Hyderabad: In perhaps what is a first and unique achievement amongst the Railway officers’ fraternity, the Department of Posts, Government of India released a Special Commemorative Postal Cover (two photos attached ) recently, honoring the literary genius of (Late) Shri Akella Achyuta Ramam (1922-1984) , an officer of the Indian Railway Accounts Service (IRAS), 1948 batch.(photo attached).
After completing M.Sc (Physics) at Andhra University, Visakhapatnam, Shri Ramam worked briefly (as lecturer) in Hindu College, Masulipatnam and All India Radio (as Technical Asst.),
Mumbai before joining the Indian Railways Accounts Service (IRAS) through the Civil Services Exam conducted by UPSC.
During his career in the Indian Railways of 32 years, he worked in various capacities in the Finance and Accounts Department of East Indian Railway (Howrah, Danapur), North East Frontier Railway (Guwahati), North Eastern Railway (Muzaffarpur, Gorakhpur), Northern Railway (Delhi) , Southern Railway (Madras) , D B K Railway Project ( Visakhapatnam) , South Eastern Railway (Bilaspur, Calcutta) and Railway Board (New Delhi).
He was deputed to BHEL, Hyderabad as FA&CAO and after absorption in the PSU, he headed its Management Development Institute (MDI) as its founder Director.
As a writer, musicologist, poet, dramatist, Shri Ramam authored several major literary works including translations of Valmiki’s Ramayanam, Adi Sankara’s Soundarya Lahiri, Sivananda Lahiri, Bhajagovindam and Lakshmi NrisimhaKaravalambaStotram into telugu poetry.
He also composed / sang scores of devotional songs (keertanas) set to carnatic music and contributed several articles on a variety of subjects like management thought in the Epics, religion, philosophy of music and drama. He directed, scripted and acted in several Telugu and English plays / monoaction drama.
The Andhra Lalita Kala Samiti, South Central Railway, Secunderabad honored him with Life Time Achievement Award in its Annual Drama Festival, 1981.
The Ramaamrutam Trust has been set up to take forward the vision of Shri Akella AchyutaRamam. It conducts annual literary, music, drama and management lectures / programs on his Birth Anniversary in his memory. (View the Trust’s activities on YouTube, Facebook).
His son, Akella Venkateshwar, also joined the Indian Railways Accounts Service (IRAS) (the first father-son pair in the service) and served on South Central Railway and Chitranjan Locomotive Works before being deputed as Director (Finance) to Singareni Collieries and Andhra Pradesh Transco for about 8 years.
After setting up the Centralized Training Academy for Railway Accounts (CTARA), Secunderabad as its first Director in 2006, he took voluntary retirement and worked with Tata Projects for 7 years. He is currently a Consultant with the Railway Board.
Indian Railways and in particular South Central Railway is proud and privileged to be associated with such a noble and renowned literary scholar and multi-faceted personality.