Some memories of eighth standard in MCC

Eighth Standard in MCC was an eye opener to us kids from Wadi. The standard of education was suddenly elevated. This is not to run down SACS. Some readers may find the comparison odious (I would have written this without a second thought had my readers been all male, but some of the most respected readers of this blog happen to be women.), but having lived with your mothers till marriage, after marriage one finds that there can be further scope and more modes for enhanced companionship with women. Thus it was with us kids from Wadi. It was like a Ranji Trophy player getting into the National team. While we had excellent teachers like Lakshmi Pathy and Sr.Leonie in SACS, the teachers in MCC were professional. As I went on to become a teacher in the later years of my life, I realized that there are two things that make up a professional teacher in the Indian educational setup. You need to make the subject interesting and each class memorable to your students and at the same time keep on the beaten track – stick to the curriculum and complete it in time. I haven’t studied in an institution other than MCC where these two principles were adhered to by most teachers. Guys like Suryanarayana had already inculcated in me an attachment for the scientific way of thinking, but Beloor and Devaraj carried it to a much higher plane. When Beloor said that ‘the cell is the structural and functional unit of life’, he explained the definition in such lucid terms that the definition of a cell today for me explains a lot of the new fangled concepts that I hear about. What Devaraj taught me about Newton’s laws of motion, gave me as good an idea of the way the universe functions, as Newton himself. Being from a Brahmin family I had picked up a few phrases of Sanskrit in the course of my life, but like most Brahmin kids, for me, Sanskrit was but a language in which prayers to Hindu Gods were composed. Mrs. Balakrishnan took Sanskrit out of the realm of the spiritual and showed us its vibrancy. I learnt that there are several thoughts that can never ever be expressed as accurately in any other language of the world as in Sanskrit. I would be erring if I do not mention Hegde Master. Vinayak Hegde was a soft spoken man who taught us History and Sanskrit as well. His personality was somehow overshadowed by the titans Beloor and Devaraj, but he was erudite in his own way. He unfortunately passed away of a kidney ailment but I remember a picnic which we had in Malkhed, where we, the students of the batch of 1980 were taken by our teachers Sr. Angel Mary, the Headmistress, Mr. Devaraj, Mr.Beloor, and Mr. Hegde. Malkhed is between Gulbarga and Sedam and is about 40 kms from Gulbarga and 10 kms from Sedam. It is the seat of Sreemad Teekacharya, a revered Madhwa Philosopher and the Guru of Swami Raghavendra of Mantralayam. There was a photograph of the four masters taken on the bank of the river there, which I had, but seem to have misplaced. There was a grinning N H Vasanthi in a frock in the background and H S Murali is also seen. If anyone has the photograph the same may be sent to me so that I can post it on the blog. It is probably the only photograph we had of those days. Bell bottoms were a rage in those days. All three masters were bell bottoms. Sr. Angel Mary, who was a mild mannered nun, was our principal for the year 1977-78. The Headmistress before her was a terror called Sr. Rosanda, and the one after her was the redoubtable Sr.Angelita. But Sr. Angel Mary was a real Angel. An old dear, who was too kind to rebuke.