My PraNAms to all
my teachers over the years
On this Teachers
Day : Sep.5, 2015
I prostrate at the feet of the following all of whom
have shaped me
in the
respective time-periods when I had the
good fortune to be taught and influenced by them into what I am today:
1936-39
At St. Joseph’s Secondary School, Cuddalore: (I, II, III & IV forms)
·
My teachers of
English, and Mathematics (Unfortunately I have forgotten their names. Maybe I did not know their names even at that
time of my studentship under them, my age at that time being 9, 10 and 11). The
English and Mathematics teacher who was my class teacher in the I Form
(equivalent to modern 6th std.) recommended to the Headmaster (a
Jesuit Father) a double promotion for me at the end of the long term in the I
Form. On the Headmaster’s suggestion, my
father (who was himself a B.A. Maths of around 1900) accepted to cover for me,
at home, the portions of Maths, in particular, that I would thereby miss, --
for the remaining short term of the I Form and the long term of the II
form -- and accordingly I was promoted
to sit in the II form for the remaining academic year. So not only to those teachers of those times,
but to my father also - who sat with me every night to teach me elementary
algebra and practical geometry that
would have been covered in the terms I
skipped, because of this arrangement, which thus ended up by my clearing four
school levels in three academic years –
I owe my PraNAms.
·
My Sanskrit teacher:
I forget the name. The one thing his students may not forget may be the fact that
his wife moved over to the movie-world (a rare event in those times and therefore talked about in hush-hush silence even by us, then not yet teen-agers) and acted in
the film ‘Balayogini’ and probably other films. But we, his students (in those days most of the
class opted to sit in the Sanskrit class rather than in the Tamil class) were captivated by his impeccable teaching Beginning Sanskrit
and in fact every year his Sanskrit section became larger and larger than the corresponding
Tamil sections. I doubly owe my PraNAms to him because the tree of Sanskrit knowledge
that he planted in me is still flowering!
1939-41
At Town High School, Kumbakonam: (V and VI forms)
·
Sri S.R.
Venkatrama Iyer, my mathematics teacher, who was the first to instil in me the
rigorous logic of Euclidean geometry.
His teaching was so excellent, though he had certain mannerisms which we
students used to mimick and have fun, that I can remember his characteristic
teaching techniques even now.
·
Sri R.
Satagopachariar, the Headmaster as also my English teacher. I remember learning
the nuances of English grammar under him.
In the VI form, my benchmate in the two-seater bench in the first row
was Sri M.V. Santhanam ( who later became one of the most famous performers of
Carnatic music and got several awards including the Sangita Kalanidhi of Madras
Music Academy)
· My Sanskrit teacher
(again I forget the name!);
1941-42
At the Shorthand-Typewriting Institue, Kumbakonam
·
My teacher for
Shorthand & Typewriting. This is the year when I had graduated from high
school but not yet entered College, because of age restrictions. I can’t
remember this teacher’s name but I remember his face vividly even now. He had
a fascinating method of encouraging me to write accurate shorthand (Pitman’s),
the faster and faster way. His
dictations for my training not only made me read more and more English
writing. By this time I had become a
regular reader of almost every page of the Hindu and my getting habituated to
reading English novels improved my English, which, in turn helped in the
longhand reproduction of written shorthand. My teacher and his methods of
training were a great inspiration! This shorthand learning was going to help me
take down notes verbatim of all lectures of the faculty of English in the
ensuing college days.
1942-44
At Government College, Kumbakonam
·
P.A. Sitarama
Iyer, who taught me English Poetry. He was past the middle age. But his enchanting way of teaching the
love-poem – Isabella – of Keats is unforgettable. ‘Heard melodies are sweet;
those unheard are sweeter!’ . He
used to say this very often. And the
melodious way he pronounced the last word ‘sweeter’ would carry us youngsters
to the seventh heaven. His questions in
the examinations were very unusual; but
since I would have taken his lectures in shorthand, I would write answers to
his questions using his own words uttered by him in the classroom and I used to
get high approbation from him!
·
A.G. Narasimha
Iyer , who taught me Physics. A meticulous
teacher with a mathematical precision!
·
The Physical
Director (at that time) who taught us Trigonometry. Again I can’t recall the
name. But even though he was only a B.A. in Maths. his clarity in teaching us
from the book of Loney was perfect!
·
Professor Panduranga
Ramachandra Rao who taught me Sanskrit. He taught us Malavikagnimitram. I
learnt quite a lot of Sanskrit from his teachings. I also remember one day I
got a scolding from him because during the class I was talking to my friend
sitting next to me; he found that and ‘announced’ to the class that
‘Krishnamurthy will become an additional professor, because he is talking there
when I am professing here’. Great minds,
when they make a statement, it will come to be true! “RRishhINAM
punarAdyAnaM vAcamarthonudhAvati”. Long after, in the year 1960, affiliated colleges were permitted by the UGC
to have, if they like, one more professor in their departments to be designated
as ‘Additional Professor’. You will not believe it, as I returned in 1960
back to my Thiagarajar College, Madurai (where I had been lecturer for six
years) in 1960, after being on study lien and leave for four years, I had just finished my PhD in
Annamalai University, my College made me
‘Additional Professor of Mathematics’ in
conformity with UGC regulations!
Another interesting quirk of good fate: Professor PR
Rao’s great-grand-daughter and my grandson are now tied in wedlock and it was almost by accident we discovered
this student-teacher bond between me and the Professor only just before the wedding in 2010!
1944-47:
At St. Joseph’s College, Trichinopoly
·
T. Totadri
Iyengar
·
S. Suryanarayanan
·
V. Ranganathan
·
G.V. Ramachandran
·
S. Srinivasan
All these taught me Mathematics in such a way that I
became wedded to Maths. for the rest of my life. TT’s meticulous precision and
clarity; Suryanarayanan’s obvious bubbling enthusiasm and pride for
Mathematics; Ranganathan’s incisive teaching making even the dullest head
comprehend; GVR’s impatient anxiety when he noted that somebody’s face in his
class did not brighten up; and Srinivasan’s threadbare analysis of even the
process of thinking – all these never forgettable characteristics of this
excellent team of teachers did more service to the cause of Mathematics than
even some routine research institutes in Mathematics had ever planned to do.
·
Dandapani: He taught
us English in the first year of our three-year Honours. Particularly I remember
his lectures on our non-detailed text: John Galsworthy’s Man of Property. His lectures were spotless and proved to be an
academic ‘treat’ for all of the 100 or so students in his class.
1956-60
At Annamalai University, Annamalainagar
·
Professor Dr. V.
Ganapathy Iyer
My mentor, My Guide, My Guru, My role model of a
mathematician-cum-human being. It was my good fortune to work under him. Routine research guides (who are dime a dozen
all over the world, particularly in India) keep half a dozen problems up their
sleeve and make their student work on one or two of these problems for which
they already know some directions for the solution and finally produce a Phd
who turns out to be a ‘specialist’ in that little corner of the subject but
cannot even venture to understand the ever-widening nature of the vast area of knowledge outside
his specialisation. Dr. V. G. Iyer was far far above this run-of-the-mill
research guides. He made every student of his aware of a wide area of
mathematics and made him wade through a lot of literature to concoct his own
problem, be it within the area of specialization of Dr. V. G. or not, and then
‘guide’ him, and in this process of ‘guiding’, Dr. V.G’s own grasp of the
student’s selected topic – which may even be totally foreign to Dr. V.G.’s
acquaintance – would be so fast and accurate that even the specialists in that
topic would be amazed! It was under such a Professor, by God’s Grace, I
worked. AUm shri gurubhyo namaH !
1927-56:
All the time, ever with me:
·
Brahma Sri R.
Visvanatha Sastrigal.
My father, whom I consider to be my guru for
everything that may be good in me. From my childhood he educated me. Even as a boy I walked along with him in the
early mornings to the river for a bath followed by Sandhyavandanam and the
like. And during the walk either we recited Vishnu Sahasranamam along with his
contemporaries who walked along with us or he was teaching me how to read the
stars and use some Sanskrit formulae for telling the time even at night by just
a look at the stars. At home I had accompanied him on his daily Puja and
followed his instructions. On all possible
days when he and I were at home, he had taught me vedic recitations by the
strict traditional process. I have observed him how he reacts to various
problems of family and secular life and the lessons and morals that I have
learnt cannot be numbered. Many times I have sat in his Vedanta lectures. These lectures of his, according to me,
outshone any of the lectures of the great expositors, because in his case it
was a hundred percent. original ‘juice’; no compromise, no mixture, it was a
totally pure extract of the scriptures. Certain times I have helped him
transcribe some of his original writings. Every time it was a process of
education for me into the unknown world of spiritual knowledge, culture and
heritage. … Well, I cannot list them all.
I have to bow and prostrate to him hundred times on this Teacher’s Day
and thank God that He gave me such a Father!
yoginaM vishvanAthAkhyaM asmat-tAta-svarUpiNaM /
Atma-lAbhAt paraM laabhaM vaktAraM na kadAcana //
GItArtha-grantha-kartAraM shrIguruM praNamAmyahaM /
Yo.antaH pravishya me vAcaM dhRRitiM buddhiM
pracodayAt //
Meaning: I bow to that great Guru of mine, who took
the form of my father, by the name Vishvanatha. He was a Yogi, who never spoke
of anything except the gaining of the Glory of the Atman. He composed the work
interpreting the Gita. May he be present
in my mind and prompt my intellect,
fortitude and speech.
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