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        I had the good fortune of coming into close contact with Dr Chitra S Narayanaswamy (1905 - 1990) in the last decade of his life.

        An outstanding economist, a distinguished philanthropist, a successful fund-raiser for all good public causes, a dedicated social worker, a connoisseur of art, an ardent lover of music, a gifted speaker, a voracious reader and a profound scholar, he was not just a MAN. He was indeed a procession of men. After our independence, he served as chairman and director of many leading companies in India in the corporate sector, particularly in South India.

Dr Chitra S Narayanaswamy (1905 - 1990)

He succeeded Sir C P Ramaswamy Iyer as the chairman of the Seshasayee Group of Industries. He was president of the Voluntary Health Services (VHS), Adyar, The Children's Club Society, The C P Ramaswamy Iyer Foundation, The Besant Centenary Trust and The Young Men's Indian Association (YMIA). He was also the chairman of the managing committee of Thakkar Bapa Vidyalaya and the Forum of Free Enterprise, Madras branch. He succeeded C Subramaniam, the former Governor of Maharashtra, as vice-chairman of the Madras Kendra of the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan.         He was the president of the South Indian National Association and Ranade Library, Mylapore and a Trustee of Kalakshetra established by Rukmani Devi Arundale.         Chitra Narayanaswamy was born on 12 April, 1905 at Salem. He was the son of Rao Bahadur K Seshu Aiyar who has an abiding place in the history of education in South India. He studied at the Municipal High School, Mayavaram in Thanjavur District, Salem College School, Salem and Hindu High school in Triplicane, Madras. He did his Intermediate Course at the Pachayappa's College, Madras.         As the son of Seshu Aiyar, an illustrious father, distinguished alike for his scholarship and sense of discipline, Chitra Narayanaswamy was the inheritor of a tradition of all that was best in the East and the West. Indeed he combined in himself the timeless wisdom of the East with the practical efficiency of the West.

        Like many other young men of his generation, he came under the influence of the freedom movement launched by Mahatma Gandhi after 1920. He founded the Youth League, a virile, vital and purposeful organisation filled with patriotic fervour. Chitra Narayanaswamy defined the objectives of this organisation in a clear and categorical manner. Besides helping win our country's political freedom or Swaraj, this Youth League took upon itself the tasks of the eradication of social evils like child marriage, untouchability and the care and rehabilitation of destitute children. As de facto editor of the Voice of Youth, he campaigned vigorously for several seemingly lost social and public causes. Right from his college days he associated himself closely with the activities of Young Men's Indian Association (YMIA) as an organiser of public meetings and also a powerful platform speaker on public and national issues. These public activities undertaken with selfless public spirit and enthusiasm brought him into close touch with Anne Besant, C P Ramaswamy Aiyar, Rajaji, Rukmani Devi Arundale and many other prominent men and women in all walks of life from 1925 onwards.

        Many young Indian businessmen in the 1930s felt the national need to enter the field of share and stock-broking in order to establish their identity and to assert their place in this business world.

        Narayanaswamy became one of the pioneers in the world of stocks and shares. With active financial support from some distinguished members of the Nagarathar Community, Chitra Narayanaswamy started a share broking company called Swastik and Company in the 1930s. Men like

        A M M Arunachalam, M V Arunachalam and other members of this family who later distinguished themselves as corporate leaders after independence were associated with this company. During this period, Narayanaswamy came to be called as Swastik Narayanaswamy.

Later, Narayanaswamy came out of this company and became Narayanaswamy again dropping the suffix of Swastik ! In 1938, he became a member of the Madras Stock Exchange. He served as president of the Madras Stock Exchange for three terms.         By virtue of his close association with Sir C P Ramaswamy Aiyar after 1920, Narayanaswamy also came into touch with the Maharajas of Travancore, Cochin and Mysore. When Ramaswany Aiyar became the Divan of Travancore, Chitra Narayanaswamy came into closer contact with the Maharaja of Travancore. In the middle 1940s, fully backed by Maharaja Chitra Thirunal of Travancore, Narayanaswamy established a Share Broking Company in Madras called Chitra and Company in collaboration with his friend H Subramaniam.         Narayanaswamy became Chitra Narayanaswamy from that moment. This company expanded and grew by leaps and bounds after independence and became the most important catalytic agent in giving an unprecedented impetus to the growth of medium and large scale industry in South India. Aluminium Industries, India Cements, Seshasayee Group of Institutions, Metur Chemical Corporation, Seshasayee Paper Boards and several other industries owed their genesis and growth to the vision and leadership qualities of Chitra Narayanaswamy.

Visalakshi Narayanaswamy

        Recalling the services of Chitra Narayanaswamy, I can recall an incident. Shrimati Rukmani Devi Arundale came to my residence to participate in the Navaratri festival in 1983. Even as she was entering my house, Chitra Narayanaswamy also arrived at my residence soon thereafter. Rukmani Devi Arundale told me in his presence: 'Meet my very dear friend and colleague who is a wonderful gentleman. He has played a very key role in the management of Kalakshetra during the last several decades. I can only describe him as a PAROPAKARI'.

        Chitra Narayanaswamy always took a humane, civilised and above all, sober, undramatised, empirical view of life. Chitra Narayanaswamy's most striking personal characteristics were an unremittingly active intellectual power, independence, lack of fear and an unswerving devotion to his chosen methods. His method of financial and economic analysis often yielded him rich fruit and he would not modify it merely because it seemed to certain eclectics or philistines to be extreme or fanatical. Nor did he believe in practicing moderation or introducing qualifications simply in order to avoid charges of extremism, to please self-opinionated men of assumed common sense. At the same time in all his relations with friends like me he behaved with so gay, childlike and innocent a warmth of feeling, and talked with such enjoyment of, it seemed, everything, that all young men who came into contact with him were charmed and exhilarated, and stayed up talking with him into the late hours of midnight. No wonder that even the most frozen monsters from the corporate world responded to him and in spite of themselves, found themselves on terms of both respect and affection with him. Only the vainest, and those most 'alienated' from their fellowmen, remained unaffected by his warm type of vitality.

        At all the Corporate Board Meetings where he presided with great gentleness dignity and independence, he spoke his mind with candour and precision and with the great natural courtesy that was an essential attribute of his character.

        As a writer, he excelled in classical English prose. Let us hear the tribute he paid to his very great friend Raja Sir Muthiah Chettiar of Chettinad in the Bhavan's Journal in August 1984 ; ' The passing away of Dr Raja Sir Muthiah Chettiar on 12 May, 1984 marks the end of an era of both gracious living and gracious giving. His great humanitarian acts covered a wide area— of institutions and individuals.

        The great institutions that his father reared, such as the Annamalai University and the Tamil Isai Sangam, involved a tremendous responsibility in maintenance and Dr Muthiah Chettiar brought insight and a broad outlook to the affairs of both. The great edifice that he erected at Madurai for the Tamil Isai Sangam is a tribute to his great sense of appositeness and his culture, apart from his magnanimity'

        The era of gracious behaviour, the era of aristocrats who have a great heart and no hauteur, the era of spontaneous commiseration with misfortune, seems to be fading away. Today everybody talks with tongue in his cheek about Gandhiji's trusteeship theory as applicable to the wealthy and elaborate essay-writing goes on, on this over-discussed theme. But the Raja exemplified it to my knowledge in dozens of ways 'We have lost a good Samaritan who helped thousands'.

        Chitra Narayanaswamy had the good fortune of entertaining several great men and women at his residence. This included His Highness Chitra Tirunal Rama Varma of Travancore, Vijayalakshmi Pandit, Sir C V Raman, Mrs Helen Keller and others.

        He was very much instrumental in establishing Rajaji Vidyashram in Kilpauk, which has many outstanding students. He was also associated with VHS in Taramani. He was also a close friend and virtually the right-hand man of Right Honourable Srinivasa Shastri.

        His noble and devoted wife Visalakshi Narayanaswamy, whose high ideals marched with his own for a lifetime, was also a remarkable woman. She distinguished herself in various walks of public life like education, women's welfare and social welfare. One of her most unique hobbies was to collect the autographs of great men and women starting with Anne Besant from 1925. Later, she collected the autographs of Linus Pauling, Sarojini Naidu, Rajaji, Rabindranath Tagore, Vera Brittian, Sir C V Raman and Jawaharlal Nehru and many others.

        The best tribute I can pay to the memory of Chitra Narayaswamy is that by his life and example he gave flesh and blood to Cardinal Newman's famous definition of a Gentleman: 'Hence it is that it is almost a definition of a gentleman to say that he is one who never inflicts pain. This description is both refined and, as far as it goes, accurate. The true gentleman in like manner carefully avoids whatever may cause a jar or a jolt in the minds of those with whom he is cast — all clashing of opinion, or collision of feeling, all restraint, or suspicion, or gloom, or resentment; his great concern being to make every one at his ease and at home'.