Dear All
The following report appeared in the Hindu on March 15, 2012.
Regards
M G Warrier, Thiruvananthapuram
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A gesture of appreciation to society
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: When H. Ganesan retired from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) as Manager after 37 years of service, he wanted the occasion to be more than just a meeting. “I wanted to make an occasion to express my gratitude to my friends, family, and dear ones for the good things that have happened in my life. I also wanted to give back something to society because I have come up in life the hard way and have benefited from the many acts of benevolence of society,” Mr. Ganesan says. He chose to do a few things which he thought would never go waste. The Government Hospital at Fort, which has been rendering medical care to all in the locality since ages and used to be a big source of solace to Mr. Ganesan and his family, was to be the first beneficiary. “We had great faith in this hospital, its doctors, and the red-and green-coloured medicines which used to be dispensed from the huge glass bottles to everyone. I believe that government hospitals, as institutions rendering public health service, should be strengthened and patronized by more of us,” he says.
Hospital equipment
On March 1, at a function in Thiruvananthapuram, Mr. Ganesan handed over equipment to the tune of more than Rs.1 lakh to the health authorities as a token of appreciation for the service rendered to the poor. The equipment included wheelchairs, a walker, glucometers, blood pressure apparatus, nebulisers, water purifier, ceiling fans, mattresses, bed-sheets, waste buckets and the like. Mr. Ganesan says he visited the hospital several times to assess its requirements and ensure that he only bought items that would not be supplied by the government. As a token of gratitude to the staff at the RBI canteen who, he says, fed him good food all through his years in office, he handed over 14 savings bank (SB) and recurring deposit (RD) account pass books to the canteen employees in whose names he had opened bank accounts. The accounts were zero balance operable accounts with an initial deposit of Rs.900 in SB account and Rs.100 in RD account and included an insurance cover for Rs.5 lakh. He also distributed blankets and bed-sheets to 25 elderly, indigent persons. Hailing from a poor Brahmin family in the Fort area, Mr. Ganesan remembers the years of penury when he and his six siblings depended on the ‘padachoru’ and ‘prasadams’ from Sree Padmananbhaswamy temple for subsistence. He could not go for higher studies, but after he joined the RBI as a typist, he acquired MA, MBA, and M. Phil. Degrees through self-study and correspondence courses. He is currently pursuing his doctorate in Healthcare Administration at Madurai Kamraj University. “All this was possible because of the grace of God which showed itself in so many acts of kindness of many people. It was my duty to do whatever I could to thank God,” he says.
