OCT 17 “BIRTHDAY-Dr.C.Shenbagavalli
Dr. C. SHENBAGAVALLI, at the age of 25 came to the Chennai-based Gandhi Peace Foundation in 1979 seeking a job.
Gandhia Mamani T.D.Tirumalai, a freedom fighter and a well known constructive worker in the Gandhian movement was the Secretary of the GPF at that time.
He welcomed her with warmth and affection and told her: “Come, come,…yes, we have a lot of work that we can offer you, but the only thing is that we can not afford to pay any salary ma….”
This innocent way of his response with a simple smile made her laugh, and she decided to join GPF at once. Perhaps what she sought was really an association with noble people and thoughts.
Her native place was Athur, a village 6 km from Chengalpattu, enroute to Kanchipuram. Since she was the last one of the five sisters and two brothers, all of whom were married and settled in various places, she had to support her old dependent parents. So she discontinued her Pre University Course in SIET college and started looking for a job.
She would travel two and half hours each way, starting from her home around 6.30 am, after cooking for her parents and taking good care of them, travel by two buses and a train, and reach the office (then situated in Krishnaswamy Iyer Avenue, Luz corner, Mylapore) around 9.30 am.
After the day’s work was done, she would start from the office around 6 pm and reach her home around 9 pm. Her parents would be waiting for her arrival eagerly, sitting outside their small thatched house.
In the early days, she received an honorarium of Rs.100 after a month’s work, which she used for her travel expenses. Gradually, she got so involved with the philosophy and value of the work she was involved in at the GPF that it did not matter to her what remuneration she was receiving.
Instead, she focussed on what she could offer to GPF. This became her life’s mission – spreading Gandhian Thoughts among the youth. Such was the orientation and inspiration she received from Sri.T.D.Tirumalai. She must have found great satisfaction in the creativity of her job too!
She broke the ceiling of her post, that of a typist, and volunteered in reaching out all by herself to conduct sessions on Gandhian Thoughts in schools and helping students to relate these to their personal life.
In the beginning she was shy and fearful but later turned out to be an expert in story-telling, mono-acting and in training student groups in theatre arts for effective mass communication.
Simultaneously she improved her skills by learning Gandhian Thoughts through reading the library books out of office hours and listening to lectures by Tirumalaiji. She was very fond of literature and enjoyed everything around her. The article she wrote in the Tamil literary monthly magazine, ‘Ulaga Idhaya Voli’, (Editor: Sri.T.D.Tirumalai) with the title: “Maamaramum Pesaadho?” (Won’t the mango tree talk?) won great praise.
She got her M.A. degree in Gandhian Thoughts from the Open University system of Madurai Kamaraj University and later she was awarded Ph.D. for her doctoral research on ‘Peace Education based on Gandhian Values” by Madras University, under the guidance of Rev. Fr . Anand Amaladas of Sathya Nilayam Institute, Thiruvanmiyur. She has authored five books which are very useful for school teachers in teaching ethics and morals with a methodology of story-telling and skits.
She and Dr.S.Kulandaisamy were invited by a Japan-based Educational organisation to their 10-day conference to present the innovative Peace education projects that they conduct for students in Chennai.
She was busy travelling from Athur-Mylapore for 10 years, till 1989, when she had to take a break for 3 years at a stretch, spending her life in the Railway hospital, Perambur.
It so happened that on the day of Saraswathi Pooja in 1989, after the Pooja, when she was walking on a pavement, a big branch of a mango tree fell on her resulting in a crack in all the links of her backbone. This tree still exists on the C.P.Ramaswamy Salai, Alwarpet, just near the bus stop, inside a big bungalow.
She had undergone three major surgeries and was declared normal after 3 years.
Like paradise regained, she resumed her normal activities from 1992 with more vigour, energy and vision. Since then she started staying in her sister’s house in Alwarpet, near Mylapore.
After Sri.T.D.Tirumalai passed away in 1993, we were left orphaned and we lost our office too! In spite of that we could organise a variety of novel programmes creatively and innovatively to celebrate the 125th Birth Anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, having our office in friends’ houses.
After witnessing the great relevance of these programmes for promoting Communal Harmony and Youth Empowerment, Dr.Sarojini Varadappan, President of Women Indian Association invited us to house our office in Srinivasa Gandhi Nilayam, Alwarpet, Chennai-18. A donation of rupees ten thousand also was received from them.
She also affectionately asked Dr.C.SHENBAGAVALLI to stay there considering her physical limitations to travel long distances.
Dr.C.SHENBAGAVALLI was always proud and appreciative of this offer, and often said that she was enjoying the love and care of Padma Shri Smt.S.Ambujammal to whom the Nilayam building belonged.
The present management also extended its full support to her and to our work.
For the last three years she experienced severe pain in her back, thigh and shoulders.
The doctors diagnosed it as something related to Orthopaedics only, for which she was advised physiotherapy along with pain killers. We also blindly believed this diagnosis and related it to her spine surgery of 1989.
Only four months back an MRI scan revealed that she was in the 4th stage Lung Cancer. In spite of the treatment she was offered by the Adyar Cancer Hospital from October 25th, 2023, she breathed her last around 2 am on 10th January, 2024. She gladly accepted the acute pain caused to her body and surrendered her soul at the feet of Lord Murugan.
Since she joined GPF in 1979, she had the opportunity of joining a Central government job, three times, which she courageously rejected. She never wavered.
She had a great capacity for self-restraint, self-thinking and self-sufficiency. She never ever thought of leaving GPF or looking for another job.
She was humble, honest and stubborn about what she thought was right.
She never accepted or received any kind of freebies from the governments. She never sought any recommendations to get things done in a roundabout way.
The biggest Insurance Policy she took was the one from Lord Kapaleeshwar.
Even for her treatment she managed it with the loans raised from close friends.
She was very gentle, never hurting anyone, never criticised others’ lifestyles, and accepted everyone as they are at face value. No one could remain agitated in her presence.She had her own lifestyle, and this she would not compromise at any cost.
She joined GPF as a typist-cum-clerk, but she emerged as the main pillar of GPF, putting all her time and energy in strengthening the programmes, publishing and sale of books, and most effectively in the space of public relations.
She was a Member-Trustee of GPF and a full time staff designated as
Joint Secretary & treasurer,
Gandhi Peace Foundation, Madras
332, Ambujammal Street, Alwarpet, Chennai-18.
Thousands of students who participated in our projects enjoyed her motherly affection, which they would recall even after several years.
She set a noble example for any ordinary worker working in an ordinary office, on how he/she can empower one’s own self by trying to empower the office.
Dr.C.SHENBAGAVALLI strength for acting selflessly.
