'A mentor is someone who allows you to see the hope inside yourself'

24 June 1998 | A Typical Day in College 

#memoriesfromdiaries 💜

This post is a grateful acknowledgement of two great mentors who were instrumental in fine-tuning my writing skills.

Dr. Jesudoss Manalan

&

Prof. P. Natarajan

24 June 1998 💛

Encouraged by my dear Librarian Dr. Manalan, I had just taken my baby steps in writing for newspapers and magazines.

[You may want to read more on my dear Librarian and the Library at Heber HERE]

Well, some newspapers had the courtesy to acknowledge your snail mail – neatly type-written on the good ol’ Remington typewriters of yore!

Some others politely sent back your type-written article, either rejecting them, or else, asking you to affix your signature [something that you had blissfully forgotten, in your hurry to post them before six pm to be taken up by the RMS - the Railway Mail Service].

I was thus blessed to have the guidance and blessings of two great well-wishers – who doubled up as my mentors as well!

Dr. Jesudoss Manalan, who gave me interesting topics of concern that required immediate attention and action, and Prof. P. Natarajan, my beloved HoD, who took it upon himself to patiently proof-read all my articles before I dispatched them by snail mail to the publication concerned.

Today was one such occasion when I had written a Letter to the Editor of ‘The Hindu’ on the topic of Valuation!

Prof. Natarajan, in spite of his hectic schedules, would ask me to sit at the desk near him, and give me valuable suggestions on fine-tuning my article/letter for the better.

At noon, we used to visit the Students Service Centre, a reading centre with such a beautiful ambience, that focused exclusively on students’ services, with a host of magazines all around, and also gave counselling concerning placements, training etc. On this particular day, I'd been to the Students Service Centre with my classmate Vijayaraghavan for looking up some resources on a particular topic. 

Evenings, we used to go to Main Guard Gate, where we literally freaked out the entire evenings. 

Well, there were two lovely book shops near Teppakulam – One was Palaniappa, where we got all our Class texts. After our Book Store jaunt, our next destination was Chinthamani Canteen, where we got Tea/Coffee at a subsidized price of Rs. 1.50 per Tea! (in 1998)!