Talk on Alternative Success

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Faculty Association of Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical sciences and Technology (SCTIMST) organised a talk on ‘Success of the alternative kind’ on Wednesday. The talk delivered by S M Vijayanand, Director of the Institute for Management in Government, was the inaugural session of a ten-part lecture series on non-medical subjects to be conducted in the coming months.  The senior bureaucrat, remembered for spearheading  projects like the telemedicine facility established in SCTIMST, shared his views on “why wealth, power, fame and fortune, the conventional indicators of success, should not be held up as sole models.” He based the talk on the experience of working with a spectrum of personalities in his career spanning over thirty years.  Speaking of the qualities he had found admirable in noted personalities, he mentioned the tireless zeal of former president Abdul Kalam. Retired bureaucrat V Ramachandran had always displayed an ability for doing his duty with a sense of detachment. He lauded Defence Minister A K Antony for adhering to principles  of honesty and punctuality and Dr M S Valiathan for his visionary qualities.  His most generous praise was reserved for S R Sankaran, the late Chief Secretary of Tripura  who worked tirelessly for the welfare of tribal people and bonded labourers of Andhra Pradesh.    “It was a lecture of a different kind for the faculty of SCTIMST,” said Dr H V Easwer, Assistant Professor, Department of Neurosurgery. The talk invoked the power of the ability to change things for the better for the people around oneself as the alternative  to measuring success in material terms, he added.  The lecture series was inaugurated by Dr M Unnikrishnan, Professor, Department of Vascular Surgery. Dr Radhakrishnan, Director, SCTIMST, was also present.