100+ and still going strong

Dr. S. Parthasarathy Iyengar.

I know a person who has drunk life to the lees and is still around at 102 defying death: Dr. S. Parthasarathy Iyengar, the father of Indian documentation.

He is the first director of the newly founded Indian National Scientific Documentation Centre. A member of the Hindu Educational Organisation, he heads the managing committee of one of the schools run by it. He is an active mentor of the Ranganathan Centre for Information Studies.

He is a disciple and devotee of S.R. Ranganathan, the father of Indian library science, the enunciator of the famous five laws of library science, the founder and first librarian of the Madras University Library and prime mover behind the National Library. (Ranganathan is not celebrated in India, there’s no portrait of him anywhere in India, but the Library of the US Congress, the world’s largest and most famous library, has his statue at its entrance. How will this country go forward with this kind of contempt for greatness?)

Back to Parthasarathy Iyengar. He is also the chairman of the trust of a Rama temple in Ayodhya and truly religiously attends its urchavams and chariot-pulling festivals. He travels by train for two-and-a half days (I think) each way to Ayodhya, and stays in the room attached to the temple. He tells me that all the garlands, incense etc. for the deity are devotedly provided by the Muslims of the locality who also join in the pulling of the chariot. Incredible, isn’t it?

Parthasarathy Iyengar is the first to arrive at meetings, participates so vigorously and questioningly that all of us have to be on our toes, and goes about as if he is 18. He does not accept “lifts” in others’ cars and insists on being independent. At 92, I hesitate to accept engagements or travel out, but not Parthasarathy Iyengar. Our HEO secretary passed away at Sriperumbudur, and I as its president sent my condolences from home, but Parthasarathy Iyengar at 102 drove all the way, one-and-a-half hours each way, to convey his condolences personally and stayed until the body was taken out.

There was a celebration of the 90th birthday of Dr. M. Anandakrishnan at Hyatt Regency, which went on for three hours. Parthasarathy Iyengar came 15 minutes ahead of the meeting, even before Anandakrishnan’s own sons turned up, and sat right until the end, avidly listening to all the speeches.

I asked Parthasarathy Iyengar the other day what his BP and blood sugar readings were. He guffawed and said he hadn’t taken any readings for decades!!

He lives right close to the Parthasarathy Temple, Thiruvalikkeni. What a man! When comes such another? Go,
mark him well, and take his blessings.

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