Today, September 25th, 2023 would have been my father, Mr. D.K. Maheshwari's, 82nd birthday. On this occasion, my family and I spent the past weekend in Kolkata for a very important occasion.

Before my father passed away, all too suddenly at my Dubai home in 2020, he had envisioned setting up a Blood Bank in Howrah. He had requested me and my family to consider sponsoring the entire project. This blood centre was built in 2019 but couldn’t be commissioned as Covid caused many unplanned delays. Finally, the Centre was inaugurated in June this year. Maheshwari Foundation formally gifted this to the Lions Club of Howrah in Jaduberia yesterday. We also gifted and inaugurated a Thalassemia Unit, which should be able to serve society at large, especially those young children who need this life support regularly. Last but not least, we announced that we will gift a state-of-the-art, customised Blood Collection and Transportation Vehicle (BCTV). The BCTV will enhance the outreach programme to collect blood from donors in far and wide places. The BCTV is expected to be operational in 2-3 months.

My father was a phenomenal philanthropist. He moved from Rajasthan to Kolkata after completing his Masters. He slowly and steadily built his professional career eventually reaching the position of CEO in a couple of jute and industrial chemical companies. Alongside his endeavour to make a decent living so that he could provide a good education to his three children, me being the eldest, he always gave the rest of his time to social causes, one of which was the Lions Club of Howrah. This Club has a history of 62 years and my father was an active member for almost 50 of those years. He was a disciplined and organised person - motivating and leading from the front was his forte. Of those fifty-odd years, for twenty years he was the Chairman of the two charitable hospitals that this club runs in Howrah.

My family and friends feel blessed and grateful to have finished this important work that my father had begun. The challenges remain to make it a self-sustaining venture run professionally as an institution. We are enthused by the enthusiasm of so many members of the Club to achieve this stage soonest. We memorialised the entire Blood Bank to my father but above all, we dedicated this to every member of the Lions Club of Howrah, whose dedication and selfless work has motivated and inspired me all through my childhood till date.

In an address to the guests by my son, he recounted a good statement from the Noble Laureate, Shri Rabindranath Tagore.

“Life is given to us; we earn it by giving it”.

The void left by my father continues to be felt by so many and he is still so fondly remembered by so many, is a testament to the fact that a life well loved is a life well lived. He continues to be a benchmark in his broad network of family, friends and professionals.

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- Sudhir Maheshwari -