Opinion - Letters to the Editor   

Late Dr. Varadarajan

Sir,_ In the death of Dr. R. Varadarajan, popularly known as Gandhigram Varadarajan at Kollegal, we have lost an uninhibited advocate alike of piety and pleasure.

A scintillating conversationalist on topics ranging from Dr. Radhakrishnan's philosophy, Carnatic music, Vaishnavism, Sanskrit literature, Shakespeare, Rajaji to anthropology and Advaita, he had travelled all over the world save Russia. Compulsive readability characterised his letters, so breezy as they are, as well as his feature articles of depth and solidity.

Barely four weeks before his death, during a conversation, Varadarajan regretted that boys and girls these days did not cultivate the habit of looking up a dictionary. Indeed, he deplored that most students did not keep a dictionary, like Webster or Concise Oxford, ready at hand. He tried to stress the rising value of the English tongue in the global village.

Rural health and family planning which he propagated with dynamic energy, missionary zeal and with his capacity to improvise took him to various remote zones of the globe including Tasmania and South America and various corners of Africa. In today's welter of inefficiency and lassitude, it is men of thought, action and reflection like Varadarajan who are badly needed.

P.R. Krishna Narayanan,
Kochi

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Opinion

News: Front Page | National | Southern States | Other States | International | Opinion | Business | Sport | Miscellaneous |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary |

Stories in this Section

• Curbing en bloc defections
• Unilateral U.S.
• The FDI policy
• Obscuring the reality
• Welcome move
• 'POTA is necessary'
• Not genuine
• Lesser holidays
• Late Dr. Varadarajan

Copyright © 2003, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu