The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Celebrating sixty years of holistic education

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Sep 03, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Celebrating sixty years of holistic education

K. Lakshmi

Vivekananda College to hold valedictory from September 7 to 12

— Photo: N. Sridharan

Marching ahead: The Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda College, Mylapore, is celebrating its diamond jubilee celebrations.

CHENNAI: Started with the prime motive to provide wholesome education to students, the Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda College has come a long way in character-building and inculcating spiritual values among the younger generation.

Marching towards the valedictory of the diamond jubilee celebrations on Friday, the tall buildings of the College at Mylapore stand a proud testimony of the principles of Swami Vivekananda.

Since its inauguration in 1946, by the then president of Chennai branch of Ramakrishna Mission Swami Kailasananda, the institution has been successful in achieving its goal of imparting education to students on merit, irrespective of their economic or social strata.

Swami Gitasarananda of Ramakrishna Mission Vidyapith recalled that the residential high school building of the Ramakrishna Mission Students’ Home was given for founding the college.

The main block of about 5,000 square feet was the only available space then. Now, the green campus boasts of several blocks for different subjects and an open air theatre, library block and sports complex.

Swami Gitasarananda said: “Several people, including the first college secretary M. Subbaraya Iyer and C. Ramanujacharya, served as the main pillars of the college.”

Such was the response to the college that the students’ strength doubled from 340 in the first year of its founding. Now, the institution has about 1,300 students studying in 14 different streams in both day and evening college, he added.

Several students who have passed out of the portals of the college have brought laurels to the institution. Swami Gitasarananda said: “Our past students have made an indelible mark in every profession be it academics, sports or music.”

Among the distinguished alumni of the college are Madras High Court judge V. Ramasubramaniam, IIT Madras Director M.S. Ananth, former cricketers S. Venkataraghavan and K. Srikkanth and former vice-chancellor of Madras University S.P. Thyagarajan.

“The involvement of the students in sports is so much that at least one student represents the college in Ranji Trophy every year,” he added. Besides being deep-rooted in traditional values, the college has periodically upgraded itself to the changing trends of education.

The college’s principal incharge, G. Srinivasa Prabhu said the college has been actively involved in research works in various subjects along with international universities. Some of the research undertaken include those on improvement of quality of industrial effluent using algae and discovering anti-cancer chemicals from micro-organisms by plant biology and biotechnology students.

Scheduled from September 7 to 12, the valedictory of the diamond jubilee celebrations would have several alumni, including Chattisgarh Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan, Minister Indian Embassy in Germany K.V.S. Gopalakrishnan and carnatic singers Vijay Siva and Sanjay Subramaniam participating.

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