TIRUCHY: Thunderous applause reverberated in the Bharatidasan University auditorium on Tuesday when SM Miskeen received his PhD from Governor Banwarilal Purohit.
Miskeen was no ordinary research scholar. At 91, and bound in a wheelchair, he wears many hats.
A Chartered Accountant, Miskeen is active and has a wide client base. Also, he involves in social work as member of Lions Club. He is an educationist too and is credited with bringing the first college for women in Tiruvarur, from where he hails.
As Lions Club member, he started the first eye hospital in Tiruvarur. The PhD is the latest of his many achievements. His work on cheque fraud and penalties, particularly in relation to loan repayments got him the doctorate.
Miskeen was born in Koothanallur in 1928 and finished primary schooling in the village itself. His father was was a stickler for education and they moved to Madras for the remainder of his schooling. “My father believed education is important and moved with me,” said Miskeen.
Miskeen studied B Com in Loyola College and moved to Vietnam where he handled family business for three years, before returning to study Chartered Accountancy.
In 1990, Lions Clubs International had introduced a scheme to establish eye hospitals to eliminate reversible blindness.
Miskeen. who joined the organisation in 1968, had soon risen to the post of Multi Council Chairman of South India.
He brought an eye hospital to Thiruvarur which has treated over 10 lakh people with cataracts free of cost. His RA College for Women was set up 1999 and has over 2,000 students. He took up research in 2014 under the guidance of Dr. Issac Francis Gnanasekar of St. Joseph’s College, which culminated in the proud moment on Tuesday.