He has a vivid memory of his long and distinguished family history which he narrated with great interest. His ancestry can be traced to 200 B.C. to the Pandyan Kingdom. His great-grandfather, M.L. Pillai, was an outstanding and famous lawyer on his grandmother’s side. His grandfather, Dr. D.W. Devanesen, was a zoologist and a professor at the University of Madras, who later became a professor at the Madras Christian College and retired as director of fisheries of the Madras presidency. He remembers his father, Dr. Chandran D.S. Devanesen, with great admiration. “He was an outstanding academic. He completed his postgraduation from the University of Cambridge and then his Ph.D. from Harvard University, Massachusetts. He was probably one of the first Indians to graduate from Harvard University. He went on to become the first Indian principal of Madras Christian College and received the prestigious Padma Shri for his services as an educator.” Later, he became the founding VC of Northeast Hills University (NEHU), Meghalaya. He was a man of ideas and was ahead of his time in his thinking especially in both rural development and higher education.
Sudarshan holds his mother, Norma Savitri, who hailed from Sri Lanka, in highest esteem and helped to mould his values and ambitions from childhood. He is proud of the distinguished lineage that he inherited from her. Her father, Dr. A.S. Goonewardene, was one of the first medical graduates of Sri Lanka and was offered a faculty position in the university there but he decided to take up rural practice. Apparently, he was deeply influenced by his grandfather’s dedicated service for the poor and needy.
Life-changing encounter at medical school
Sudarshan studied at Bishop Cotton School, Bangalore (now Bengaluru). An all-round student, he also had leadership qualities since childhood. He was appointed the school captain in 1960 and Junior Division Sergeant of the NCC. After completing his pre-university in 1962, he was selected by Christian Medical College, Vellore, and happily remembers meeting Asha there. “She was my classmate. It wasn’t love at first sight. We fell in love during our second year and got engaged two years later. Finally, we got married during our internship.” Hailing from an Army family from the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand, Asha has studied developmental paediatrics. Before becoming a family physician, she was a consultant to The Peel Board of Education. She was on the board of governors of the Credit Valley Hospital Mississauga (2002–2004) and was awarded life membership and the Distinguished Emeritus status from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario after retirement following 38 years of outstanding service. She is currently a community wellness advocate and is the executive of the Women’s Outreach Wing of The Ripple Effect Wellness Organisation. Even as she worked, she never shied away from supporting Sudarshan. “She is a tremendous support to me; I realised this when I was working long hours and came home late after meetings. She has always been my best friend. With Asha by my side, the most intense of things seemed easy. She is very much a part of me and I am very much a part of her,” he says in appreciation of Asha.
Dr. Devanesen, after graduating from Christian Medical College, was awarded Nuffield Scholarship in 1968 for his all-round academic and non-academic excellence and went on to earn several other degrees like MD, CCFPC, MCLSC, FCFPC and LM.
Working in mission mode at mission hospitals
His parents were dedicated to serving the poor and started various projects towards that end. One such project was the Rural Service League that built schools, dug wells, etc., in their region. They founded another organisation, Roofs for the Roofless, a rural development project which has built over 700 houses using material from the villages; Balwadi for poor children; a seniors’ centre for health care and shelter; several women’s self-help groups; and a Rural Community College for High School students who had dropped out to help their families. His mother served as the director of this now highly successful model for rural community education for 40 years. And now, his brother, Dayalan, who was invested into the Order of Australia for his outstanding service for aboriginal health, has taken over as director. The environment at their medical college too was very service-oriented. Hence, after completion of their MBBS, both Asha and Sudarshan served in mission hospitals across India. This is where they gained experience in rural medicine providing care to poor patients in remote villages. The spirit of service was already kindled in the young couple.
During his mission hospital service, Sudarshan worked in the surgical units and started focusing on becoming a surgeon. He got the chance to join a surgical programme with the University of Madras. Asha also wanted to pursue her postgraduate studies. But due to difficult circumstances, they left India in 1972 when they found an opportunity in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada Memorial University as residents in surgery and paediatrics at The Janeway Children’s Hospital and he became chief resident by the end of that year.
Shifting gears towards service and excellence
Recognising his outstanding performance as a resident, the hospital decided to send him to a conference in Alberta where he was required to do a paper on trauma. He recalls, “When I was there, I had an epiphany of sorts and that deep inside me, I wasn’t comfortable being a surgeon. I was technically sound, but the passion was not there anymore”. Understandably, the chairman was very upset and angry about his decision to change his line of specialisation, but he finally understood Sudarshan’s decision; in fact, he also appreciated it and helped him with a recommendation to join St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto. This is where he worked for 27 years and earned his feathers.
A few years later, he was asked to go and work in a very difficult and challenging neighbourhood of Toronto, near the Don Jail at the Broadview Community Clinic. Nobody wanted to go there because of the challenges it posed. Sudarshan was chosen because of his experience of doing mission service in isolated areas. He decided to take up the challenge and it proved to be the right decision. Somewhere, deep inside, the spirit of service that he inherited was in its elements and brought the best out of him.
“Needless to say, the experience opened my eyes to the harsh realities of this community,” he continues, “Asha encouraged me into it and it was the best decision career-wise. That’s where I really found my passion in working with the poor, the homeless, sex-trade workers, HIV patients, youth, drug addicts and many others on the fringe of society. It was an extremely tough practice but very rewarding too because these were people with real issues. I had the whole spectrum of humanity in front of me and I did this job for 10 years.” He was also made medical director of the Fred Victor Mission, which ran a home for 71 senior men from the streets and many of them were war veterans. Dr. Devanesen looked after these seniors for over 15 years.
The experience at Broadview Community Clinic and Fred Victor Mission gave him and his dedicated staff the idea to start a network with similar community centres and shelters where he’d place residents and students during their rotations at the clinic. This was the beginning of the Inner City Health Programme in the country. He says, “This is one of the several reasons that I was awarded the Order of Canada in 2001 along with my volunteer work and prevention of heart disease in South Asians working with the Heart and Stroke Foundation. The programme has gone right across the country, and it has been incorporated worldwide now.” He was made the chairman of the department of family medicine at St. Michael Hospital in 1987. It was the first time any Indo-Canadian was made chairman of a department of family medicine in any hospital in Canada. His invaluable contribution to healthcare services in the country reads like a wonderful essay of selfless service. It brought him more opportunities to contribute in whatever way he could. He has been recognised by several organisations for his lifelong service to the community.
Sudarshan co-founded The Ripple Effect Wellness Organisation (TREWO) in 2006 to fight the pressing health care needs of all Canadians. TREWO now has joined forces with institutions such as The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto; The Trillium Health Partners, Mississauga; etc. “In India, it funds the seniors’ health programme in the villages around Chennai under the auspices of Roof for the Roofless,” he says.
While work takes maximum of the couple’s time, they still find time for each other. They enjoy gardening, hiking, travel and entertainment. Sudarshan enjoys cooking, writes poetry and is a voracious reader of history, science and psychology. They both embrace and protect nature and were awarded The Stewardship Award for the Environment by The Muskoka Heritage Foundation.