Professor Manoharan was appointed as the vice chancellor of Madras university in 1997. Being a former student of Madras university (M.Sc. 1959), he wished to bring back its past glory. He mentioned in an interview (Rediff NEWS, 1999), "...I wanted to recreate that a university is a place of culture, a place for scholarships, a place for the creation of knowledge".  His vision was to modernize the university, improve its education system on par to the developed countries, appoint brilliant faculty members and modernize the infrastructure.  He accomplished a lot during his tenure until 1999. 

PTM is one of my hero who made my life more meaningful and successful. When I approached him through Dr. Jayakumar to be my guide in 1992, he immediately accepted me as his student after sensing my enthusiasm towards science. I spent the next six and half years working with him getting inspired every time I had a discussion with him. After giving a complex biological research problem, he encouraged me to stay on track every time I had a setback. He often told me the challenges he faced during his Ph.D., and how he overcame his difficulties which motivated me to succeed and complete my Ph.D. in 1999. I learned a lot of good habits from him including punctuality, self-respect, resilience, keeping up the promise, honesty, sincerity and hard work. Even after completing my Ph.D., I did stay in touch with him until January 2019 when I last meet him in his house. I had an opportunity to host him in Japan during my third post-doctoral studies and I still remember the few days he spent with my family. During my brief stay in India before transitioning to post-doctoral study in US in 2004, we both ventured in to business of producing and selling mushrooms. Though the venture was short-lived, we kept on exploring other opportunities. In 2007, we made an attempt to acquire some land for Jatropha oil seed cultivation with some US investors. Again, it did not take off due to unexpected things that happened beyond our reach. Every time I met him after that, he used to mention that if we had succeeded with our venture, it would have been a different ball game. I felt like a father-son bonding between us and will cherish my memories the time I spent with him for rest of my life.

In the good old times, the faculty members mingled freely with students and staff.  The entire lab members used to go to parties and picnics. It was like a workplace family. The labs were bright day and night.  Some times Dr. Manoharan used to tell us how RSIC was created.

Here is a similar chat, posted by IIT Madras Heritage Centre 

Prof. P.T. Manoharan in conversation with Prof. S. Subramanian, 9 November 2017