A vedic scholar & an athlete
Avinash Krishnamurthi (40) is an executive with a difference. He is deeply into the study of the Vedas and Sanskrit. He has not only learnt the Vedas, the Rudram, Chamakam, etc, but also teaches these holy books. With his hair tied up in a knot he looks more like a Vedic scholar than a corporate manager. Krishnamurthi is of the opinion that everyone should possess knowledge of these ancient scriptures to be able to become better human beings.
Another aspect of his life is that he is a passionate marathoner. He has taken part in just about every marathon in the country and recently he ran the Comrades Marathon in Durban city, South Africa. He completed the full run of 90 kilometres in little more than 11 hours. He found the experience of running with 20,000 other participants from all over the world exhilarating and liberating.
Spreading happiness among less privileged through music
Bansuri is a unique organisation of working professionals and businesspeople initiated by S Radhakrishnan and his wife Jaya. It organises programmes of old Hindi film songs without a profit motive. The shows are free and most members of the audience are specially abled persons and senior citizens.
Professor RSS Mani, who anchors the events, said Bansuri is on a mission to spread happiness among the less privileged through music.
So far, Bansuri has organised 17 house-full shows. Narayana Murthi, a businessman from Hong Kong, who attended a programme last Saturday was all praise for Bansuri and its team. Guess it is time to give back to society what you had taken from it.
Monsoon Reflections
Visitors enjoying monsoon season at Gateway of India | Salman Ansari/FPJ
Mission to help youth enter civil services
Vraj Patel is a retired central government officer who is on a unique mission to help underprivileged youths enter the civil services. He gives free coaching and books to hundreds of aspirants each year. His apartment near Dadar Station is chock-a-bloc with thousands of books on every conceivable subject.
An ardent devotee of Swami Dayanand Saraswati, Patel says unless we have a morally upright bureaucracy the nation cannot have a bright future. All his savings he has utilised to buy books for his students.
He gives special coaching to poor students, both boys and girls, who come to him with the dream of becoming IAS or IPS officers.
He is extremely soft spoken and evinces keen interest in the progress of his students. He believes in the Vedic adage of ‘nishkama karma’ (performing one’s duties without expecting any reward).
May his tribe increase.
Compiled by S Balakrishnan
