Prof G M Ram

 

It is over a year since Ram Sir left this world for his heavenly abode. Many a time, I thought of posting an obituary on my blog, but could not. I felt like being held back by some inexplicable force. It took me several months before I could find a convincing reason for this strange state of mind. The simple reason was that my mind could not accept that Ram Sir was no more. Now after a year, getting over the shock and grief I felt no relevance for an obituary. But I changed my mind after I received a phone call from a girl I taught almost four decades ago. She told me that she had always tried to remind herself of a piece of advice I had given her when she started her teaching career. I was a little surprised as I was too young then to advise someone. Then she told me that this was the advice I received from Ram Sir when I started my career as a teacher. It was at this point that I decided to write this note.

1977 - That was the year I joined St John’s College, Agra as a PG student of Physics. Even before the first class I had felt demolished. All my pride as a Kerala youth simply vanished at the sight of the college, a huge imposing structure in red stone, indeed an architectural marvel.

Our first class. Ram Sir stepped into the room with his characteristic majesty. After a brief speech, he started the class. The topic was Mathematical Physics. I was surprised by a totally new style of teaching. I felt mesmerised by the ease with which he went from Mathematics to Physics and returned. That was the first time I realised the link between Physics and Mathematics. How the two were blended was a real eye opener.  And to top it all, he spoke beautiful and fluent English which was a treat by itself.

I left St John’s in 1979 after my PG and joined the CMS college in 1981 as a junior lecturer in Physics. I wrote a letter to Ram Sir informing him of this and never expected a reply from him. Those days it took a minimum of eight days to get a reply from Agra. To my surprise, I got a letter from Ram Sir on the eighth day. I still remember my hands shivering while opening the letter. He congratulated me, thanked God and closed the letter with the following sentence; “Any job done well is a reward in itself”.

In 1984, I was back in Agra for my M.Phil at the Agra University. By then Ram Sir had become the principal of St John’s college. I went to the principal’s bungalow to meet him. The description of the palatial building will need an exclusive essay which I don’t attempt here. I was received like a special guest and after talking for about an hour he told me that I should come back there in the evening for dinner with him and his family. With folded hands I told him “Sir, this invitation itself is a great honour for me. But I should be excused for not accepting this invitation. Sitting beside you in this palace for dinner, food will not go down my throat”. He laughed loudly and said “OK, OK”.

In 2005, I was again in Agra with my family. By then Ram Sir had retired from St John's college and was at the CNI Diocesan office most of the time. I went to the office and at the reception I was told that Sir was in a meeting with the Bishop. I waited for half an hour and gave a note to the receptionist and requested her to hand it over to Ram Sir. I just wrote “Rajan K. John,  1977-79 M.Sc Physics”. Sir came out in five minutes. Seeing him I ran up to him and said “Sir, I will not take more than two minutes. I have to catch the afternoon train to Kerala, that’s why I sent in that note”.  He sat beside me in the lounge and talked about many things, mostly related to the college. After some twenty minutes, I politely told him, “Sir, you were in a meeting with the Bishop and I have taken too much of your time”. With his characteristic smile, he said “The Bishop can wait”. I was shocked by the answer. Even today that answer remains an enigma. Perhaps there is a great message in that answer that the teacher is for the student. Anything or anyone comes only after that.

In 2017, I was again in Agra with my daughter Anna. Another one of my teachers, Prof. J. K. Sharma Sir  (A word about Sharma Sir. He passed MSc at the tender age of 19 and started teaching  at the  St John’s college. His students then were two or three years older than him.  Later he did his PhD from IIT Kanpur.) took us to Ram Sir’s house. He was very happy to see us. I touched his feet and sat beside him. Nearing ninety he was physically weak, but talked to us enthusiastically for over an hour. Sharma Sir encouraged him to talk about his student days at the Harvard University. He had a sharp memory and gave a vivid description of those times. He very clearly described places and incidents from around sixty five years back in time. Anna could not believe when he said that it took two months to reach the US from India by ship in those days. All of us had a very good time. After quite some unforgettable moments, we reluctantly rose to take leave of him. First Sharma Sir touched his feet. Then Anna touched his feet. Finally I moved forward but instead of touching his feet, in a flash, I said “Sir, I feel like hugging you”. He laughed aloud and said, “You do whatever you want to do”. I hugged him. The tall man he was, he hugged me too and I could hear him whisper “God bless you”. That was the last I heard from him. While leaving, I was sure that I would not meet him again. Yet when he left, it was the end of a world for me, a world in my thoughts so dominated by Ram Sir.

THE USTHAD OF MNEMONICS

 

Students often use convenient tricks to remember what they learn. These are known a mnemonics. There are universally accepted mnemonics like “BB ROY of GREAT BRITAIN has a VERY GOOD WIFE” which students use in Electricity / Electronics. Unlike these there are locally developed ones also. Also there are smart students who develop such tricks for themselves. We had such a smart boy in our school.

                                   

As a teacher I know how the examiner’s job has transformed over the years. Suppose there is a question, “who is the author of Veena Poovu?”. The examiner will have to give full marks even if the student writes “Komaran Aasaan”. The argument is that the student knows it is Aasaan. We should be testing the student’s knowledge and not their ignorance. Similarly G Sankara Kurup can easily be G Sukumara Kurup! If two stanzas of Veena Poovu are asked to be written, even a remote resemblance with the original would suffice. No problem. No problem at all.

But alas, during our times these were big problems. During our times the “Veena Poovu” should be there in original form with all the punctuations in place. It is here that our R Radhakrishnan Nair emerged as a saviour. He never hesitated in sharing the tricks he invented with his friends. A philanthropist indeed. He used to remember punctuations in the following way. “ Kuthu, comma, kuthu comma, double kuthu, double coma, vara kuthu, chodyam” It went like this. What he meant were respectively full stop, comma, semi colon, colon, inverted commas, exclamation and question marks. I want to put several varakkuthus here. “HOWZZAT?”. Wait a minute before saying, clean bowled. The master piece is yet to come. Once after a mathematics class he appeared very depressed. He could not get a mnemonic for LCM (Least Common Multiple). He remained depressed for a day or two. I advised him to remember the full form as such, that not being a big thing. He could not heed to my advice as he felt his prestige was at stake. The next day he came running to me shouting “Kittiyeda” (In Greek Kittiyeda means Eureka). The proud Archemedis told me, LCM means “Lalitha Cherian’s Mother”. I remained breathless. This boy was an usthad of mnemonics indeed.

*Lalitha Cherian was our class mate.

AMBADY

 

Sometime during the mid-seventies a young man called Raju Varghese from Kottayam reached Thekkady and entered a plot of land he had bought earlier. The place had a deserted look with no dwellings in sight. The man stood there in meditation  for a while and left. A few days later he returned to the place, this time a carpenter accompanying him. On a third similar visit the accompanying carpenter had his tool box with him but Raju was empty handed. Yes dear, ideas are not carried in suit cases. This young man’s head was full of aesthetic ideas. I refuse to call them business ideas. Not many at that time thought that Raju was there to script history. When Raju announced his intention of constructing a resort there, many termed it audacious. People cannot be blamed. Fifty years ago Thekkady was not a big tourist destination. But Raju was undeterred. He had decided. At that time only a visionary could have thought of the prospects of a resort at Thekkady. Fifty years down the line, we all agree that Raju was a visionary far ahead of his times.

Raju slowly transferred his ideas to the carpenter and he in turn gave them beautiful  expressions in wood. The duo was not in any hurry. But the two were uncompromising on one thing; that the out of the world ideas never lost their charm while getting shapes in wood. Yes, Ambady was being carved out of a man’s ideas and imaginations. The slim local population started appreciating Raju. Slowly Raju entered their hearts and became Rajuchayan, their darling. A few among them saw him as a God sent to transform their place. Finally Ambady came into being and started commercial operations in 1982. I am sceptical of myself using the term ‘commercial’ because Ambady never became a commercial venture. If I say that Ambady ‘is a home away from your home’, it is too clichéd but that is the truth. I have lost count of the number of times I have stayed at Ambady during the past forty years. The old saying ‘familiarity breeds contempt’ completely loses its meaning here. When life becomes a little fast or when there are tensions of  routine life, I take a break and flee to Ambady with my family, stay there for a day or two. Many are surprised as we seldom go out of our room during this stay. We enjoy every moment of an idle life inside the room talking, watching TV and sleeping. Yes, even inside the room you feel the unique ambience of Ambady. Many people wonder what kind of a tour is this. I tell them that this is not a tour for me ( though there is plenty of scope for that too). To me it’s a retreat into the sweet, quiet, peace, tranquil, sublime environment so unique to Ambady. A day or two here apparently doing nothing recharges me. It lifts my spirits. Every time I leave Ambady after a happy day or two, I leave with one new reason to come back at the earliest.

Ambady has never changed its fundamental character. The fact is that it cannot. It might have grown physically but the soul remains undisturbed. It has to. With no vanity in the air, this is the ideal place for the romantic. Yes, Ambady cannot change. A pure and strong idea so close to the nature cannot change. Rajuchayan’s idea alone was there in the beginning. It was pure, strong, beautiful, romantic and sublime. Such an idea never dies. It grows on its own strength of uniqueness.

Rajuchayan is no more. His son Tinku carries forward the Ambady tradition with elan. Recently Tinku and his wife Priya started a new restaurant in the Kumily town, a kilometre away from Ambadi. The name of the new venture is puzzling. 10.25 (Ten Twentyfive)! The inquisitive may read the Bible, 1 Corinthians, chapter 10, verse 25.

So dear, let your next holiday destination be Ambady. You will fall in love with the place. Take it from me.

A BOOK THAT DISTURBED

 

It’s forty years since I read Anand’s “AALKKOOTTAM”. I don’t remember a word from the book now. But almost always I remember something special that happened to me in the aftermath of reading the book. I had felt mentally and physically exhausted by the time I read the last page. The devastating effect remained a mystery until I read a book by Prof Samuel Nellimukal (Former Head, Dept of Malayalam, CMS College, Kottayam), which narrates the history of CMS college since its inception. The book disturbed me no end such that its reading even changed some of my behavioural patterns for about a week, the time I took to complete it. It cemented my decades long belief that a book that does not disturb is not worth reading.

Here is the book “CMS COLLEGINTE CHARITHRAM”.

I was not very enthusiastic while beginning to read the book. But as I progressed through the book I realised that my perceptions are changing, many of my doubts are being cleared and most importantly I was getting honest and convincing answers for some of the questions haunting me for a very long time. Progressing through the pages a sort of reverence for the book started developing in me and I felt it difficult to keep it indiscriminately on the floor or even my study table. I felt as if I was reading the scriptures.

The incredible feats of the CMS missionaries are described in vivid details. I will not narrate any of those Godly acts here. But one or two things need special mention. How many of us can believe that slave trade was prevalent in Kerala during the nineteenth century? Yes, slavery was there in all its inhuman dimensions. Yet its abolition is not hailed the way Abraham Lincholn’s historic declaration is. The bizarre, uncivilised, inhuman dress code prescribed for the “lower cast (!) women” just  over a century ago was a crying shame. There are many more things like these.

I always had respect for the CMS missionaries for bringing out revolutionary social changes by imparting modern education to all without any discrimination. Yet I kept telling myself that after all these are the ones that committed the massacre at the Jallianwala Bhag. It was here that the book opened my eyes to a soothing reality that Gen (killer) Dyer and Rev Benjamin Bailey represented two mutually exclusive entities. The book contains a wealth of information of incidents and history spanning two centuries. At every stage one can feel the unbiased commitment of Prof Samuel, the pain he took, and the endurance against all odds. I sincerely believe that God specially chose him to write the book.

It is very unfortunate that the book did not receive the attention it deserved on the sheer strength of merit. That the CMS college ignored the book is nothing short of a crime. This book is for all. Yet may I make some humble suggestions.

All educational institutions of the CSI (schools and colleges) should have at least fifty copies each of this precious book in their libraries. Every parish (CSI) should have at least ten copies of the book. It certainly is worth including the book in the Sunday school syllabus.

I know that these are wishful thinking at this stage. Yet I am hopeful. If God selected Prof Samuel to write this book, certainly there should be a purpose. Let His purpose prevail.

Three cheers for those four-for, off the wrong foot

 

This story is twenty seven years old but is still fresh in my memory. The CMS college was taking on the formidable St Albert’s college in the  the M G University cricket finals for the P M Raghavan trophy on the 10^th of December, 1995. CMS batted first and ended their innings for 153. The rival captain might have contemptuously smiled at this paltry total, the way the mighty Lloyd would have at that 183 that was to script history on the 25^th June, 1983. He had every right to smile as he was captaining a side comprising four Renji players.

The big home crowd that had assembled on the “eastern bank” of the ground were dejected as they were sure of the outcome and the disgrace awaiting their team on their home turf. I along with some cricket loving teachers were there on the “eastern bank”. When the St Albert’s opener took stance, we too were depressed and silent, poignantly awaiting what seemed to be just the completion of a formality. But as the game progressed, it was not as bad for CMS as was expected. But a stage was reached with St Albert’s needing just 24 runs in 4 overs with 4 wickets remaining, to lift the trophy. In normal case a match at such a stage is rightly qualified as a cliff hanger. But with a strong batting line up that extended up to the tail-end that was an easily attainable target for St Albert’s.

The CMS captain Jiby gave the ball to Biji G Nair. A hapless, diffident looking Biji turned back and looked at the teachers. If I remember correctly, Prof P M Jacob of the Mathematics department shouted “poyi kutti parikkada”. I was dangerously tensed and I could feel my blood pressure soaring. I decided that I shall leave the place as it was too much for me to bear. I went away and sat on the veranda of the Great Hall. I sat there with an unbearable sense of loss. I felt insulated from the rest of the world and fell into a state of meditation. Some twenty minutes might have elapsed. I was awakened to reality by a wild roar of a crowd in frenzy and a thunderous applause that reverberated in the beautiful, otherwise sedate campus. The Casuarina trees were dancing in the wind and singing. Something unbelievable happened? I ran to the place I had fled a little while ago. I could see Prof P M Jacob (quite some years senior to me) dancing like a young boy and on seeing me shouted “Raja we have won, we have won, maaan we have won.”

Yes, CMS beat St Albert’s. I had to believe it as I could see the CMS crowd dancing and embracing each other on the little turf on the “eastern bank”. But why Biji is lifted by his team mates and dancing? I wondered. I could not ask anyone as everyone there was on cloud 9. Once the frenzied celebrations settled down I approached Prof P M Jacob and he gave me a vivid detail of the stranger than fiction happenings there.

With four overs remaining, Biji was given the ball and that was when I fled.  He gave away some runs in the first three balls and with the next three balls three St Alembertians were packed off to the pavilion ! After the next over Biji came back and with his first ball felled the last of the St Alembertians. The ease with which he picked the last wicket looked as if he did what was his wont. Yes, Biji did it for CMS.

But for Bij’s magical performance, Unni’s wonderful knock of 64  or Anil’s 2/20,all would have gone in vain.

 

Now a word about Biji’s bowling action. A medium pacer, he had a not so good looking, deceptive bowling action. When he delivered the ball with his right hand, instead of his left leg going back it was his right leg that did so. And all this time his left hand remained motionless. So, no wonder. They might have played Renji matches, but might not have seen one like Biji, bowling on the wrong foot.

 

I remember many students who played for CMS like Unni, Madhu, Balaji, Sooraj, Dileep, Antony and many more.  Let me close this note with two names I always remember. Motti the dashing right handed batsman who  was a good left arm spinner too. Then Koruth, the lanky leg spinner who reminded one of Ravi Sasthri of his heydays.