The character arc of Govindappa Venkataswamy
A life drawn by Character Arc from the public record
Born on 1 October 1918 in Vadamalapuram, a poor farming village in Tamil Nadu, the eldest of five. Between then and his death sit a two kilometre walk to school and lessons written in riverbed sand, three cousins lost to pregnancy complications before he was ten, a chemistry degree in 1938, a medical degree in 1944, army service from 1945, a rare rheumatoid arthritis at thirty that discharged him and left him bed-ridden for two years with permanently twisted fingers, an ophthalmology qualification in 1951, eye camps, over a hundred thousand operations, a hospital founded at fifty eight, a lens factory, and a training institute. The line below draws the whole story.
Drag along the line to move, pinch or use the buttons to look closer. Tap the line to pluck it, or any mark for its card. Drawn from the public record of his life; the sources are at the foot of the page.
Who was Govindappa Venkataswamy?
His hands were twisted out of shape. He did a hundred thousand operations.
He was the eldest of five children in a Telugu-speaking family in a poor farming village in Thoothukudi District. He walked two kilometres to school each day and his early lessons were written in sand from the riverbed. There were no doctors in the village. By the time he was ten he had lost three cousins to pregnancy-related complications, and those deaths are what made him decide to become a doctor. As a young man he followed the teachings of Gandhi, Vivekananda and Aurobindo.
He took a chemistry degree from American College, Madurai in 1938 and his medical degree from Stanley Medical College in Madras in 1944, graduating second in his class. His father died while he was still in medical college, which left him head of the family. He served as an army physician from 1945 to 1948.
Then it stopped. He was discharged after contracting a rare form of rheumatoid arthritis. He was thirty. The condition twisted his fingers permanently out of shape and left him bed-ridden for two years. For most surgeons that is the end of the story, and for many people that is where the record would stop.
Instead he qualified with a masters in ophthalmology in 1951 and went to work. As a government servant he helped develop and pioneer the concept of the eye camp, taking surgery out to villages rather than waiting for villages to reach a hospital, and received the Padma Shri in 1973. He personally performed over one hundred thousand eye operations, with those hands.
The institution came last, and it came late. He founded Aravind Eye Hospitals, built on a high quality, high volume, low cost model designed so that paying patients cover the free ones. Over half of Aravind patients pay nothing or a highly subsidised rate. Since it began the system has seen over fifty five million patients and performed over 6.8 million operations, and its scale and self-sustainability prompted a Harvard Business School case study in 1993. In 1992 he and his partners founded a manufacturing facility that brought the price of an intraocular lens down to a tenth of international prices, and which now exports to 160 countries. In 1996 they founded a training and consulting institute that has helped replicate the model in 347 hospitals across India and in thirty other developing countries.
The moments
Govindappa Venkataswamy's timeline.
The 1910s
Born in a farming village
Everyday. A farming village, and the eldest of five.
The 1920s
Lessons written in sand
Setback, and it changed his direction. No paper. They wrote in riverbed sand.
Three cousins
Setback, and it changed everything. Three cousins dead before he was ten, and no doctor for miles.
The 1930s
Chemistry at Madurai
Milestone, and it changed his direction. A first degree, and three teachers he named.
The 1940s
Second in his class
Milestone, and it changed everything. Second in the year, while head of a family of five.
Army physician
Milestone, and it changed his direction. Three years as an army doctor.
His hands stop working
Setback, and it changed everything. Thirty years old, discharged, and two years in a bed.
The 1950s
Accept the hands, or operate anyway
Crossroads, decided.
The paths laid out: train as a surgeon, taken, or take a desk in medicine. He performed over a hundred thousand operations himself, and founded a system that has now seen over fifty five million patients.
He qualifies as an eye surgeon
Milestone, and it changed everything. Out of the bed and into the operating theatre.
The 1960s
The eye camps
Milestone, and it changed everything. If the village cannot reach the hospital, take the hospital out.
The 1970s
A hundred thousand operations
Milestone, and it changed everything. A hundred thousand, with fingers that were twisted out of shape.
The Padma Shri
Milestone, and it changed his direction. His country noticed the camps.
He founds Aravind
Milestone, and it changed everything. He started the hospital at fifty eight.
The 1990s
A lens at a tenth of the price
Milestone, and it changed everything. They could not afford the lenses, so they built the factory.
Harvard studies it
Milestone, and it changed his direction. A business school case study about free eye surgery.
Teaching others to copy it
Milestone, and it changed everything. He set up an institute to teach other hospitals to copy him.
The 2000s
He dies at eighty seven
Setback, and it changed everything. Fifty five million patients, and counting.
Aravind is still operating, still charging those who can pay and treating those who cannot, and the lens factory still undercuts the world. What he set moving is the only thing on this site measured in tens of millions of people, built by a man whose own hands had been taken away from him at thirty.
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His second act started at thirty, in a bed, with hands that no longer worked properly. Yours is already further along than you think, and drawing it takes about five minutes.
Govindappa Venkataswamy: frequently asked questions
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What is Govindappa Venkataswamy's character arc?
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What is Aravind, founded by Govindappa Venkataswamy?
How many operations did Govindappa Venkataswamy perform?
What is Aurolab by Govindappa Venkataswamy?
Why did Govindappa Venkataswamy become a doctor?
Where does this timeline of Govindappa Venkataswamy's life come from?
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Sources
- Govindappa Venkataswamy, English Wikipedia biography.
- The 1993 Harvard Business Case Study on the Aravind model.
- The published patient and surgery figures of the Aravind Eye Care System.
- The records of Aurolab and of the Lions Aravind Institute for Community Ophthalmology.