Glowing tributes were paid to textile technologist, industrial sociologist and arts connoisseur Kasthuri Sreenivasan on his birth centenary here on Saturday.
At the function organised by The Kasthuri Sreenivasan Trust at the SITRA Auditorium, Chairman of Kasturi and Sons Ltd. N. Ram, said Sreenivasan was an “outstanding Indian” because he did not just fight against the odds but transcended the circumstances to create and build institutions that continue to serve society even today.
More often than not, institutions did not survive those who built them. But in his case, he created institutions and built teams that furthered the cause for which the institutions were built. He also converted personal tragedies into public good by setting up the Coimbatore Cancer Foundation after doctors diagnosed him with the disease. “It was work of very high order,” Mr. Ram said after releasing a biography on Sreenivasan, ‘A Life of Impact’.
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It would be an interesting exercise to know how Sreenivasan, whom he referred to as KS, would have reacted to the manifestation of intolerance and regression that was prevalent in the country today. The recent happenings that had earned India a bad press abroad went against what he stood for, he said.
Highlighting the interesting happenings in Sreenivasan’s life, Mr. Ram said his death in 1991 was weightier than the Nilgiris range.
Kasthuri Sreenivasan, who grew up in a rustic, rural background, was a synthesis of science and spirituality, said B.K. Krishnaraj Vanavarayar, Chairman, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Coimabtore Kendra. He thought differently and acted courageously and his story was not that of an individual but of an era, when the country was ruled by the British and the world was in the grip of the Second World War.
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Born in a family that valued tradition, he turned an atheist, married an English woman and did things that made him a visionary and institution builder. It was time to ponder over whether India could produce another Kasthuri Sreenivasan, he added.
Sanjay Jayavarthanavelu, Vice-Chairman-Council of Administration, SITRA, said with his work, Kasthuri Sreenivasan transformed not just an industry (textile), but the entire region and its men and women.
He turned SITRA into an organisation that not only carried out research but also offered consultancy services.
T. Balaji, Managing Trustee, Coimbatore Cancer Foundation, said the organisation that was started in 1998 had been carrying out screening camps, tobacco cessation programmes and offering individual and group counselling sessions.
Special cover
D. Veena Kumari, Post Master General, Central Region, released a special cover on the occasion.
A Kasthuri Sreenivasan family member, Shahrani Sargunam, received the cover. Shobana Kumar, biographer, and Sarath Chandran, Managing Trustee, Kasthuri Sreenivasan Trust, spoke.
Mr. Ram later inaugurated a week-long painting exhibition, the inaugural expo of the Kasthuri Sreenivasan Centenary Series, at the Kasthuri Sreenivasan Art Gallery.