Entering College
In 1962 I completed my school life ( first batch new X standard) without any remarkable achievement. I have not even felt that I am going to give a public examination. I scored only 428 marks out of max 700. Just 61%.
With that aggregate I could get only Advance English & World History as special subjects in PUC at Loyola college, Nungambakkam. That was one of the most reputed institutions in the city. I opted for French as a second language instead of Tamil or Sanskrit. Here I would like to mention some of my takes in PUC.
College Principal Fr T N Sequira ( Natarajan Sequira)
My French lecturer was Mr Mario Gabriel. He used to project himself as if he was born French but he was an anglo indian only by origin.
My world history lecturer was Mr Clarence Motha. A gem of a person & gentleman to the core. He used to take classes with interest &zeal to make the students feel that they are able to visualize the history of various cultures across the world.
Tuesday afternoon English Composition exercise at Bertram Hall ! A story & drama by itself. Fr Coyle assisted by Mr Periera ( a demonstrator) used to conduct composition exercises for entire PUC students of the college numbering about 400 students. Every student is instructed to dedicate a 40 page ruled note book for that weekly exercise. The weekly assembly used to start by 2 PM and end by 4.30PM sharp. At the start Fr Coyle used to go to the stage and announce the day's topic, some subject either from English prose or non detailed text and narrate about its features. The precondition for every student is- no one should either open their notebook or the ink pen until he comes down from the stage. Once he is down the bell shall ring. Then each student is expected to write the PLAN first for that day's composition. By chance if anybody breaks and attempt to write the main composition straight and noticed either by Fr Coyle or Mr Periera, that student's note book shall be snatched and thrown out of the door of the hall and asked to go out for the day. That student has to bring his father to the college the next day morning; they shall be charged a fine of Re1/- and the father has to ask for a pardon for his son.Thereafter only that student shall be allowed to attend his regular classes.
There were a few future literates & scholars who were caught in that fiasco! To name a few: Mr A Ramakrishna, who finally did his MA in English, functioned as News editor as well as English Newsreader of Doordarshan TV was one. Similarly, Mr A G Satwender Singh, the youngest of Singh brothers who played for India cricket was another one. These were the inculcating disciplines for youth. I shall say, an extremely useful lesson learnt- Advance Planning is a MUST. Rather this has helped me throughout my life so far.
Next I would like to add some extraneous subject. As India obtained independence in 1947, there was flair for youth to join the defense services immediately. I was one of them. The year I passed out from school i.e in 1962, Govt. of India formed NDA ( National Defence Academy) in Khadakvasla, PUNE. For that admission, they conduct a preliminary competitive All India examination followed by 3 day recruitment tests at selected army centers- Bangalore, Miraj ..... As I was interested in that, I participated in that entrance examinations. As I scored 90+marks, my name was shortlisted and called for recruitment tests at Bangalore. The authorities conducted various psychological tests followed by physical endurance tests. As I was a very puny/weakly developed boy I could not perform many of the physical endurance tests & miserably failed.
In spite of it, I had a keen interest to join NCC (National Cadet Corps) that too in the infantry wing.I enrolled myself as a cadet in our college NCC wing which fell under 13 Madras NCC Battalion commanded by Lt Col Sridhar Menon. In the college the commanding officer was Mr Jaishankar, a lecturer in English language. There used to be 2 drills and parade every week in the college. My seniors- M/S Thomas, Mathew, Padmanabhan, Unni were Sargent/ corporal/ lance corporal in that order and they used to lead the drills. They invariably used to make a big fuss every week on the starched crease of uniform, shining black shoe polish, small tiny moustache/beard not shaved etc. I had a hell of a time facing them every week as I could not afford spending some sum to meet these requisites.
The Batallion command conducted the annual camp for the entire Madras State NCC at a place called Manimuthar near Tenkasi in Madras State- deep South.That was 15 day camp & around 150 cadets participated. I was assigned night sentry duty for several days;though I did not have any issue guarding the camp site, the fear of deadly blood sucking leech menace gripped us heavily. Luckily the NCC leather boots saved us. Since it was entire state colleges assembly we had the pleasure of meeting/ mixing with new faces in the camp.
In Feb. 1963 I attended the NCC 'B' certificate examination and obtained it; but with an unfortunate incident. On that fateful day, after strenuous parade & drills around 1 PM we (self & my friend Ebanizer) were sitting at the ground &when the assembly whistle blew, I gave my left hand to him to lift me up. As he failed to grip me, I fell flat and my left hand wrist cracked and resulted in fracture. I was taken to Royapettah hospital for X-Ray followed by plaster of Paris bandage. In fact we were worried whether I can sit for the ensuing PUC Public examinations in April? Somehow with God's grace I could give my exams but got only II class. That was one hurdle for my degree engineering admissions; added to it, by the time itself the anti- brahminism environment has set in Tamil Nadu.
