Island of Memory | DOE Club Musings
Sharing an
inspirational personal post that I’d shared today in a dynamic little Reading
Group titled, Readers' Rendezvous, on Whatsapp with forty vibrant reading souls, who believe in the dictum,
‘we read, we share and we grow together’.
And this I was
inspired to write, in the context of a lovely discussion on Memory Studies,
which has had some interesting threads on our group since yesterday.
So me was so tempted to take a leaf
out of my very personal diary jottings, in a long time, those memorable memory islands of the past, from the
same day, in 11 Aug 2001!
Well, this day, in 11 Aug 2001, also happened to be my
last year as a student in College.
Second MA in English!
Wish to share a few
precious memories about the DOE Club with us all for mutual inspiration.
The DOE Club, [called the Debate, Oratory,
Elocution Club] was founded when we were students, under the able supervision
of Prof. PN or P. Natarajan, one of our most favourite and beloved of professors.
Prof. PN was always
known for his amazing sense of humour. 😃
The very first day of
his class with us, when he introduced himself, he said,
‘I am PN. Friends call
me NAT. (Natarajan). You can call me PN’.
‘I have three
beautiful daughters, but please don’t visit my home!’ 😄
‘My wife is Boss in a
Bank… but not at home!’ 😁
His first day with us
was his best impression with us all!
Every class of Prof.
PN, begins with a little anecdote – a cute little motivating story, followed by
an explanation of five difficult words and their meaning, and a little of
grammar.
Without these three,
he has never begun a class for us anytime.
He always wanted us
students to come out of our shyness and passivity.
‘If you don’t come out
of your shyness, it’s your loss, not mine’, he used to often say.
So after class hours,
he used to ask interested students (only interested ones) to come to class (we
call it the DOE Club classroom) and ask us to talk.
‘Don’t compel anyone!
If they wish to learn, they have to take the first step’.
‘You can take a horse
to water, but not make it drink’, was his oft-repeated quote!
He used to encourage
even the most passive learner to talk or debate or do Mock Interview / Stress Interview.
This particular day,
one of my friends did Laloo Prasad Yadav, who I guess was CM of Bihar at that
point of time.
(Well, as we all know,
a mock interview is where you play a famous leader. And to role-play this
famous leader you had to know everything about this person inside out. Else,
you won’t be able to answer questions posed to ‘you’.)
‘Don’t feel shy! Come
out with your thoughts’, he used to say.
Citing Noam Chomsky,
he used to say,’ Competence’ and ‘Performance’ are two sides of the same coin.
You have competence!
That’s why you are here. But unless it translates into performance, your worth
is a big shunya, he used to say!
Around ten or twenty
of us, we used to regularly attend the DOE Clubs every afternoon since 1997,
till our last day in campus.
Soon, Prof. PN made me
in-charge or secretary of the up and coming DOE Club.
The thumb rule was,
first thing in the morning we should have bought our day’s English newspaper,
and we should have read it inside out.
Then, in our DOE Club
rendezvous in the afternoons, he used to ask random questions from the City/
State/ South/ National/ International/ Editorial/ Business/ Sports section in
quick succession.
He encouraged us to
read a lot. He was the first person to introduce PG Wodehouse to me!
He used to say, 'Read
PG Wodehouse, and see your language grow in leaps and bounds'.
A cricket buff of the
highest order, Prof. PN used to say, ‘the language of sports is an entirely
different language altogether. Unless you read your Sports pages regularly, you
cannot master it!’
PN Sir had an amazing
disposition and personality.
Always a cheerful
smile adorned his face.
Be it any problem
under the sun, he had a solution for you at hand. He had never once got angry
with any of us anytime.
Now on a personal, note
-
Well, on 05 September
each year, when I call him up to wish him, the first few seconds I won’t be
able to utter a single word to him! The pause that has you choked... with
gratitude!
‘Sir, it’s me…’
‘Me who?’
‘Rufus!’ DOE Club! -
Your past student of five years!
‘Hey Rufus….’
And then a huge big
smile on his face.
A smile that in itself
transforms into blessings for you by default.
How true the maxim,
‘A teacher affects you
not only for life, but also for eternity. He can never tell where his influence
stops!’
Prof. PN is one of
those precious few, who tops this
list,
for me!
PS: This very day, in 2001,
Prof. Swamiraj, our former Principal, was invited for the inauguration of our
DOE Club for this year.
Prof. Swamiraj gave us
an inspirational talk on ‘How to get out of the Status of Pitiful Existence
into the Status of Real Worth’!
 |
| those good ol' 'islands of memory in the seas of forgetting!' |
In case, you wish to read these very personal jottings, request you to pardon me for the fast scribbles.
Rather, you may also do well to look at the keywords that have been underlined for highlight sake!
Thank you!
