N.S. Sitaram - tribute to a teacher

On Saturday 14th May, 2016, I passed very close to the house of my high school teacher NSS [N.S.Sitaram] on the way to the market.  There were thoughts of stopping by for a minute to say a respectful hello to him. But I did not. I had been longing to meet, pay respects and take his photo, but kept procrastinating.  Our houses are not very far apart, may be one kilometre.

The evening paper of 16th May had this to shock me:

It was terrible news considering what I failed to do just two days ago.  He had died on Sunday.

Sarada Vilas High School [for boys] is an old institution with a very fine reputation through its dedicated teachers who had moulded characters and imparted great knowledge and culture to its pupils, some of whom becoming famous nationally and internationally.  

2009 photo of our school. [Click to enlarge]

NSS was one among the great teachers who had served there for a long period of time and retired as Head Master.  My father and uncle were also students in that school around the mid 1940s, but it may be before the time NSS joined. When I joined in 1970, NSS was the Asst. Head Master. When I passed out from 10th, he had succeeded Sri M.N.Lakshminarasimhaiah as Head Master. His signatures are on my Admission Ticket as well as Marks Card. 

NSS came on his bicycle clad in a simple mull-cloth ಕಚ್ಚೆ ಪಂಚೆ [white dhoti], leather sandals, light gray 'close-collared' coat, old but neat, worn on a white, long tailed, full-sleeved shirt, the same length of the coat.  His headgear was a black ಟೋಪಿ [stiff cap] and he wore a wrist watch.  His fair-face had features one had to appreciate.  His eyes required a pair of spectacles for short-sight.  The costume was typical of the older generation Mysorean 'school masters'.  We were fortunate to have been students of this 'last batch' of them.  

I try to roughly show how NSS appeared.

[Or did he wear an open collared coat that exposed the two shirt buttons?]

The cardboard headgear used to be like this [without the dark band shown here]:

Click on the image for larger view.

It was a delight to see his writing on the blackboard, the letters forming neatly, equal in size and uniformly white.  He held his chalk softly and never seemed to apply any pressure as he wrote sum after sum.  It was also something as much appreciated as his teaching.

NSS' forte was Mathematics, but used to fill in with some English or Science subject occasionally when that teacher was on leave.  He used to take Algebra which most students remember for his fine method of making the difficult subject to be understood easily [I admit I was an exception!].

He was a very lovable and approachable teacher, mild mannered but strict.  When NSS walked in there would be silence.  He was never armed with a stick for lashing [like MRK], or needed to slap any boy [like KRK] if the homework was not completed or some sum was wrongly answered or someone was not attentive in the class.  He would correct it so that the pupil learnt.  NSS was never one to get teased or his dhoti pulled by mischievous boys, [we heard they did it to one VSS who also came in a dhoti] but was one who had commanded respect through his dignity and quality as a teacher.  Yet, on the lighter side, he had been nicknamed in Kannada for fun, like other teachers' initials also, as ನೊಣ ಸಾಯಿಸೊ ಶೂರ [Fly killing expert] to expand his initials of NSS.

The last I met NSS was about 5-6 years ago.  He had said "86" when I asked his age.  He had been on his walk on Krishnaraja Boulevard when I was on my bicycle on my way home.  I had the opportunity to walk with him pushing my bicycle along for a long way, while we talked on a few subjects, also of moral values, teaching standards and the teachers of my time.  I had told him I would take him on the scooter to his contemporary PV's house one day.  This never happened and PV also passed away last year.  He was our history teacher.

"Wow, our NSS", I used to mentally exclaim on seeing him walk leisurely in front of our house and along the calmer streets in the area, clad in his simple white dhoti and white shirt.   At times I went closer to be seen and bowed the head to greet.  He had mentioned why he had chosen the time for his walk which was an hour before noon - low density of traffic.  I remember him having mentioned of his normal health and kept himself active with a long walk daily.  He used to be in my thoughts often, because of some unexplainable, special admiration and impression.  He had known my grandfather also.  About 10 years ago we wanted to put our daughter for maths tution with him, but it did not work out.  I had gone to his house for this and had taken the opportunity to get his blessing by prostrating at his feet as an old student.
Another great old timer now joins light, aged 91.
May his soul rest in peace.

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More school memories are in this separate post: [Click here].

A Peep Into My High School Premise

I was passing by Sarada Vilas High School on Dec.2, 2009.  [It is also spelled as Sharada]. I had a camera in my pocket and took a few shots of the place where I had spent 3 years between 1970-73 [for my 8th, 9th and 10th]. There were a few changes in the quadrangle. The Head Master's room was shifted. In the old place there were some new rooms. Classes were in progress.  Except for the peon (seen in the picture below) in front of the HM's room none was out.  Some boys near the windows tried to see what I was doing there!  The classrooms appeared cloc-a-bloc as teachers were doing their duties. I did not walk through everywhere lest that distracted the window-side students too much, but just took a few pictures, reminisced those times and moved out quickly.  The school was just a ten minute walk from home and so went home for the lunch break to quickly gobble and return. None can forget Jogaiah [Jogi], the peon from our time used to bring the hand bell from the HM's room and using both hands he would take up up and down from his thigh and above his head. Short duration rings to mark each period and a long  one to end the session or day!  It was a sight! And the most sought after sound in school.

This is the quadrangle where morning assembly was held with each class making a line and stood in rows. Cricket was played in the evenings and it was excellent for running around chasing other boys and for playing many other games like tops, marbles before school.

Another view of the quadrangle.


Old building.  I was standing and looking at the school from where the entry gate was in our time. Now they made that passage into a room!   That high gate was locked after assembly.

What was the backdoor entry to the field in our days is now the main entry to the school premise. Note the college structure standing right in front of it!!

We used to have our 10th class sections here. Some of us used to bring our bicycles occasionally and they were parked here in this corridor in front of our classrooms! There was no cycle stand in those days! Since most of us came by walk there were just a few bicycles in total and putting them there was not a hindrance for our playful running in this corridor.

Classrooms had ventilators below the windows and now they are all closed up. But the little pipe that is provided to take out any water from the rooms are still there. It is through these pipes mischievous boys used to put their mouths and make a sound that would amplify inside the class that took everyone aback. The teacher would then rush up to the window shouting "yaavano avanu muTTaaLa" [Who is that fool?] only to find nobody there - obviously the rascal would have gone close to the wall unseen and "vanished"!  They never found it out. 

This is the vast playground from where we tried to escape home for lunch as the 'games' slot was just before luncheon. Later in the evenings during my college days in the same institution I used to come for tennis ball cricket here in the same field. A few years later I played one of my earliest cricket matches with the cricket ball here on this ground - there is no regular cricket pitch now because the institution has grown up with new facilities. The one in the background is/was the Girls High School.

The stone protection is a new addition. Earlier there was only soil. Erosion might have prompted them to come up with this. Tree roots were then not visible then.

As it now looks from the far field. The right side building that has come up is of the college. Ealier there was an open space with a nice gap between the college and the school buildings.

At this high school, which was a very reputed one in the 1930s and 40s, both my father and uncle also studied.  Some documents here:

Above is my uncle's Progress Card, below is father's certificate for birth proof. It was actually 1922, but records show 1924. 

Click on images.  See the signature of K.V.Narayan.  He was a very respected teacher which the old timers rememered.

If you were wondering who our teachers were, you will have to go to my link here - I have listed out their nicknames: [Click here and enjoy]

Very bad English!

Today, September 5, is "Teacher's Day" in India. I thought ours was the only country observing it till my search took me here. (click on link) Many other countries are also observing it. The value of a teacher in one's life is immense.

Prominently, we remember Dr.Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan on his birthday as 'Teacher's Day', every September 5 [the day I post this]. But Mysoreans also remember another great man, M.Venkatakrishnaiah (1844-1933) whose birthday coincides and is overshadowed by Dr.Radhakrishnan's. He was popularly known as "Thataiah". Let me present a very brief thumbnail sketch about Thataiah.

He was considered a 'grand old man of Mysore' renown for his fearless journalism. He started his career as Head Master of Marimallappa's High School (the revolving chair he used is still being used in the same place!) in the last quarter of the 19th century. He was a freedom-fighter, educationist, philanthropist, co-founder of Sadvidya Patashale, founder of Sarada Vilas School and Maharani's Girls School (the first school for girls in the city) and of a Kannada daily "Sadhvi". Most prominently, he started the "Anathalaya" in 1895 (a free boarding hostel for poor students) which even now, continues to help the needy.

We know a little bit of Dr.Radhakrishnan but not much of Thataiah whose contribution to education in Mysore is great. Hence that little bit.

Now about the subject. Little did I imagine at that time, that a seemingly innocuous incident in Sarada Vilas High School in 1972 during my 9th Std. days would stick in the memory firmly.

Returning my book after a routine test, my history teacher, Sri Panduranga Vittal, frowned with the words "Very bad English!". I stretched out my hand to receive it, head hung low.

Later, mostly due to foolish neglect, I made my two-year-Pre-University a 4-year circus, two of which did not have the need to attend college. It created plenty of time to pursue street cricket and other interesting indoor hobbies which I was adept at. Listening to live cricket commentary on the radio, esp. from BBC and Radio Australia was as fascinating as it was educative, cricket-wise and language-wise. In parallel, I also tried to tune in to other overseas radio stations that broadcast English programmes, mostly for curiosity. It was in one of these, a list of penfriends was being announced. Pen friendship appealed to me as an exciting prospect where I could write freely without being under the powers of an evaluating teacher. Exchanging letters with a few like-minded penfriends brought immense joy, sharpened the language, improved my knowledge and a bit of vocabulary. The excitement of waiting for the postman to deliver letters to me was another joy. One of my introductory letters to a friend had returned "addressee not found" and reading it many years later, I realized why my history teacher had frowned in dismay. In the meanwhile, one of my essays had won a prize in the English Section of Radio Korea's contest, much to my delight. Reading autobiographies of famous cricketers was a passion that cropped up around that time, though not much of novels and stories. My friend Dr.Rajgopal Nidamboor, author of Cricket Boulevard was to inspire me in so many ways, after we met by chance, in a common friend's place in 1979. He is a renown writer for his rich vocabulary and a unique style.

The words of my teacher in that seemingly innocuous incident kept cropping up in my mind often and my conscience probably wanted to prove them wrong, much the same way when Navjot Singh Sidhu was quoted as a 'strokeless wonder' by a newspaper reporter after he failed in his Test debut. That angry look in my teacher's eyes had pierced mine, along with it, my mind.

As years passed and after lots of water had flown under the bridge, my article on this incident was published in a paper. A month or so later, as luck would have it, I spotted Mr.Vittal on the street one evening and went up to him. He had become frail from natural ageing. I introduced myself as his student and told the "very bad English" incident (which obviously, was not on his mind). He was joyed when I evinced interest to visit him more leisurely at his home. He gave his address. A fortnight later I went to his humble home and reminisced the days of yore. He told the passing away of a few of his contemporaries who were also teachers to our class. He was 82 when I met him in 2005 but he said he was normal with his health. I took his autograph (pictured above) as well as on the article in the paper. I offered my respects by prostrating and touching his feet (Indian tradition). When I got up and looked at him, his eyes had moistened. He was so happy inside that an old student was visiting him, leave alone remember. He said it is such a rarity esp. in these days.

Prof.S.Dandapani writes in his tribute to Dr.Radhakrishnan, "I wonder whether this kind of teacher-pupil contact exists today or it got reduced to mere teacher-pupil contract."

It is a meeting that will stay in memory for a long time. Gurudevo bhava.

Date: 5th September, 2009, Teacher's Day.