Overcoming abject Poverty, Thinnanur's ‘Mouna Swami’ of the 1930s and 40s became a Talking Giant at the Madras High Court from the 1960s
Starting off as a Union lawyer, he went on to work closely with Moopanar winning the now Popular Satyamurthy Bhavan and Kamaraj Memorial case and appeared for MGR's TN Govt in over 400cases
TSR belonged to a rare breed who promoted cricket and cricketers for the sheer passion of the game without expecting anything in return -India Cricketer S Sriram
The Nonagenarian refuses to be tied down, and in 2021 has adapted to the technological model of fighting court cases over the Zoom
Advocate TS Ramaswamy (TSR) has just celebrated his 90th birthday in a quiet way at his two decades old flat on Car Street in Thiruvallikeni. He has been anything but quiet in the last 60years fighting and winning many prominent cases. Right through his childhood in Tindivanam, he was referred to as ‘Mouna Swami’ for he rarely spoke during the first 15years of his life choosing to be a silent observer of events around him. Paradoxically, a man who was called so went on to become a lawyer successfully talking his way into the court room earning great credibility with the judges at the Madras High Court. He did not allow poverty in his 20s to pull him down and showcased to the world that through sheer hard work and mental strength one could come up in life even from the most severest of financial challenges. While being active in the court room fighting cases for Moopanar and the Congress in the early phase and then for several years for MGR, he emerged as a star off the cricket field launching one of the earliest and the most successful cricket academies in the city in the 1980s. YMCA TSR CC produced top notch cricketers such as S Sriram, R Ashwin and S Badrinath and mentally strong personalities such as entrepreneur Promodh Sharma.
His wife of the last 65years has suffered injuries on both her legs and is now recuperating at her daughter’s home in Bangalore. Despite the pleas of his scientist son in law to relax and take rest in the quiet confines of their spacious home in the garden city, he refuses to give away what has been an extremely active life. TSR, who secured a doctorate in Vaishnavism at the age of 72, has written several books on spirituality and religion. Here is the story of the Nonagenarian who last week returned to Thiruvallikeni to take up court cases online for his clients over Zoom (Yes – Tech Savvy at 90) and one who directs almost all his current earnings towards charitable causes.
Early Spiritual Interest
Hailing from a small village, near the Eri Kaatha Rama Temple in Madurantakam(https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2008/11/madurantakam-eri-kaatha-raamar.html), Thinnalur Satakopan Ramaswamy was the eldest of eight children. Right from a young age, Ramaswamy was deep into spirituality having been initiated into Vishnu Sahasranamam and Divya Prabhandham. Even as a school boy, he had taken a liking to Vaishnavite Saint Poet Nam Azhvaar’s Thiruvoimozhi. During his farming days, his agriculturist grandfather, Thiruvenkatachari, unearthed two historical Moolavar idols that dated back to the period of the Muslim Invasion. Seeking an utsava idol to go along with the Moolavar, he walked 450miles to Sri Vaikuntam to pick the processional idol from the historical Nava Tirupathi Divya Desam on the banks of Tamaraibarani and then walked back with the utsavar idols of Perumal and Thaayar. He then went on to engage himself in physical labout to construct the temple and install these idols in Thinnalur. His grandfather also donated lands for the long term maintenance of the temple. Ramaswamy belonged to the Aasuri Clan (descendents of Saint Ramanuja) and his forefathers were ardent devotees of Kanchi Varadaraja Perumal(https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2018/04/kanchi-varadar-pallava-utsavam.html). This series of events and the presence of a Devanathan temple in the Thinnalur Agraharam played a positive role in the early life of Ramaswamy in making him a devotionally inclined person.
But outside of these, his childhood was largely uneventful with Ramaswamy focusing on academics at the American Arcot Mission High School school in Tindivanam, where his father was a lawyer. His favourite subject was Mathematics and he secured a Centum every time he took to an exam through the last few years at school. He played a bit of football at school and continued this into his University days where his team also reached the finals twice.
When it was time for PUC, he went to the Annamalai University in Chidambaram (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2008/05/chidambaram-thiruchitrakoodam.html). Through his childhood, his relationship with his amma, Kamalammal was a great one. "When it was time for me to board the train to Chidambaram she would not let me go and was in deep emotional tears for over a hour at the Tindivanam Railway Station and almost refused to send me off."
Mocked by friends
He recalls the early days at Tindivanam “I was a puny boy and was often mocked at by my classmates at school. Despite being scoffed at, I was mentally strong and did not get pushed away easily. Through the first 15years at school, I was so silent that I came to be referred to as ‘Mouna Swamigal’.”
It was not easy to get words out of Ramaswamy and he was all to himself. He got into an early habit of reading books and through the vacations in his childhood sat at the village library to read Tamil books, particularly Devan and Kalki. His other favourite location was by the side of the temple tank in Chidambaram (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2018/04/chidambaram-maasi-magam-utsavam_13.html) where he read novels for hours “In that phase in life, I wanted to become a writer.”
At Chidambaram too, he was ridiculed by the Physical Director and classmates for his physical weakness. But he found a quiet way to stay away from these abuses. He began reading English Novels, a habit that he carried on for a major part of his life. Shakespeare and Alexander Dumas were his favourite. A follower of politics, he became a supporter of the Congress. And he found the first experience of politics during his years in Chidambaram. He had become close friends with DK’s Madhi Azhagan, his senior in College. But his support for Congress led him into trouble and one night, he was chased around the college by DK followers who came behind him with dangerous weapons “While I stood my ground bravely, the Police chased them away, but interestingly the DK follower and my friend Madhi took shelter in my hostel room. It was a strong message from God that if you followed the Dharmic path even the opposition will seek refuge in you.”
It was this phase at the University that helped him gather courage and gave him the strength to face all the challenges in life.
Rejected - For the first time to Madras at 18
After his PUC, he was keen on an Engineering degree but did not secure a seat and was disappointed. His teacher at Annamalai University consoled him and suggested that he try the Engineering degree after he completed his basic graduation. For the first time in his life, he moved to Madras in 1949 and joined the Madras Christian College where he studied his favourite Mathematics for three years. He played a bit of cricket as a leg spinner at MCC under the captaincy of CD Gopinath. But the significant development at the MCC was his joining the NCC and he became an active member through the college days.
Thrice a week, he would wake up at 4am at his sister’s house in Pallavaram and board the early morning Suburban train to Tambaram for the NCC camp where he would exercise for three hours. He went on four outstation NCC camps during his three year period at the MCC. Much to everyone’s surprise, he won the Rifle 303 inter collegiate competition and was featured on the cover page of the NCC magazine. He finished in the top 3 in the NCC Exam.
Towards the end of his days at MCC, he was selected for training as the second lieutenant and was to be sent for a training programme. Delighted at this news and wanting to convey to his dear mother, he wrote a postal letter to her conveying his selection. This backfired on him for she landed up in Madras in a few days and and there ended his military dreams “She said I would not be permitted to go to Kashmir!!!”
One of the best phases of his life
Ramaswamy considers the three year phase at MCC as one of his best in life. All the professors were Englishmen. Headmaster Boyd was among the best he had seen and TSR’s liking for the English language grew manifold in this phase. He would often be reading Hamlet, Macbeth and the Three Muskateers at the college library.
It was an eventful phase in his life. Much to his surprise, the handsome young teenager found the girls at the college taking a liking for him and a story like the one from his favourite Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet was in the offing but being the eldest child in the family he stayed away from ‘love stories’ that MCC has always been famous for. “I had seven siblings and was keen that I should set an example for them through my conduct.”
Reluctant Entry into the Madras Law College
During the vacations, he would head back to Tindivanam where he narrated stories in Tamizh based on the English Novels he had read through the year ‘By then, I had already read the 18 volumes of Bharatham. Young and old alike began listening to my story telling with great interest and they were even in emotional tears when I would stop for the day at a touching point in the story.’
Rejected a second time, Reluctantly joins Law
After he graduated in Maths, he once again failed to secure the Engineering seat. His father, who had been a practicing advocate all his life, pushed him into law “I just did not like law for all through my childhood I had seen my father fighting cases where there were liquor bottles placed in the court as proof of the wrong doing. And added to that, I was a non talkative ‘Mouna Swami’. Pressurised by my father and uncle, I, most reluctantly, joined law without any idea of what it entailed.”
At the Madras Law College, he played some bit of cricket under the captaincy of N Kannayiram. While he pursued the degree in Law, his mind was not attracted to becoming an advocate and he returned to Tindivanam in 1955.
Financial Deal with Amma
Though his father pushed him to study Law, he now stood his ground and refused to take to it as a profession. When a vacancy arose at the local school in Tindivanam, much to his liking he took to teaching his favourite Maths and English. The school paid him Rs. 95 as monthly salary. He also offered to take tuitions for students in the town. It was a financially challenging phase and his amma, who had to manage 8 children, struck a financial deal with the young 24 year old “She asked me to hand the entire school salary to her to manage the household and said that I could take the tuition fees for my personal expenses. She had hoped that there would be just a couple of students at the tuition.”
Within a few months, Ramaswamy’s teaching had become so popular that there was an overflow of students at home and the space inside was just not enough. He moved to the terrace and soon there were over 50 students paying Rs. 10 a month and learning from him that led to his amma reversing the deal “She came to me and asked if the deal could be reversed – me taking the monthly salary and she the tuition fees. With great delight, I agreed to the new deal with my amma!!!”
One of the tuition students was Sundaram, the former Chemistry HOD of Vivekananda College.
In the mid 1950s, he also put together a cricket team in Tindivanam and led them on trips to Villupuram, Cuddalore and Chengalpet for friendly matches. He guided the young boys of the town in cricket and developing mental strength. Three decades, this experience was to stand him in good stead when he launched one of Madras' first cricket academies.
“I was really leading a very happy life as a school teacher. I also brought sports consciousness among the youth of Tindivanam. But my appa wanted me to settle down in a profession that would offer long term growth opportunity. He once again came up to me and pressurized me into the legal profession. While I was making good money in Tindivanam and was mentally in a happy state of mind, I could not keep away from this constant follow up and this time I gave in to his call.”
While Ramaswamy had agreed to apprentice with his uncle in Trichy and was planning to make the move his parents threw in a new condition. “They were keen to get me married. I was just going to join as an apprentice and had zero savings.”
Marries Thiruvallikeni’s Lakshmi
A family friend, Narasimhachari, who was a rights holder at the Nam Azhvaar Sannidhi at the Varadaraja Perumal temple in Kanchi, for whom TSR had great regard played a trick on him. TSR recalls the days leading up to the wedding “He would come to my parents and tell them that the well off family on TP Koil street in Thiruvallikeni liked me. And then he would go to Thiruvallikeni and position me as a bright prospect, one that they should look to finalise immediately.”
His to be wife was still in her teens but the positioning had been done the right way for the two families to agree and the match was done. And thus he married Lakshmi at Singaperumal Koil in 1957 at a time when he was still an apprentice and had not entered the court even once.
Ramaswamy, The Writer - Wins the Ananda Vikatan Short Story Contest
Leading Tamil weekly Ananda Vikatan had announced a short story contest. When Ramaswamy came to know of this, time was short with only a couple of days left for the entries to close. On one of their first trips in a packed train from Tindivanam to Trichy, Ramaswamy narrated a story through the night to his wife, who scrupulously took notes. The story had turned out well and he posted it to the Vikatan office in Madras. A few weeks later much to his surprise, his investigative story had been picked as a top three winner. And there emerged ‘Ramaswamy the Writer’.
Vikatan’s Publisher SS Vasan had been TSR’s childhood hero and the first time they met in Madras at the Vikatan office, Ramaswamy received a big hug from Vasan “Having read my short story, he imagined me to be an older person and was delighted to see a young man in front of him. He saw the writing potential in me and instantly offered me the post of Asst Editor at a monthly salary of Rs. 380. It was a tempting offer but I had committed to my father to become a lawyer and hence did not join.”
Enters the court as an Apprentice!!!!
While he was still an apprentice in Trichy, popular cine artiste MK Thyagaraja Bhagavathar had become his friend “He was stuck in a case where he was unable to repay a loan and wanted an extension of time. I had no right to appear in court for I did not have the advocate band being only an apprentice at that time. However, I mustered the courage and landed up before the judge pleading for some extension of time for repayment. The Judge took to it favourably and directed for the extension.”
It was Ramaswamy’s first client and he had come up trumps in his first argument in Court in 1957. A few months later in August 1957, he enrolled as an advocate and moved to Madras where at the High Court he fought some memorable cases and has been a popular voice fighting for Dharma for the last six decades.
Newly Married but Years in Poverty
The first few years of his married life turned out to be financially miserable. While he had been earning close to Rs. 600 a month in Tindivanam as a teacher in the mid 1950s, here was Ramaswamy with a monthly salary that did not top Rs. 100, half of which went towards rent of a small house off Usman Road (T Nagar) that resembled a dungeon. By this time, his first daughter had been born.
TSR looks back at that phase in the late 1950s “I was earning well in Tindivanam and enjoying the role as a teacher mingling with young students. And here I was thrown into an uncertain world and a life in a metropolitan city where I came for the first time in search of livelihood. It was financially miserable and I had to take care of two others. I was in real poverty and struggled to make both ends meet.”
During this phase, he joined the Club House on Usman Road as a member paying Rs. 7. It was there that he came in close contact with actor Nagesh, who too was in miserable poverty. "While I myself was struggling with my life, God opened my eyes to the fact there were others in this world who were financially worse off. Nagesh would take Rs. 10 from me for his survival, such was his life at that time.”
TSR's FIRST GURU - Gopalaswamy Iyengar
Ramaswamy started off as a junior to Gopalaswamy Iyengar, whom TSR refers to as a genius of a lawyer. He then joined another legend 'Advocate Narayanaswamy' and worked his way through to the court rooms. The decades of 1960s and 70s was marked by an extraordinary amount of hard work with Ramaswamy spending most of his time through the sections in the law “I slogged 14hours a day. I learnt a lot from Gopalaswamy, he was my FIRST GURU. I still have his portrait in my room. It was Narayanaswamy who led me into the court room and gave me the first big opportunities to present in Court and the self confidence that I could argue and win cases.”
The 1960s – Mounam Swami becomes a Talking Giant
The first few years of his marriage had been hugely challenging financially. But it was in that phase that the ‘Mouna Swami’ was transforming himself into a ‘Talking Giant’. In 1959, he appeared in a prestigious case for Muthuramalinga Devar. At the turn of the decade, he became a Union Lawyer appearing for SRMU and won his first big case, one that gave him name and popularity.
Like Periyazhvaar along the streets of Madurai
Like how Periyazhvaar (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2016/07/periyazhvaar-utsavam-srivilliputhur.html) was taken around the streets of Madurai on the elephant top to the beating of the drums, the Railway Union President too was keen to take Ramaswamy on a Celebratory Procession but he refused such a grandeur announcement. Following the Railway victory, he fought for the Postal Union and secured regular employment for casual workers. He also fought for the Mazdoor Union and the workers of the AIR. By now, Ramaswamy had become famously known as a ‘Worker’s Man’.
During this period, he also became a drama writer and his stories featured in Sabha plays. He also conducted Sports Quiz on AIR and presented speeches in TV.
The 1960s was transformational for Ramaswamy. In a surprise and unexpected development, Tindivanam Ramamurthy took him one day to Moopanar and introduced him to the senior congress man as one who will fight for justice. With P Chidambaram assisting him, Ramaswamy appeared in the case and won the Satyamurthy Bhavan for the Congress. Soon after, he also secured a stay when Kamaraj’s house on Tirumalai Pillai Road in T. Nagar came up for auction following his death. It was converted into a memorial.
Frames the Bye Laws for the AIADMK
For over a decade, Ramaswamy appeared for the Congress. And then all of a sudden advocate Karpagam Vinayakam took him to MGR. The two of them lived close by, Ramaswamy on South Boag Road and MGR on Arcot Mudali Street in T. Nagar. It was the period when MGR moved away from Karunanidhi and was setting up his own party. “I spent two weeks at MGR's home framing the bye laws for his newly launched party.”
And soon after when MGR became the CM, Ramaswamy was chosen as the Government Counsel. He fought over 400 cases for MGR in that phase “I would be in Govt meetings between 10am and 1pm and then handle my private case in the second half of the day to strengthen my finances.”
By this time, he had also appeared for the State Police and the Chief Secretary.
The Pressure to become a Judge
When CR Pattabhiraman was the President, Ramaswamy served as the Secretary of the Bar Association. In 15years he had gained such credibility at the Madras High Court that he was invited to become a judge “There was serious pressure on me to become a judge twice in the late 1970s. Most of my friends wanted me to accept the offer but by now I had taken a liking for arguing and presenting the facts on behalf of my clients and I had become too passionate and stuck to my profession as a lawyer.”
Foray into Cricket - The 1980s
Ramaswamy was in for a big and unexpected surprise in the 1980s. He had spent a majority of the previous two decades in courtroom battles fighting for his clients ( He has a 90% winning track record!!!). From real poverty, he had risen to a state of financial security. And out of the blue he received an invitation to foray into something that he had loved passionately as a teenager but had stayed away from - CRICKET. His cricket student, Santhanam, from his teaching days in Tindivanam was managing the sporting affairs at YMCA Nandanam and he reached out to his mentor to start a cricket academy within the YMCA campus. And thus Ramaswamy launched the TSR Cricket Club in Madras in the early 1980s when there really was only the Dharmalingam Cricket Academy (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2015/06/pk-dharmalingam.html) and Gurumurthy's YSCA(https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2020/11/ms-gurumurthy-ysca-somasundaram-ground.html) that was functioning as a successful unit.
Dressed in Whites, TSR would land up at the YMCA nets at 6am every weekend. He roped in Rakesh Kapoor (who passed away a few years ago) as the first coach. There was a steady flow of students especially for the annual summer camp. By the second half of the 1980s, following India’s victory in the 1983 World Cup and the 1985 WCC, cricket was taking off in the country and students came in large numbers to his camp.
While he was not technically sound on cricketing aspects, he infused a great deal of self belief in his wards and unknown names in his team took on the best in the city. He organised matches every weekend against the likes of Lotus Colony (Lottai Ramesh and CA Mohan), Vadapalani Sports Club (Nayaz and Murali Kartik) and Gandhi Nagar Club (Mujibur Rehman). Through Ranji stars of the time S Vasudevan and V Sivaramakrishnan, he organised for some of the bowlers of the TSR club to bowl to the batsmen of the SPIC team at their net practice sessions thus providing them with great exposure at a young age. He also pitched in TVS' R Ratnam as a patron in the late 1980s.
Strengthen the Mind for Success in Life
He began taking U13, U15 and seniors to week long practice matches in Bangalore against the Bangalore YMCA and Imtiaz Ahmed Cricket Club. The Bangaloreans were so impressed with the performance of these less known boys that Kamath and Imtiaz invited him to participate in the Brijesh Patel CC annual national summer tournament. Very soon, an un-fancied team surprised all the opponents and won the tournament against a Bangalore team comprising of players on the verge of Ranji Selection.
“My focus was on removing fear in the mind of the cricketers. Usually there was a tendency to get overwhelmed when you came up against the so called big teams. I called for the strengthening of the mind and to take on any opposition without fear. I instilled the belief in the students that they could beat anyone if they developed the self belief. Faith in oneself was most important.”
Left arm spinner S Sriram began his career in the late 1980s at the YMCA TSR club as did S Badrinath and R Ashwin. He ran the club for 15years and churned out many first division players outside of these three players who played for India.
Invaluable Lessons in my Cricket Development - S Sriram
Sriram came to the YMCA just after he had turned 10 with his grandfather accompanying him every weekend and staying back till the end of the practices matches the TSR cricketers played at the YMCA B ground. He recalls his association with TSR “I was very fortunate to be associated with TSR in my formative years. He belonged to a rare breed of people who promoted cricket and cricketers for the sheer passion of the game without expecting anything in return. I used to look forward to going to YMCA on weekends, starting my session at 6am and then staying back to play a match after that. The amount of games and the experience I got out of those, playing with seniors, most of the time, were invaluable lessons that went a long way in my development as a cricketer. I owe a lot to TSR for what I am today and continue to thank him from the bottom of my heart.”
PSBB school cricketer Promodh Sharma(https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2020/05/promodh-sharma-cricketer-turned.html) joined YMCA TSR in the summer of 1987 as a 15year old. He made important contributions in the win in the tournament in Bangalore and went on to play first division cricket in the 1990s. Currently, he is a globally successful businessman running a sourcing firm headquartered out of Hongkong. He looks at the time from the 1980s “TSR has had a remarkable influence on not just cricket but my attitude to life. He was the first person who spoke of ‘mind over matter.’ He constantly used to tell me that its all in the head and that when you believe you can, you most certainly will!!”
“In those days coaches spoke of physical fitness, technical perfection and the like, but to TSR it came down to strength of your mind and the courage of your convictions!!”
It is this belief that he instilled in the club cricketers as youngsters and I recall in Bangalore we went on to beat a much favoured Hyderabad Xl which included VVS Laxman and the likes in the early rounds and went on to win the tournament defeating a powerful and seemingly unbeatable Brijesh Patel Cricket Clinic team which included Sujith Somasundar, Fazal Khaleel, Yere Gowda , Arjun Rajagopal and Rajesh Kamath. He constantly found a way to motivate his players by either getting under their skin and pushing them or by putting an arm around you and telling you that you need to believe in yourself.
He used to tell me “no battle is lost till it’s won and if it’s not won on that day, it’s not the end but the next day is simply a new beginning.”
"He would ask us to play hard but always fair. He saw me play my first game for the TSR club in 1987 and that same day after I got a hundred called Swaraj CC and asked them to look at me. And I was registered with them to play in the TNCA league."
He built a wonderful team and made sure we played hard but had fun as well.
BIG LESSONS FOR LIFE FROM TSR
Now an enterpreneur who runs close to a $100m global business, Promodh says says that he was privileged to have spent a lot of time with TSR in the late 1980s and that he has been a Guru who taught life lessons that he has remembered during the most challenging times in his business. Talking from his palacious home in Hongkong, Promodh says that he has taken many life lessons from his cricketing days with TSR - Believe in yourself, If you can see it in your head, you can hold it your hand (power of visualisation), Never give up, Every challenge invariably presents an opportunity, If you cannot go over an obstacle, find a way to go around it.
The Accidental Coach
RBI offspinner NS Ramesh joined TSR Club as a coach in 1987 by accident (a real road accident). His banking team mate S Ramesh and TSR introduced themselves to each other one summer when Ramesh’s TVS Suzuki banged into TSR’s white ambassador in T. Nagar. And then S Ramesh and NS Ramesh joined as coaches. NS Ramesh recalls the coaching years at the TSR Club “He had a burning desire to contribute to the game and hence opened a coaching camp. He was a friendly though, at times, could fly of the handle when somebody questioned him. However, he was selfless and helped poor cricketers financially too. He was a strict disciplinarian and helped the boys evolve as cricketers and good human beings.
“He gave the coaches a free hand and never questioned their integrity. All the coaches had his support and grew quite close to him. It was a relationship born out of mutual respect.TSR camp has produced many wonderful cricketers. There are quite a few people like TSR, who, remaining in the background, have contributed so much to the game and many cricketers owe their success to these great people."
I owe my cricket ball exposure and league entry to TSR
Now a top 80 BCCI umpire, R Rajesh Kannan was just 16years when TSR spotted him one day in a practice match at the small YMCA B ground. He was a rank outsider in the mid 1980s with absolutely no backing. Very few in the cricketing circles knew him. He did not have a cricket kit of his own. He was not financially strong. He has just returned from a stint in the TNPL in the first phase of the tournament and recounts to this writer on the impact TSR had on his life
"I had no exposure in cricket. I did not know what league cricket was. I came to play a practice match at the YMCA B ground, scored 80runs, he spotted me there and was immediately registered in a lower division league team. He took me to the annual Bangalore tournament for three years without me spending a single pie - I could not financially afford to go on outstation trips but he backed me and my commitment to cricket and funded in full but really no one in the cricket circles knows that he was the one who supported me in those days. It was an unexpected and huge exposure for a 16 year old to be playing against the best in the country in that Bangalore tournament. My cricket ball exposure came through TSR and I also owe my entry into league cricket to TSR."
The 2000s - Into Vaishnavism and Scriptures
In the 1980s, Ramaswamy had invited MA Venkatakrishnan of Thiruvallikeni, now the leader of the Prabhandham Ghosti, to his home in CIT Nagar, T. Nagar to present upanyasams. That decade, at least once a month, he would walk all the way to the Parthasarathy temple in Thiruvallikeni, such was his devotion. By the turn of the century, he turned his attention to spirituality and moved to Thiruvallikeni, very close to Venkatakrishnan’s home. Into his late 60s, when Venkatakrishnan was the HOD of the Vaishnavism department in the Madras University, Ramaswamy joined to do his Masters inVaishnavism and came up trumps. And past 70, he achieved a Doctorate in Vaishnavism. Mentor MAV recalls those years of Ramaswamy as a 70 year student“I have known him for over three decades. Though he was actively involved in court cases and in cricket, he showed the same commitment as a student of Vaishnavism. When he was keen to pursue the doctorate degree, I suggested to him to take up a topic related to the court cases as his thesis.”
"He took up a very controversial subject – Thenkalai vs Vadakalai and studied it in-depth. It was one of the best thesis I have come across to-date. It was so beautifully written and the quality was so high that judges at the Madras High Court have often showcased his thesis as a point of reference, such was the credibility of his research work.”
MAV also points to Ramaswamy’s extensive work on the philanthropic front “He has done great work as a philanthropist but very quietly and without noise. A number of financially challenged people have been beneficiaries of his philanthropic work.”
Since then, Ramaswamy has presented over 500 lectures and authored many books on spirituality “I earned more than what I would have ever dreamt of. God has been very kind to me in this life. When I came to the Parthasarathy temple in Thiruvallikeni for the first time in my life in the 1950s when I had not settled down and with poverty lurking, I had tears in my eyes watching him. His blessings meant that I have settled permanently a 100 yards away from him” says TSR.
Aged 89, Ramaswamy last year donned the role of Mark Antony in a drama on Julius Caesar, his continuing love for the English language. He is currently the president of the Brahmma Gnana Sabha and part of active discussions on philosophies in life. He also plays an active role as the President of PROBUS. Over the last decade or so, he has been extensively supporting temple related causes through AV Rangachariar of Chidambaram Divya Desam and the two of them have been closely associated with noble causes (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2017/08/chidambaram-thillai-thiru-chitrakoodam.html).
Ramaswamy has had a glorious 90 years. After an enjoyable two years as a Maths and English teacher in Tindivanam in the mid 50s, he was keen to continue his teaching life in that remote location. But as fate would have it, life directed him to Madras. For over 60years, he has remained active as a lawyer who fought and won cases for the top personalities of the city as well as for the Workers Unions. He came into cricket when he was well past 50 and for about 15years was instrumental in churning out a generation of successful cricketers. And then for the last two decades he has been very active in Vaishnavism including trying his very best to bring the two fighting sects together.
The silent but mega contribution of his wife
While he was not keen to marry at the time he did in the mid 1950s, his wife Lakshmi has turned out to be his greatest source of strength “She had been an ardent devotee of Lord Parthasarathy for the first 15years of her life and has always been upright in her way of life. Never has she spoken the untruth and has remained straight forward all her life. She has been an inspiration all my life in leading a dharmic way of life.”
Her devotion led her to presenting over 500 Divya Prabhandham Kutcheris in Sabhas, TV and Radio. She also audio recorded the sacred verses of the Prabhandham and presented to the temples in TN. “More than all these, she almost single handedly brought up four children and led them on the right path while I was focusing on my cases"says TSR on his wife's contribution during the the decades when he fought his way up to become a credible lawyer.
Into her 80s and with her legs giving up, she is currently with her daughter in Bangalore. Ramaswamy though is not to be tied down. He has always led a simple life but has been high on ideals. Never to swerve from the path of Dharma and never to fear anything or anyone has been his motto all through his life and that has given him all the mental strength required to face life's many different challenges. At 90, he firmly believes in his favourite verses from the final canto of Nam Azhvaar's Tiruvoimozhi “தொண்டே செய்து என்றும் தொழுது வழியொழுக பண்டே பரமன் பணித்த பணிவகையே." And with that in mind, he continues to argue cases in the Madras High Court over the tech platform directing almost the entire fees from the wins towards charitable causes.
Truly an extraordinary life!!!