Prof. Viswanathan had four great ambitions. His first ambition was, "that something had to be done to alleviate the suffering of the diabetic patient... that "every person having diabetes should be helped to live his normal span of life in health." The second ambition was to establish diabetology as a medical discipline in our country. The third ambition was the clinical and epidemiological research in this field done in India must be of the highest quality and should receive international recognition. The fourth, and in a sense the most important ambition, was that diabetes should be prevented and conquered.