Rajkumar

My cousin Venu did his Master’s in Engineering from Manipal Institute.  As part of his course, he came to Bangalore for internship in an organisation in 2000.  I invited him to visit me and spend a weekend with me at Tumkur.  So, Venu came to Tumkur on a Saturday morning.  He was supposed to return to Bangalore on Sunday evening.  I forced him to stay back.  Since the organisation where he was working was on the Tumkur-Bangalore highway, I told him, ‘You can go directly from Tumkur to your workplace on Monday morning’.  Venu agreed.  Venu is a good cook, so my intention of forcing him to stay back was to enjoy his cooking for another day!  As planned, Venu left for Bangalore on Monday early morning.  When I went to my Institute, I saw people discussing something serious.  One of them told me that the Kannada super star Rajkumar had been abducted by sandalwood smuggler Veerappan on Sunday night.  Initially I didn’t realise the gravity of the situation.  Later, when I came to know that shops and establishments were pulling their shutters down, traffic was being blocked everywhere and there was riot like situation in Bangalore, I grew anxious.  Since we didn’t have mobile phones, I could not contact Venu.  He had given me the phone number of his office.  I tried that number many times, but nobody answered the call.  As time passed, I grew more and more anxious.  I was also feeling guilty.  Had I not insisted on him staying back, he would have reached Bangalore on Sunday evening itself.  By noon I got a call from Venu that he safely reached his place of stay.  I had a sigh of relief.

Few years later, I was working on a World Bank funded project of MHRD in my Institute.  Every month we were supposed to visit the State Government’s monitoring cell and present the progress of the project.  The cell was functioning in a building close to Vidhan Soudha in Bangalore.  One day, four of us from the Institute hired a cab and went to Bangalore.  By the time we finished our work, we could see that the road in front of the building, which used to be very busy, had almost become empty.  Police vehicles were seen plying on both directions.  We got the news that Rajkumar had passed away.  Suddenly there was gloom everywhere.  Taking advantage of this, anti-social elements started creating trouble in the city.  The officers in the cell told us not to venture out till police brought the situation under control.  So, we stayed back in the office till 8 in the evening.  When we felt that things were under control, we came out.  As our car was turning near Hotel Chalukya, we could see a mob attacking a car on the other end of the road.  Our driver immediately turned the car to a small lane and sped through that.  Luckily our driver was well versed with the topography of that area.  So, he kept driving though small lanes avoiding all the main roads.  We could see trouble everywhere.  There was tension all around.  Anytime an angry mob could jump on to our car.  But luckily that didn’t happen.  Finally, when we hit the Tumkur road near Yashwantpur, police had brought the situation under control. 

Dr. Rajkumar was not only a superstar, but a nice and humble gentleman, loved and respected by everyone.  I never got an opportunity to see him live.  But whenever his thoughts come to my mind, I remember these two incidents. 

Kurta Challenge

Cheating in examinations is an age-old practice.  Even though I don’t endorse it, I have always been fascinated by the creative and innovative methods adopted by students for cheating.  Copying from a friend and carrying chits are the oldest and the most common methods.  But there is a long list of different methods used by students like, writing on parts of the body, on slippers, on the cover of calculator, hiding chits in the folded sleeves of shirt, and so on.  Cheating by switching off the video in the pretext of low bandwidth during online exams and hiding chits inside the face mask are the latest additions to the list, thanks to corona virus.  Earlier boys used to outwit girls, but now a days, girls have also picked up the skills and thus bridged the gender inequality in cheating in exams!

I don’t claim that nobody can cheat in my exams, but it is not easy to cheat when I invigilate, because, true to the word ‘invigilate’, I am usually very vigilant.  Few years ago, there was a girl in my institute who was known as ‘copy queen’ among the teachers.  Her answers used to be as perfect as the textbook.  Once I was evaluating her answer paper for a test which was invigilated by another teacher.  She had verbatim copied a fairly long sentence from the textbook.  Even the punctuations were perfectly in place.  I called her and asked how she could reproduce the answer with so much precision.  She told me that she had learnt it well.  I asked her to repeat the sentence, which she couldn’t.  I told her, ‘No problem, I understand that you would have learnt it by heart the previous day of the exam.  Now, when I ask you unexpectedly, you may not be able to answer.  So, please take 24 hours’ time.  Tomorrow you have to write this again in front of me.  If you are able to do so, I will give marks for this answer, otherwise, I will give zero marks for this question’.  She never came back!

She used to wear long kurta on the day of exams.  Her time-tested technique was to hide small chits by pinning them at the inner portion of her kurta, so that when she sits, the chits would be inside the kurta on her lap.  At regular intervals, she would lift the edge of the kurta, and copy from the chit.  When the invigilator came close, she would keep the kurta straight as if nothing had happened.  A senior student, sitting next to her in the exam hall, had alerted me about this.  During the next exam, when I was invigilating, I was sure that she would have come prepared.  I was prepared too! As expected, she came wearing a long kurta.  As soon as the exam started, I went and stood next to her.  Standing there, I kept a vigil on other students, but did not move an inch from there.  She was very uncomfortable, kept looking here and there and occasionally looked at me.  She pretended as if she was writing something.  I could see a smile on the faces of few other students, who would have guessed why I was standing there.  After about 20 minutes into the exam, she submitted the answer paper and left.  I am sure, she would have cursed me, but I was happy that I stopped her from cheating, at least in one exam!

(Note: Those who are interested in cheating in exams can find some innovative ways of cheating at the following link.  But, remember, your teacher might have also read this!)

https://www.boredpanda.com/best-exam-cheats-how-to-cheat-on-test/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=organic

Chennai Express

After completing my studies, I was searching for a job.  I got a letter for the selection test for the post of Accounts Executive in Metals and Minerals Trading Corporation (MMTC).  The test centre was Madras (now Chennai).  So, I reserved ticket from Ernakulam to Madras by the Alleppey-Madras Express.  That was my first visit to Madras.  But what made me more uncomfortable was that it was my first overnight journey by train.  Before this, though I had travelled many times by train, all those journeys were for few hours, that too during daytime.

On the day of journey, I boarded the Alleppey-Madras Express in the evening from Ernakulam.  The train was to reach Madras the next morning.  I was allotted the middle berth in a sleeper coach compartment.  I occupied my seat.  I had no idea, how those seats got converted to beds in the night.  I was also anxious about the safety of sleeping on a rail berth.  However, I didn’t reveal this to anyone.  My co-passengers included a young boy and an elderly man.  After dinner, my co-passengers got ready to sleep.  The young boy lifted the middle portion of the seat and fixed the bed. He climbed to the upper bed and the elderly person occupied the lower one.  The young man took out a book from his bag and started reading lying on the berth.  (No mobile phones, tabs, or laptops those days!) Now it was my turn to climb to the middle berth.  I somehow managed to squeeze in.  I found it extremely uncomfortable to get stuck between two berths.  First of all, I didn’t get sleep due to the movement of train.  On the top of it, I had all sorts of apprehensions: Will I roll and fall down while sleeping? Will the upper berth fall on me? Will the chain holding the middle berth break? and on and so forth!  At night the speed of the train increased, which added to my apprehensions.  After a while, the young boy stopped reading, switched off the light and went to sleep.  I got down a couple of times and walked from one end of the coach to the other.  Almost everyone was sleeping.  Meanwhile a policeman patrolling the coach asked my whereabouts.  I told him I was going to the washroom.  I silently returned to my berth.  I couldn’t sleep at all, whereas everyone around me was in deep sleep, some snoring loudly!

In the middle of the night, without my knowledge, I slipped into sleep.  Suddenly something fell on me, and I got up in shock, thinking my worst fear had come true.  When I sat up, I couldn’t see anything.  I searched in darkness and found something.  It was the book my co-passenger was reading.  He had kept it on the berth, which slipped through the gap and fell on me!  I lied down for some more time without closing my eyes.  The train pulled into a big station.  I got up and went to the door.  It was Katpadi.  Sunlight was beginning to appear in the horizon.  I decided to stand near the door, enjoying the landscape, occasionally sipping hot coffee brought by early morning vendors.  I kept reading the names of the stations passing by, Arakkonam, Avadi, Perambur.  Slowly I could observe the changing landscape; the big, ancient, and historic city was approaching.  Finally, the train pulled into the huge, covered platform of Madras Central.  I got down from the train with a sigh of relief!

This was just the beginning of my rail journeys.  After this, I might have travelled more than hundred times by train to various destinations.  Still, the memory of the first journey is fresh!

 

 

 

Boiled Eggs

Boiled eggs used to be one of my favourites.  At Ahmedabad, right opposite the main gate of IIM, there were many street vendors selling tea and snacks.  One of them used to sell boiled eggs.  He used to cut the boiled egg into four pieces, sprinkle salt and pepper and serve it hot.  We used to have it as evening snack. 

After I shifted to Tumkur, one day I felt like having boiled eggs and I decided to prepare it at home.  I bought three eggs from a nearby shop.  I took the first one.  There was some dirt on the egg.  So, I decided to clean it before boiling.  I found the dirt to be a bit tough, which did not go in the first wash.  I applied a bit more pressure; the result was obvious – the egg broke.  Though I was feeling bad, I thought I have two more.  I took the second one.  This time I was very careful – I washed the egg gently and kept it near the kitchen sink.  Then I went in search of a pan for boiling water.  When I took the pan and turned towards the sink, I was shocked to see the egg rolling over and falling into the sink!  The second one was also gone.  There is a concept called diminishing marginal utility in economics.  But in my case, the inventory was diminishing, and the utility was yet to be enjoyed.  In fact, the perceived utility, that is the desire to have boiled egg was exponentially increasing!

Now, I turned to the third one.  (Was the egg looking at me with a naughty smile?)  This time I didn’t want to make any mistake.  So, I first kept the pan with water on the stove for boiling, took the egg carefully, washed it gently and proceeded to the pan.  The water was already boiling.  I slowly released the egg into the boiling water.  The egg went straight and hit the bottom of the pan and broke!!

 

 

Store Boys

It was the summer vacation between the sixth and seventh standard.  We were all busy making the best use of vacation, playing outdoor games during the daytime and indoor games like chess, carrom etc., during the evenings.  Remember, it was 1984, no television! One day Thankappan Sir, my schoolteacher, who was also my father’s friend, came to my house.  He told my father that he had been made in-charge of the bookstore in the school and he wanted me to assist him in this task.  My father happily agreed.  I was not very happy as I had to go to school everyday and spend almost the entire day there.  But I had no choice.  Thankanppan Sir had also asked another friend of mine, Selvaraj, to assist him.  

Next day we both reached the school.  Since it was vacation, the school looked deserted.  Bookstore was meant for distributing textbooks to the students and usually all students picked up books before the school reopened.  Hence, the bookstore was busy during the second half of vacation.  Thankappan Sir explained our responsibility.  Students would first pay the fee in the office and come to the store for collecting books.  We had to sort the books, bundle them class wise and stack them in the shelf.  As students came, Sir would verify the receipt and make necessary entry in the register.  We had to supply books to them.  He took us to a large classroom converted as bookstore.  Newly printed books have a typical smell, and the room was filled with it.  Though it was not a great assignment, we both were excited that we would be assisting Sir.  The students were supposed to show the receipt through a window and collect books.  Only we both along with Sir were allowed inside the store.  So, we pretended to be special in front of our classmates and other children who looked through the window.  We were enjoying the special status.  The school attender used to bring tea and snacks for Sir (mostly ‘pazham pori’, banana fry) in the morning and afternoon.  We too were served the same.  That was the biggest attraction for us!   Our assignment continued till the school reponed. 

Next year also Thankappan Sir asked us to assist him.  We were attracted by the tea and snacks.  Within few days Thankappan Sir got transferred to another school and Abdul Khader Sir was made in-charge of stores.  While Thankappan Sir was a tough task master, Khader Sir was a soft person, who hardly scolded anyone.  But on the first day itself we realised that our biggest attraction was gone!  It was the month of Ramadan and Khader Sir was fasting.  So, he didn’t ask for tea.  Since there were no other teachers in the school due to vacation, the attender also stopped getting tea.  The next year again Khader Sir asked us to take up the assignment, but this time, the Principal of the school came to our rescue saying they are in high school now.  Let them spend some time learning something during the vacation.  We nodded in agreement.  So, Khader Sir took some other students, and we were back in the playground!

Today, when I look back, I feel we learnt lot of things during those days: the importance of being organised, the significance of maintaining proper documents, little bit of inventory management, and overall management of an activity.  Such small things in life teach us some important lessons; it is only that we realise it much later!

 

Seeing is Learning

Teachers’ Day is an occasion for remembering all those teachers who played an important role in one’s life.  Two years ago, I wrote a blog on Prof. K Balakrishnan of IIM Ahmedabad (http://ajoy-reflections.blogspot.com/2019/09/the-teacher-i-love-to-be.html).  

Today, let me talk about another teacher, Sri. C N Ranjith, who influenced me a lot.  Ranjith Sir was my science teacher in high school at Kochi.  His style of teaching made him different from other teachers.  He believed in teaching science through experiments.  Since it was a government school, there was no laboratory and facilities for demonstrating science experiments hardly existed.  This is where the creativity and ingenuity of Ranjith Sir came to the forefront.  He used whatever materials and properties were available in the school to design experiments.  It could be anything like paper, books, ruler, leaves, flowers, chalk piece and so on - he found a way to use them for demonstrating science.  His ability to connect the experiments to a concept in Physics or Chemistry was exemplary.  

Ranjith Sir had limited resources at his disposal in the school.  He couldn’t afford to make the students do science experiments.  So, he demonstrated them to the students, kindled curiosity  and explained the concepts – he strongly believed – ‘Seeing is Learning’.  This made him the most popular teacher in my school.  He used to crack lot of jokes and his loud laugher was infectious.  At the same time, he was a strict disciplinarian, having been in-charge of the National Cadet Corps (NCC).  In 1987, when I was in the tenth standard, a district level science exhibition was organised in a school at Chottanikkara, about 20 kilometers from our school.  Ranjith Sir gathered a small team of students and prepared them for participation in the exhibition.  Since the school didn’t have a vehicle, we travelled by city bus.  Like a father, he accompanied us on all four days of the exhibition and made sure that we were all comfortable and had our food on time. 

After my schooling, when I was in college, I approached Ranjith Sir with a request to organise a quiz competition for the students at my school.  He quickly agreed and sat through the event.  Within few days he came to my house asking me to assist him in organising a quiz competition, for which he was invited as the quiz master.  I was extremely happy that he had chosen me to assist him.  He took the responsibility of preparing questions based on science and asked me to take care of general knowledge and questions based on audio clips.  That was just a beginning.  We both conducted many more quiz competitions during the next five years.  One day I saw Ranjith Sir in my college campus.  When I asked, he told me, ‘In the new textbook of Physics for the tenth standard released recently, there is a concept on which I have some doubts.  So, I came to meet Prof. V J Antony to get them clarified’.  I was literally surprised looking at his commitment – a government schoolteacher approaching a college professor for learning a concept before he taught the same to his students! 

Five years ago, I visited Ranjith Sir.  After retirement he continued teaching school children in a classroom that he had constructed adjacent to his house.  When I reached, he was engaging a class.  He was very happy to see me and took me to the classroom and introduced me to his students.  When he asked me to speak something to the children, I had nothing much to say, but to tell them how lucky they were to be Ranjith Sir’s students.  Ranjith Sir is also actively involved in socio-cultural activities in his area.  This societal commitment led him to contest the local body elections last year and become a Counsellor in the Corporation of Kochi.  

As a teacher, I learnt two important lessons from Ranjith Sir – any concept, however tough, can be explained in simple terms with the help of real-life examples and illustrations; and a teacher has to be a lifelong learner.  He continues to be a great source of inspiration for me.  On this Teachers’ Day, let me offer my humble ‘Pranaams’ to Ranjith Sir.   

 

Walk-in, Walk-out

The year was 1995.  I had completed my post-graduation and was looking for a job.  I was already teaching in a private college on temporary contract basis.  But that job neither paid me decently, nor offered any career prospects.  One day my father telephoned me on the college number and informed me about an advertisement that he had seen in that day’s newspaper (No cell phones those days!).  It was the advertisement of a walk-in interview for the post of Commercial Officer in a chemical manufacturing company.  The interview was in a hotel close to my college.  So, after finishing my class I reached the hotel around 3 pm.  That was my first walk-in interview.  The venue was empty, because the interview had begun at 10 in the morning, and probably all prospective candidates would have completed the process.  I was asked to wait.  A lady came and asked me for my CV.  I didn’t have!  She asked me, without a CV how do we conduct your interview.  She gave me a sheet of paper and asked me to quickly write a CV.  I was feeling bad that I didn’t carry one.  I quickly wrote a CV and handed over to her.  Within five minutes I was called in.  There were two interviewers and as soon as I sat, one of them asked me, what is your date of birth?  When I answered, with a smile he handed over the CV that I had written five minutes ago.  In a hurry, I had written the year of birth as 1995!  Going by that, I was just an infant, a couple of months old.  This put me completely off.  I don’t know what answers I gave to the questions that followed.  Anyway, the result of the interview was obvious.

 

After few days, a friend showed me the advertisement of a walk-in interview for the post of Accounts Executive in the Kochi office of a UK based tea auctioning firm.  This time I was well prepared.  I reached the office of the company early in the morning with three copies of my typewritten CV.  When I was called in for the interview, I was surprised to see the interviewer – Ganapathy Swamy, my father’s friend.  I had not known that he was working for this company.  He was also surprised because he was not expecting me there.  He asked me, what are you doing here?  I said, I came for the interview.  He laughed loudly, made me sit comfortably and started talking, ‘you know, we were your next-door neighbors when you were born.  Since my son was already grown up, I gave his cradle to your father, and you were put to sleep in that.  In few months, we shifted to another house.  He continued, you are already a post-graduate, and you are pursuing ICWAI.  I don’t need a candidate like you.  The job here involves managing our sales tax documents, which even a graduate can do.  You have a bright future ahead and I don’t want to spoil that by offering you this job.  After having the coffee that he had offered me, when I got up to leave, he said, go and tell your father why I didn’t offer you the job.  While climbing down the stairs of his office, I didn’t know whether to feel happy that someone appreciated me for my accomplishments or to feel sad for losing another job opportunity!