Karaikudi: When fellow passengers helped 82-year-old T. D. Krishnamachari to alight at Chettinad railway station, they might have thought that he was on his way to visit his grandchildren. He was actually making a field visit as part of his research work.
The octogenarian was the classmate of former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam at St. Joseph’s College, Tiruchi, and, 65 years later, a classmate of his grand nephew Mohamed Rafi in the University of Madras.
With five master’s degrees, a Ph.D. and PG diploma in yoga, Mr. Krishnamachari is presently pursuing Ph.D. in ‘Space, rituals and communication practices of Nagarathars,’ the dominant business community of this flourishing town.
And he was on his way to Chettinad to cover ‘Padaippu,’ an event organised by Nagarathars to pay obeisance to their forefathers, and to Nattarasankottai to cover ‘Sevvai Pongal,’ their traditional Pongal festival. “Age should not be a bar for pursuing higher studies,” he said in an informal interaction with The Hindu .
“I never took advantage of my age and competed with youngsters–whether it was field visit, assignments or seminars,” he said.
A native of Jeeyapuram near Tiruchi, Mr. Krishnamachari completed his schooling at ER High School and joined St Joseph’s College for Intermediate course in 1950, when he had Kalam as classmate. He joined BA (Honours), while Kalam opted for B.Sc. (Honours) in the same college.
Later, he moved to Chennai and did master’s in Mathematics in the University of Madras. After a stint in Travancore Rayons, he worked as a fellow in Indian Institute of Mathematics, Ahmedabad, before joining Lucas TVS.
After retirement in 1998, he found his instinct for higher studies still smouldering and took up an MA in Sanskrit in Mysore University through distance education and later an MA in Vaishnavism in the University of Madras.
After completing Ph.D. in Sanskrit in the University of Madras in 2006, Mr. Krishnamachari did a course in yoga at Krishnmacharya Yoga Mandiram, Chennai. His only regret is that he could not study at the University of Cambridge — his dream.
