The Innaugural BITEIN Awards Report - Nehru Centre, Mumbai, 2010

The perfect date : The 10th day of the 10th month of the 10th year of the century – 10/10/10 saw the inception of a new initiative in the dental profession. BITEIN launched a program for the Dental Awards with a very unique evening called the “BITEIN DENTAL AWARDS” at the Hall of Culture at the Nehru Centre. On the perfect ten date, 10 categories of dental awards were given to dentists from around the country for their immense contribution to dentistry in various facets. Awards were given in ten categories to Dr. Anil Kohli, Dr. Sandesh Mayekar, Dr.Ajit Shetty, Dr.Anil Arora, Dr. R.P.Nayak and Mr.Rahul Kakodkar

Outstation winners Dr. Mahesh Verma from Delhi, Dr. Malay Mahadevia from Ahmedabad, Dr. T.K.Pal from Kolkatta were among a few who travelled to Mumbai for this very special evening. A select jury comprising of Dr. Sushant Umre, Dr. Ramesh Shankar, Dr. Kanir Bhatia, Dr. Mona Kakar, Dr. Ajay Kakar and Mr. Ramchandar Nanda picked out the ten award winners from among a large number of potential candidates for the first time winners in this program. In addition BITEIN gave away the corporate award to Dr. Mukund Kamath representing Colgate. The award itself was a solid brass designer trophy created by BITEIN exclusively for the awards evening. The program was very interestingly designed with a lot of entertainment woven around and interspersed between the award presentation ceremony. Along with this was the BITEIN Lucky Lotto and 4 special prizes given away to Dr Jayshree Ravindran for the “Colgate Smile of the Evening”, Dr. Glen Mascerenhas for the “Ultradent Face of the Evening” , Dr. Kaivta Ajmera for the “ M & M Lady of the evening” and Dr. T.K.Pal for the “Prime Dental Gentleman of the evening”. The entire show as anchored by Dr. Ramesh Shankar who was the Master of Cermonies for the Award presentations and ancillary activites and Dr. Sumedh Shinde who anchored the music of the evening. The program was started on a brilliant note by the opening address and unveiling of the BITEIN AWARD TROPHY by Dr. A.Kumarswamy. This was followed by the first two Awards and then came the entertainment with a very unique theme which combined pairs of songs from the yester years with hits from the current decade and half.

Each of the awards was presented by a very renowned dentist and a very relevant non dental celebrity. Dr. Ashok Dhoble, Dr. A.P.Chitre, Dr. V.M.Desai, Dr. Hema Kapadia, Dr. Milind Karmarkar, Dr. Sabita Ram, Dr. N.K.Doctor were among those who presented the awards. Refreshments were served at the break and immediately after that there was the release of the “BITEIN Year Book of Indian Dentistry”, yet one more initiative from BITEIN. The Year Book was released at the hands of Dr. Kanir Bhatia. This was then followed by more entertainment and the rest of the awards as the evening progressed.

A unique feature of the entertainment was the musical performances on stage from Dr. Mona Kakar and a group of dentists called “Saaz or Aawaz” who performed on stage. As the evening concluded the next years awards were announced by Dr. Ajay Kakar on the 9th day of the 10th month of the 11th year of the century and this will be held in Mumbai.