Friday 28 February 2020

'We the Students...'

A Seminar - Of, By, and For the Students!

I am so delighted to share with y’all, dear gentle readers, about a particular Seminar that happened this last week, which was so unique and a cut above the rest, on so many counts! 

Well, initially, I was all curious, and all surprised, when I received a mail from a college student that said – 

Dear Sir,

We the students from the Department of English (Shift – II) Sacred Heart College, Tirupattur District are planning to organize an invited talk on Postcolonial Studies. It is going to be a student-organised talk. We would like to invite you as a resource person for this invited talk… We would like to know when you are free, and give us some details about… We are waiting for the confirmation date.

With regards,
Organising Committee

‘We the Students’ was the catchphrase that made me so curious! I’ve never received an invite of this sorts, from the students of any Institution, in this manner! This one was hence special! This one was hence unique!

Added, I was so happy to see the enthusiasm and the vibrancy with which the mail was drafted and sent across to me. ‘This is something quite new by all means’, me thought.

Still curious, yet delighted and happy, I sent them a reply appreciating them on this noble endeavour, and giving them three probable dates in the month of February for them to choose from!


Everything went on like clockwork from then on, and the students (of I MA English) followed up on their mails and their calls with me with such alacrity and responsibility and fixed up on their date, Wednesday, 26 February 2020!

On my day of departure too, right from the time I boarded the train, at around 5 in the evening, they were keeping sweet tabs on me, through my journey all the way, and the moment I alighted, at around 8 in the evening, four young men were there, all sprightly and joyous, waiting to receive me with such excitement and dynamism writ large in their faces!

They then drove me up to my place of stay that they had booked for me - in their own private car! And soon, by 9.30 pm they were back again with a lovely parcel of food – Your dinner, sir’, – they said!

The next day, their own sweet Red-letter day, quite early into the morning, as is wont with me, I took a long walk down the campus, to see delightful banners and festoons placed prominently in campus, quite near the entrance, by the students themselves, heralding this, their own Seminar on Postcolonial Studies!

Still, I was quite curious! On what exactly was the spur and the prompt that made them organize a Seminar of this sort, with little or no help from the management!?

Morning, the programme started sharp on time, and I was there, on the dais, with the Fr. Additional Principal, to a 400-strong audience. It was students all the way – be it the student EmCees, the student choir, the student receptionists, the student volunteers, the student facilitators, et al it was entirely of the students, by the students, and for the students! There was not a faculty member anywhere in eye’s way to be seen!

Fr. Dr. Maria Arockia Raj, the Additional Principal, took to the podium to welcome the gathering, when he said, I would like to share with the resource person, on the reason behind this student-initiative in organising this Seminar, and he then proceeded to enlighten me and many of us in the audience too, on this count!

Says Fr. Maria Arockia Raj,

A few years back, we had organized a Seminar in the Dept of English, when we found around twenty of our students loitering around campus, not having bothered to participate in the Seminar. It was then that I decided to make them realize the value, the burden and the responsibility involved in organising a seminar.

I told those twenty of them to organize a Seminar, all by themselves, by choosing for themselves the topic, the resource persons, the venue and all the logistics concerned in organising a Seminar. ‘We teachers would just not involve ourselves in any way. But you guys have all the freedom to do it in your own way’, he had told them!

The very next year, the students had taken their teacher’s words quite seriously and had organized a grand seminar, and from then on, the trend has ever since continued, he adds on a happy note!

‘We never ask them anything about the topic of the Seminar, the name of the Resource Person or any other logistical details, at all! It’s entirely up to them to decide on them all, he added.

And well, the memento that they gave me was quite amazing! A beautiful little tree sapling it was, along with a lovely book for reads! Curious yet again, I asked the organizers if these ‘tree saplings’ are given just for this once, when, to my sweet surprise, I got to know that, in fact, donating ‘tree saplings’ to every guest who came to SHC, was a practice with this good ol’ college for the past many many years! What a noble thought! What a noble gesture!


I promised them that I would sure plant it the moment I came back home! And true to my word, yes! I did! Here’s the snap for y’all, folks! ;-)

In fact, after his address, Fr. Maria Arockia Raj had to take leave of us from the auditorium for a host of his other commitments, and there were just around three or four faculty members in the huge auditorium, and that too, seated in the last rows, quite unobtrusive to others.

Yet, the participants were so responsive, and so well-behaved right from the start till the end of the talk.

When it was my time now to return, Mr. Mouliswaran,  Mr. Vijay and his friends promptly drove me back in their car for my evening train at Jolarpet Junction. Midway through the drive, I could hear one of the students whispering to his friend, ‘Stop at that shop I’d told you, da!’

I was now all curious to know what they were up to!

Then he said a bit louder to the student who doubled up as driver! ‘Macha, stop at a good coffee shop da. Sir loves coffee!’ ;-)

I was all smiles! Donno from where they got this sweet little info!!! ;-)

And they did stop at a coffee shop for me to have my delightful sippa coffee! ;-)

I couldn’t have imagined this sweet little surprise in store for me at the fag end of the day!

Such thoughtful student-organisers they were, in every sense of the word!

Right from the word ‘Go’ they had taken all the required care and concern to leave no stone unturned in making the Seminar a success!

And well, I would say, the Seminar was a grand success by all means!

I take this opportunity to appreciate Fr. Dr. Maria Arockia Raj, for believing in the students and their capabilities, and kudos to the student-organisers, under Mr. Mouliswaran, Mr. Vijay and others, who did an amazing work in making the event a grand success.

More power to you guys! So proud of y’all!

Way to go!!!

[Snaps are awaited. Will put them up once i get them!]