After 20 years of living the American Dream, Dr Legha is back. So is Dr Silas Charles, who used to run Quality Medical Center, that has four cancer centres in Brevard, Florida. Dr Legha, Dr Charles and a few others have something common about their past which brings them back to Ludhiana: The Christian Medical College (CMC). Their mission: the revival of their alma mater.

The CMC, founded in 1894 by Dr Edith Brown and the Greenfield sisters, Martha Rose and Kay, was once the premier medical institute in North India and amongst the best in India. The hospital, which began as North India School of Medicine for Christian Women and became ageneral hospital in 1947, was one of the first hospitals in the country where an open-heart surgery was carried out.

However, over the past decade, the institute has been driven by dissensions among the faculty, mired in court cases and thus providing banner headlines for all the wrong reasons. By the beginning of this year funds had dried up and with patients no longer reposing any faith in the hospital, bed occupancy had fallen below 30 per cent. This is when a few people, CMC alumni settled in North America, decided to give something back to the institution that had given them a headstart in their careers.

So, Dr Legha is back at the CMC as Academic Officer (Consultant) to help out with matters of patient care and education at the undergraduate and postgraduate level. ``When CMC was going through the recent period of distress, it was natural for us to step in. Back in 1983, some of us had got together and organised the CMC alumni,'' says Legha.

``This is kar seva. CMC has given something tous, now it is time for us to do our bit,'' says Dr Charles, who took over as the Director in September. Dr Madhu John from California is expected to join them soon.

Leaving their flourishing careers and the luxury back in the US was not an easy decision. ``When I told my family that I am planning to go back to India as the director of CMC, they wanted to know if I was crazy. Well I am, and this is something I felt I had to do at this stage of my life, '' says Charles.

With the arrival of professionals, things are changing at CMC. Apart from the doctors who have shifted base to Ludhiana, there are many of the CMC alumni who will be working as resource persons, visiting the hospital at regular intervals. Two of them -- Dr Bagwant Gill from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York and Dr A Rasheed Dar, a radiation oncologist from Canada -- have already been here.

The revamp plan took shape when a working committee of the alumni met the CMC management last December and made an offer of full-timecommitment and support. ``It took us six months to work out an agreement with the administration. We are now here to deliver. We have already raised funds abroad,'' says Dr Legha.

The CMC Board USA, a non-profit organisation of American Churches, had been providing major support to CMC for the last 50 years but had lately become concerned that the funds were not being utilised properly. Now with the new team at the helm, they have come forth with finance, volunteers and equipment.

``Somewhere along the way, something had gone wrong. It is very difficult to pin it down. Advances in medical technology were not kept up with, but the basic infrastructure is very much in place. It will be easy to build it back,'' says Dr Charles.

``The goal is getting closer. At one end of the spectrum, we aim to provide facilities for the rich that match the best like Apollo and Escorts, without forgetting the fact that CMC is a charitable institution meant to serve the poor. We need to make the best of medical careavailable to each and everyone who needs it,'' he adds.

Their work is showing. Patients are coming back to the hospital and bed occupancy is 47 per cent and rising steadily. The alumni abroad has already contributed Rs 1.25 crore, another Rs 1 crore awaits Dr Charles on his next visit to the US.

Now Dr Charles and friends plan to raise more funds to build deluxe five-star wards for the rich, which in turn will finance the treatment of the poor. Also on the cards is a new outpatients department.

The money they get may be a fraction of what they would have earned in the US, but the NRI doctors have a reason close to the heart to be back at CMC. Says Dr Charles, ``The camaraderie that existed between us, the education we were provided -- none of us could have asked for better schooling. CMC is worth striving for.''