Find Happiness in serving Others

T.N.Manoharan, Chairman of Canara Bank at

Prof.P.R.Ramaswami Memorial Second Endowment Lecture

The name Prof.P.R.Ramaswami should be known and remembered by every Coimbatorean. The reason why it is being said in a suggestive manner is because that person- Prof.P.R.Ramaswami is the one who laid the cement concrete road from Coimbatore to Mettupalayam  in 1945 for a stretch of about 40 kms after winning a government contract.

The life and the quality that the road he laid had offered to commuters is remembered by the people of this city, especially by the senior citizens and his contributions to this city of Coimbatore goes beyond just this one accomplishment.

Prof.P.R.Ramaswami and his 3 brothers started a trust- SNR Sons Charitable Trust (bearing the name of their father S.N.Rangaswamy Naidu) and contributed their wealth for the trust. The brothers firmly wished that they should remove ignorance and disease in society and especially in Coimbatore and today there are Hospitals, Arts & Science Colleges, Engineering Colleges, Nursing College, Dental College, Polytechnic College and several schools. In total there are 17 institutions under the trust executing that dream that the 4 brothers had.

Prof. P.R.Ramaswami, apart from being a proud founder of this trust and a visionary has been an engineer and a celebrated professor and principal of GCT, Coimbatore.

To honor his soul and accomplishments, Sri Ramakrishna Engineering College, one of the 17 institutions of SNR Sons Charitable Trust hosted Prof.P.R.Ramaswami Memorial Second Endowment Lecture on 04.12.2019.T.N.Manoharan, Chairman of Canara Bank was the Chief Guest of the program. He delivered the endowment lecture.

D.Lakshminarayaswamy, Managing Trustee, SNR Sons Charitable Trust while talking about Prof.P.R.Ramaswami and the Trust, said P.R.R and his brothers bequeathed their personal wealth for the society’s welfare and the Trust is a manifestation of a dream to promote excellence in all areas of human endeavor and to leverage the power of human potential.He stated that this endowment lecture was started in the silver jubilee year of SREC to nurture and inspire young minds. “The improvement of quality of life should be everyone’s focus” he said and he placed firm faith in T.N.Manoharan to enlighten the gathering with the lecture.

T.N.Manoharan’s lecture was on the topic “Pursuit of Happiness in the Digital Era”. He said while the population in Europe and Australia is declining, USA’s stagnating and China’s is ageing, the majority of India’s population is youth on whom the entire world has high expectation. He said the rest of the world falls short of skilled youth and when the Indian youth are armed with skill , they will fulfill that expectation – to propel the growth of the globe.

But he said that the youth and Indians in general lack something that is very significant for life – Happiness. He said “According to the World Happiness Report 2019 by the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, India ranks 140 out 156 nations that were surveyed”. He said USA, Japan, S.Korea, France, and Bhutan have ‘Happiness’ listed in their preamble to their respective constitutions. He said Happiness is what majority of nations aspire for and only by being happy can we achieve success and not the other way around.

Talking about today’s technological world, he said people find happiness through gadgets which is okay if it helps in improving one’s quality of life but he cautioned that gadgets could also affect people negatively if not handled properly.

“Everything that is associated with your life can either give you happiness or sorrow”, he said and added that a person’s happiness is influenced by Family/Relationships, Jobs/Business, Health and Values.He advised the youngsters to talk with their family, share our endeavors and appreciate theirs. Talking about finding happiness in job/business, he asked them to have passion and synchronize with the culture of the organization and its interests. At the same time, he cautioned them to take care of their health. He said there is nothing worth achieving at the cost of health.

He said when one takes care of his health, family and the values he follows, the three will give them the energy to handle their profession/business.

He asked them to have aspirations and not greed if they want happiness.  He pointed out that aspirations are achieved by ethical means and even when it is not achieved, the pursuer will find content in the experience and the journey whereas when a person is driven by Greed he would employ crooked ways to achieve it and he would not be satisfied with that.

He wanted them all to develop the attitude to handle adverse situations. He said when such an attitude is developed, there would be happiness even when expectations slip.

He recommended to the young minds to find happiness in serving the needs of others or at least just one person out of his own family & friends circle.  Ending his speech, he said that not all pages of your life are pre-written and through happiness and hard-work they can write the unwritten pages.