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In India there are many people who have devoted their lives for the cause of the poor and those who are deprived but none is as great as Palam Kalyanasundaram. This lean simple looking man will not impress you by his looks or his voice but his character and his actions are such that no one can remain uninspired by him.
Kalyanasundaram – The Man with a Golden Heart
This 74 year old man, Kalyanasundaram who retired as a librarian has been known to have donated each and every rupee of his earnings towards the cause of the poor and under privileged. He even slept on the railway station to understand how it feels to be poor.
This man lost his father at the age of one and was raised by his mother who always taught him the importance of donating and helping the poor. These teachings of his mother have always stayed with him and he did not even marry in order to be able to donate all that he earns.
When he was in job of a librarian he took up other part time jobs to meet his ends and even today he leads a very simple life donating anything and everything he gets in the form of awards to the poor and the needy. He even donated his pension of rupees ten lakh to the poor.
He tells that he was first inspired to do social service after listening to the speech of Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru where he asked the people of India to donate to the defence fund during Indo-China war. He went to then Chief Minister Kamaraj and donated his gold chain. At this time he was a student and went on to get a gold medal in library science. He also did his Masters in literature and history.
His Awards and Felicitations include :
- He has been awarded the best librarian prize by the Government of India.
- He was honoured as being the noblest by the International Biographical Centre, Cambridge.
- The united nations has adjudged him as the most outstanding people of the twentieth century.
- The rotary club honoured him with the Man of the Millennium award as well as the Life Time of Service Award in 2011.
Mr. Kalyanasundaram has received a lot of money as the prize money but he donated everything without keeping a single penny for himself. The whole award money that he donated till date amounts to Rs.30 crore.
Mr. Kalyanasundaram has founded an organization by the name of Palam. This organization is dedicated towards the cause of the poor and the underprivileged. This organization basically helps the donors to reach the poor. It is the responsibility of the organization to collect money from the donors and distribute it to those who are in a need of money and assistance.
This man is an epitome of selflessness and inspires many others to come out of the selfish motives and help others who need your help. His dedication and services are incomparable and inspiration to all.
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