An eMagazine for TDRites
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A great school is a rewind for lifetime. A great school need not be a 100% result producer, which is just a factory churning out performers. A great school is one that provides relief when your body and mind is tired even years after you left the school. A great school is one that refuses to leave your mind in this lifetime. A great school is one that has given you cozy comfort, affectionate friends and towering teachers. A great school is one that you often talk about day after day, even after marriage to the extent that your husband or wife threatens to divorce you.
The pride you get when your school is looked upon as a venerable institution is unparalleled. Sometimes, you have to talk about yourself to bring out the greatness of your school. I request friends not to misconstrue this as ego. I present this small episode with all humility only to bring out the greatness of the teachers of TAHS. After all, I believe that the students are the real torch bearers of the teachers.
It was a sunny June of 1959 in Trichy. The English class for the 8th Standard C section was on, in an asbestos roofed room in a school. Mind you, this was one of the most famous schools in Tamil Nadu in those days. The school had just reopened after the summer vacation. The class was a mixture of most students that passed out from third form in the same school, some who were detained in the fourth form and a few new admissions. I was one among the new admissions. (In 1959 a scheme was introduced in High Schools by which the fourth form was converted into 8th standard. We were the first set in this system. The tenth standard would ultimately be SSLC. This scheme survived only a few years).
The class teacher popularly known as TMS was probing the new admissions asking each one of them to give out the name and previous school details. When my turn came, I stood up and said, ‘ K.Murthy, T.A. High School (In the expanded form), Tiruvidaimarudur’. The teacher luckily had no problem with my name. He shot back the next question: “which school? I repeated the name of the school in a louder voice. His eyes widened. With his upper lip cutting over the lower, he said, “Tiru—va – vadu—thurai what?”
I shot back “Adheenam High School, Sir” By now I was feeling nervous. He murmured the school name and with a dismissing look asked me to sit down.
I was angry. He had refused to take cognizance of the school from where I emerged. Was it because it was a village school? Was it because he had not come across the place? Was it because he was prejudiced against new admissions from what he considered a non standard school? When some new admissions were from Chennai or Madurai, he took interest on their schools and he asked many questions. Before asking them to sit, he uttered the word ‘good’. I thought that he never cared for me just because he had not heard about my previous school.
I could not sleep that night. I was used to be recognized as a topper in my previous school and here is a teacher who refused to recognize my school. Was I only topping in the midst of average students in the school? No, there were many intelligent students. .(One of my classmates in TAHS is today a leading scientist in the field of photochemistry; in fact one among the top five scientists in that field in the world. Another was a great Scientist and a professor in an Indian university. Yet another became a Deputy Director in the Met Department of Government of India.)There was always a healthy competition amongst us.
The next morning I requested my father to leave me in my grandpa’s house in TDR , from where I would attend TAHS. But my father dismissed the idea.
Days passed on with my being a backbencher, not gaining access into the after school meeting of the core students. Whenever they looked at me, I felt untold discomfort and I avoided their presence.
Then came, an eventful English grammar class. The same teacher was in the class. A question came: ‘The soldiers spent a weary night’. Parse the word, ‘weary’. The teacher was asking the original school boys one by one. ‘Adjective’ said a boy named Radhamurali. “It is an adjective. Can you be more specific?’ asked the teacher. It all seemed to be a session between the teacher and the old boys of the school. The class was still for some moments. Then the boys started talking among themselves.
At that moment, I was delighted for I knew the answer. Even though I wanted to participate, the teacher never looked at me. Yes, I had learnt good enough grammar in my previous school to know the answer for this tough question, whereas, amongst these boastful boys, no body knew the answer. I never expected that my moment for taking vengeance for belittling my school would come so soon. I looked at the other boys as a tiger would towards rabbits. My heart was beating rapidly. Suddenly I raised my hand. I shouted.” Can I tell the answer, Sir?” The teacher could not believe.
‘New student, you want to answer?’ he asked me with a sarcastic smile.
‘Weary’ is transferred epithet Sir- I answered with great pride.
He was clean bowled. But for the previous humbling to me from him, he should have said ‘good’. But he did not.
He asked me – can you explain? It was as if I answered by fluke or one original boy of the school prompted to me. I understood that the hostile attitude against me still prevailed. Perhaps he could not digest that a boy from an unheard of village school should know the answer which his own boys did not.
I explained:- In fact, the ‘night’ was not weary, but the soldiers were. The word ‘weary’ qualifies the word ’soldiers’ but its place is transferred in the sentence before ‘night’.
An eerie silence prevailed in the classroom for a few seconds. The boys wished that I should be wrong.
But the teacher, after all being a teacher, cried out:- Fantastic, What is you name?
I shouted: - K.Murthy, from Tiruvavadudhurai Adheenam High School, Tiruvidaimarudur
The teacher:- Where is the place?
Me:- Near Kumbakonam
The teacher: They taught you grammar so well in third form?
Me:- Yes, sir, we had great teachers. They started Wren & Martin grammar book from fist form.
The teacher:- Boys, let us give a big hand for this new student.
I still remember the words I uttered at that moment.
I said:- I can be better applauded for being the old student of my previous school than a new student of this school.
What happened subsequently is of no relevance to this story. Looking back, the love for the school I possessed by instinct was amazing to me. It was and is really the experience of being in a great school, which I have defined in the first paragraph of this story.
This story has another latest twist. The teacher I was referring to was Sri.T.M.Srinivasan, who is now the correspondent of this school called E.R. Higher Secondary School. His grand daughter Prarthana will get married to Ashwin, the grandson of Late. Sri.Vaithilinga Iyer, who was a mathematics teacher in the T.A.High School. The engagement is to take place by January end. Needless to add, that I will be one of the happiest persons.
I admire the efforts of TOSA and kudos to the active members for building a great edifice called TOSA. I look at these architects of TOSA with great awe and respect. After all, at this advanced age of mine, TDR Times is taking me into a nostalgic journey - a journey very few people experience in their advanced lifetime. This is an experience which cannot be described but can only be felt. I am sure that the old students of TAHS, irrespective of their age are fortunate in these days when the school time experiences are rare to share for most of the people. Day after day, I get richer and richer in my quest for knowledge. Another fantastic thing that is happening is that some of my friends (Non TDR ) listen to me with a touch of envy when I speak to them about TOSA and TDR Times. Two of them telephoned to me recently that they too are trying to organize like this in respect of their old school. This is a great cascading effect and TOSA is a trailblazer. But one question remains unanswered in my mind - Anybody can aspire. But will any one of them find dedicated folks like Ramji, Viji, Subramaiam, Rajee and the like?
By
Murthy
Feedback: murthyt5@gmail.com ; tdrtimes@gmail.com
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