28/01/2026
✍️ One is the hardworking former "Election Commissioner" "T.N. Sheshan" who disciplined Indian "democracy" and the other is the "Metroman" "E. Sreedharan", the creator of miracles like Konkan Railway, Delhi Metro Railway, both of them were top officials in their respective fields, but due to their work, they improved the management of the entire country.
But the funny thing is, you won't believe it. Both of these officials were studying in the same class since they were in primary school and there was a fierce competition between them for the first position at that time.
*"E. Sreedharan"* has shared some memories of that time in an interview.
*"Both are originally from Kerala"*. In 1942, *"Sreedharan"* entered the English II class at the most famous Basel Evangelical missionary high school in the village of Palakkad, where *"Sheshan"* was already in the same school. *"Sheshan"* used to come first in the class.
*"Sreedharan"* surpassed *"Sheshan"* that year, and.....
From there, the competition between the two began. *"Sheshan"* was short in height, so he always sat on the first bench in the class, while *"Sreedharan"* was tall, so he sat on the last bench. *"Sheshan"* was very studious, always with his head buried in his books. On the contrary, *"Sreedharan"* played football and other games. However, in English, there was no student in the entire school who could match *"T.N.Sheshan"*.
In the board examination, *"Sheshan"* surpassed *"Sreedharan"* by one mark. *In the SSIC* *board examination of the year 1947, "Sheshan" came "first" by scoring 452 marks. While "Sreedharan" had "451 marks" and came second.*.
Despite all the competition and rivalry for marks, *"Sheshan and Sreedharan" did not break up, on the contrary, they became even better friends and their friendship grew a lot.*
Later, both of them took admission in Victoria College together for Intermediate. Both of them sat together and studied hard.
They were the only two students in the entire Madras province who got enough marks to get admission in engineering. But *"T.N.Sheshan"* wanted to become an *"IAS officer"* like his brother, so he did not take admission in engineering but took admission in the Physics department of Madras Christian College. *"Sreedharan"* however completed his civil engineering from the Engineering College of Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh.
Later in 1954, after passing the UPSC examination, *"Sheshan" fulfilled his dream of becoming an "IAS". During this time, "Sreedharan"* passed the Indian Engineering Services examination and was recruited in the railways.
*"Coincidentally" both of them came together again at the Indian Forest College Dehradun for the purpose of "training".* They stayed with each other for about two months. After that, however, their paths separated permanently due to work.*"Sheshan"* achieved one success after another in his administrative career and rose to the level of becoming the "Chief Cabinet Secretary" of India, the highest post in India.* After retiring in 1989, he was appointed as the Election Commissioner, which is special.
The discipline laid down by *"Sheshan"* was the reason for the code of conduct, discipline and rigor during the election period in India, his work was praised everywhere, he was also given the *"Magsaysay Award" as an honor.* So here *"Sreedharan" completed big projects like Calcutta Metro, Konkan Railway, Delhi Metro, Kochi Metro, Lucknow Metro with his own efforts and leadership. Showing the best engineering skills in record time, "Sreedharan" carried out the important responsibility of completely transforming the Indian Railways. He was awarded India's highest honor, the "Padma Vibhushan".*
People often compete in friendship, but if there should be competition, it should be like this.. To do good work like *"Sheshan-Sreedharan". To make the country *"Number One", these two valli "great friends"* showed the generosity shown, and their intellectual skills have succeeded. There is little to praise for their extraordinary and brilliant achievements. It is certainly true that every young man and woman should follow their example.
to such sons of Mother India!🫡
