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        The Mylapore Academy was born in 1954 at Mylapore when a group of public-spirited citizens decided to form an Association which would be a channel for doing social service and promotion of cultural activities. Who were these public-spirited citizens? They were Dr Kasturi Narayanamoorthi,Dr M S Ramachandran, C S Veeraraghavan, K S Visvanathan, Dr P V G Patrudu, J D Panalal and David Lazarus met together as a group and started the Mylapore Academy. C S Veeraraghavan who was the first Founder Secretary continues to be Honorary Secretary even today — a splendid record of selfless service indeed.

Dr T S Tirumurthi (The former Vice-Chancellor of Andhra University) readily consented to be the Founder President and he played a key role by serving as an unerring source of wise counsel and expert guidance. The Mylapore Academy was inaugurated at an auspicious function by Dr P C Ghosh, the then Chief Minister of West Bengal in 1954.         All the founders of the Mylapore Academy belong to the Gandhian generation and I am quite convinced that all of them were inspired by the message of Mahatma Gandhi: 'The service of India means the service of millions who suffer. It means the ending of illiteracy and ignorance, disease and inequality of opportunity. My ideal is to wipe every tear from every eye.'         Keeping this overriding object in view, the Mylapore Academy set before itself the following tasks / objectives. :         1. To take an active interest in the civic, social, moral and cultural welfare of the community and to promote practice of good citizenship.         2. To run rescue centres during fairs, festivals and other occasions.

T D Sadasivam, honorary secretary

        3. To arrange recreational facilities for the benefit of the inmates of the city hospitals, jails, vigilance homes, schools for the disabled and other centres.

        4. To provide a forum for full and free discussions on all matters of public interest

        5. To conduct meetings, seminars and symposia on varied subjects of public interest.

        6. To promote a spirit of charity and service among the members and to engage in the relief of poor and disabled or advancement of any social service, without any discrimination of caste, colour creed and religion.

C S Veeraraghavan, founder secretary

The Golden Jubilee of the Mylapore Academy was celebrated on a grand scale in 2004. On that occasion R Venkatraman, the Former President of India congratulated the Mylapore Academy in these words: 'I offer my congratulations and felicitations to the Mylapore Academy on the completion of 50 years of fruitful service in every aspect of life. It is unparalleled by any other public institution that I know of. The late Vaidyasubramania Iyer and C S Veeraraghavan have rendered yeomen services, services that deserve to be carved in golden letters.'         The social, cultural, educational and charitable activities of the Mylapore Academy are manifold and multi-faceted. Its continued activities in the field of preventive and curative health care during the last 30 years have been indeed praiseworthy.         Right from the beginning, with limited resources, the Mylapore Academy started providing a wide range of welfare activities. Many slum dwellers were helped by free distribution of milk to infant children, pregnant and lactating mothers. A few of the slums also got lasting benefit through the building of new school blocks. As a matter of routine, the Mylapore Academy has been running a rescue centre in collaboration with Boys' Scouts, Ambulance and Home Guards for taking care of stranded children during major festivals every year. The academy has been regularly conducting year after year oratorical competitions in various languages like Tamil, Telugu, English, Hindi, Malayalam and Sanskrit. The Academy had instituted as may as 15 Silver Rolling Trophies and Shields for these oratorical competitions. The Academy played a key role in raising funds for the Gandhi Stupa Fund for building Gandhi Mandapam at Guindy.

       The Mylapore Academy has been very deeply involved in helping the physically handicapped through the Government Artificial Limb Centre, Chennai. The Academy pays for the subsidised cost of artificial limbs supplied by the Government Centre. The deserving cases are recommended to the Academy by the Orthopaedic Surgeon, Government General Hospital, Chennai. Likewise, the Academy supplies spectacles free of cost to the poor patients treated and recommended by the Government Ophthalmic Hospital, Chennai. Internationally recognised White Canes are made available to the blind people by the Mylapore Academy free of cost.

        In order to promote cultural activities, the Mylapore Academy has instituted Rolling Trophies for the best Tamil Plays enacted every year, with individual prizes for the best play, best director, best actor and actress and others. This competitive programme for promotion of art and culture was inaugurated by Kalaignar Dr M Karunanidhi, Chief Minister of Tamilnadu, about 30 years back.

        Mylapore Academy has been in the forefront in organising sports programmes / competitive events for the special children like deaf, dumb, blind and orthopaedically handicapped children. More than thousand handicapped children participate in this programme with great gusto and enthusiasm every year.

        A great citizen of Mylapore who was known for his splendid and selfless deeds of charity and philanthropy was Vaidhyasubramania Iyer who was a tower of strength to the Mylapore Academy ever since its birth in 1954. His sons, V Vaidhyanathan and V Jayaraman donated a valuable piece of land in the heart of the city at Raja Annamalaipuram for the construction of a public building for the Academy. The foundation stone for this building was laid by Dr V V Giri, President of India. The cost of construction was largely met through munificent donations of philanthropists like Dr Raja Sir Muthiah Chettiar and Dharmaratna Vaidhyasubramania Iyer.

A charitable Dispensary was opened in this building on 16 February, 1976 and Sri Sankaracharya of Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam inaugurated this Dispensary and blessed it with the name of 'Dhavanthri Vaidhyasala'. The Eye Clinic, a wing of the Dispensary, inaugurated by His Holiness Mahasannidhanam of Sringeri on 28 November, 1978.         The Dental Wing of Dhavanthri Vaidhyasala was opened by Zail Singh, the then Union Home Minister on 18 October, 1980. Sri Venugopala Clinic and Laboratory was opened by His Holiness Sri Sankaracharya of Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam on 16 February, 1983.         Finally in order to promote public welfare through the fostering of public spirit, the Mylapore Academy has instituted several Rolling Trophies for being presented to the Best College, Best CBSE School, Best Matriculation School, Best Higher Secondary School, Best High School, Best Anglo-Indian and Oriental School. The Best Students in their respective fields are also honoured every year. The Academy also helps students belonging to the economically weaker sections of society with a generous supply of essential text books.         The Academy has instituted Silver Trophies for public offices / public institutions like Best Telephone Exchange, Best Hospital, best Primary Health centre, best Railway Station, best Scout and Guide Groups, Best Police Station and Best Police Personnel.

Dr N C Raghavachari, president

        Several great men, women and citizens of Madras have been closely associated with the Mylapore Academy during the last 52 years. Dr T S Thirumurthi, Ammu Swaminathan, Dr C P Ramaswamy Iyer, Padma Bhushan T S Ramaswamy Iyer (Ex Mayor of Madras and grandson of Sir T.Muthuswamy Iyer - the first Indian judge), Padmashri Dr V Vaidhayasubramania Iyer and Dr S V Narasimhan have all been past Presidents of the Mylapore Academy. Distinguished past Presidents of India—— Dr S Radhakrishnan, Dr V V Giri, Dr Zail Singh, R Venkatraman have participated in the public functions organised by the Mylapore Academy during the last 50 years and paid their rich official tributes to the scale and scope of benefactions of the Mylapore Academy.

        Dr N C Raghavachari is now the President of the Mylapore Academy. An eminent lawyer and jurist, he is also known for his exemplary public spirit and philanthropy. C S Veeraraghavan and T S Sadasivam are the Honorary Secretaries.

        Emerson, the great American thinker, stated: 'An institution is the lengthened shadow of one man'.

        If that be so, the Mylapore Academy today is the lengthened shadow of one supremely dedicated individual C S Veeraraghavan who has been intimately associated with the Mylapore Academy ever since the first day of its birth.

        An outstanding example of distinguished honorary service in a bygone era was Sir Pherozesha Mehta's. He was a thriving and towering legal practitioner in Bombay, who toiled for the Bombay Municipality as for his own child, for sheer love of it. This busy lawyer of high eminence was not like Gokhale or Gandhi, a man of renunciation. He was a man of the truest public spirit. He was proud of Bombay and looked after its Municipality for 40 years, watching its fortunes with lidless eyes, and elevating it to 'the status of the best-governed city in India.'

        He kept his hands absolutely clean and set the highest standards of public life. It is a grim public tragedy today that in the sphere of municipal life as well as other spheres like that of temple managements and the administration of public and charitable endowments, there are not many who do public service in the public spirit, with honour and devotion to the institutions and causes committed to their care.

        Time was when the honorary worker was honoured. I suppose he was also as a rule honourable. Honorary service had not only its glamour in the shape of public esteem and official recognition, but it also bestowed soul's satisfaction to those who had a real love of their fellowmen. To those who were wealthy and enjoyed leisure, honorary service offered work which, if it flattered their own self-esteem and won them the esteem of others, also gave them an absorbing interest in the service of others. Honorary service was a duty, a sacred duty in olden days, when public spirit—enlightened participation in public affairs—— was the hallmark of a citizen. Alas! Those glorious heydays of honorary work are gone for ever!. The selfless public spirit of the Gandhian era has been replaced by public apathy and personal ambition today. The working motto of every average citizen today seems to be: 'Be singularly unscrupulous in order to be magnificently successful, not only in the eyes of the apathetic public but also in the permanently blinkered eyes of all Governments.'

        In these decadent days, the example of Mylapore Academy is indeed inspiring. Ultimately, what our society needs today is the permeation of the true spirit of public service into all ranks and walks of life.