I remember how when our principal (Father Rozario) came to our post graduate classes, even though he had got a lot of administrative work, he would make sure that he prepared well before coming to the class, so as to impart knowledge to us in the best possible way.
The way in which he taught us, even today refuses to leave my mind. When I became a principal, I searched for my Guru, and found him in the corner of a very cold room where water was dripping from the ceiling. I touched his feet and asked him, “Do you remember me, Father?” His reply was instant, and calling me by name. Amazing memory. I asked him, “Did you ever think that I would become a Principal?” (I was only an average student; I remember when I was a graduate student I had scored very poor marks because of my attention getting diverted to films, and running after the production of the short film which was the first film produced by students in Kerala. “The Gap” produced in the year 1975, told the story of a youth who was addicted to drugs and ultimately ended his life. Our principal had taken special efforts in providing me admission for post-graduation by going to the university and getting an extra seat sanctioned).
When I failed in a paper in the first year, he immediately met my father and told him, “The effort I took in getting him a seat is fully wasted.” My father had no reply to this. But I took it as a challenge and scored the third rank in the University for the same Paper. The Principal called me that day, when I did not know all about this, and asked me, “Do you know what is your score is?” I was standing in front of him all shivering, when he suddenly smiled and told me, “You are the third rank holder in the paper.”
I did not know what to say. It came as a real shock for me because I alone knew what had happened on that day of the university examinations. I entered the examination hall, the examination commenced, and the question papers were distributed. I took a glance at the question paper and answered all the questions. They were all accounting problems, and you may not believe me, but I had finished the three hour examination in half an hour. (Credits again go to Prof. Balakrishnan, my accounting teacher who made me an expert in accounting which helped me throughout my career. The problem was that this became a problem for me, as I could not believe that all my answers were correct, and thought that perhaps I might have goofed up.
I did not know what I could do; I was sitting in the examination hall feeling very restless. I looked at another student who was sitting just in front of me. (He is the grandson of the Guru of the great singer Yesudas. A friend in need is a friend indeed. He just showed his answer paper to me; the answers were entirely different. I decided, ok everything is lost now, oh God, but I will not copy from him whatever may come, and I will stick to my answers). And this gave me a third rank in the university. The distance between the two brackets may be too long but the truth about an incident is too short and needs no explanations. Because truth is the only thing which you can express in few words, a lie need more words to prove that it is true and in the end the truth pops out.
“Trust in God, Take efforts” - these were the words which gave me strength throughout my career. The belief of an individual should not influence others unless and until they themselves accept it. Out of intuition I used to predict events and most of my words came true. I do not know why this happened and how this happened, as I have never tried to research it. (Please, I can read your thoughts, “…why can’t we ask him a question”, no friends, I stopped this because I believe that what is known to God should be known only to him).
Once I felt that I had this institution, I thought why can’t I help people with this wonderful tool. People used to crowd around me innocently whenever I started to say something, and they called me “Bhagavan”. My friends suggested that we will start an ashram for you and you can sit there and start predicting. I told them, “I am not a sanyasi, I am a family man I do hate even wearing a ‘Kavi dhoti’ realising that I am not fit for it. I never consider myself to be a cent percent perfect man, as we often make mistakes and cleverly escape by saying –‘To err is human’.
I thought that as media is a more powerful medium, I will start predicting through a local TV channel. Whether you believe it or not, my phone became always busy, my house was never short of guests. My wife told me that my children were not able to concentrate on their studies because of the flow of guests who pop in worrying only about their future and expecting a solution from me all twenty four hours.
The TV Channel gave me 15 episodes, and it was a very popular channel. (It has now become the number one International TV channel in Tamilnadu). My style of prediction was a little different. I developed a software with the help of one of my friends who was an expert in the software development in those days. I used to use both intuition and science in a perfect mixture.
Every day was a day of adventure. I started believing that I am quite extra ordinary and super natural in mind (not in practice). My answers were almost perfect so that from the camera man to the anchor, everybody in the studio became my fan.
It was time for the final episode. Being a working professor at that time, I had never shown my face on the channel. Only the visual of a globe revolving and the VJ would be there on the screen, and viewers could only hear my voice. (I can hear you saying “what a good idea, he has already planned his escape in times of calamity by predicting his own future in advance).
Questions came one after another, and answers were also given to the satisfaction of the viewers. The last and final question came from a girl. She asked, “Sir, We are having a problem in our house; my brother does not have a child and we are quite worried about this. Could you please suggest a remedy for this?” The studio came to a standstill for me, and the others were waiting anxiously for what I was going to say. Time went tick ticking. I concentrated and looked into the software which was helping me and gave the answer boldly, “This is a problem of six months ago.” The very next minute the girl said, “Sir, I apologise for what I have done. My sister in law is carrying for the last six months and I was just testing you.” The curtain slowly came down, and the program ended. Think what would have happened if I had given a different answer; I could not simply escape by saying “To err is human”. The next moment the camera man left his camera as it is, where it is, and the anchor came running to me saying, “Sir, how have you done this?” I said, “I am only a tool; I do not know
what is happening through me.” (This happened in the year 2001).
I understood that predicting is a risky venture having more risk than in a stock market speculation and I stopped predicting in public. I limited this within the friends circles, and that too only if they were in any emergency.
With dreams of becoming a lecturer, after completing Post Graduation I continued to take private coaching. My time plan was such that I would read books in the mornings, and in the afternoons I would go to see old movies. Nobody knew about this (or at least I thought so). In the evenings I started my tuitions and used to continue up to 8.30 PM.
One day as per my time schedule, I got ready for going for the movie. My inner self told me not to go, but who cares? I just started my bike and reached the theatre. On the way I saw my father passing by in a rickshaw. I turned my face away to avoid him.
That day my father told me, “It is not good to go to the movies every afternoon.” That was all that he said; he never asked, “Why did you go?” This put a very strong full stop to my habit. One day one of my professors called me and said, “There is a vacancy in “X”college, you go and meet the principal and you can join there as a lecturer.” That was my first appointment as a lecturer and that also immediately after completing my post-graduation. These days we talk about placements and placement agencies, but those days the teachers really loved their students, and they cared about their placements personally.
I met the principal; it was a women’s college. I thought it would be far more convenient to handle and manage girl students rather than boys. The principal asked me about my family. When I mentioned my father’s name, as she already knew him, her immediate reaction was, “You join today itself.”
There were about a hundred girls in my class. I was standing in front of them and as I was thorough with the accounting principles now, I started the class by explaining each and every element in the problems. I even explained the meaning of each and every term involved in accounting. For the students it was a new experience. Again more students came to me for private coaching not only from my class but also from other teachers’ classes. The atmosphere was such that If I take private coaching for the students of other teachers, they never felt jealous or angry (which I experienced in another state as a lecturer).They encouraged me, and appreciated me, which helped me to mould myself as a better, or even best teacher in my career.
All went well in the college until suddenly the teachers declared a strike as the salary had got delayed and there were no increments. The angry teachers surrounded the principal and declared a gherao. A tense situation prevailed. As I was the person closest to the principal, I could neither join them nor support the principal. The principal was an aged lady who was suffering from diabetes; she wanted to go to the rest room urgently but the teachers never permitted this. Somehow I convinced them saying that I will resolve everything, please leave the principal. On my promise the strike was withdrawn. The next day the management called me too for a discussion, and agreed to all the conditions put up by the teachers. I was very much surprised to find that I was a good conciliator also.
In between I got a job in an aided college thanks to the efforts taken by my second bother
(Sundaram). I resigned my earlier job in the women’s college. I was given a very touching send off by my students and colleagues. I realised how much they loved me. I joined the new college as a lecturer. I had to get up early in the morning, take my breakfast and pack my lunch. My sister (Prema) took special interest in all these chores by getting up early in the morning. (I was very fortunate, because all my sisters and brothers loved me very much). One week passed smoothly. Then one day, within a few minutes of my starting my lecture, I saw students running here and there, and students of my class were also crowding close to a window and looking out. I enquired what had happened. One of the students told me, “Sir, it is a problem of a love affair; two boys loved the same girl and one of the boys has stabbed the girl student to death inside the college campus.” In those days a college lecturer’s job was a very precious one, especially in an aided college. The salary pack was very attractive, and it was a permanent job with a pension more or less equivalent to a government job. This was the scenario those days.
I went to the principal’s room and said, “Sir, I do not want to teach in this college where the students murder a girl student in cold blood, I cannot bear it.” The principal advised me that it would be very difficult to get this job back once I had resigned. I just said, “I am resigning.”
On returning home, I told my father what had happened. He congratulated me on my right decision. Such a wonderful and understanding father he was! I went and met the principal of my old women’s college and narrated the whole story. She also said that my decision was correct. She advised me to join back duty, which I did immediately. After that I had to take private tuitions as usual to supplement my expenses.
I was a voracious reader. We had a home library in our house which had more than 1500 books, and whenever I got time I used to read these books. There was a municipal library in our town (Kollam). You may not believe it if I say that I had read all the Malayalam novels in that library. This gave me the impetus to write novels in Malayalam. I started writing a novel in Malayalam (Nizalukalkku Niramilla), but I needed money to print and publish it. When I had almost finished writing, I approached a printer known to my father and entrusted him with the printing of the book. Simultaneously I used to send my manuscripts to many leading publishers for acceptance. One day I received a letter from a leading publisher (Vidyarthi Mithram, Kottayam), informing me that my novel had been selected for publishing. My joy knew no limits but by that time the printing of the book was almost complete and only the binding was left to be completed. I informed the publishers about this. They replied that I need not worry about this and that I had to send them by parcel whatever I had completed. It was raining heavily that day. When I informed my father about this, he said, “No need to worry, I will help you to pack”, and he himself helped me to pack and take it to a lorry parcel service for sending it.
The publishing house used to pay me the royalty in small shots, and I used to go and collect it in person. It was another source of income for me. One day when I was in urgent need of money I started by train to the publishers’ place in the hope that they would pay me. I had just enough money to go to Kottayam and no money to return. I was very confident that the publisher would pay me because they were very punctual in making payments. As ill luck would have it, when I reached the publishing
house the concerned person who had to sign the order was on leave all of a sudden. The office people said, “ Sir, you can come next week and collect the royalty.” How could I tell them that I did not have enough money even to return home?
I reached the railway station and thought for a moment. I found that I could take a ticket to travel up to half the distance. I got into the train and sat praying to God all the time to save me. Suddenly I found that one of my very close friends was sitting beside me. I told him about my situation. He said not to worry, and in the next station he went and purchased a ticket for me to travel up to my place. (What is to be noted here is that as a friend he could have given me the money and asked me to go and get the ticket, but what he had done was to go himself all the way to purchase my ticket).
One year passed by. My current management closed the college saying that the strength of students was very poor. They transferred the existing students to another college. So again I was left unemployed. I continued to survive with my private tuitions. One of my friends whom I met while strolling on the roads, gave me an important piece of information that the government was giving loans for educated unemployed, and that I could apply for the same to start a business.
At that time I was also seriously thinking about the idea of a business that I could do successfully. I thought a video cassette library would be a good option as there were no such libraries at that time in our town. I applied for the loan and at the same time had a discussion with one of my students who said that his uncle would join me in the venture as a partner. The loan got sanctioned; my partner supplied me a large number of cassettes, and I had to give a share too. With my collections added, my library was the biggest in the town.
I started the library in a room in a lodge which belonged to one of my close relatives, an engineer who was in charge of building a memorial to Gandhi Ji who had visited Kanyakumari in 1925 and
1937. It is constructed at a place on the seashore, near to Kumari Amman Temple, where his ashes were kept for public darshan before immersion in the sea on February 12, 1948. The Mandapam is built in the Orissa style of architecture and designed in such a way that on his birthday, 2 October, the rays of the sun, through a hole in the roof, will fall exactly on the spot where the urn was kept.
The business flourished. I thought of having my own building for the library. I asked my father’s permission to build this in a place which housed an old shed on our property. My father immediately agreed to this and I started construction.
The construction was completed and the library was inaugurated by the then Superintendent of Police. As the business has now grown, I appointed one person as a manager and two or three delivery boys for home delivery of cassettes. I used to buy copy righted cassettes and the print was very good, so the public were attracted. My shop and house were in the same premises. The house was on the way to the beach, the only entertainment for all. I placed a name board on the side of the road. Days passed and my shop became very famous. The film stars of Kerala - many super stars - visited my shop to borrow cassettes from my library.
One night somebody knocked at our gate. On enquiry they said that they urgently needed some English movie cassettes for reference purposes for a shooting, and that a very famous director of those days had sent them. “Oh my God my shop has become very famous”, I thought. I selected some
cassettes and gave them.
