Wedding Dress

It was the summer vacation between ninth and tenth.  Though the school had not reopened, classes in my tuition centre had already begun.   My uncle’s marriage was fixed at that time.  After many years, it was an occasion for the entire family to get together.  But my father did not want me to miss the tuition classes as I was in the tenth standard.  So, my mother and brother went to her house at Kollam three days before the wedding.  I and my father decided to go on the day of the wedding.  The marriage was at Ettumanoor, a small town near Kottayam.  

Readymade dresses were not so popular those days.  So, I had got a shirt and a trouser stitched for the wedding.  However, I didn’t want it to get dirty while travelling in train.  So, I packed my new dress in a small plastic bag.  There is a shop near my house at Kochi, which specializes in a variety of papads.  The masala papad from that shop was liked by everyone in my mother’s house.  So, we bought a packet of masala papad for them.  It put it in the same bag. 

On the day of the wedding, early morning, we boarded the Kayamkulam Passenger train from Ernakulam.  The train was not very crowded.  I jumped on to a window seat and hung my bag on a hook above the window.  As the train was about to leave, unexpectedly, two of my father’s friends boarded the train and sat opposite our seat.  My father got busy discussing the office related matters with them.  I started enjoying the beautiful morning scenery through the window – the lush green paddy fields, chirping birds, milk vendors – it was really nice to observe all this sitting in a passing train.  After some time, the cool breeze made me doze off.  I got up when my father patted on my shoulder saying, ‘come fast, we have reached Ettumanoor’.  Since the trains stopped at Ettumanoor only for a minute, we quickly got off the train.  We took an auto-rikshaw to the venue of the wedding.  As I was getting down from the rikshaw, I realised that I had forgotten to take my bag from the train.  It was a shock to me.  What will I wear now for the wedding?

After Ettumanoor the next stop for the train was Kottayam.  Even if we took a taxi and rushed to Kottayam, by the time we reach there, the train would have gone further.  So, it didn’t make sense to chase the train.  Ettumanoor was a small town, where shops selling readymade dresses were not many those days.  With a heavy heart, I attended the wedding in the same old dress that I had worn in the train.  In the group photo, one can see me standing in a corner with a fallen face.

Few days later, my father met his friends, who had travelled with us in the train.  They said, ‘as soon as the train left Ettumanoor, we saw that you had forgotten your bag.  So, we handed over that bag to the Station Master at Kottayam and told him that two people who got down at Ettumanoor had forgotten this.  Please give it to them if they come searching!

If that Station Master had a son of my age, he would have used that new dress.  Anyway, I am sure, he would have loved the taste of masala papad from Kochi!

Key Bunch

It was a normal morning.  I was getting ready to go to my Institute.  Suddenly, I realised that the key bunch with my office keys was missing.  I searched everywhere – table, cupboard, dining table, TV stand, newspaper rack.  But I could not find it.  I became nervous.  Prof. Malathi Bolar, a tough administrator, was our Director at that time and I could not imagine reporting to her that I had lost the keys.  More importantly, I was supposed to conduct an examination that day and the question papers were kept in an almirah in my cabin.  I thought I would have left the keys somewhere in the department the previous day and rushed to the department.  While I was leaving, my wife asked me, ‘Are you not wearing the shoes?’. I said, ‘No, I don’t have time, I will go in my chappals itself’.

I asked everyone in the department, but no one had seen my key bunch.  I searched all the places where I had gone the previous day – library, computer lab, conference room, classroom – but of no use.  A duplicate key of my cabin was available in the department’s office.  But the problem was, the almirah in which I had kept the question papers didn’t have a duplicate key.  The only key of the almirah was part of the bunch that was missing.  I asked the attender to bring the duplicate key of my cabin.  When he went to pick the key, I was hoping against hope that the almirah was not locked.  As soon as he opened my cabin with the duplicate key, I rushed to the almirah.  Yes, it was safely locked!

Suddenly I remembered that after locking my cabin I had been to the canteen the pervious evening.  I had gone for coffee with a colleague of mine, and we were involved in a serious discussion.  I was almost sure that I had left the keys there.  I went to the canteen and asked the manager, ‘Yesterday, I left my key bunch here, did you get it?’.  He said, ‘No Sir’.  I went to the table where we sat the previous evening.  The table was empty.  The manager told me, ‘If you had left it here, someone would have noticed it and handed over to me.  At least the boy who cleans the table would have seen’. He called the boy, but he too said he didn’t find any key bunch there.  I started walking back.  With just about 30 minutes left for the examination to start, the only option available was to get someone to break open the lock of the almirah and take the question papers. 

My phone rang.  It was my wife.  She asked, ‘Did you get the key bunch?’. I said, ‘No’. She said, ‘It is here, come’.  Oh, what a great relief! I went straight to my house.   I was hoping my wife to be standing there with the key bunch in her hand.  But as I entered my house, my wife asked me:

‘Did I not ask you, are you not wearing shoes?’ 

‘So what, the key bunch is inside the shoes?’

‘No, you first wear the shoes’

‘Why should I wear the shoes, where are the keys?’

‘You first wear the shoes’

Unwillingly I sat down to wear my shoes.  I picked up the socks that I had kept on a teapoy near the shoe-stand.  Lo! The key bunch was below my socks!  When I was leaving, I heard my wife say, ‘This is why I say, you must listen to your wife, sometimes’.

Navaratnas

September 5 – Teachers Day, a day on which we remember our teachers and pay our respect to them.  On this occasion, let me talk about nine great teachers, Navaratnas, who made a difference in my life.  The order in which I present them here is the chronological order in which they came in my life.  Otherwise, the order has no significance, because each one of them have influenced me in one way or the other.

1.  Sri. Bhaskaran Master: Bhaskaran Master taught me Malayalam and Mathematics in my sixth and seventh class in school.  He was the first to spot that I had talent in public speaking.  He encouraged me to participate in public speaking competitions and trained me in that.  He taught me the importance of logically sequencing what one is talking about – be it public speaking, giving seminars and presentations or teaching.  Thus, he kindled my interests towards teaching at an early age.  Bhaskaran Master left for heavenly abode last year. 

2.   Sri. Ranjith Master: Ranjith Sir taught me science in the high school.  He was a versatile teacher who used to teach through real-life examples and illustrations.  I learnt from him the importance of teaching through illustrations and applications.  After I left the school, he invited me to conduct quiz programmes along with him.  That was another occasion to learn from him.  A highly dedicated teacher and a social worker, Ranjith Sir is currently serving as Councilor at Kochi Corporation. 

3.   Sri. Subrahmanyan Sir: Subrahmanyan Sir was running a tuition centre called Omega at Kochi.  I was his student for two years.  He was a tough teacher who believed in strict punishment for those who did not perform well in their studies.  He had devised many methods through which the students could easily learn some tough concepts and remember them.  Commitment to one’s profession is the biggest lesson that I learnt from him.  He is leading a retired life at Kochi now.

4.   Dr. V Nithyananda Bhat: Dr. Bhat taught me English in my Pre-Degree course.  I had my schooling in a Malayalam medium school and my English communication was very poor.  So, I approached him and asked him to help me.  He spent many hours with me.  Starting from the fundamentals of English grammar, he helped me improve my language skills.  Today, if I am able to communicate reasonably well in English, the credit goes to Dr. Bhat.  After retirement he is serving as the Honorary Director of Sukrtindra Oriental Research Institute at Kochi. 

5.   Prof. V J Antony: Prof. Antony taught me Physics during my Pre-Degree course.  He was a versatile teacher who believed in learning through doing.  He had won many awards for his teaching models.  Prof. Antony was not just a Physics teacher; he was a practicing psychotherapy counselor.  Most of my interactions with him, mostly after I left the college, were related to the behavioural aspects.  He has played an important role in shaping my personality.  Even today he continues to be a popular counselor at Kochi. 

6.   Prof. Stanly Chazhoor: Prof. Stanly was my teacher and project guide in M.Com.  He used to ask students to give presentations/seminars on every Friday and most of the times, he would pick me first to talk.  This gave me lot of confidence and allowed me to test my teaching skills.  As a project guide, he was very meticulous.  I learnt from him the importance of having a clear vision before one starts a project.   

7.   Dr. V Raghunathan: Dr. Raghunathan was a professor at IIM Ahmedabad, whom I had assisted during my tenure at IIMA.  While I can list a lot of things that I learnt from him (which I will do in a separate blog), I would like to highlight his ability to teach some of the tough concepts in Finance in a simple and easy to understand manner as my biggest learning from him.  Dr. Raghu is not just a professor of Finance, he has multiple interest – he is a highly successful author, columnist, and researcher.  After leaving IIMA, he served as the President of ING Vysya Bank and later was with the GMR Group. 

8.   Prof. K Balakrishnan: I consider Prof. Bala as my mentor in many ways.  He was the professor of Finance and Business Policy at IIMA.  His greatest influence on me is on style of teaching.  He was an extra-ordinary teacher with the ability to keep his students glued to his session for hours together.  His ability to engage the students was excellent.  He was a dynamic teacher whose sessions were highly appreciated even by the participants from industry.  After retirement, Prof. Bala is living at Ahmedabad. 

9.   Dr. Prasanna Chandra: I started reading Dr. Chandra’s book on Financial Management during my M.Com. days.  He was the professor of Finance at IIM Bangalore.  I met him first in 1999 when he had visited SIT for a guest lecture.  Around that time, he had quit IIMB and started Centre for Financial Management at Bengaluru.  He used to offer weekend training programmes at the centre.  I attended two such programmes at the centre.  I had already known him as a wonderful author.  I found him to be an excellent teacher as well.  There is no other author in India, whose books in various fields of Finance are recommended textbooks in most of the universities.  His books are the most sought after by the teachers as well as students.  Prof. Chandra continues to write and revise his books. 

There are many more teachers, who have influenced me in one way or the other.  But I consider the nine teachers as the Navaratnas, whose contributions in shaping me what I am today are unparalleled.  My salutations to all of them on this occasion. 

While I have written individual blogs on five of the above, the links to which are given below, I will surely write separate blogs on the remaining four in due course.

Bhaskaran Sir: http://ajoy-reflections.blogspot.com/2012/10/a-teacher-who-made-big-difference.html

Ranjith Sir: http://ajoy-reflections.blogspot.com/2021/09/seeing-is-learning.html

Subrahmanyan Sir: http://ajoy-reflections.blogspot.com/2022/01/omega-synonym-to-discipline.html

Dr. Nithyananda Bhat: http://ajoy-reflections.blogspot.com/2022/05/dr-bhat-my-english-teacher.html

Prof. Balakrishnan: http://ajoy-reflections.blogspot.com/2019/09/the-teacher-i-love-to-be.html

Madam’s Pet

When I was in my final year of B.Com at Cochin Arts College, a new teacher joined my college.  Sudha Rani – a young lady from Kozhikode, she had come to Kochi for pursuing her higher studies.  Along with her studies, she was teaching in my college.  On her first day in our class, she introduced herself and asked each one of us to introduce ourselves.  When we finished, one boy asked, ‘Madam, you heard all our names.  Can you correctly identify any one of us with our name?’.  She quickly pointed to me saying ‘Ajoy Kumar’!  The whole class was surprised, and everyone clapped.  It was a shocking surprise to me too.  I was not sitting in the front row.  I was sitting in the middle of the class, and I was neither the first to tell my name, nor the last.  Moreover, there was nothing special about me that would have caught her attention.  But with this incident, my classmates started calling me ‘Madam’s pet student’.

Sudha Madam was teaching Cost Accounting.  Within no time everyone started liking her style of teaching, making her one of our favorite teachers.  When she made us solve numerical problems, I was one among the first to solve them and she would ask me to read the answers loud.  We organised many cultural and social events during that year.  She used to be always with us giving us suggestions and helping us organise the events.  She was just about 2 or 3 years elder to us, which made us feel more comfortable to mingle with her.  She was also enjoying our company.  Though everyone called me ‘Madam’s pet’, I never asked her how she could correctly pick me from a group of fifty students on the first day.  It remained a mystery.

Days flew and it was time for us to leave the college.  One day Sudha Madam told us that she was getting married to someone known to her for long.  She said, she was leaving to Kozhikode the next day.  She collected our postal address for sending the wedding invitation.  That was her last class for us.  We all congratulated her and bid her goodbye.    Few days later, I got her wedding invitation.  When I opened it, I was in for a big surprise.  The mystery was revealed – Her fiancé’s name was ‘Ajay’!

Prof. Rajagopal - A True Friend

This is not an obituary, nor is it a condolence message.  I am writing this to celebrate my friendship with Prof. C S Rajagopal, who left for the heavenly abode on 24-08-2022 at Bengaluru.  It was March 2003, Prof. C S Rajagopal came to SIT for attending the faculty selection process.  That was my first meeting with him.  A gentleman in a coffee colour suit, with a smiling face, holding an executive briefcase – that was my first impression of him.  As part of the selection process Prof. Rajagopal gave a presentation on the challenges faced by commercial banks in credit recovery.  I was impressed by his presentation, and we struck a chord of friendship in the first meeting itself.  Two months later, he joined SIT.  That was the beginning of a strong and close relationship between us, which continued as warm as ever till the end.  He was elder to me by 20 years, but that didn’t matter.  I learnt so many things from him, and he took my help and assistance in matters related to computers and technology.  Prof. Rajagopal taught at SIT from 2003 to 2009, moved to Dharwad as the Founder Director of Dr. D Veerendra Heggade Institute of Management and Research and continued there till 2015. 

There are many reasons why I consider my friendship with him to be special and true.  A blog post is not enough to describe my experiences with him.  So, let me just pick two instances that always come to my mind.  When I was about to submit my application for admission to the Ph.D. programme, I requested him to quickly glance through my research proposal and give his feedback.  He was at Bengaluru for some official work and didn’t have access to internet and email.  I wanted him to go through the proposal that day itself as I had to sent it to the University the next morning.  So, he went to his sister’s house, accessed his email, and read my proposal.  When I called him in the evening, he told me, ‘Ajoy, shall I tell you frankly, to me it appears to be the proposal for an MBA project.  It doesn’t look like a Ph.D. proposal’.  This frankness was one of his qualities.  Some might not even read your document, some may not tell you the truth, but he was different.  (I thoroughly changed my research topic later).

After about a year since I started my Ph.D., I got an offer from the industry.  It was an offer to head and set up a staff training centre of a leading financial institution at Bengaluru.  The offer was highly lucrative and irresistible.  Obviously, I spoke to Prof. Rajagopal and asked him what should I do? He carefully listened to all the details and told me, ‘Ajoy, in this job you will be doing very less of teaching/training.  You will be mostly handling administrative responsibilities.  If you are looking for a career shift, then you can accept the offer.  You have to forget your Ph.D., you can not pursue it along with this job.  But, if you are interested in continuing in academics, then you should say no to this offer and focus on completing your Ph.D. at the earliest’.  His advice gave me the clarity I was looking for.  I declined the offer and continued with my Ph.D.

Prof. Rajagopal was always full of life, energetic, smiling, and active.  He was a teacher admired by many.  He brought his vast industry experience into the classroom – not to showcase his heroism, but to explain the concepts with appropriate examples.  He was like an elder brother to me – the one whom I consulted whenever I took any major decision in my life.  When I tasted success, he cheered me; when I was in pain, he consoled me; when I was confused, he helped me get clarity; when I was right, he stood by me; and when I was wrong, he didn’t hesitate to point it out – what more do you want from a True Friend?! Life can only snatch away his physical presence.  He lives in the memory of all those whose lives were touched by him in one way or the other.

Kings Books

Imagine a time when there were no cell phones, no internet, not even a television in most of the houses – that is how my childhood was.  Those days, apart from various games that we used to play, our major source of entertainment was reading books.  We had many children’s publications in Malayalam such as Poompatta, Balarama, Muthassi, Malarvadi etc.  There were English publications such as Tinkle, Phantom etc.  Amar Chitra Katha was available in Malayalam and English.  Since one could not afford buying all these books, we used to borrow the books from each other and read.  Still, it was not possible to read all the books.

When I was in class seven, a group of us thought of starting a library.  We wanted the library to have as many books as possible and remain self-sufficient.  We didn’t want our parents to pay for the books.  So, we came up with a unique idea, where we decided to lend books overnight for a small payment.  I still remember, most of the magazines used to cost two rupees.  We decided to charge 20 paise for overnight lending.  Thus, once a book is lent 10 times, the library recovered the cost, which was used to buy the next volume.  This arrangement was attractive for the borrowers too, because by paying one tenth of the cost of the book they were able to read the book.  In other words, for the cost of one book, they could now read ten books!

Someone suggested the name ‘Kings Books’ , which was acceptable to all. Salahuddin, one of my friends came forward to keep the books and operate the library from his house.  The next issue was how to identify if a book belonged to the library.  We decided to get a rubber stamp made in the name of the library.  I remember, on the day when we got the rubber stamp made, in excitement, we rushed to the library and took turns in stamping the books.  Those days, apart from children’s literature, many Malayalam weeklies were published which carried stories, novels, articles etc.  These weeklies enjoyed huge readership, especially among women.  So, in order to expand the operations of our library, we decided to include these weeklies as well.  Most of the women in our area, including our mothers and aunts became the members of the library.

Initially we used to store the books in cardboard cartons.  But as the number of books increased, we felt the need of proper storage space.  But a bookshelf or cupboard was beyond our reach. Again a ‘jugaad’ idea came up.  We had a vegetable vendor nearby who used to get supply of tomatoes in small boxed made of thin wooden boards.  He used to sell these boxes as scrap.  We bought few boxes from him.  Using nails and clamps, we made a small cupboard out these boxes!

It all went well for almost a year.  Suddenly one day, we heard the news that Salahuddin and his family were shifting their residence to a place far from our area.  Now we had to look for a place to keep the books.  Most of our houses neither had the space nor the permission from our parents to run the library.  One of my friends whose father was working abroad suggested, ‘if we ask my mother’s permission, she won’t agree.  Let us shift the library to my house when she goes out.  Once the books are kept inside, I will convince her’.  Accordingly, when his mother went out, we started shifting the books.  Unfortunately, she was back in ten minutes.  She flatly refused to let us store the books there.  With great pain, we decided to close Kings Books.  All the books were sold as scrap and the wooden cupboard was broken and thrown.  Till recently, the rubber stamp of ‘Kings Books’ was in my drawer as a mark of those days.

Kings Books was in existence 35 years ago.  Compared to those days, today there is a huge choice of avenues for entertainment and the reading habit has come down among the people.  But, I am happy that Yashoda, a high school student and daughter of my friend at Kochi, started a library two years ago.  Her primary objective is to inculcate reading habit among the children.  The biggest attraction of her library is that the books are lent free of cost.  At a time when people are reluctant to read, Yashoda’s library is pulling children back to reading.  Her library has already become popular and has attracted lot of media attention.  Let Yashoda’s library continue to flourish and spread the reading habit among children!

 

Here is a link to a report on Yashoda’s library:

https://www.thenewsminute.com/article/meet-12-year-old-kerala-girl-who-runs-free-library-kochi-105435

 

‘Manodharma’

Once Sri. K J Yesudas was asked in an interview, what is the difference between singing film songs and Carnatic music.  He said, ‘While singing film songs on a stage, even if I make small improvisations, people think I didn’t sing it correctly.  But while singing Carnatic music, the audience expect and appreciate improvisation of the original composition’.  Such improvisation in Carnatic music is known as ‘manodharma’.  The word ‘manodharma’ means ‘order of the mind’ in Sanskrit.  In music, it refers to on the spot improvisations arising out of the creativity of the artist.  However, while improvising, the artist has to strictly remain within the structure of the ‘raga’ and ‘tala’.  This requires vast experience and deep knowledge of music.  So, a typical music student starts by singing compositions exactly in the same way as was taught to him.  Once he achieves certain level of mastery over the ‘raga’, he tries experimenting with ‘manodharma’.  

Recently during a discussion on teaching with one of my friends, we touched upon ‘manodharma’ in teaching!  It may sound strange, but I have given a serious thought to the idea of ‘manodharma’ in teaching.  Let me explain.  Someone who is new to teaching would always start by teaching the concepts exactly the same way as was taught to him or learnt by him.  But, over the years as he gains mastery over the subject, he has to train his abilities to teach the same concept in different ways, without missing the core aspects of the concept.  This is possible only with experience.  But experience alone is not enough.  A teacher has to carefully and consciously develop the skill and ability of teaching the same concept in different ways. 

But in reality, many teachers fall into the trap of teaching the same concept exactly the same way every time they teach.  The modern technology tools such as Power Point, in a way, force the teachers to deliver the lectures exactly the same way repeatedly.  I consider a teacher to have mastery over the subject only when he/she is able to explain the subject to different audience in different styles.  For example, if I am teaching the basics of Finance to a set of engineering students, whose interest is just to know the concepts, I would teach in a certain way.  But when I teach the same concepts to students of MBA specializing in Finance, my style would be different.  Again, I may be teaching the same concepts in an executive development programme, but in a totally different manner.  Unless a teacher makes conscious efforts, he/she can not do this.  So, when someone claims to have 10 years of teaching experience, I jokingly ask, ‘is it 10 years of experience or the first year repeated 9 times?!’

I related the concept of ‘manodharma’ to teaching.  I am sure you can relate it to any profession you are in!