Homage to my friend DR.D.Sundararaman

     My   friend and class mate  DR.D.Sundararaman passed    away  in New Jersey   on 17^th July  .  I felt extremely sad on hearing this through the internet   from one Sri Mahesh Krishnamurthy  in his blog in world press.  Many of you might have read my friends write up    about his interaction with Maha Periyavaa , in his  book  “I lived with God “. Any one reading it is bound to shed tears .

   It was in the year 1957   that  , I joined   the Annamalai Universtity for my B.Sc (Hons)   in Mathematics.  Bidding farewell  to me in my native place of Chelakkara  , my father   told me that, , he himself has to starve along with my family     so that  I get  educated.  The only dress that he gave me where  six Mul Veshtis(White  Veshtis without  border) and a few  very badly stitched   shirts by the village   tailor. Unfortunately   I could   not get admission in the University hostel. Fortunately one of my distant uncles    of my mother was living in   Chidambaram  .  On the first day of our class , I noticed  that among the thirteen of my class mates  , only one  was wearing Veshti like  me. Apart from that he had also a tuft(kudumi) . All others in the class were extremely well dressed. Naturally  our extremely poor circumstances    attracted us towards each other.    His name was D.Sundararaman. He was also living in Chidambaram    town   , with a devotee of Maha Periyavaa  .  There were city buses from university  to Chidambaram. Both of us preferred to walk   the 4 km   daily together. I understood from him that his  father was one Doraisamy Sastrigal who was    in the Kanchi Kama Koti mut . Seeing Sundara Raman’s  brilliance   Maha periyava  had requested his devotees   to look after his education.   He also wanted  my friend to keep   a Kudumi. Our friendship grew extremely strong during the three years   of my study   in the university. WE used to visit near by temples together  . I still remember    how visited   Vadalur  on a Thai Poosam day . We had also visited    Thanjavur and Trichy together. At the end of the three years , I managed   to write an All India entrance test   and got admission in ISI, Calcutta.  D.Sundararaman got a job of lecturer in Annamalai university itself  . Later he did his Ph.D. and went to work as a professor in some  middle eastern country  .He  also did work in Institute of MAT science , Madras     for a few years . Then he went and settled in USA as a teacher  . We both used to exchange letters   and  have visited each other’s homes  and   kept   our friendship burning bright  . About   a year back , he contacted me to contribute an article    about Goddess Kamakshi  , in a souvenir   to be brought out by him  to honour  the priest of Kamakshi temple ,who was his friend.  We did talk to each other . I feel extremely upset and sad today   that my friend who used to call me “PR squared  “ is no more  . I am praying God to give that the great soul permanent salvation .