Page:The Message and Ministrations of Dewan Bahadur R. Venkata Ratnam, volume 1.djvu/29

 Ratnam nor have I met one whose personal influence amongst students was as powerful.”

The next term of service was at Secunderabad as Head of Mahboob College, where, like the puissant Samson grinding at his mill, he laboured for 6 years, 1889-94, imparting the fragrance of his stainless character to the lascivious atmosphere of that luxury-laden city. And at the close of the chapter there early in 1905, Secunderabad more than vindicated itself in the high honour done, on a phenomenal scale, with valedictory addresses and other tokens of affectionate reverence and gratitude from a number of influential and representative institutions like the Deccan Social Purity and Temperance Association, the Deccan Social Reform Association, the Hope of India Lodge, No. 25, of the Independent Order of Good Templars, the Somasundavam Mudaliar Reading Room and Library, the Anjuman-e-Mufidul Muslimin and the ‘past and present’ Parsee students of Mahboob College, besides, of course, the general body of students and the members of the staff. "To us he was all that Dr.