Sankara Nethralaya was graced by Shri Sivanandhan the former DGP of Maharashtra, a morally upright and fearless man, a man who had risked his life and limbs in fulfilling the call of duty in the most extraordinary situations, a policeman who rose to the occasion not only in reviving and maintaining law and order and ensuring the safety of the citizens but also through his deep commitment to his men in uniform and their families. Shri Sivanandhan had co-authored the book ‘Chanakya’s 7 secrets of Leadership’ along with Shri Radhakrishnan Pillai which was recently launched by Dr SS.Badrinath, he was at Sankara Nethralaya to share his views at the behest of his close friend Dr Natarajan of Aditya Jyot Hospital, Mumbai a friend and well wisher of Sankara Nethralaya and Dr SS.Badrinath.
Dr. Neha Shrirao, Oculoplasty Fellow got the day’s proceedings started with an introduction to the distinguished Chief guest highlighting his stellar role in suppressing naxalism, reviving Mumbai from the paralysis of fear created by the underworld, revamping the entire security infrastructure of Mumbai after the 20/11 terrorist attack. Speaking on the occasion Dr KS.Vasan, Managing Director, Sankara Nethralaya observed that he had read the book “7 secrets of leadership” inspired by the writings of the 4th Century BC thinker Chanakya who had written on a host of topics including general able administration of the State, foreign relations, espionage, military strategy, leadership etc in his book Arthashastra which were highly relevant even today, Dr. Vasan observed that he saw these qualities in good measure in Shri Sivanandhan and described him as a class of leaders who were far and few. He highlighted that the role and challenges of a leader in the police or military were far more demanding than what leadership demanded in civilian society or the corporate world and Shri Sivanandhan had demonstrated admirable courage and rendered exemplary service in the most tough and challenging environment. He lauded Shri Sivanandhan for his role in transforming the Mumbai Police force by reviving their morale, streamlining the immigration process through a single window system and closed his talk by describing him as a ‘Beacon of Hope’
What followed was a most gripping and motivating talk on the topic “Combating difficulties and doubting minds’ aided by extraordinary audio-visual clippings by a master communicator on the qualities of passion, confidence, team work, dedication, integrity and so on. Shri Sivanandhan started his talk with fulsome praise for Dr SS.Badrinath, Founder & Chairman Emeritus Sankara Nethralaya whom he lauded as an example of a man who had achieved the impossible and yet remained unassuming and humble, adding that he was trying to emulate him in a small way. He interspersed his talk with interesting anecdotes and experiences from his own life, from books right from the Thirukural to Paul Coelho’s ‘Alchemist’, to drive his point home. He listed the qualities, role and challenges of a leader, underlining that a leader should own responsibility when things tend to fail and give credit to his team when plans succeed.
He closed his highly invigorating and motivating talk with an appeal to the audience to have a vision, the passion to fulfill the vision, the courage to overcome obstacles and failures, a sterling character and moral principles in achieving success, brimming self confidence in oneself, discipline and self belief, assuring that nothing can come in the way of them and their dreams if they were committed to these ideals. The highly motivated and charged audience could sense the striking similarity between Shri Sivanandhan and their own Founder, Leader and Mentor Dr SS.Badrinath in terms of how one man can turn the world around and achieve great things against all odds, in his life time in terms of justice to his profession, care and concern to his team members and selfless service to society at large.