Palmaner Vyaghrapuri Raghunathan was born in lower middle class Tamil Brahmin family on December 10, 1944. He was one the fifth of his parents ten children, of whom eight survived. He was the third son among the five sons. His parents were for their times not very orthodox; they allowed the children to grow amidst the community without any taboos of caste, creed and religion. In point of fact there was no compulsion on any one to go to temple or worship. Yet in terms of following a strict value system and morals, the parents were stringent. Thus, the author had an atmosphere of freedom to think, to discern and choose, yet building strong core values.
Raghu, as the author is known to his dear ones, had his schooling in Corporation High School in Saidapet, Madras and attended Vivekanada College, Madras(a Ramakrishna Mission institution) graduating as a Bachelor of Science in Physics and Mathematics. Realising that the family had so many mouths to be fed and so many others to be educated, Raghu always strived to self support himself by working hard; he financed his schooling by getting National Merit scholarship and in the college again on Ramakrishna Mission scholarship on the basis of his scholastic performance. The economic reasons did not permit him to join Engineering College, the fees being unaffordable for the family. Raghu was determined to prove that he was second to none and so went on to become the top in the list of candidates selected as “Engineering Trainees’ by the then telephone department. In ten months, the ‘training’ packed in him three years’ course material of B.E(Telecom Engg) and so in1965 even as he became an Engineering Supervisor , he quickly enrolled with the Institute of Telecom Engineers and passed their Section A and B exams thereby making himself equal to a Bachelor of Engineering. He then wrote the All India Class1, “Indian Engineering Services” and got recruited through All India completion for I.E.S. By then he had also got selected through an All India competitive exam for an officer with State Bank of India. He chose to take the Banking career, having satisfied himself that he had proved to be as successful as an outstanding Engineering Graduate would have been. He left SBI after 24 years after rising to be an assistant general manager, moved over to National Bank Of Oman in Muscat, with whom he served for 9 years.
Raghu was always an avid reader, his reading encompassing a wide spectrum of subjects ranging from science and engineering, finance, accounting, public finance, philosophy, psychology and parapsychology, numerology and a smattering of astronomy and astrology, political science, biographies, fiction and poetry, history and geography and so on. He even never allows medical journals which come to his sight. He also loves to learn languages. He knows English, Tamil, Hindi, Telugu, Malayalam, Gujarathi and a smattering of Kannada, German and Arabic.
Basically a self made man, since he had filial responsibilities, he married late at the age of 44 and has a young son who is doing Engineering. Raghu is a widower.
Having seen life very closely in all its turbulence and checkered route, and also being a voracious acquirer of knowledge, all his writings have a maturity and sagacity not commonly seen.
written by Abha Mittal
No comments:
Post a Comment