It was 1981-1982.
The papers came out one day with the title " 0+0+0+2 = 524 ".
It was the great Kerala Mark List Thattippu...
M.K. Raghu, a student, who had scored the above 4 marks in Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Maths, got a fake marklist done with a new set of marks, which read after adding - 524.
Not only he, hundreds of students, children of powerful people, had got admission in Medical and Engineering Colleges based on such marks in PDC over the past few years.
Those days professional college admissions were based on PDC marks.
All hell broke loose. Agitations dotted the length and breadth of Kerala Colleges. I remember giving a fiery speech in front of a crowded class of around 100 (I even remember the classroom - it was in first floor, just above the office room). After the speech, the first to get up, carry the books and come out were the front bench girls. In those days, girls were not so supportive of agitations, and very few of them boycotted classes willingly.
But such was the feeling of being cheated.
Finally government had to act. They went after all the students who were studying in engineering and medical classes with fake marks. Except one. He had landed in U.S. and had passed the qualifying examination there, and employed successfully too! The government couldn't do anything.
Anyway, the government had to prevent such incidents in future.
Thus was born the Entrance Test for professional college admissions in Kerala. I wonder how many students of this age are aware of this story..........
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Friday, November 19, 2010
'D' Thomas
Me and Thomas were sitting with another colleague documenting the project work done in the last 6 months.
A lot of data was shifted, formatted, cut-and-pasted and checked and cross-checked for accuracy.
Thomas was checking the data closely.
The colleague turned and told me:
"Thomas Sir is not having full confidence in me in managing the data. He is always having doubts!"
I replied
"Right. No wonder there is a term in English Doubting Thomas!"
Thomas laughed. Then he asked a question:
"Do you know the origin of that term?"
I said no.
It seems St. Thomas did not believe that Jesus resurrected the third day.
He wanted to physically feel his wounds, then only he was ready to believe....
Interesting....
Postscript
I am seeing the political heat in TV about the scam.
Somebody says "...but the Ceaser's wife should be above suspicion!"
If my Sankara English Teacher Geethalayam Geethakrishnan was with me, perhaps I could have asked him the origin of the term...
A lot of data was shifted, formatted, cut-and-pasted and checked and cross-checked for accuracy.
Thomas was checking the data closely.
The colleague turned and told me:
"Thomas Sir is not having full confidence in me in managing the data. He is always having doubts!"
I replied
"Right. No wonder there is a term in English Doubting Thomas!"
Thomas laughed. Then he asked a question:
"Do you know the origin of that term?"
I said no.
It seems St. Thomas did not believe that Jesus resurrected the third day.
He wanted to physically feel his wounds, then only he was ready to believe....
Interesting....
Postscript
I am seeing the political heat in TV about the scam.
Somebody says "...but the Ceaser's wife should be above suspicion!"
If my Sankara English Teacher Geethalayam Geethakrishnan was with me, perhaps I could have asked him the origin of the term...
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
War and Romance - Post Sankara
Arms and the Man is a comedy written by George Bernard Shaw. This is not an English Drama which I studied in Sankara, but which I taught one year after coming out of Sankara.
Not to a class, but to my senior who was also a friend.
Confusing?
Well that is the way it was. My friend was not able to clear his English even after two years.
Even though the text book which both of us studied was The Apple Cart, by Bernard Shaw, it had changed later. He requested me to teach the new one – The Arms and the Man.
I accepted his request and started studying the book.
It is the story of a lady (Raina) who lived in the war time during the 1880s in Europe.
She gets an unexpected guest or rather a refugee in her house. Ironically he is from the enemy camp.
She is initially contemptuous and also a little surprised at the fact that he keeps chocolates instead of bullets in his gun.
He is referred to as the Chocolate Cream Soldier in the book.
He says the war is so horrible that surviving is the first priority since there is no food for days together.
She is also forced to change her opinion about romance. One can say that what many of today’s generation’s (or rather all generations’ when they are young) view about the romantic ideas of living together are not realistic.
The moral of the story is one has a glorious picture of war as a competition or as a heroic act but the hard facts- the suffering does not attract general public attention.
Romance and War..... Both have to be viewed seriously.
Bernard Shaw was able to highlight this 125 years ago.
And as far as my friend is concerned, he had a taken a room just for this class. We sat together in the afternoons for a couple of months until his exams.
I am happy that he passed his English.
Not to a class, but to my senior who was also a friend.
Confusing?
Well that is the way it was. My friend was not able to clear his English even after two years.
Even though the text book which both of us studied was The Apple Cart, by Bernard Shaw, it had changed later. He requested me to teach the new one – The Arms and the Man.
I accepted his request and started studying the book.
It is the story of a lady (Raina) who lived in the war time during the 1880s in Europe.
She gets an unexpected guest or rather a refugee in her house. Ironically he is from the enemy camp.
She is initially contemptuous and also a little surprised at the fact that he keeps chocolates instead of bullets in his gun.
He is referred to as the Chocolate Cream Soldier in the book.
He says the war is so horrible that surviving is the first priority since there is no food for days together.
She is also forced to change her opinion about romance. One can say that what many of today’s generation’s (or rather all generations’ when they are young) view about the romantic ideas of living together are not realistic.
The moral of the story is one has a glorious picture of war as a competition or as a heroic act but the hard facts- the suffering does not attract general public attention.
Romance and War..... Both have to be viewed seriously.
Bernard Shaw was able to highlight this 125 years ago.
And as far as my friend is concerned, he had a taken a room just for this class. We sat together in the afternoons for a couple of months until his exams.
I am happy that he passed his English.
Friday, April 30, 2010
The Jayaram incident
Jayaram was two years junior to me in Sankara. He had a group of 3 or 4 friends who used to move with him always. They were all co-students from his Perumbavoor school.
I had our own group of friends and sometimes various groups used to meet in canteen and other places as is usual in any college. Since most of my friends were from Perumbavoor, they knew him before.
He was in PDC first year when we were in Degree first year. He studied only for two years in Sankara and until the last few months of his college days, was not much known.
I remember he stood for election as class representative for PD2 and I was the class representative for DC2. Both of us were in the same panel. The alliance was called the Progressive Democratic Front(PDF).
During his second year Arts Club Festival, he shot to limelight as a mimicry artist. It has an interesting background.
Outside the college, in Ernakulam, The Cochin Kalabhavan troupe was getting famous through their "Mimics Parade" depicting mono-acting, parady, mimicking and funny mock stories.
Here is one sample. This is from a mock news reel shown in theatres before a movie starts.
"Biharil Vellappokkam.....(sound) Pradhana Mathri Indira Gandhi helicopteril vellappokka badhitha pradeshangal sandarshichu..." (sound of helicopter)
"Pradhanamanthriyute durithaswasa nidhiyil ninnu Oru Laksham roopa vellathilittu...!(sound of falling)
Jayaram's one man show was a tremendous success. Little did we know, and Cochin Kalabhavan know, that he had copied the entire program from Kalabhavan.
Jayaram did this in the morning session of the function in Sankara stage, and in the afternoon Cochin Kalabhavan was supposed to perform on the same stage.
In the afternoon, Kalabhavan troupe came and presented their show. The original looked like a duplicate and the response was not enthusiastic. They were surprised at the poor response, because they had just introduced these items and wherever they had presented, there was tremendous appreciation and applause.
Later, the Kalabhavan people had a talk with Jayaram and shared their unhappiness, it seems.
Do you know the final outcome?
Next thing we heard, maybe around 6 months later, Jayaram joined Cochin Kalabahavan!
Rest is history......
Postscript
I saw Jayaram in a crowded inaugural ceremony of a textile shop a few years ago and waved at him and told "Sankara College". We exchanged a few words and talked about common acquintances Ayyappan and Menon.
I remember him telling "Ayyappan ippol Muscuttila..."
I had our own group of friends and sometimes various groups used to meet in canteen and other places as is usual in any college. Since most of my friends were from Perumbavoor, they knew him before.
He was in PDC first year when we were in Degree first year. He studied only for two years in Sankara and until the last few months of his college days, was not much known.
I remember he stood for election as class representative for PD2 and I was the class representative for DC2. Both of us were in the same panel. The alliance was called the Progressive Democratic Front(PDF).
During his second year Arts Club Festival, he shot to limelight as a mimicry artist. It has an interesting background.
Outside the college, in Ernakulam, The Cochin Kalabhavan troupe was getting famous through their "Mimics Parade" depicting mono-acting, parady, mimicking and funny mock stories.
Here is one sample. This is from a mock news reel shown in theatres before a movie starts.
"Biharil Vellappokkam.....(sound) Pradhana Mathri Indira Gandhi helicopteril vellappokka badhitha pradeshangal sandarshichu..." (sound of helicopter)
"Pradhanamanthriyute durithaswasa nidhiyil ninnu Oru Laksham roopa vellathilittu...!(sound of falling)
Jayaram's one man show was a tremendous success. Little did we know, and Cochin Kalabhavan know, that he had copied the entire program from Kalabhavan.
Jayaram did this in the morning session of the function in Sankara stage, and in the afternoon Cochin Kalabhavan was supposed to perform on the same stage.
In the afternoon, Kalabhavan troupe came and presented their show. The original looked like a duplicate and the response was not enthusiastic. They were surprised at the poor response, because they had just introduced these items and wherever they had presented, there was tremendous appreciation and applause.
Later, the Kalabhavan people had a talk with Jayaram and shared their unhappiness, it seems.
Do you know the final outcome?
Next thing we heard, maybe around 6 months later, Jayaram joined Cochin Kalabahavan!
Rest is history......
Postscript
I saw Jayaram in a crowded inaugural ceremony of a textile shop a few years ago and waved at him and told "Sankara College". We exchanged a few words and talked about common acquintances Ayyappan and Menon.
I remember him telling "Ayyappan ippol Muscuttila..."
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
june2009
I asked the driver to park the car. Then I noticed it he had taken a right turn much ahead. I saw a new building and teenage students in uniform. There was a college bus. This must be the new engineering college. I told the driver to come out and go further and take a right turn.
There it was, the two sheds and the road in between. There was something like a parking area between the two sheds. I got out.
There was a stillness in the area, it was around 4.15 PM. I glanced both sides. One side was the same old shed where the first PDC students and also the first DC students used to study. I turned. Then saw that the second shed is no more. A new building was coming up, construction workers were seen on the half constructed two storeyed building.
Again memories. Some of the B.Com classes were there in that shed. Sreekumar S. Pillai was canvassing for winning the Chairmanship post telling some story of Vaikom Muhammed Basheer. Hmmm……
Another incident in the now demolished shed. There was some alteration once between B.A. and B. Com students. It seems that when B.A people tried to conduct a strike in one B. Com class there were some arguments. It became serious and resulted in some skirmishes. All B.A. students in Sankara took a procession and there was some passionate slogan shouting. After some time, B.Com students could not simply watch. They assembled all their batch mates and had a counter procession with slogan shouting. There were some tense moments. Even respective teachers looked like they were taking sides, from their expressions. There was a lot of drama with B.A and B. Com tension gripping the college.
It was then that I got an idea. Why these two people alone are shining? I called my class people on the first floor of the main building. There were a few juniors including my brother and his classmates. I started
B.Sc B. Sc….. B. Sc Zindabad
B A kkare B Com kare thammil thalli chatholu
B Sc kkaru padicholaam…..
Isac Newton Zindabad
Albert Einstein Zindabad
a,b,c,d zindabad…..
x-um y-um zindabad
alpaha beta zindabad…..
gamma delta zindabad….
The crowd swelled more and more when we entered the sheds. The science and maths teachers were smiling at us when we were passing. Why, all were smiling at us. It relaxed the college atmosphere in a span of half an hour.
Now one of the sheds is no more. By the time I come next, the second one also will not be there……?
There it was, the two sheds and the road in between. There was something like a parking area between the two sheds. I got out.
There was a stillness in the area, it was around 4.15 PM. I glanced both sides. One side was the same old shed where the first PDC students and also the first DC students used to study. I turned. Then saw that the second shed is no more. A new building was coming up, construction workers were seen on the half constructed two storeyed building.
Again memories. Some of the B.Com classes were there in that shed. Sreekumar S. Pillai was canvassing for winning the Chairmanship post telling some story of Vaikom Muhammed Basheer. Hmmm……
Another incident in the now demolished shed. There was some alteration once between B.A. and B. Com students. It seems that when B.A people tried to conduct a strike in one B. Com class there were some arguments. It became serious and resulted in some skirmishes. All B.A. students in Sankara took a procession and there was some passionate slogan shouting. After some time, B.Com students could not simply watch. They assembled all their batch mates and had a counter procession with slogan shouting. There were some tense moments. Even respective teachers looked like they were taking sides, from their expressions. There was a lot of drama with B.A and B. Com tension gripping the college.
It was then that I got an idea. Why these two people alone are shining? I called my class people on the first floor of the main building. There were a few juniors including my brother and his classmates. I started
B.Sc B. Sc….. B. Sc Zindabad
B A kkare B Com kare thammil thalli chatholu
B Sc kkaru padicholaam…..
Isac Newton Zindabad
Albert Einstein Zindabad
a,b,c,d zindabad…..
x-um y-um zindabad
alpaha beta zindabad…..
gamma delta zindabad….
The crowd swelled more and more when we entered the sheds. The science and maths teachers were smiling at us when we were passing. Why, all were smiling at us. It relaxed the college atmosphere in a span of half an hour.
Now one of the sheds is no more. By the time I come next, the second one also will not be there……?
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