R Venkataraman
Term of office: July 25, 1987 to July 25, 1992
Ramaswamy Venkataraman, who will turn 97 on December 4, returned to Chennai after his retirement, but moved back to Delhi a few years ago.
He is the fourth oldest living former head of State after Anthony Mamo, the first president of Malta, Johan Ferrier, the president of Suriname, and Gabriel Paris Gordillo, the former Columbian president.
A lawyer who was elected to India's first Parliament, he was sworn in as the eighth President of India.
On his last day in office, he cleared the last file and swept the table clean and visited the Rashtrapati Bhavan museum and garden. 'I went to the deer park and the rabbit pen as if to take leave of them,' he wrote In My Presidential Years.
His address to the nation was broadcast at 8.15 pm and on July 25, after inspecting an inter-service guard of honour, he left for Madras.
'I suddenly felt a sense of relief and a strong urge to go to sleep,' he wrote.
In an interview to rediff.com ten years ago he had said, 'We have not yet imbibed the democratic spirit. It will take a long time before we imbibe a true democratic spirit.'
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