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In 1988, Dr.Madhavankutty attended a special session of the association of Malayali doctors in America that was convened to confer on him its honorary membership.  The session revealed that of the 1800 members of the association, more than 1000 were his students.

Doyen of medical education in Kerala, Dr.Madhavankutty started practicing long before the 1^st medical college was established in Kerala.  A tutor at the Stanley Medical College, Chennai from 1950, he joined Kozhikode Medical College in 1957 as professor at the age of 31.  Among the more illustrious of his students are Dr.Hegde, Vice Chancellor of Manipal University; Dr.S.P.Thyagarajan, Vice Chancellor of Madras University; Dr.Brahmanandam, Vice Chancellor of MGR University; Dr.B.Iqbal, Vice Chancellor of Kerala University and noted cancer specialist Padmasree Dr.N.Krishnan Nair.

Before his retirement in 1981, he had served as principal in Thiruvananthapuram, Kozhikode, Thrissur and Alappuzha Medical Colleges and even taught at the Pennsylvania University, USA during 1961-62.

While a student in Chennai in the 1940s, he was actively involved in public life.  During this time he served as the State Secretary and President of All India Student Congress under the leadership of Kamaraj.  An indication of the stature of Dr.Madhavankutty is that when he was the president of the organisation, R.Venkataraman was the secretary of its labour wing and P.Ramachandran its joint secretary.  These two went on to become the President of India and the Governor of Kerala respectively.

Member of Kerala University Senate for 20 years and member of Syndicate for 25 years, he also served as member of Indian Medical Council and Indian Dental Council.  President of Society for Protection of Environment of Kerala ( 9 years), President, Calicut Book Club (10 years), vice chairman of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, member of the governing body of IIM Kozhikode etc are some other positions he has held.  For the last 2 decades he is the President of Bharatiya Vichar Kendra.

63 books and 3000 odd publications summarises his quest in the ocean of knowledge.  In order to dive deeply into Indian culture and spirituality, he learned Sanskrit after retirement.  While thus studying, he secured 1^st rank in Sanskrit and English for Intermediate in Madras University. 

Among the honours that have come his way include B.C.Roy Award (1979), Swadeshi Sastra Award (1996) etc. 

Courtesy: R.V.M.Divakaran, Mathrubhumi Arogyamasika, September 2005
Contributed by: Administrator 

"He that will eat the kernel must crack the nut."