P. Kalyanasundaram, an epitome of charity, hails from a small town in Chennai. He is a gold medallist in library science and chose the career of a librarian. During his 35 years of career, he donated his entire salary and pension to charity and helped the needy and poor.
An American organization honoured this elderly man with the ‘Man of the Millennium’ award for his social service. Along with the award he also received an amount of Rs 30 crores, which he donated to charity.
Gandhian and a humanitarian by nature, P. Kalyanasundaram lives a simple life. He has actively dedicated more than 45 years of his life to social service.
He also runs a social welfare organization, ‘Paalam’ (bridge) that collects money and materials from the donors and distributes them among the poor.
Movie star Rajnikanth was touched by his caring nature and passion to help others and went ahead to adopt P. Kalyanasundaram as his father.
Awards and honours received by P. Kalyanasundaram
- BAPASI award for best librarian in 2012
- Lifetime service award from Rotary International in 2011
- ‘Best Librarian in India’ award by Union Government in 1990
- United Nations Organizations (UNO) honoured him as ‘One of the outstanding people of the 20th Century’
- “Man of the Millennium” award by an American organisation
- The International Biographical Centre, Cambridge, honoured him as ‘one of the noblest of the world’
- Acclaimed as ‘One of the top ten librarians of the world’
P. Kalyanasundaram travelled across India whenever any serious calamities happened. He helped victims of earthquake that took place in Maharashtra and Gujarat.
“We cannot sustain ourselves, unless we contribute to the society in some way or the other. I strongly feel if even one person does his bit towards social good, there will be some change.” – P. Kalyanasundarm