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When the postman knocked
A LETTER from a Madras elder points out that a non-Congress State Government has been taking a greater interest in Kamaraj on the occasion of his centenary, than all the various Congress parties in the State and wonders about this state of affairs. He also adds a number of anecdotes about that politician who remained true to his background and prided himself on his simple living. Most of these tales I've heard narrated elsewhere, but one I hadn't heard was of a school-leaver who had not, for quite valid reasons, got the marks necessary to make it to one of the professional colleges. The boy's father, once a Congress politician who had helped pave the way for Kamaraj's rise to eminence, had at the time moved on to political pastures new. But he felt confident enough of receiving a sympathetic hearing from Kamaraj and approached him for a seat for his son. Which Kamaraj made possible. When questions were asked in the House, it was one of the few occasions when Kamaraj's voice was heard from the floor as he replied, ``I don't think there is anyone in this House that the boy's father has not helped in getting here. Can we say `no' to him?'' That the father decided to send his son to college outside the State rather than embarrass Kamaraj further is another matter; politicians were a different ilk then. And that the son went on to find considerable success in his field abroad only reflects the tyranny of the marks system.
Another reader writes that while referring to the record of Anna University Vice Chancellor Balaguruswamy (Miscellany, July 8), I had not paid enough attention to the ``equally outstanding'' achievements of his wife, Sushila. And he offered me the following to set the record straight. Educated in Gujarat, Maharashtra and the U.K., Sushila got a Ph.D. in Human Resources Development and taught at the Technical Teachers Training Institute, Bhopal, where she met and married Balaguruswamy. Together, they moved to HCL and NIIT and then to Hyderabad, where she headed an Andhra Pradesh Government programme to set up IT training centres for the deprived sections of the public. Together, they also set up the EBG Foundation, which Balaguruswamy's writings richly endow and she manages, focussing on computer education for women as well encouraging them to train for better opportunities in all fields.
Reader S.V. Ramakrishnan writes that NABARD (Miscellany, July 15) was set up in 1982, long after J.C. Ryan's time. It was set up by the RBI, where Ryan headed the Agricultural Credit Department from 1954 to 1960, when he retired from Government service.
That department may have been the forerunner of NABARD, but it did not lead to the establishment of the latter, indicates my correspondent.
S. MUTHIAH
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