Palam Kalyanasundaram is although not so famous as celebrities yet he has the reason to be! Lean, feeble, scrawny and wearing a gentle smile always on his face, he has the appearance of an ordinary person commonly found nearby but still he has a golden heart which does not have any comparison. The moment you start talking to him, his fortitude and will power will have a great impact on you too. Also you will be amazed to know what all great things Kalyanasundaram has done for mankind. Moreover, he is awarded several times and has given a donation of Rs. 30 crore that he obtained from the awards.
Born in Tamil Nadu’s Thirunelveli, his mother is a source of inspiration and motivated him in the direction of serving the poor. As a result, rendering services to human race is the principal he followed all through his life. As far as his educational qualification is concerned, he has acquired gold medal in library science together with a masters degree in history as well as literature. He worked for a period of 35 years in Kumarkurupara Arts College. In this duration, he ardently and keenly gave monthly salary as donation plus did other work for meeting the everyday needs. Not only this, he also did the job of a waiter after being retired to get two times meals along with little amount as salary and the sole purpose of doing this was donating money for education to kids and orphanages.
In his words, “People think that I started doing charity when I was young by donating clothes and helping people study, and they attribute it to a public cause, but I insist it was for a private one. The place where I lived was a tiny village with no provision for roads, buses, schools, electricity, and there was not even a shop to buy a matchbox from. I had to walk 10km to school and back and walking all that way alone can be a pretty lonesome experience. Hence, I had this thought that if I could motivate most of the children to come with me to school, it would be great fun as well.”
He added, “In those days, children could not afford to pay school fees which were around Rs5. I offered to pay their school fees, got them books and clothes as well.”
According to Kalyanasundaram, he is not impressed or attracted by money. To quote what he has to say in this connection, “One can get money in three possible ways. First, through earnings; secondly, through parents’ earnings, and thirdly, through money donated by someone. But there’s nothing more fulfilling than being able to donate money for charity out of your own earnings.”