Teachers, teaching is a profession you should be proud of and not a profession to enjoy more vacations! (Sorry to say this but once I asked a teacher aspirant why he preferred teaching, and his answer was, “Sir, there are more number of holidays in the teaching profession than in any other profession).”
Nowadays it has become a practice in educational institutions to invite people who are in higher positions or one among their students who have come to a higher position to address the students on special occasion. The mind of a student is such that he is very open and accepts the principles, concepts and theories propagated by these orators without thinking in depth about the truth of these theories, for the reason that they are quite innocent.
Today morning my daughter (Aparna) asked me, “Daddy all my classmates are talking about
‘Cockroach Theory’. What is it daddy?” Actually I wanted to tell her, “Dear Daughter, the only
‘Cockroach Theory’ I know is what your mummy does when she gets irritated with these pests.” I know she will not be satisfied with my answer so I started ‘Googling’. I searched and researched and at last I found that one gentleman who has become the head of a leading international IT company, who is an Indian, has propagated this theory among students, while addressing them as a former student of his college and the chief guest at a function.
This theory he introduced because he just wanted to explain the difference between ‘React’ and
‘Respond’, but I still feel that he could have found another good example as an Indian. Our great epics such as ‘Ramayana’, ‘Mahabharatha’ and ‘Bhagavad Gita’ are never short of any such examples for this, and also there are no copyrights. He could have very well opted to quote from any of these. (Perhaps it is that the gentleman concerned might not have got time to go through these epics due to his
24 x 7 work schedule).
According to his theory, if a cockroach lands on your shoulder, and if you panic, it is “React”, while if you boldly take it by hand and throw it off it is “Respond”. It looks very childish to me especially when it comes from a young man who has reached greater heights through constant hard work, talent and sincerity. My question to him is what if it is a snake in the place of a cockroach - what will you do? Panic and run, or will you take it by hand and throw it away. So it all depends upon the particular situation and common sense, and not something that can be applied as a scientific or management theory. My daughter was waiting to hear from me, and I told her, “My Daughter, do not worry much about these theories, concepts and principles, as one day you may develop a ‘Frog Theory’, who knows.” When I looked out of the window I saw a frog jumping and playing happily in the garden without worrying about these man-developed ‘theories’.
From cockroach theory my mind made a journey in time to the question, why was I so spiritual? These thoughts led me to my family roots. I was born in Kollam, a small town surrounded by the sea on three sides, in the state of Kerala. At the time of my birth, when my mother (Govindammal) felt the
labour pain, unfortunately no one else was in the house. She was crying in pain and at that time she saw a Brahmin priest standing near the door. The priest gave her some bhasma and asked my mother to consume it. The next moment the priest disappeared and my elder sister (Santha) came rushing in, and she called for the midwife. The midwife carried out her duty and my mother gave birth to twins - one male and one female.
The female died after sometime and I survived (may be applying the theory of “survival of the fittest”).
My father (Shanmugham) was a photographer - the first photographer in Kerala. He learned photography from a British photographer in Sri Lanka. He was also a student of the School of Arts, Trivandrum. He maintained the family with the income from his studio. We were eight in the family - four males and four females, and I was the youngest of them. My schooling went on quite normally in a nearby government school. My father was a good motivator; he used to present me with some handicraft dolls immediately after my examinations. Later I came to know that these handicrafts were made by a poor handicapped craftsman, and my father really wanted to help him and that was the source of the gifts I got.
He was a very hard worker and a multitalented person - he was a clay model maker, artist, photographer, mason, carpenter and electrician. He was very particular that all his sons should learn this from him as this would come in handy in times of necessity in any household. This helped a lot in the later stages of my life when I found it difficult to get an electrician or mason to carry out some minor repairs in my house, as I was already trained for this.
He was a very loving father; the only problem with him was that he was not so sociable with everybody in the house. He used to go to his studio (Shanmugham Studio) in the morning, and used to return in the late evenings. We did not get much chance to interact with him.
For high school studies I was put in an Anglo Indian school (St. Aloysius) fifteen kilometres away from my home. At first I did not like this idea but as there was no other go I had to accept this. Every morning my father used to give me pocket money for going to the school by bus. But I saved this money and purchased the then popular cartoon story books ‘Mandrake’ and ‘Phantom’. Reading these books helped me to improve my English. I scored good marks in English even though I was an average student in other subjects.
My father knew that I used to go walking to school, but he never questioned me. On my way to school I would see a few of the students of our school passing me by very fast in their cars. I never felt any desire or wish to go one day in a car like them. Whenever my father found that I was scoring poor marks he never shouted at me or got angry with me; instead he arranged tuition masters and tried to coach me to get better marks.
Navaratri (Golu) was celebrated in my house every year for which all our family members used to assemble without fail. We would invite the public for the Poojas in the evenings, and there would be a heavy crowd in our house. The most important part I loved in this festival was not the dolls beautifully arranged on the nine steps, but the different types of eatables my mother would make. Each day there would be a different item, and it would go on thus, until the ninth day, when there would be
nine items.
I would also actively take part in the festival by making clay models under the supervision of my father, and would try to impress the visitors.
Years passed… the curtain slowly fell down on my school life, and the curtain of my college admission rose. Most of the students in Kerala those days wore dhotis to college, and some wore pants. But I did not like both. I persuaded my father and went in half trousers for admission. As my father was very popular in the town, the principal who was a priest immediately granted me admission. (The principal did not know that there was a small hole in my half trousers and that I was hiding it with my right hand).
The college life began, and once again I had to walk to the college for kilometres because there were no direct buses. The atmosphere of college was entirely new to me. I avoided talking to my class mates as I felt very shy. I took commerce as my major subject (under pressure from my family) at the pre-degree level. The syllabus there was a subject “General Education” which consisted of Physics, Chemistry and Biology. The students hated this subject for reasons known only to them. They would create all sorts of nuisance, that a teacher had to be put on duty for observation while the classes were going on.
In the English classes there were about more than a hundred students in a single class, so that we the back benchers found it very convenient to escape classes after giving attendance through the side doors when the teacher was not observing.
When the General Education Examination came up, I discussed with my brother and somehow arranged an additional sheet and drew a diagram of a frog and took it to the examination hall. I had never done this earlier, and as a first timer, in fear I pinned both the sheets, the one I took for copying and the original also. When the results came I got zero marks, meaning that I did not get marks even for the correct answers I had written. I never repeated this after that for any other exams. The teachers never called me or questioned me on this.
I completed the pre-degree level, and joined for Bachelor of Commerce course; but I did not know the basics of accounting and suffered a lot, but I never told anybody else. In the second year we had a compulsory subject ‘Hindi’. I never attended this class and was always bunking. Examinations came around, and I was very much afraid; I prayed sincerely to God to please save me. My intuition told me that every ten years the University repeated the same questions. I verified some other questions; yes, I was right. As my brother had also studied the same course, I made a thorough search of the whole house and got hold of the question paper, and with this preparation went for the examination. To my surprise all the questions were from the old question paper. (Thanks to the traditional system of question paper setting).
While I was studying for my Bachelor Degree, I got attracted towards the teaching profession. Anybody and everybody cannot become a good teacher unless you love this profession that much. I chose this profession at the age of twenty, because I needed to support myself. Although my father was a well-known photographer in the town and was earning pretty well, I felt it very delicate to ask him for money. He was prepared to support me, but I did not want to disturb him for anything. I
preferred to buy my dresses with my own money. I started with two or three students for private coaching and day by day it increased to fifteen. I was earning nearly Rs.2000 in the year 1975; ironically my first salary as a lecturer was only Rs.350 in the year 1978.
As our family had got a good reputation in the town the public felt it very safe to send their wards to me. This was my practice ground. I tested all methodologies to make students understand difficult subjects; however they were very weak. For example if it was a novel, I would first tell the story, then I would tell them who were the important characters in the novel, and what were the important events in the novel. That was more than enough for them to score high marks in their English Paper two.
Patience - that was the mantra within me. I was never aggressive with weak students. I was trying to find out why they were weak. Mostly they had made up their minds that this was a tough subject and that they do not want to study it. They had also recorded in their minds that they would never score in this subject. A thorough brain wash is what was needed, recording in their mind that they were wrong and that they could score high marks if they put in a little effort. I appreciated their efforts even for a slight increase in their scores, and this made a magical effect on their score cards.
I remember a time when my daughter (Aparna), was in class five. My wife used to beat her all the way up to the school as she refused to go to school; what I used to do at that time is to tell my daughter that if you go to school, I will buy a lovely bird for you. At this she would immediately agree, and would run to the school. By evening before she returned, I would buy the bird and keep it in a cage to show her. (However we used to set it free later after convincing her, for which she would happily agree).
Whatever promises you make to children, you have to keep them, otherwise it will leave an unforgettable mark on their minds.
When you are in a noble profession, you will have to face many tests; that is because God will test you to find that whether you are fit for that mission.
It was my habit while working as the principal of a college to send teachers on rounds during the lunch break, not to check for disciplinary issues, but to find out whether there are any students who are sitting and starving because they have not brought lunch or they do not have money. If the teachers find any such students they had to report that to me, and I would ask the teacher to take the student to the canteen and buy him food on my account.
Only if you have known the pain of starvation, will you know and understand what it is like. God gave me a chance to experience it years back. One day during my study days before the examination, I was alone in my house in Kerala. All my family members had gone out for a marriage. They left in the early morning hours, telling me that they would be back within an hour. I was preparing for the examination walking here and there. It was my habit to study in the shade of a mango tree in our house. Hours passed. First I felt the feeling that I am hungry, then I was very hungry, then there was a pain in my lower abdomen as if somebody was inside my stomach and stretching and pulling the intestines inside. I was about to cry but controlled myself. Then I wished that if at least a mango were thereon the tree, then I could have it.
I looked up everywhere and I could see only dark green leaves everywhere. I was very much disappointed. With confidence I searched again hoping and praying in my mind asking the mango tree “Oh, Mother, I am very hungry please give me something”. Now I could see a golden yellow coloured mango hidden behind the leaves atop. Yes, it was a fully ripe mango fruit with gold, yellow and red colour shades in it. The next minute the mango came down straight. You cannot believe it, or you may say it was a coincidence. For me it was an experience to learn what and how starving is.
On my birth day I would ask my staff before I take my lunch, “Please go to that temple near the tank; one old lady is sitting there and she is very hungry.” With minds full of doubts, my staff would go to the spot and the very next moment I will receive a call from my staff saying, “Sir, the lady is there and she asked, ‘Is it sir who sent you?’ I do not know that lady in reality, but how does she knows me? How do I know that the lady is sitting there hungry? You may once again say that it is a coincidence or just intuition, but still these incidents are question marks in my life.
Donating food for a hungry, needy person is the best donation you can ever do – much greater than giving away thousands of rupees!
