A walk along the corridors of Vanavani after the inauguration of the school, 1963

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Academic Facilities , Administrators , Inaugurations

Vanavani School was established on the IIT Madras campus in 1963. Father Murphy’s article in the Annual Number of 1965-1966 titled ‘The Vanavani Primary School’, explains that the school was given its name by Director Prof. B. Sengupto. Father Murphy notes that the name combines ‘knowledge’ with ‘goddess of the forest’.

Seen in the photograph from the left, Mr T. N. Venkataraman (Chief Security Officer), Dr. A. L. Mudaliar (Chairman, Board of Governors of IIT Madras), Mr. R. Natarajan (Registrar), Father Murphy (Professor of English, Loyola College) and (sixth from left) Prof. B. Sengupto (Director of IIT Madras). The other persons in the photograph are yet to be identified.

An identical photograph can be found in the Central Photographic Section Collection in Album 0022 under the ID: 001/0022/IMG_0696_1

Collection:

Gourishankar Collection

Album Name:

Inauguration of Vanavani School, 1963

Photograph ID:

001/0208/IMG_0202

Album ID:

0208

Date:

8 July 1963

Place:

Vanavani School

Photographer:

C. Gourishankar (1936-2002). A geologist by qualification, Gourishankar started his career as a photographer after working for many years with the Geological Survey of India. In everything that he did, Gourishankar strove to achieve flawlessness and impeccable quality. Thus his photography too was characterised by this drive for perfection. Every photograph that Gourishankar took was meticulously planned and shot and printed with diligence and patience. Gourishankar carried out most of the official photography at IIT Madras in the 1960s.