When he was around five, he witnessed the deaths of several of his cousins – young women who lost their lives to complications in pregnancy. There were no doctors in the village. The futility of these early tragedies disturbed the young boy so much that he began to dream about becoming a doctor to make a difference.

In the 1930s, India was in the throes of its struggle for independence. The voice of a man who proposed fighting the British with truth and non-violence had swept across India. Dr. V was greatly ignited and inspired by Gandhiji’s vision and example.

In 1944, Dr V served the army as a medical officer. In 1948, he was discharged after developing rheumatoid arthritis. He was bed-ridden for over a year, and his fingers became permanently crippled, bringing an end to his dream of becoming an obstetrician.

Dr. V moved on though his recovery was very slow. Eventually, he returned to medical school and joined the eye department. With determination and will, Dr. V persevered through his illness and trained his gnarled fingers to hold a scalpel and cut the eye for cataract operations. He personally performed over one hundred thousand successful eye surgeries.

In the early 1960s, the Govt. of Tamil Nadu became increasingly interested in eye care services for the villages, and the concept of mobile eye camps was born. Dr. V, who was then the Head of the Department of Ophthalmology at Madurai Medical College took on the responsibility of heading this new initiative.

Dr. V met Sir John Wilson, who had founded the Royal Commonwealth Society for the Blind (RCSB) at a conference in the US in 1965. Sir John played a great role in building Dr.V’s confidence and strengthening his capacities. With his support, Dr. V started India’s first residential nutrition rehabilitation centre in Madurai.

Dr. V along with Sir John Wilson and a few friends met with then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi and persuaded her to launch India’s National Programme for Control of Blindness, the first nation-wide programme for blindness prevention in the world.

In 1976, Dr.V retired from government service at the age of 58. He began a non-profit trust, under which he founded the Aravind Eye Hospital at Madurai with just 11 beds. To build the hospital, he mortgaged his house and his siblings pooled their life savings. Dr. V’s own siblings and their spouses formed the founding team of Aravind.

The Aravind Eye Hospital is named after Sri Aurobindo, one of 20th century’s most powerful spiritual leaders. Sri Aurobindo’s progressive teachings had profound influence on Dr. V’s life and vision.

Aravind Eye Care System will remember the year 2006 as the year it lost its founder, the legendary Padma Shri Dr. G. Venkataswamy on July 7. His tireless vision, inspiring leadership as well as his selflessness and humility shaped Aravind Eye Care System into all that it is today.