Praise was heaped on late C.S. Ramachandran, an Indian Civil Services officer of the 1942 batch on the occasion of his birth centenary.
It was on this day that he was born, 100 years ago and a bunch of very senior bureaucrats spoke about their association with a man who they described as one of impeccable character, able administrator, God-fearing and above all, a good human being.
On Tuesday , a coffee table book with photographs and memoirs contributed by friends and associates was released by his senior and the oldest living former civil servant V.K. Rao, at the ripe age of 102, as an impressive gathering of former civil servants watched and applauded, at the Bella Vista campus of the Administrative Staff College of India here.
Among those who spoke were energy expert T.L. Shankar, M. Gopalakrishna, S. Chakravarthy, S. Parthasarathy and A.P. Ranga Rao. Civil servants of eminence themselves, they simply ran out of words in their praise of a man who they clearly held in awe and esteem.
The speakers recalled their association and meetings with C.S. Ramachandran and had several anecdotes to regale the distinguished gathering. An officer and a gentleman and one who was God-fearing was how they described Ramachandran.
The gathering was an initiative driven by Ramachadran’s daughter Gayatri, who retired as Special Chief Secretary in service of the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh Government. Incidentally, she was the only one from the family present at the function. Her two younger brothers - Rajendran and Sundara Murthy, she said were stranded in Chennai.