I would like to talk about two people from Tamil Nadu who recently passed away but the amount of social service these people did will forever be etched in people’s memory for decades. Normally I write stuff based on what I know but for this blog I had to go and read few articles in Internet since they completely did everything behind the scenes away from shutterbugs. In a world of Granite kalvettu where people want their name to be imprinted for anything and everything here are two people who believed service has to be selfless and uncompromising and thereby set great standards when it comes
to Hospitality and Healthcare sector respectively. Let us know more about these two personalities.
Respected P Subramanian Sir:
Subramanian sir finished his studies in PSG college and established a firm in Coimbatore to manufacture gears in the year 1969. With steady growth the company got into stock exchange in the year 1986 and it was the third largest player in India in the gear manufacturing sector. Later the company was acquired by Murugappa group of companies and sir started to concentrate on social and philanthropic activities through Shanthi social service. Foundation runs a canteen, hospital and a pharmacy. Canteen provides free food for set of people every day and also food at nominal price for others; hospital and pharmacy were run not for profits but to benefit poor and downtrodden. Foundation also runs a Petrol pump where it sells petrol based on the price it arrived and only when old stock is consumed it revises price based on the new rate. Apart from this the foundation runs Blood bank, diagnostic centre, eye care centre and LPG crematorium. Personally I have heard very good reviews about the food served in his canteen and also the affordable rates the pharmacy offers for its customers. Also few thousands of people benefit from canteen every day and cleanliness is something that is given lots of importance. Sometime in the past when I was roaming around in T nagar, Chennai during Summer I saw a mud pot with drinking water and there was a flex board much bigger than the pot on top of it to mention who sponsored the water. In such a world all the philanthropic activities mentioned above happened when people did not even know the face of the donor and only when he died people got to see his face.
Respected V Shanta mam:
Shanta mam was the Chairperson of Adyar Cancer Institute and one of India’s senior Oncologist. Mam was one of the pioneers in cancer care making it affordable for patients. Shanta mam is the grand niece of CV Raman sir and after completing her school education she took up Medicine as her profession. She completed MBBS in Madras Medical college followed by DGO in 1952 and MD in Obstetrics and Gynecology. In 1954, Muthulakshmi Reddy was the first woman medical graduate of India and she along with Women’s India association founded first cancer institute and Shanta mam joined as a medical officer. Right from being Medical officer to Chairperson mam has seen the Cancer institute grow to phenomenal heights. Mam dedicated her life for poor and needy and lived in the Hospital premises throughout her life so that she can be available for patients round the clock. Just to name some of the major achievements from the institute – Duty exemption for cancer drugs, free travel for cancer patients in Trains and buses, Start of pediatric oncology unit and she was India’s first Pediatric Oncologist. I believe awards such as Padma Shri, Padma Bhushan and Padma Vibhushan got honored since she got those awards. She dedicated 60 years of medical service studying the disease, prevention of the disease, creation of specialists and scientists in different aspects of oncologic sciences. She was on the WHO advisory committee on Cancer, convenor of the state advisory board and member of many ICMR committees. Many screening centres were setup in different parts of Tamil nadu and she just reiterates the fact that if people come early then cancer can be cured and wanted to dispel fear amongst public when it comes to the disease. According to news reports she did not want any final rituals to be performed instead wished her ashes should be sprinkled all over the institute.
I wish I knew more about these wonderful people when they were alive as I would have loved to have a conversation with them. It is absolutely surprising to know that they never wanted to hog the limelight and always want their work to overshadow any sort of advertisement they get through their work. We can find people who does social service but doing selfless service without being in the limelight and with hardly any media coverage speaks volumes regarding their personality. World needs more such people and through this blog I have paid my tribute to these two great souls.
My pranams to both of them ......
No comments:
Post a Comment