My first steps at MCC

Shahabad was a new world to us from Wadi. The standards of living were higher. Many people in the ABL colony spoke chaste Hindi, the roads there were rather clean and in general it was as if we were off to a foreign nation to continue our study. In my seventh standard board exams, I was second and Geeta Menon was first from our school. Thangi could not accept such a situation. She was of the belief that her grandson can never stand second to a girl! She drove my father to seek a re evaluation of my paper. For this we had to travel to Chitapur, the Taluk headquarters. The re evaluation was done and as far as I remember, I gained some more marks( I suspect that whoever asks for re evaluation gets some more marks – I learnt about that when I became a college lecturer later in 1989 – a corollary of the saying “The crying baby gets milk”). I therefore became first and was presented an abridged Oxford dictionary by SACS and twenty rupees and a letter of congratulations by the ACC Factory in February 1977 for this achievement. In the meanwhile I was admitted to the Mount Carmel Convent (MCC) and also, significantly, in June 1977 got my eyes tested and started wearing spectacles. SACS had small classrooms and one could see the blackboard wherever one sat, but MCC had larger classrooms and ones inadequacies were brought to the fore. I have been wearing glasses ever since.

Also in SACS, I had 14 classmates and it was a small family, while in MCC, I had 38 classmates, which is the normal strength in a class. We had to carry our lunch boxes with us as we could not go home for lunch as we did while at SACS. I must also mention that the students from Wadi were treated a little below par compared to students from Shahabad. From among my classmates from SACS, Jayachandran, Santhanam, Srinivas, me, Geeta, and Rama joined MCC while Vidya joined Bal Vidya Mandir. It was in MCC that we really started learning. It is not that SACS did not measure up to standards, but till High School, we had subjects like science, social studies etc. But once we joined MCC, the subjects were further subdivided into Physics, Chemistry, Botany, Zoology, History, Geography, Civics etc. MCC also had a very good library run by the faithful Gangadhar. I started my reading habit (both fiction and non fiction) in MCC. It would not be an exaggeration to say that I matured intellectually while at MCC. The Teachers were in a class of their own. I am yet to meet such erudite teachers even though I have, since then,seen teachers from all over India and some even from abroad. Nagendra Revansiddappa Beloor taught Biology, Chemistry and Hindi, Mysore S Devaraj taught Mathematics and Physics, Kumari Balakrishnan taught us Sanskrit which was the first language at MCC, Vinayak Hegde taught us History while we were in 8th standard, Sr. Angel Mary taught English (Vinayak Hegde has alas, passed away due to a kidney failure). Each teacher was a master in what they taught and what is more they knew how to teach. Sometimes they taught, sometimes they told stories. I still remember the story “God sees the truth but waits” by Lev Tolstoy as told by Beloor Master, and Julius Ceaser, as told by Devraj Master. And I call them Masters because they were masters. The Subhashitanis that Kumari Balakrishnan taught us, I still remember and teach to my son. I state with conviction here that what my son learns today at a cost of Rupees Four Thousand a month, is much inferior to what I learnt in 1977 at a cost of Rupees twenty five a month.

It is said in Hindu philosophy “Mata, Pita, Guru, Devah”. The child knows who its mother is, because it was born out of her. But it does not know who its father is. The prime responsibility of the mother is to point out to the child its father, that is, to provide the child a status and name in society. Having found out who its father is, the child progresses further. The father’s duty now, is to point out a Guru or teacher for the child, who will teach the child what to do and what not. Having pointed out the Guru, the father withdraws. The Guru now comes into play. It is his or her duty to point out God – the Ultimate truth - to the child. That is what N R Beloor, M S Devaraj, Kumari Balakrishnan and other teachers of MCC did for us. They pointed their fingers at truth and that is the path we follow today, inspite of several distractions and irritations from people like our superiors in our jobs. If we are equanimous in the face of petty irritants like our bosses, it is because of the courage that our teachers in MCC taught us.