Ladders

It is heartening to note that year after year more and more people are becoming vocal on their climb to glory and recall their source for the same. Man in his quest for glory and achievement runs a marathon ever since he steps into the school and the lucky ones pause at some point in his career to look back. Not surprisingly, next to one's parents, invariably people recall with gratitude many of their teachers in their schools and colleges as the cause for their positions. Some even extend themselves to identify their own gurus even in their office, the true secret behind their success.

I am no exception and on this day I would like to recollect some of the teachers that come to my mind immediately when I think of my learning years. My earliest memories of my school was Montessori school , which was two houses away from mine in Mylapore. My earliest memory of my teacher is Shymala teacher, Prema teacher and the school HM Kalyani Kutty madam. Honestly, I do not remember what subjects they taught,  but they were more considered as close relatives. I then moved over to Sri Karpagavalli Balica Bala Patasala, a school situated deep within a slum right in the midst of Mylapore. But in standards of 4 and 5, I had the best of mathematics foundation from Shri Krishnaswamy Iyengar.

The formative years of 6th to SSLC, were at P.S High School and I was the first from my family to study in English medium ! How can one summarize the learning under  Meenakshi Sundaram sir, P A Ranganathan sir, Ramabadrachariar Sir, K.N.Jayarama Iyer - an expert in Algebra and Geometry, Manickarathnam Sir- he had the foresight even 40 years ago to warn us " It is a competitive world", PT and Craft teachers.... to name some.

At the A.M. Jain College, where I did my pre university course, the names of Balu sir, Sankara Subramanian, N.Srinivasan sir  and SRS were said with a lion's roar and their classes are always filled to capacity. I can never forget the teaching charm of my Physics professor Sri Krishnamoorthy and the ever smiling Prof Srinivasan , who taught Chemistry. Sanskrit professor Ramadoss Sir was not only good in that language but his English was also equally powerful and attractive.

D.G. Vaishnav College exposed me to many doyens and the vocabulary of Sanskrit Professor Thiruvengadathan is still reverberating within me.  I can still recall his reply when someone commented that his handwriting is better than his colleague- He said "His head inside is better than my hands' exterior".  English professors M/s Vasudevan, P.V.Subramaniam and Srinivsasn really laid the foundation for the passion of that language in me. I remember the enacting of the scene from Thomas Hardy's novel by Prof Vasudevan and the words of 'normally clad in full suit' Prof Subramaniam. The teachings of the likes of M/s Veera raghavan, Sundaram, Seshasayee, Shenoy, Ramasubramaniam, Rajagopalan and Rajappa could never be forgotten. Each one had their own way of imparting education that struck to our mind like a casting on a stone.

I was also fortunate to study under the mathematical giants of M/s Vittal, K.V.Parthasarathy, Raja Sethupathy and HOD Subramanian when I did my Masters from Vivekanandha College. Hats off to these who strengthened my mathematical knowledge and created the interested in teaching , which I did undertake  some years later.

The best teacher I had in my life was my late brother  Professor Muthuveeramani, who started teaching me from my 8th standard, was instrumental in my getting a hundred in my PU and couple of Hundreds in my Bachelors too! His passion for the subject and teaching was contagious and no wonder he had so many students clinging on to him even years after their graduating from the College.

On this Teachers Day, I salute, offer pranams and pay my respects to these teachers, who helped me shape my career.