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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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