Recovering from a personal tragedy to serve the poor

TORONTO: On June 23, 1985, Chandrasekhar Sankurathri, then a scientific evaluator with Health Canada in Ottawa, lost his family in the terror attack on Air India Flight 182 Kanishka. The bombing, which resulted in 329 deaths, also claimed the lives of his wife Manjari, son Srikiran and daughter Sarada.

The devastating incident led Sankurathri to quit his job and return to India. “I didn’t see any purpose in continuing the same job and continuing to live here (in Canada),” Sankurathri said.

Over three decades later, the trauma still haunts him: “That doesn’t mean it’s over now, I still have feelings but I’m focusing on how I can help others,” he said.

After returning to India, he founded, among other projects, an eyecare facility that has provided free procedures to nearly a quarter million underprivileged patients since it came into existence 25 years ago. As that facility, the Srikiran Institute of Ophthalmology, completed its silver jubilee this year, Sankurathri has also released his autobiography, A Ray of Hope, at a function in Ottawa on Saturday.

His book, he hopes, will help youngsters cope with depression. “If I can survive such terrible times... they can also overcome those small little hurdles and move ahead in life,” he remarked.

He also established the Manjari Sankurathri Memorial Foundation (MSMF) in Canada in 1989, and the body receives the bulk of the funds from donors to operate the various projects. In 1992, he founded the Sarada Vidyalayam in Kakinada, his wife’s hometown, to provide education to underprivileged children. The ophthalmological institute came a year later, and the Spandana Disaster Relief Program came into existence in 1998.

In an interview earlier in Toronto, Sankurathri said that devoting his life to serving the poor, particularly those from the rural belt of the East Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh, has been “therapy” for coping with that unimaginable loss. “It has helped me a lot,” he said.