The Teacher Who Never Took a Salary: The Story of Dr. T.V. Devarajan

In the temple town of Thrissur (once called Trichur) in Kerala, a boy named Trichur Vishvanathan Devarajan was born to T.K. Viswanathan and Ranganayaki. The family valued learning and service, and young Devarajan grew up with a quiet determination to heal and to teach.

He studied medicine and graduated with gold medals in Surgery and Gynaecology, along with prizes in Medicine and Ophthalmology. He went on to earn his MD in General Medicine and later a Doctor of Science (Honoris Causa). In 2007 the Royal College of Physicians of Glasgow awarded him the FRCP.

When he joined the faculty of Madras Medical College and the Government General Hospital in Chennai, he made an extraordinary decision: he would teach for free. For 29 years he stood in the lecture halls and wards, guiding generations of students, without drawing a single rupee as salary, stipend, or conveyance allowance. His only reward was the light in a student’s eyes when a difficult concept finally became clear.

“Why do you do this without pay?” a colleague once asked him.

Devarajan smiled. “Because knowledge that is freely given multiplies. If even one of these young doctors saves a life because of something I taught, that is payment enough.”

In 1986 he also began serving as a senior consultant physician at Apollo Hospitals, Chennai, where he continues to treat patients with the same careful attention. Later he became Emeritus Professor of Medicine at Aarupadai Veedu Medical College in Pondicherry, still travelling regularly to teach. He spent seven years as a medical officer in charitable dispensaries and joined medical camps for flood-hit victims in Andhra Pradesh.

He has written and edited several practical books that students and doctors still use: Aids to Clinical Medicine, Medicine in a Nutshell, Clinical Medicine Made Easy, and Medical Advice for Healthy Life (published in English, Tamil, Hindi and Telugu). He has also worked on a comprehensive textbook of medicine by Indian authors and books on poisoning and drug overdose.

In 2003 his former students wrote to the President of India, and he received the prestigious Dr. B.C. Roy National Award as an Eminent Medical Teacher. Ten years later, in 2013, the nation honoured him with the Padma Shri.

Married to Lakshmi Devarajan and father to Sangeetha, he remains a quiet presence in Chennai’s medical community—still teaching, still examining patients, still writing.

One evening, after a long clinic and a teaching session, a young intern asked him, “Sir, after all these decades of free teaching and so many patients, what still gives you the greatest satisfaction?”

Dr. T.V. Devarajan looked at the intern with the same gentle patience he had shown thousands of students.

“When a student who once struggled in my class becomes a confident doctor and tells me, ‘Sir, I still remember what you taught us about listening to the patient,’ that is the true reward. Medicine is not only about curing disease. It is about passing on the art of caring. That is a duty that never ends.”

And so the boy from Thrissur who chose to give his knowledge freely continues his quiet mission—healing patients, shaping doctors, and proving that the greatest teachers measure their success not in money, but in the lives their students go on to save.