| N.R.Menon, Principal, Master Coaching Board, near Desabhimani Junction, Ernakulam |
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Polio had disabled him when he was 2. He hadn’t been to school. And yet thousands of students, teachers and parents interact with him. N.R.Menon, Principal of Master Coaching Board, president of Sai Samanvaya Institute of Value Education and a lecturer at the Amrita Institute of Computer Technology, is a motivator for drooping hearts.
The Master Coaching Board, started by him as a parallel college in 1971, soon became the talk of the city, thanks to its social activities and its pioneering efforts. It was the first parallel college to release a college magazine. “My mother taught me the value of education,” says Menon, who was the 2nd candidate in the history of Kerala to write SSLC exam as a private candidate.
The Sai Samanvaya Institute, which he heads, has no office or paid staff or funds. Yet its services include classes for students and teachers, voluntary blood donation, counseling, placement services, LLB entrance coaching, PSC test training for handicapped ladies, tuition, conducting retreats, lectures etc. All these services are free of cost. The institute is the result of positive networking of few academicians, businessmen, doctors and management experts, interested in sharing their talents for the less fortunate.
Menon has represented India at many world forums. Inter-faith meet at Oxford, Parliament of World Religions in Spain, Asian Convension of World Peace at Manila, World Conference of Religions, Australia are some of them. “The travels have been an eye-opener for me, for I found the treatment meted out to the disabled here inferior,” he says.
A recipient of Communal Harmony award (2001) by Kerala Higher Education Society and Ambassador for Peace award instituted by IRFWP (2003) besides many others, Menon has authored many articles on value education and religious harmony. He has obtained a diploma in counseling from the Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue, Rome.
Menon drives a specially designed car and stays with his wife and 2 sons.
Courtesy: Athira.M, New Indian Express, February 23, 2004
Contributed by: Administrator
