* Sathya (truth) Dharma (righteousness) Santhi (peace) Prema

10
During this period it so happened that a devotee came to 
Bhagawan with an offer to put up a Hanuman statue, nearly 
65 feet tall (to match with the 65
th
 birthday of Swami), on 
the top of a hill next to an open air stadium of Sri Sathya 
Sai University.  Swami materialized a small vigraha of 
Hanuman holding the Sanjivini hill in hand and wanted a 
statue to be built as per that colourful model and identical 
in form to the vigraha.   He wanted it to be the tallest statue 
visible right through Prasanthi Nilayam, Puttaparthi and its 
neighbourhood.  L&T designed the 65 ft. high structure 
in concrete, reinforced with a steel structure inside and 
covered with concrete to enable the sthapathis ultimately 
make the big statue to fine detail as per the model given to 
us.  Designing the arm of Hanuman holding the hill posed 
problems of getting the structural steel inside and we had 
to use the angavasthram to give the additional support for 
the heavy load from the hill.  When we made the drawing for 
the structural steel inside the concrete with all calculations 
it ultimately turned out to be like the bone structure of a 
human being, thus enlightening us to the reality that human 
beings are only trying to understand the laws of structural 
engineering which are already existing in His creation.  The 
statue was finally complete in time for Swami’s 65
th
 birthday 
and in a short time, along with an artificial waterfall from the 
hill with arrangements for illumination and re-circulation of 
water as desired by Swami.
We were asked to construct a canteen (which later came 
to be known as the South Indian Canteen) during a short 
period when Swami would be away from Prasanthi Nilayam 
traveling in Bangalore and Kodaikanal.  The canteen is 
normally very full when Swami is present in Prasanthi Nilayam 
and its capacity needed to be increased to meet the needs 
of thousands of devotees who come for darshan.  The time 
available was hardly five months.  It is a very long building, 
two-storied, with a width of approx. 9 metres along the main 
road from the gopuram entrance, right up to the Shanthi 
A. Ramakrishna receiving the FIP certificate 
for the “Most Outstanding Concrete Structure 
Award - 1994” for Sri Sathya Sai Nigamagamam 
at Hyderabad at the Washington Congress.
Other two structures that won the “Most 
Outstanding Concrete Structure Award” - L&T’s 
Administrative Office Building (right top) now 
renamed as “CRR Centre” (inset) the new look 
of the building and Engineering Design and 
Research Centre (right) - both situated in the 
Headquarter Campus of L&T in Chennai.
Bhavan opposite the administrative office and Poorna 
Chandra Auditorium.  As a construction solution we decided 
on a precast concrete structure so that while foundations 
were being laid, precast elements for floor and roof could 
be cast at the site and erected.  We could complete the 
work within a short period at a very fast pace and proved to 
ourselves the efficacy of precast solutions for economy and 
fast work.  
Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences,  
Prasanthi Nilayam
The above small beginnings led to many other constructions 
of a much larger scale and complexity, of particular interest 
from L&T’s growth perspective.  One of the landmark projects 
was the Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences 
which had some international donors led by Mr. Isaac Tigrett 
and Mr. John Sinclair who were inspired by Swami’s wish 
to provide high quality cardiac surgery free of cost to the 
poor from rural areas.  This also brought Dr. Keith Critchlow, 
a renowned architect from the Prince of Wales School of 
Architecture and with a reputation of association with the 
Buckingham Palace, to design the hospital.  
I had the privilege of joining the discussions, led by Swami, 
with these foreign devotees and Col. Joga Rao who was 
coordinating all the construction activities at that time.  It 
was amazing that while Swami was communicating in Telugu 
language, some of the foreigners told me at the end of 
the meeting that they understood everything even though 
they did not know one word of Telugu.  I had the first hand 
experience of how Swami communicates with people and 
makes them understand everything.  The work commenced 
with one set of drawings prepared by the architect and 
the project had to be completed in a year’s time as per 
the announcement of Swami that he would inaugurate the 
hospital on his 65
th
 birthday.  L&T was introduced as the 
engineer and constructor with inputs from the architect and a 
few specialist consultants brought by Mr. Isaac Tigrett.  

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For four months from then on, there was not much progress 
on the ground and everyone was wondering how this hospital 
would be ready within the remaining eight months unless 
there were to be a miracle by Swami.  I must say a miracle 
did indeed happen.  I was waiting to be a part of the drama 
that was to unfold thereafter.  Swami called for a luncheon 
meeting and praised everyone involved in the project and 
told Dr. Keith Critchlow and Mr. Isaac Tigrett to hand over 
the architectural drawings to A. Ramakrishna of L&T and 
said that he would complete the job before November 23 
and complimented them for their contributions.  He also 
invited them to the inauguration of the hospital on his 65
th
 
birthday.  Faced with the daunting task, I told Swami before 
my other fellow devotees from abroad that we at L&T would 
try our best to do the job but Bhagawan corrected me by 
saying, “You are going to finish the job and not try!”  The 
drawings given by Dr. Critchlow indicated a hospital that will 
look better than even the Buckingham Palace but we have 
to fit in a functioning super speciality hospital as per the 
requirements of Dr. Venugopal, the renowned cardiologist 
and Dr. A.N. Safaya, the then Director, All India Institute of 
Medical Sciences.  We searched for a local architect having 
experience in operating theatres and detailed planning 
to complement our own design effort to make detailed 
engineering drawings good for construction. And we found 
one Mr. Thomas Rajan and took him to Swami to receive His 
blessings.  He motivated all of us, particularly Mr. Thomas 
Rajan, to work closely with one another.  We then started 
two-shift operations for the construction work with all 
mobilization of staff, workmen and plant & equipment for a 
job which we thought was almost an impossible task.  Days 
and weeks went by and even though there was some good 
progress, the end was not in sight.  In between, torrential 
rains came, disrupting the work.  Import of high quality 
hospital equipment from abroad and their installation was 
also part of the job.  The erection of an intricate and heavy 
(2-ton) chandelier in the entrance dome was also part of 
L&T’s scope of work.  The work was going on at hectic 
pace and I was one of the few who were most concerned 
about the completion of target as the Prime Minister was 
to inaugurate the hospital and the first operation was to be 
performed on that day (Swami’s birthday).  Swami used to 
come to site for inspection and motivate people at site.  He 
used to distribute sweets and clothes to workmen.  We used 
to worry about the 3 to 4 working hours lost whenever He 
visited site.  The amount of work that was done in the last 
one week, particularly the cleaning operation in the last three 
days, with the help of the Seva Dal was unbelievable and in 
fact a miracle.  The night prior to the day of inauguration we 
were still giving finishing touches to the floor under the central 
dome and erecting the beautiful and intricate chandelier.  
The operation theatres were ready 10 days earlier for the 
doctors to make the entire environment anti-septic.  Air-
conditioning, water supply, sanitary engineering and waste 
disposal treatment work and other systems were all in place. 
The first cardiac surgery for 4 poor patients was performed 
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