10-08-2025
- General
- New Indian Express
For the Captain, forever
TIRUCHY: 'Exult O shores, and ring O bells!
But I with mournful tread,
Walk the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.'
Walt Whitman penned O Captain! My Captain! in 1865 in memory of his father-like figure, US President Abraham Lincoln. Though the poet never met Lincoln, his verses became a lasting bridge, binding admiration, reverence, and the Captain's enduring legacy.
Such bonds are rare in an age where loyalty often masks betrayal. Forget verses, which friend would pour their savings into treating the poor, purely in memory of a friend? Few, if any. Yet, in the quiet town of Manapparai in Tiruchy, a man on whose face time had etched the wisdom and weariness of seventy-odd years, R Chandrasekaran, has been doing exactly that for nearly three decades — keeping alive the spirit of service of his dearest friend, the late Dr V N Lakshmi Narayanan.
Hailing from Valanadu village, Chandrasekaran, a Political Science graduate, ran a modest medical shop with his wife, C Mangaiyarkarasi. The shop stood opposite Dr Narayanan's hospital, and from across the road grew a friendship grounded in shared values. Dr Narayanan devoted his life to treating the poor, often refusing payment or accepting only small contributions from those who could afford it. The two families had been close for decades. Chandrasekaran's father and Dr Narayanan were neighbours, and incidently, Chandrasekaran himself was born in the doctor's hospital. Over the years, the bond deepened. 'Our friendship went beyond working together,' Chandrasekaran recalls.
In 1994, tragedy struck. Dr Narayanan died suddenly of a heart attack, leaving behind an irreplaceable void. Nearly two lakh mourners gathered for his funeral. Chandrasekaran stood alongside the doctor's adopted son, V N L Srinivasan, performing the last rites as though he were a son himself. For him, the loss was personal and profound. Yet in grief, a resolve took root: his friend's work would not end with his passing. 'I wanted to continue what Narayanan had started,' he says.
