TRIBUTE TO Mr. S. R. SANKARAN, A FORMER LECTURER IN COMMERCE

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S.R. SANKARAN

Dear Dharumi:

Some time back I thought I will discontinue my writing to the IPAC blog after a  remark by one of its readers. But my concern for the college and my interest in collecting material for the History of the College to be kept in a repository has made me forget the insult and continue my writing.

The Magazine Section of The Hindu of this morning (31.10.10) carries an article entitled "A legacy of goodness". It is about Mr. S. R. Sankaran, a former Lecturer in Commerce in our College. He is one of the young lecturers of the College to join the IAS. The article describes his work. I am particularly interested that all who read this should read that article so I do not wish to say anything more about Mr. Sankaran or his work, except to say that he was the first with B. Com (Honours) degree in commerce to be appointed in the College in that department when rest of the department consisted of a B.Com graduate, an economics MA, a part-time lawer and a part-time auditor (CA). A tutor in the Mathematics Department was engaged to teach the B.Com students business mathematics and statistics.

There was a time when many young and bright facuty members were recruited to teach in the College as lecturers, Tutors and Demonstrators. They almost formed a club preparing for IAS and other similar Central and State service examinations. Sankaran is probably the first example. Some other IAS officers are:  K.Srinivasan (Chemistry lecturer and NCC officer), who served as Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Defence, Government of India, Ramakrishnan (Mathematics lecturer, who rose to the rank of Chief Secretary in Tamilnadu). They are both old students of the College. There were a few like Sham Sundar (Zoology lecturer) now an officer in the rank of ADGP in Tamilnadue and, Senthamarai Kannan (Zoology lecturer) who joined IPS. They were old students of the college as well.

A a person (I think his name is Kalyanaraman) from the Chemistry department was successful in the IAS written examination and went to the final interview at UPSC and was not fortunate to get through the interview, later joined the LIC (when it was nationalized) as an officer in the rank of IAS officers and rose to the rank of Deputy Zonal Manager.

Many Physics and Chemistry demonstrators and a Mathematics tutor were successful in the SAS (Subordinate Accounts Service) examinations of Government of India and ended up in the AG's (Accounted General's) office in Chennai and elsewhere and became Deputy Accountent Generals.

Why I recall all these is these days? These days when an youngester joins the College they close their eyes to other opportunitis that could take them to greater heights. My advice to them will be when you are young, fresh from the College keep reading using the best library in the College and sit for some of the national and state level competetive examinations. No doubt the salaries of College staff are good these days and (thanks to MUTA) there is job security but making your talents available to the country and state is even more useful than confining yourself to Gorippalayam in Madurai.

V.Srinivasan


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