My honorary services were also extended to the Catholic church, Marthoma church , Jacobite church  in the construction of their church buildings and repairs and even the construction of the beautiful St. Peter’s Cathedral at New Delhi for the Antioch Marthoma Congregation was taken up and completed by me. 

FEBA wanted my technical help in the construction of their studio and I was able to help them. A Buddhist Monastery was located on the banks of  River Jumna in Old Delhi and the river was slowly eroding the land of the monastery. The Senior monk there requested me for technical advice as how to save the monastery land and I was able to provide him with the necessary design to stop this erosion. As a gesture of appreciation, he gave me one of his beautiful paintings done by his own hand.

All the construction and maintenance programmes of Brotherhood of the Ascended Christ, St. Stephen’s Community, Queen Mary’s School and St. Stephen’s College were all taken up by me. St. Stephen’s Hospital was completely renovated by me and raised to a 400 bedded hospital through the financial help of EZE, the German Funding Agency. I was in the Board of Management of St. Thomas School, New Delhi for years and had constructed their beautiful Auditorium, class rooms, library and most of their Junior School. I still continue to be their Technical advisor and all construction and maintenance  works at the School are  being referred to me for getting my prior technical approval.

The new constructions at the National YWCA, Delhi YWCA and the Delhi YMCA were undertaken by me.

I have been serving The Leprosy Mission for the last 30 years in the Construction, management and maintenance of all their Hospitals, Vocational Training Centres and Schools spread throughout the country. I still continue to be with The Leprosy Mission as Engineering Consultant in converting the Leprosy Hospitals into Community Hospitals so that, it not only serves as a service hospital to the Leprosy patients but also as a General Hospital for the Community at large, as these hospitals are mostly located in the rural areas where  good medical facilities are not otherwise readily available to the people.  For all these, I can only thank and praise my Saviour for making me a tool in His hands to serve the needy and the poor. 

Courses

During my stay in Delhi, I had taken part in some of the activities over and above that directly connected with my official work. These are given below:

I had attended all the Management courses conducted by The Indian Institute of Public Administration and obtained  certificates from them attesting to the said qualification as a Management Consultant. 

I had attended the courses conducted by the American Institute of Management and obtained certificate as an American Management Consultant.

Consultancy and Planning

I had served as a UN Development Project (UNDP) Consultant at Bangkok and Copenhagen for preparing the Basic document  on ‘Status, problems and prospects of prefabrication in ECAFE Region’ and had participated in the UN Seminar at Copenhagen       

Had also worked as a Consultant at UNDP Head-quarters at New York for 6 months for reviewing major Engineering and Development projects received by UNDP from various countries. 

As a UNIDO Consultant, prepared a paper on ‘Introduction of Advanced Techniques for the production and use of prefabricated elements and components for Industrial construction’. This served as the Basic document at the Joint Consultation organized by UNIDO at Warsaw and Kazimiers, Poland in September and October 1975. This Joint Consultation was presided over by me where representatives from over 100 countries of the world took part. 

Appointed as Chairman of one of the Planning Groups by the National Committee on Science and Technology, Planning Commission to formulate a Science and Technology Plan covering R & D programmes relating to various Industrial complexes. A paper on ‘R & D requirements in Industrial buildings and complexes’ was written by me along with Dr. J. K. Sridhar Rao. 

Other activities

1. Academics

Was appointed by University of Delhi for a number of years as an Academic Moderator to moderate  marks of students who had appeared for the Final year Examination leading to Master in Engineering and Master in .Building and Construction Technology. 

As I was associated with the work of  the Indian Standards Institution for a number of  years having served as a Member of the National Building Code, Chairman of a number of Sectional Committees, and as a member of so many sectional committees, I was made a Fellow of  the Indian Standards Institution, in recognition of the services rendered. 

I was Vice-Chairman of the YMCA Institute of Engineering, Faridabad for over 12 years after taking over charge from Mr. Mangat Rai, I.C.S. This was an Institute run in collaboration with the Government of Haryana to train students in Mechanical and Electrical Engineering Technology with hi-tech equipment imported from Germany. The students were given higher diploma certificates by Government of  Haryana after pursuing a 4 year course, considered superior to the ordinary diploma certificates issued by Polytechnics. Our students were straightaway offered jobs on the basis of campus interviews held by the industries located at Faridabad even before the end of their courses, as Foreman, Plant Managers etc. Until the time I handed over charge as Vice-Chairman on my shift to Chennai, there was not a single student who had not secured a job in one of the industries. The Governing body of the Institute had one of the Central Government Ministers as Chairman, I as Vice-Chairman, the Secretary of  Higher Education, Government of Haryana as one of the members and a representative of National YMCA.  There was a full-time Director to run the Institute.

The Institute has now been upgraded into a Degree College under the Government of Haryana which offers the degree of Bachelor in Engineering Technology to the students. All the buildings of the Institute comprising the Academic Block, Workshops, Conference Room, lecture halls and residential quarters for the entire staff were built by me within the Institute campus. The Institute has very large grounds and even National cricket matches are held there.   

2. Arbitration  and Advisory Services

Acted as Sole Arbitrator and Umpire in a number of cases of Public Sector Undertakings. I had also acted as Advisor to a number of Public Sector Undertakings in taking up their Arbitration cases. Delhi High Court had appointed me on a number of occasions as Sole Arbitrator to adjudicate into cases of dispute that arose from time to time between private parties on Engineering Contract matters.  

2. Outreach activities of the Church

a. Church planting

I was with the National Council of Churches as Treasurer and a  member of the Working Committee for over 11 years, during which time I was able to help in the development of the various member churches and also came in contact with almost all the Bishops and Pastors of  Church of North India, Church of South India, Marthoma and Jacobite Churches, Lutheran Church and Methodist Church. 

b. Helping refugees

I was appointed as Chairman, Advisory Committee for the Christian Agency for Rehabilitation of Tibetan Refugees known as SHARAN during the period 1967 to 1969 when the maximum influx of Refugees took place.

c. Relief operations in drought, flood and earthquakes

I was also with the Church’s Auxiliary for Social Action (CASA) for over 10 years and was appointed as Chairman, CASA for 3 years. During this time, so many emergency  and rehabilitation works were carried out during floods, earth quakes, drought etc to provide immediate relief with funds provided by most of the foreign countries.  Relief was provided by supplying tents, clothes, food, blankets, temporary housing, drinking water through deep bore wells etc.

I had visited almost all the States where emergency relief was provided to oversee and ensure that the work was properly managed and the affected people were really looked after.

As Chairman, CASA, I was once invited to attend one of the Meetings of the World Council of Churches, Geneva to apprise them of the Emergency and Relief works being done in India.

4. Construction, restoration and maintenance works      

After settling in Chennai in 1996, I had been involved in helping the Diocese of Madras, Egmore Wesley Church, St. George’s Cathedral, YWCA, WCC and all the Schools functioning under the Diocese of Madras in their Construction and Maintenance works.

The LITE Project under the Diocese  costing over Rupees 8.50 crores is the biggest construction at present which involves the construction of an Auditorium to accommodate 1200 people having 70 feet clear span and 24 feet high, centrally air conditioned and acoustically treated, a Chapel, Dining Hall with kitchen, 60 rooms fully furnished, dormitories, meeting halls and a conference room. The other major constructions are the four storeyed Academic Bio-Tech Block at WCC, St. Margaret Hostel for Senior citizens at YWCA Madras, Senior Citizens Home at Royapetta for St. George’s Cathedral, Manapakkam Church, Gateway to the Cemetry  at St. George’s Cathedral, Class rooms at Ewart School and a Diocesan Higher Secondary School at Perambur.

I was also given an opportunity to help in the Restoration of
St. Andrew’s Church in Bangalore where the 100 feet tower had tilted during the floods in 2005 and the whole congregation was so perturbed and worried about this catastrophe at their
147 year old church.

Other constructions now under way are the construction of an Auditorium for St. George’s School costing over Rupees 3.50 crores, the Centenary Block for Egmore Wesley Church, a Church at Uthukottai near Andhra border and staff quarters at YWCA.

All these construction and maintenance works keep me fully busy and help me to remain fit and healthy. I thank and praise God for giving me the strength to do this at this advanced age of mine and I fully believe that the strength that I have, comes only from the Lord.
                                                                       

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