rest of the columns are as usual—conferences/meets across the country and important IRA notices in “From the IRA” section and two recently launched drugs in “The industry desk”. Dr SJ Gupta shares about himself in the interview. One can appropriately label him the Rahul Dravid of IRA. He is one of those who prefers “walking the talk” and has been of great help to the IRA for years. Dr Suma Balan gives Kerala and Keralites the due credit for pulling the state out of the floods in the “Life is not all medicine” column, a must read for everyone. Dr Anu Desai yet another time comes out with a hilarious write up in the “Fellows’ corner”!

Coming back to Dr Pispati, at the IRA counters, in the halls at the IRACONs, in the GBMs where he generally stood for discussing what ought to be right, at APLAR discussions, at the banquet dinners where many of us saw his lighter side, and even in our email boxes, Sir, you will be missed. Here is Sir’s own writing to us couple of years’ back; he played all formats of the game of rheumatology India to his best and will be remembered, forever,

“At a cricket test match the captain looks to declare with a mighty score on the board. At IPL, the ball game, the calculations are different. I am a lover of classic test match where cricket is a game of gentlemen. Watching IPL on TV may be fun, playing it is intrigue.”

Sapan Pandya

Editor, IRA E Newsletter