Alma Mater, Alumni and some musings - 3

 

After reading my previous two posts some people told me that they sensed something  disturbing. They wanted to know the reason if I am really disturbed. Indeed, I am, after this year’s alumni meet on the 26^th of January.

VIDYA SOUHRUDHAM

Vidya Souhrudham. That’s the name of the Alumni Association of the CMS college. But this year it all started with no vidya and scant souhrudham. It is customary to have the  business meeting before the inaugural function where the new office bearers are selected.  Since I was never interested in these meetings, as usual, I remained outside the Great Hall. Meeting old students, who come there as “old students and old students  alone” with their minds filled with reverence for their Alma mater and love for their teachers and friends, is always a matter of great joy. While roaming around the campus I ran into a group which was in a jubilant mood, yet their language was very aggressive and slightly abusive. I could quickly understand that they were giving  vent to their anger against the “autocratic” and “audacious” principal who tried to bring the Vidya Souhrudham under the control of the college. Their jubilance was over the disruption of the meeting and the hurdles they could put before principal. They were bragging,how with number in their favour they could do this. This is a grey side of democracy, I told myself. Here heads don’t count, only headcounts count. Isn’t that grey matter doesn’t count a grey side of democracy? Some of the ordinary people like me there started asking among themselves; what is wrong in the association being under the college. Some of them narrated their experiences with other colleges where they were once students. They all were unanimous in their resolve that CMS is the only place where they can step into with a sense of belonging, remain there meeting teachers and friends, enjoy the unmatched beauty of the campus and leave with a greater sense of belonging and a pious aspiration to come back again and again.

A powerful group had come well prepared, with mustered headcounts, to spoil the business meeting. They emerged victorious as it always happens in CMS college and in CMS college alone. For over the past four decades I have remained a mute spectator to many a group hijacking the college and its activities. This time another aggressive group could successfully hijack another programme. This is the latest and can be the last if the college administration is resolute in freeing the college from evil forces.

I have often heard people saying that unlike other colleges CMS is different and it belongs to all. All who come here, all who roam here, all who booze here and have to be lifted away? I would ask these people to pause for a moment, shed their prejudices and ponder for a moment over what they have given back to their Alma mater to make inflated claims.The principal Dr Varghese C Joshua “after getting defeated and had to flee from the business meet” (this was what the jubilant group, I mentioned in the beginning of this note, was claiming) made a very powerful yet emotional speech during the inaugural function. He spoke of how the Alma mater is uniquely  important to its alumni. He enumerated how the alumni can support the institution and how important it is for the alumni to understand its romantic, spiritual and intellectual duties. May I advise you to watch the speech on the YouTube.

While being critical of those who came with malicious intents and drummed up support, I think I should thankfully mention the names of three alumni who have been working for years now, without any publicity. Their hard work never gets acknowledged as they always remain behind the scenes. Theirs certainly is a devotion to the college. I want to write their names here. Abu, Kiran and Roshia.

Alma mater, Alumni and some musings - 2

 

This is a sequel to my previous post “Alma mater, Alumni and some musings – 1”. Therefore anyone reading this post may please read the first part first. In this note I want to be less romantic and more realistic or pragmatic but I am sure that I am bound to fail in this endeavour. Yet let me try.

Technically speaking an alumnus is a former student of an educational institution. Again speaking technically, students after completing their studies receive their transfer certificates (TC) and are out from where they once belonged to. Now, technically and legally they have absolutely no right or business to interfere in anything related to the institution. If ever the institution loves or welcomes them back with honour and dignity, it is certainly out of its magnanimity and at a lesser level, generosity too. Though this is right technically, humans are not machines or robots. Certainly there is something called the umbilical cord relation. The cord becomes a non-physical entity along with receiving the TC. One cannot say that whatever is non-physical does not exist and it’s all an illusion. But then, aren’t such illusions the most beautiful things in one’s life? Indeed they are, I believe. So the umbilical cord and the romanticism or the beautiful philosophy associated with it is indeed real. With no doubt about this anymore, let me delve into some of the realities, temporarily abandoning all those subtle dimensions involved in the issue.

I have heard many people talking very emotionally of their Alma mater. But I have seen few doing anything substantial when it comes to helping the very same Alma mater.  The Alma mater needs no alms. It’s all about giving back. Giving back to the school or college that shaped one’s life. Well, most often all those sermons on the mount stop here. Now why should I talk about this “giving back”? It’s just to make it very explicit that the alumni have a solemn duty to support, ie, give back. Any talk or deed without this realisation is meaningless.

Rakesh Gangwal is the co founder of the IndiGo airlines and an alumnus of IIT-Kanpur. Last week he donated a mind-boggling  Rs 1000000000/- (One Hundred Crores) to his Alma mater. Prof ECG Sudarshan, the great Physicist is an alumnus of CMS college. In1986 he donated two computers (Work Horse II, HCL) to the college. No college in Kerala had a computer then. This donation , over the years, changed the life of many a student and the history of their families. In the same year, Prof Sudarshan made an even greater donation. He donated a huge collection of Physics books to the CMS College. These books were the personal collections of Prof Sudarshan and his teacher Prof Marshak. What greater contribution should an alumnus make.

When I describe the donations by Prof Sudarshan, it may give a wrong impression that any donation has to be in such material/monetary form. Far from that.  Wherever Prof Sudarshan went he was a great ambassador of CMS College. Even while speaking at the greatest centres of learning around the world, he talked about two of his teachers with great reverence. The two teachers were Prof George M Thomas of the Physics department and Prof P A Eapen of the Mathematics department of the CMS college. He kept telling everyone how these two teacher motivated him and shaped his future. (I am witness to the great Physicist doing the “shastanganamaskkaram” before these gurus. When he did this he was 75 and the gurus were in their nineties!). I have narrated this to make clear what “Giving Back’ means and how Prof Sudarshan considered himself small before his Alma mater and his revered teachers. Yes, ECG Sudarshan, one of the greatest names in Physics considered himself infinitely indebted to his Alma mater.

On flip side of this there are alumni who think that the CMS college exists because of them. Needless to say that there cannot be a more stupid notion. My only prayer is the following. Let even” those who come to scoff”, fight, defeat and conquer with profane intentions “remain to pray”, support, love uninhibited and praise the college wherever they go.

Let everyone know that this is a pious place. This is a place blessed by God. This is a place where future is born. This is a place where love is showered upon all without any sort of discrimination. This is a place where from the noble ideals of equality emanated at a time when all kinds of inequalities and associated cruelties existed in the society. This is a place where emancipation from bondage of sorts took its first roots two centuries ago. (Can you believe that a slave market where humans where traded like livestock existed very near to the present Kottayam town?)

Let me invoke the words of Amir Khusrau portraying the enchanting beauty of Kashmir:

  "Agar firdaus bar roo-e zameen ast,

Hameen ast-o hameen ast-o hameen ast"

which means,

If there is a paradise on earth,

It's here, it's here.

Yes, I admit that there is an element of exaggeration in adopting these words as such for CMS college. But then, would anything lesser suffice? I doubt.

Alma mater, alumni and some musings - 1

 

Alma mater is a school, college or university that one has attended or from which one has graduated. Alumni is the plural noun for a group of graduates. Both are descriptions from the dictionary. These words have a much deeper, romantic and even spiritual meaning than what the dictionary says. It goes without saying that this group will be most happy when their rendezvous is their Alma mater. The CMS college celebrates the old students' meet on the 26^th of January every year with the enthusiasm of the old students once again back in the campus, soaring sky high. The function used to start in the evening and the aesthetically illuminated campus was a delight to watch. I am sure that no other campus in Kerala can match this unique elegance. Almost every year there used to be a “Ganamela” led by  Mr Prem Prakash, film producer and actor. I remember the “Pyaar Ka Nagma” duet by him and his highly talented daughter Thankam, which mesmerised the audience. Programmes like this transcended the alumni to nostalgic spots back in space and time. But these days, there are some dark areas in this otherwise beautifully lit campus.

The small playground opposite to the principal’s bungalow serves as the parking place for vehicles and is often poorly lit. But in the sedate moonlight the place is the ideal romantic place for people to assemble on an occasion like this and share old memories. People who were students here during different years forms different groups and “naturally” transforms to “high-spirited” ones. A few years back on such an occasion every parked car was acting like a mini bar. Even in their inebriation they posed no problem to the function probably because of their love for the college. Yet there were many who wondered whether this should happen in the campus. When Prof Korah Mani became the principal he changed the timing of this function from evening to morning. I still remember a very bold statement he made then. “I will not allow this college founded by committed, selfless missionaries with great vision to be converted into a tippler’s haven.

In 2005, I along with my family was in my Alma mater, the St: John’s college Agra. My wife and children were surprised to see me kneeling at the steps of the Physics department and removing my shoes before entering the place to which I owe my life, the place where I met Ghose Sir and Ram Sir who changed my entire concepts of learning and teaching Physics. The place cannot but be so sacrosanct to me.

As I don’t have the eloquence to portray my feelings as to what an Alma mater should be to its alumni, may I invoke the words of the greatest of the children of CMS, the former president of India, Shri K R Narayanan. During one of his visits to the college he made the following statement, “ every visit to the CMS college is a pilgrimage to me”. Isn’t this the ultimate statement regarding one’s love or bhakthi for one’s alma mater? Isn’t it a sin to go against the divine spirit of this ultimate statement and also against the soul embedded in those three magical letters, CMS?