Dear Shri S. Venkataraman,
Saprema Namaskar.

Received your letter dated 8-7-’65 together with the enclosures. I read your letter addressed to Dr. B.C. Roy of Calcutta. In that letter you need not have referred to your willingness to bear the expenses of to and fro passage of one who might be deputed by him to survey the site. The reference was totally unnecessary and uncalled for. That gives the impression that the Committee has abundant funds under its control. In a way, it runs counter to your earlier request to him to do the
survey work free of charge. Sometimes you are over enthusiastic.

In the circumstances I would suggest you to write a letter to Shri Kalidas Basu, Advocate, of Calcutta who is one of the Joint Secretaries of the West Bengal unit of our All India Committee. You should send to Shri Kalidas Basu a copy of the letter you addressed to Dr. B.C. Roy requesting him to contact the latter personally on the Committee’s behalf and see that some expert Geologist from one of their centers nearest to Kanyakumari is deputed to survey the site and an expensive trip by some one from Calcutta is avoided. I believe you remember Shri Kalidas Basu who visited Kanyakumari a few months back. His postal address is: Shri
Kalidas Basu, Advocate, 5-A, Sukea Street, Calcutta; residential phone: 35-6586)

By now we have received a number of reports of tests of stone-specimens we had sent to various laboratories for ascertaining their quality. It is necessary that the reports are read by experts in the profession and we are enlightened on the question of suitability or otherwise of the various quarries or the stones we have selected for different parts of our construction work or the precautions necessary to be taken while using them. All the reports you had sent could convey nothing to me as Iam not expected to understand the meaning of the technical jargon used therein. I would like to know the reaction of the engineers to whom you must have referred the test-reports for eliciting their official expert opinion.
 
I hope Shri R. Shankaran must have sent his artist long back to Kanyakumari for preparing a plastic model of the memorial under the guidance of our Sthapathi. I am very much anxious to know the progress. It is now the right stage to exhibit the model in press-conferences and on other such occasions.

We have to display a Model of the Memorial together with the surrounding terrain and the proposed jetties in the ‘Kumbh Mela’ at Prayag in January 1966. We shall avail of the opportunity to publicise our project on that occasion. Moreover, ‘Vishwa Hindu Parishad’ is also holding a rally and an exhibition during the Kumbh period. I am in correspondence with Shri S.S. Apte, the General Secretary of the Parishad and I am trying to reserve a suitable stall in the exhibition for our purposes.

I had a mind to visit Madras and Kanyakumari in this month. But work elsewhere is more pressing. I have therefore postponed my tour of the South to a later date sometime in the month of September.

I am leaving for Bhopal on the 14th by G.T. Express. Halting there for a couple of days I shall reach Gwalior on 17th morning. Staying there for another two days I am scheduled to reach Delhi on the 19th morning. There I propose to stay till the end of this month. I hope to receive your letter at least during my stay in Delhi. However, for your information, I am giving below my Bhopal and Gwalior addresses also.

I received the copy of the detailed estimate and the ‘abstract’ sent by you. I would like to know from the Sthapathi through you whether the estimates prepared before the work had not actually started are proving to be fairly correct on the basis of the actual data and experience gathered uptill now.

I am also anxious to know the test results of the Mysore stone and the extra expenditure we shall have to incur if we finally select the same stone for our  Shikharam and Pravesh Dwaram.

Last but not the least is the question of finding out the authentic dates of Swami Vivekananda’s stay in Kanyakumari, collecting the authentic details of his visit to the Rock, his association of the Rock with the temple or the Pauranik story of Devi Kumari’s penance for obtaining the hand of Shiva, and other allied matters. I would like you to make a special effort in that direction and meet the persons who might have with them valuable information or documents in that connection. You should find some time for visiting Trivandrum and other such places in the South where you might get some important clues useful for building up an authentic version. The proposed multicoloured pamphlet is to include all about the ‘Rock’, ‘Swamiji’s visit’ to the place and the significance of his ‘transformation’ there written in all details with due authenticity. In this connection I would request you to put all the collected information in black and white and even obtain from the contacted dignitaries their signatures below the information supplied by them.

The General Secretary of the Ramakrishna Mission and Mutt Swami Shri Vireshwarananda is likely to visit Kanyakumari sometime in September. I am thinking of synchronising my visit at the same time.

Addresses:
1) C/o. Shri Uttam Chand Israni,
Pleader,
House No. 19-20, Sindhi Colony,
Berasia Road, Bhopal. (M.P)

2) C/o. R.S.S. Karyalaya,
Daji Vitthal’s Wada,Opp. High Court,
Inderganj, Lashkar (Gwalior) M.P.

Yours affectionately,
Eknath Ranade