Tamil Nadu   

Capturing legacy through pictures

Anasuya Menon

Exhibition paid homage to Avinashilingam Chettiar

SNAPSHOTS: Students taking a look at the exhibition on the `Life of T.S.Avinashilingam Chettiar' at the Avinashilingam University in the city on Tuesday. - PHOTO: S. SIVA SARAVANAN

COIMBATORE: The sepia photographs brought back to life frozen memories of the Avinashilingam University's early years to senior teachers and staff members. They gathered around in groups around each photograph sharing rose-tinted memories of the people featured in the pictures. Those new to the university silently took in the history of the institution they were working or studying in.

Displayed at the exhibition on the "Life of T.S.Avinashilingam Chettiar," Founder of the Avinashilingam Educational Trust Institutions, at the university, most of the pictures were collected from the university's archives, and some from ageing family albums. The organising committee pieced together fragments of information collected from various sources such as family members, friends and acquaintances of Chettiar to retell the story of his achievements to the present generation of students and teachers at the university.

The exhibition paid homage to the Founder in the university's Golden Jubilee year. It was also planning to bring out CD on the lives of Chettiar and former Vice-Chancellor, Rajammal P. Devadas.

The Chancellor of the university, K.Kulandaivel, spoke about his long association with the Founder, saying that Chettiar had always worked for the uplift of the rural population. "It was a time when those in the rural areas did not have access to developmental activities." He also encouraged women's empowerment at a time when women, especially those in the rural parts of the city, were pushed to the fringes and denied the right to education.

The time when the Avilashilingam Home Science College was set up, development had not yet reached that part of the city. Chettiar chose that location so that more women from the villages around Mettupalayam Road could pursue educational excellence.

The Ramakrishna Mission Vidyalaya at Periyanaickenpalayam was also set up with this aim in mind.

T.S. Shanmughanandam, Assistant Managing Trustee and Godavari Kamalanathan, Director of the Avinashilingam Educational Trust Institutions, also reminisced about their association with Chettiar to a gathering of more than 1,000 students.

In the next two days, almost all the students and teachers in the university would have taken a look at the exhibition, a senior staff member said.

The exhibition showed the growth of the Avinashilingam Educational Trust Institutions in a chronological order interspersed with Chettiar's points of view on various issues.

It might also have offered interesting insights to the students curious about the history of the university, for there were pictures of Chettiar with the then Information and Broadcasting Minister, Indira Gandhi, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, M.G.Ramachandran, Vice President, S.Radhakrishnan, and singer M.S.Subbulakshmi, during their visit to the university.

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