Ramanisblog

I find there seems to me a subtle difference between Teaches you at School and the Lecturers and Professors at the College.

I retain till date awe respect and regards for mt  School teachers and for College teachers it is a friendliness slightly tinged with a sort of mild respect.

If one were to go by qualifications  , it should be more for the College professors, for they were MAs and Phds, while my school teachers were BAs (Bachelor of Arts) and in some case L.T.(Licentiate in Teaching, which is replaced by B.Ed. in India).

Be it as may, let me recall some of my school teachers first.

I had Mr.Srinivasa Iyengar,who use to take English and Mathematics till IV  Form.(equivalent to x Standard now).

He was a BA, not even a L.T.

What ever English I can boast of is because of him(I studied in a small place,Srivilliputhur,Tamil Nadu,India).

If you do not answer a question, you are rapped in the knuckle with the duster.

If you the ‘=’ is not aligned  for all the rows  in Mathematics, you are again given a rap.

He used to have a table for the system of awarding marks while correcting answer papers and he will display it in the Class.

If some one were to point out that he has not been awarded marks as per the table he will award it and say ‘sorry’

Not only that.

He was a Religious Man, an Iyengar.He will come to school with the Religious Mark ‘Naamam‘

As soon as he settles in his chair, he will look at every one’s face for the Religious mark, either Vibuthi,Naamam  or in the case of  the Girls Kungumam and if they do not have it , he will ask them to get out and ask them to  go Home and come with the mark immediately.

I recall one instance, when I was studying in the fifth Form.

I was in the Class without vibuthi.

Srinivasa Iyengar  went out side the School into the road, which was visible fromour class room, dipped his third Right Finger into Bull’s  droppings , came to the Class and applied it to on my forehead!

The special treatment to me was because my father was the Head Master!

The way he used to tech English Grammar and din it into our heads is some thing to be experienced.

As a matter of fact, most of my blogs on ‘English grammar’ is inspired by him and  some of the definitions and explanations are his.

I aha Tamil Teacher , Muthurakku Konar, who once describing ‘Kannagi‘ of Silappathikaaram,a Tamil Classic, said’kannagi was a woman who was untouched by a Man other than her Husband,not like Cinema actresses who get touched by every one , form the make Up Man onwards”

Now to College Teachers.

I studied in Vivekananda College,Chennai.

We had one young professor Mr.Ananthan who was fresh from College and his  flow of the language is seen to be believed.

Till date,I am yet to see some one who has that flow, with out redundancy!

We had Mr.Amirtham Iyer who handled ‘Drama’,consisting of Shakespeare  on Tuesday after noons.

He would emphasize  with the characters  in’ Antony and Cleopatra.

I remember that there will be tears in his eyes when he recited the Lines, when Cleopatra was about to commit suicide, applying the Asp to her Breast…

‘Do’st thou not see my baby at my breast that sucks the nurse asleep’

We used to have ‘Mor kuzhamu’, a delicacy of the Tamilians,in th Hostel and we would normally felt sleepy.

One day most of us were feeling sleepy.

We, about eight normally occupy the last bench as it was convenient to chatter and sleep.

I developed the art of sleeping with my eyes ‘open’.

( The hall was a gallery, with rows going up)

Amirtham Iyer was teaching his Shakespeare in his own way.

One of my friends, Sivakumar, a weight lifting champion,who is 67 now, was snoring.

Amirtham Iyer noticed this and threw a chalk piece at him.

He still did not wake up.

The Teacher then started shouting at me and I woke my friend up.

Groggy, with out realizing what he was doing , he  kicked our friend Sankaran, (who is a High Court Lawyer in Chennai) in the front row forcefully.

The entire benches started collapsing and 4 to five rows landed near the teacher’s feet.

Angry, Amirtham Iyer left the Class  midway in a huff stating ‘ I will not take classes for you’

We were thrilled!

Next Tuesday we were in the room expecting Amirtham Iyer not to turn up.

 

Amirtham Iyer came to the Class looking crestfallen and said

 

‘I am sorry I behaved the way I did and left the Class.

 

I am a Teacher and my job is to teach.

 

And who are you after all/ You are my children,i should have corrected you and continued my class’ and started teaching.

 

At the end of the hour all of us prostrated before him and there were more tears in his eyes.

 

Another instance involving him…

 

While he was teaching, we chattering as usual.( I had the habit of chatting with my mouth partially covered )

 

He noticed we were chattering and instead of me called my friend Kamalakaran(He is a Chartered Accountant in Bangalore)

 

He asked him ‘tell me what I said now”

 

He kept quiet.

 

He went to the other four.

 

Same response.

 

He came to me.

 

As I had followed him partially and read in advance the portion he would teach,I managed.

 

He now asked all the others.

 

‘Do you have the Book?’

-No

 

‘Note Book’?

 

Blank stares.

 

“pen.pencil?

 

Blank.

 

He said

 

‘No Book,No Note book ,No thinking and No Understanding’

 

Let me conclude an instance involving Mr.Ananthan.

 

We used to have English II for an hour followed by an hour of  English Composition.

 

Normally the Composition alone will be handled in this class.

 

As these classes were on Fridays we use to finish the Essays by 230 and rush to Midlands/Odeon theatre,Chennai to see English Movies.

 

I used to write fast and normally was reasonably good.

 

Six of us were in a row,as usual in the last bench.

 

As I write(I sit in the middle), the others would copy).

 

Sivakumar, who is a Businessman now, wrote in such a way to match my speed to the extent of scoring out what I had scored out)

 

When the note books were returned to us the next Day, my friends’ notebook carried this…

 

‘I asked for one Essay, not 1+5?

 

When shall I see such teachers?

 

( I shall narrate some more instances as I recollect them)