Padma Sri Dr. Natteri Veeraraghavan 1913-2004
Mrs. Kamala Veeraraghavan 1924-
Mum and Dad were the epitome of compassion, caring, tolerance, sharing and awareness.
My father expressed these qualities through hisdedicated work in helping humanity at large through his research work on Rabies and Leprosy, and my mother to every individual who came into her life.
It was my mother,whilst walking on the streets of Pondicherry, who goaded my father towards doing something to help relieve the misery of people suffering from Leprosy!!
Mycobacterium Leprae, whichhas caused such massive human suffering over the years, was an exceedingly difficult organism to grow and had eluded all efforts to do so. My father’s pro bono research lead to his becoming the first to grow Mycobacterium Leprae in the laboratory both in vivo and in vitro. His work enabled the rapid diagnosis, sensitivity to drugs and treatment for Leprosy and Tuberculosis alongside.
Losing his father at an early ageand the eldest of five children, he grew up in impoverished circumstances in the village of Natteri, studying under the streetlights and walking long distances to his school and back. He excelled in his studies and won a scholarship to study medicine in VizagMedicalCollege. Throughout his medical studies he sent a large part of his meagre scholarship money to his mother to help her in raising his 3 younger brothers and sister. He graduated with distinction at the top of his class and was the gold medallistfor the year, which won him the prized postgraduate spot to train in Surgery. An attack of chicken pox prevented him from taking up this position and on his recovery he was posted at the KilpaukMental Hospital as a resident doctor. He was moved deeply by the “concentrated human misery” that he saw there and was much taken up with his work there. He was delighted when I chose the field of Psychiatry as a profession and was a constant source of encouragement to me. An accidental delivery of The Hindu newspaper to his hostel room made him take note of an ad for a position in research at the Pasteur Institute of Southern India at Coonoor which he applied for and got. He moved to Coonoor in 1937 and excelled in his work, got his doctorate in 1944, and become the youngest Director there ever in 1946. He grew the Institute to world class standard where researchers from around the world came to train in Virology under him especially in Rabies, Poliomyelitis,and Influenza. He was regarded throughout as the world’s pre eminent authority in Rabies and another achievement of his was to develop the shorter course of Rabies vaccine. He chaired the WHO expert committee on Rabies as well as contributed in many international and national research committees and bodies. He did pioneering work in developing a vaccine for Poliomyelitis and would occasionally recall how he was ‘pipped to the post’ by a few weeks by his colleague Salk! He pioneered the production of the Poliomyelitis and influenza vaccine in India.He was awarded the Padma Sri award by the Government of India in 1967 for his contribution to Medicine. He worked pro bono ‘more than full time’ after his retirement till he fell ill at the age of 91.
Dad was a living examplar exponent of Karma yoga (Yoga of work) and Mum an exponent of Bhakti Yoga (Yoga of devotion and faith).
Dad’s clear thinking, phenomenal concentration and persistence was eclipsed by his utter simplicity and humility.
The logo of The East West Foundation of India epitomizes some of the many qualities of my dear mother Mrs. Kamala Veeraraghavan. The lotus (Kamala) as a symbol of TEWFI is dedicated to her. A wonderfully warm and gentle human being,with a loving and hospitable nature, she always had time for everybody and their concerns, and was endowed with a veryinterested, sensitive and intuitive nature with an incrediblykeen memory.
If I have any skills in my profession as a psychotherapist I must have inherited them from her!
If it were not for her quietly confident encouraging nature and her unfailing support,especially in the early difficult years of forming the Foundation, all that has been done over the past 14 years and what we have today before us would not have transpired.
With eternal love and gratitude,
Chandran Sunday 13th April 2008
on behalf of all their family members and their many friends
Mrs Shantha Kalyanaraman Dr Chitra Chandran Mrs Deepa Veeraraghavan
Dr V R Kalyanaraman Dr Natteri Veeraraghavan Chandran Dr Mani Veeraraghavan
Dr Kamakshi Kalyanaram Ms Aditi Chandran Mr Darshan Veeraraghavan
Dr V R Sundaraman Mr Shiv Chandran Mr Tarun Veeraraghavan
Dr V R Srikanth
Natteri Mrs Rajammal Kalyanasundaram family
Natteri Krishnamurthy family – Mr K Ravindran, Mrs Geetha Gopalakrishnamurthi, and Mrs Thara Vedamoorthy
Natteri Kesavamurthy family - Mrs. Saraswathi Kesavamurthy, Mrs Mala Varadarajan, Mr Natteri Madhavan
Natteri Subramanian family – Mrs Mangalam Subramanian
Ramamurthy Family – Dr R Panchanathan, Mr G R Krishnamurthy, Mrs Mallika Venkataramani
Ramaswamy Family – Mrs Bhavani Ramaswamy Mr R Thyagarajan, Mr R Balakumar, Mr R Vasudevan, Mr R Krishnamurthy, and Dr R Viswanathan