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Engineering lives of people

Photos : S. James

A cut above the rest T. Kalasalingam and K. Sridharan

Along with his 48-year-old son, K.Sridharan, the pro-Chancellor of the Kalasalingam University, I gasp to keep pace with the grand old man’s long and brisk steps. Even at 86, T.Kalasalingam, the founder of the 25 years old University at Krishna n Koil, remains active and distanced from his sunset years.

As we walk around the sprawling 100-acre green campus for the Weekend interview, he pre-empts my question with his trademark smile: “A bowl of ‘keerai’, a slice of bread and a glass of milk constitutes my daily meal.”

A strict disciplinarian with a no holds barred attitude when it comes to working for the downtrodden in villages, he sails through the hour long session with an open mind. “Cerebral honesty matters,” he tells me wandering the bylanes of reminiscence.

Dressed in crisply starched and spotless white Kamarajar style Khadi shirt with oversized sleeves and his eyes hidden behind dark glasses, it is not difficult to sense something magical in “the ordinary boy” who has come a long way from an obscure village.

When he could do business even as a four year old, there was perhaps little doubt that in later years his work will become his progeny in more ways than one.

Members of his weavers’ community in Srivilliputtur did not perhaps sense the potential of this rising son. But today, the old and new generations of villagers give him all credit for enriching the place and their lives.

Possessed with grand aspirations and concrete plans, his life is a metaphor for turn around. As a little boy, he trudged six kms daily to the primary school in Ramachandrapuram Village. In the class, when the teacher gave the students a slate and two chalk pencils to write with, he broke each chalk into two pieces and kept one half with him using it prudently. The other three pieces went up for sale for an anna outside the school!

For a child who lost his mother at the age of three in 1927 and also lost vision in his right eye due to small pox, coming up the hard way in life was the only option.

From the days when he could not afford Rs.2.60 for train fare to Chennai for admission in Ramakrishna Mission School for higher studies, he has risen as a promoter and power behind educational institutions for the poor and backward people.

It is not easy to build dreams on parched hopes. But Kalasalingam even as a student burnt midnight oil working in a weaving loom with his father and learning tailoring. At 20, he declared himself a self-appointed salesman purchasing bundles of white yarn, dyeing them and selling them in single units. With his business astuteness, he identified and captured this hitherto untapped market of customers. When satyagrahis tugged at his heart, he joined them in 1942 and even went to jail leaving behind his newly wedded bride.

In 1949, he chose Chennai as a destination to start a small shop in Pondy bazaar as a vegetable hawker. Five years later, he joined the Postal Department and simultaneously started a textile trade.

With a knack of using his earned money into some new venture, Kalasalingam entered real estate in 1972 and pioneered the flat culture in the metropolis. He handed over the successful business to his four sons-in-law because establishing a college for poor students in his native place was the dream he was chasing even though it was far from easy to set up an academic institution on a parched land.

But then Kalasalingam always aimed to be a cut above the rest. “The answer to the plight of deprived in the long run is nothing else but education,” he asserts.

In 1983, he got the sanction for starting a Polytechnic in the remote backward district of West Ramnad, now known as Virudhunagar district and ever since has given priority to the development of poor people by either starting or liberally donating to promote educational institutions at all levels, from elementary schools to higher colleges of technology.

“I toiled in my childhood to study. That is why I never hesitate to meet anybody for development. I have the determination to go forward, always,” he says plainly.

That spells success for his huge University. What started with 180 students from a tin shed has grown to 12,000 students offering nearly three-dozen courses.

“I aim to make the university fully residential with 30,000 students and compete internationally, offering education in every single discipline,” shares Kalasalingam, who passed his Matriculation from Madras University at the age of 28 and completed his B.Com from Madurai Kamaraj University when he was 60.

“He achieves every goal that he sets for himself and age is no deterrent,” joins his son after a long spell of silence. Extremely obedient and disciplined, he does not sit in front of his father, eats only after he has eaten, never opens his mouth when his father is talking.

I coax him to share some details about the “kalvi vallal” and he returns: “He is a very interesting and a unique man with an unimaginable reserve of energy. When it comes to work, the clock becomes a redundant item in his life. He is used to working 24X7 refusing to slow down even with age. Once we calculated that if only he sleeps continuously for three years, it will compensate for the loss.”

Like a true Gandhian, Kalasalingam has not only helped thousands of young boys and girls rewrite their destinies but also put the future of 200 villages on track.

“Nothing was what it looks today,” he says taking me to the house where he was born. A decade ago he could not quench his thirst with a glass of potable water when he came on a visit to his village. And that made him ensure piped drinking water to every home from the Ghat. Anything else is perhaps more dramatic than the stunning transformation of the village, complete with concrete roads, a high school, fully equipped health centre and proper sanitation and drainage facilities.

He has generated employment, empowered women, educated children and continues to touch peoples’ lives with honest words and direct actions.

“He looks into every complaint himself and tells us if we follow rules and work sincerely, things will automatically work out,” says the doting son.

“He is my role model,” he adds unhesitantly. And Kalasalingam returns with a smile: “He is my new, young and modern face.”

T. Kalasalingam

Industries started: Linchem Industries Ambathur, Madras; Tiruchendur Murugan Spinning Mills, Coimbaore; Anand, Kamakoti and Shree Builders, Chennai.

Positions held: Member of Working Group for Technical Education, Tenth Five Year Plan; Former member of All India Council for Technical education, Southern region, Chennai; Founder member of Indian Institute of Education, Pune Chapter; Vice-Chairman of Tamil Nadu Self-financing Engineering Colleges Association and; Life member of Bharat Scouts and Red Cross Society, Mylapore Academy, Chennai, ISKON Education and Indian Institute of Public Administration.

K. Sridharan

With his father as the founder and chairperson of the Governing Council of all the educational institutions run by the Kalasalingam Academy of Research and Education across South Tamil Nadu, K.Sridharan, an M.Phil from Periyar University and now registered for Ph.D, is the Member Secretary of : Arulmigu Kalasalingam (A.K) Polytechnic College, AK College of Pharmacy, AK College of Arts & Science, AK College of Engineering, AK Industrial Training Institute, AK College of Education, AK Teacher Training Institute, Anand Institute of Higher Technology, Anand teacher Training Institute for Women, Kalasalingam Institute of Technology, Kalaimagal High School and Higher Secondary School. He is also the founder secretary of Kalasalingam and Anandam Charities Trust, which has initiated several unique programmes of endowment to temples, library, schools and students

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