This is another story from my school, St John's High School, Mattom, Mavelikkara. It is about two students J Pillai and C Pillai (1970). Please don't ask the expansions for J&C. Those who were students of my school during that time will certainly know them.
Our school was a heaven for us. We enjoined the love and care of our teachers in huge measures. Be it Leelamma Mathew Sar or Balikamma Sar or Marykkutty Sar, the love was unfathomed (lady teachers were also addressed Sar. Miss or Maam were yet to arrive ). We were afraid of Eapen Sar and John V Thomas Sar. But they loved us a lot and we loved them too despite their brutal canes. Cane or whatever, we never had the option to complain, neither at the school nor back home - we never heard of a Human Rights Commission. Those days parents used to go to the school just to request the teachers to cane their children, at least occasionaly !!! Neither the teacher nor the parent or the hapless student considered caning a human rights violation. Students were sent to the school not just to learn a lot of things, but to become good humans too. In an abundance of love from the teacher, a little bit of caning was also construed as an expression of love ! Teachers there taught with incredible sincerity They were infinitely concerned about the future of their students..I often brood over those serene times which are never to come back. The world has changed too much to dream of a come back of those golden days. Children of the present will refuse to believe if people of my generation narrate their school days in ecstasy. Students and teachers never considered each other class-enemies. The bond of love that existed between them was divine.
I left the school in 1971. During the Onam of 2006 I went to Balikamma Sar's house to see her. I was sure that I will have a tough time telling her who I am. Her husband the tall John Sar was in the drawing room. I introduced myself to him as Balikamma Sar's student. He told me that she was preparing banana chips in the kitchen. I went directly to the kitchen which was poorly lit. She came close to me and murmured ":Rajan??" I felt humbled. I felt like a small boy before her. I had tears in my eyes. She had not seen me for 35 years and still she could remember my name. You want more evidence for the kind of love I was talking about?
!970. We were in the 10th standard. 10-A was the glamour class of the school. One day, if I remember correctly, it was Balikamma Sir's class in the morning. Suddenly J Pillai and C Pillai crashed into our class room and started shouting madly. I could make out only this much, "KSU Zindabad, Kadannappally Zindabad". Kadannappally?? The only Pally I knew then was the "Pathichirappally" (St John's orthodox Church, Pathichira) opposit to our school. We didn't know what was happening. Years later I realised what had happened that day. That was the beginning of the end of a glorious tradition. A tradition of the Guru-shishya parampara which was uniquely Indian. In the days and months and years that followed there were violent strikes by the students all over Kerala. In all the strikes, pelting stones at buses was the first act followed by slogan mongering testing the vocal chords and crashing into the classes, which were till then considered the sacrosanct in the Saraswathy temples. In the decades that followed this nonsense continued and is still continuing.
I often make this comparison when I talk to my students. "A patient going to a doctor has only one prayer, that he be cured of his illness and be healthy at the earliest. But a student going to a college does not have any craving for knowledge".
I feel very sad when I think of the two Pillais. All the teachers then might have hated them. I am very sure that the two will not be happy now seeing their tribe thriving in the campuses of Kerala with lethal powers to annihilate academics, whatever is left of that.
