Prof. B. M. Hegde,
Vice Chancellor,
MAHE Deemed University,
Manipal-576 119.
India.
This is not a
political cliche - it's neither for garnering votes nor for procuring any
favours thereof. To the best my
knowledge and understanding, the title statement is the closest possible to the
real truth. Absolute truth, however, is
beyond man's reach.
“Truth is not introduced into this individual from without, but was
within him all the time.”
Soren Kierkegaard.
In the death
of Ramakrishnan, Bhavan, nay, the country has lost a great son. Right from the inception of the Bhavan,
enthused by our great founder, late Munshiji, a great visionary, Ramakrishnan
took up the challenge of building this great institution, brick by brick, to
his last breath. Whereas Munshiji was the force behind the Bhavan, Ramakrishnan
was the indefatigable workhorse that transformed Munshiji's dreams into
reality. It will be uncharitable not to
mention that many others also worked shoulder to shoulder with Ramakrishnan in
this great venture.
Born in a
middle class family in Kerala, Ramakrishnan was motivated by Gandhiji's clarion
call to the nation to unite to throw away the British yoke. He was still a
young boy when he jumped into Gandhiji's bandwagon. I am very happy to state
that he remained a true Gandhian in word, deed and even, in thoughts. Curiously, a devout Gandhite, he made
Gandhian principles a way of life. After several stints in the British jails,
Ramakrishnan joined Mahatma Gandhi as his personal assistant. As good luck would have at it, he had the
good fortune of becoming the personal assistant also to the Iron man of India,
Sardar Vallabhai Patel. Knowing these
two great men intimately and working with them at very close quarters, molded
Ramakrishnan's life and work till his death.
He had the advantage of having imbibed the qualities of a strong head
from the Sardar, while clubbing it with a large heart of Mahatma Gandhi.
This
combination of the qualities of head and heart, acquired from these two great
men, must have made Ramakrishnan to be happy under all circumstances in life,
whether in the cold of winter, the warmth of spring or the heat of the summer.
I respect very few people in this world, although I like everyone, and I do it
only on one qualification of the person, that is authenticity. Wherever he was,
in a Castle or cottage; palace or pad, Ramakrishnan was one of those rare human
beings who could make himself at home.
Bhavan grew
from strength to strength under his tutelage, aided and the abetted by many
other great leaders, who contributed in no small measure to the growth of the
Bhavan. Ramakrishnan's infectious enthusiasm,
his simplicity, his unbelievable humility and his penchant for hard work for
made the Bhavan what it is today. These
qualities of head and heart had endeared Ramakrishnan to all sections of
society, from the highest of the high, to the lowest of the low - he had his
time and love for each and everyone.
Consequently, he was respected by Prime Ministers, Presidents,
Governors, bureaucrats, intellectuals, rich business tycoons, and, even the
poor Chaprasi at the Bhavan's office.
He used to attract good people to his fold like a powerful magnet, not
because of his personal needs but for the good of Bhavan at large. All over the world Bhavanites did look up to
him at times of happiness or crisis.
He had a
remarkable, almost photographic, memory and knew everyone in the Bhavan,s
family personally, a great quality I admired most in him. His disarming smile, his good words for
everyone, his compassion for the less fortunate and his desire to be of some
use to others are qualities that made him very powerful for good reasons. I have always found it very comforting to
talk to him. This has a scientific
explanation. I think every single
lepto-quark in Ramakrishnan's body had the stamp of the Bhavan with altruism
etched on it.
In addition
to all my experiences in the Bhavan for the last four decades, I had the
special privilege of having been his medical consultant. When there was a time of crisis and people
in Mumbai wanted to get him on their operating table, the last thing late
Ramakrishnan would have liked to have, our then President, Late C
Subramaniamji, asked me to examine him and take charge. Although rest is history, Ramakrishnan had
immense faith in my clinical judgement.
Before taking any treatment from his local doctors he used to counter
check with me. I consider this as one
of the greatest blessings. I had even
to take him to London with me to get my opinion ratified by some of the best
cardiologists and cardiac surgeons in London.
Curiously, none of them had ever charged him any fees and all of them
remember him fondly to this day. Dr
Walter Somerville, Queen’s cardiologist and a former editor of the British
Heart Journal, always remembers Ramakrishnan as that "humble godly person".
None of them ever thought that he needed coronary surgery. That was an old story.
Man needs an
excuse to die. Lately Ramakrishnan had
a minor stroke and his brain scan showed diffuse blood vessel disease. Death being the only certainty in life,
Ramakrishnan met his maker in peace. Our
only satisfaction is that Ramakrishnan had the type of death that he had always
wished for - "Anaayaasena maranam". Death is not the end. The soul has no death. God, in his wisdom, has plans not known to
man. Ramakrishnan now lives in the world of dead. That world is said to be
connected to the world of the living by a very strong bridge-the bridge of
human love. We would have loved
Ramakrishnan if he did not die. We could
still love him as long as we live.
Man, said Bernard Shaw, becomes immortal
either by doing something worth writing about or writing something worth
reading. Ramakrishnan immortalized himself by both these means. He was a great
writer. He will live as long as Bhavan lives, and, hopefully, as long as the
sun and moon shine on this planet earth.
Brick and
mortar do not build institutions.
Institutions are not known because of their infrastructure. Institutions are built by great human beings
who toiled upwards through the night while their companions slept, struggling
to build an institution. History of any institution is but the biography of men
and women who have toiled to build the same.
Even the great monuments of the world are only man made. Blessed, as he was, by the grace of God
Almighty, Ramakrishnan was one such institution builder, nay he was an
institution himself.
One could
write volumes about the qualities of his head and heart. However, the essence of whole issue is that
Late Ramakrishnan was an exceptional human being, like of whom there are very
few on this planet. Even those few are
threatening to be on the verge of extinction like the dinosaurs. Ramakrishnan
strongly believed in the following proverb of the Jews.
“What you don’t see with your
eyes, don’t invent with your tongue.”
As I was completing
this write up, I received the following letter signed by him, may be hours
before he died. I thought it fit to include the contents here.
February 3,
2003.
"My dear
Dr Hegdeji,
Thank you for
your letter dated 24th January 2003 forwarding therewith an article
titled "Higher Education Vs Business".
We shall
publish the same in one of the early issues of our Journal.
With kind
regards,
Yours
sincerely,
Sd/-
(S.
Ramakrishnan)"
While
Ramakrishnan leaves behind his grieving wife, son, Sunder Raman, and his wife,
Laxmi, and the children, he also leaves behind the large Bhavan's family
completely orphaned. It may not be an
exaggeration to borrow a phrase from Albert Einstein: it really makes me wonder
that a man like Ramakrishnan did ever walk on this planet in flesh and blood,
and that too, at a time when man eating (hating) man is the order of the day.
May God rest
his soul in peace!