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About Mr. B.S. Kesavan

· Mr. Kesavan was a pioneer institution builder and was responsible for many initiatives including the creation of the Indian National Bibliography and for restructuring the National Library into a preeminent institution in the country. His leadership of INSDOC (Indian National Scientific Documentation Centre) resulted in it becoming an important institution not only in India but also as a model for other developing countries.

· Mr. Kesavan was awarded the prestigious Padmashri by the Govt. of India in 1960 for his contributions to and leadership of the National Library.

· His services were used by UNESCO and the WHO in several library and information projects in different parts of the world. Mr. Kesavan was also active in international fora such as the IFLA (International Federation of Library Associations) and FID (International Federation of Documentation), and in many national committees of the UGC (University Grants Commission), Planning Commission, Ministry of Education and several Indian universities.

· Mr Kesavan who started his career as a teacher of English in the Maharaja's College, Mysore University in India, earned a name for himself with his passion for the language, its literature and its teaching. He trained a generation of administrators, scholars and artists and had as his students famous names: Mr. R K Laxman, the cartoonist; Mr. Sarada Prasad, an eminent journalist and former press secretary to India's prime ministers - Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi; and Veena Doraiswamy Iyengar.

· Mr. Kesavan produced 4 volumes on the History of Printing and Publishing in India for the National Book Trust after he had passed his 80th birthday

· Mr. Kesavan was a speaker par excellence. He held his audiences spell bound with words that seemed to the gush out as spontaneously as from a natural spring. As a teacher, he inspired his students with his dramatic gestures, his sense of humour and the commitment and love he exuded for the subject; whether it was the English language or one of his favourite subjects, Physical Bibliography. Click here to see a picture of Kesavan speaking.

· Mr. Kesavan's first love was the National Library at Kolkata, called the City of Joy, in India. He nourished the National Library as a mother would her beloved child. The esteem and affection with which he was held by his senior and junior colleagues was unique, although he was a task-master when it came to work and in spite of the excellence he demanded. Many youngsters who joined the National Library fresh from college or school learnt the importance of the 'user' of a library by the exemplary manner that Mr. Kesavan conducted himself with users of all kinds: children, the elderly, the rich and the famous, the not-so-fortunate, and the hesitant and unsure with the same concern and care that made him so well known as a true humanist in his beloved city of Kolkata. He was indeed a role model not only for his colleagues but for many who had the good fortune of coming close to him. Legend has it that the great B C Roy would often call upon Kesavan for information and help Click here to see a picture of Kesavan with some of his National Library colleagues. Mr. Kesavan had the good fortune to have as his willing allies, scholar statesmen like the great Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, the first Minister for Education in Independent India and Dr Humayan Kabeer. Legend has it that Mr. Kesavan could walk into their offices at will and seek their audience to overcome problems that unfeeling and ignorant buearacracy would often confront Mr. Kesavan's vision for the National Library. Click here to see a picture of the Maulana with Mr. Kesavan at a book exhibit inaugurated by the Maulana.

· Mr. Kesavan traveled widely in the course of his work and had many admirers in the libraries of several countries that he visited to attend conferences or to chair sessions or deliver lectures. Here is one such picture with his foreign friends.

· Above all Mr. Kesavan was a dynamic leader of men, a warm human being, and a mentor to many young minds whom he lovingly nurtured and imbued in them the human and professional values that were dear to him.