And the rich legacy continues to live on...

Legendary (late) Dr.Vishnu Bhat's grand daughter little Isha's (II Std) spontaneous short story on caring for mother Nature, that appeared in Young World, The Hindu, Bangalore Edition, recently. Three cheers to little Isha. We, at MCC are so happy that the legacy continues to live on... God bless.

Petition the Speaker for a Noble Cause...:

As India finished celebrating sixty six years of Independence, political parties in the country are making amendments to the Right to Information Act (RTI) in order to keep themselves out of its purview. The Central Government has acted  in a hasty manner by introducing the Right to Information (Amendment) Bill, 2013 in the Lok Sabha and it is likely that the amendments would be passed next week.

This would in effect: Exclude all political parties from the purview of the RTI Act…

As Citizens of this country, we all have an equal stake in saving the RTI Act as it ensures that organisations working in the public interest are answerable to the people.

I encourage you to sign  this petition and demand the Speaker to facilitate widespread public consultation on the RTI (Amendment) Bill, because, without the freedom of information, our Independence would mean nothing…

PS: As told to me, by our alumnus, Vidya Venkat. This post is on her behalf, and on behalf of every responsible Indian. To petition the Speaker, click HERE

Plants, Politics and Society - Past and Present

Dr.Narasimhan’s lecture was on Plants, Politics and Society, and how plants have been used as economic and political tools in the past as well as in the present. Excerpts from his speech:

There’s an interconnection that exists between every field of study. However, we don’t have the eye to see this interconnection among the various subjects of study.

A holistic approach is very important today but unfortunately it is missing in our present curriculum, because we have the habit of looking at subjects as water-tight compartments. If we look at history even Before Christ, plants have always been resources for building kingdoms and empires. Wars, especially Kalinga Wars, and Alexander’s were fought mainly to access land resources, especially fertile lands to feed the growing population and vast armies of their countries. And, whenever they went for a war, they also took along with them a section of people as slaves. Hence, agreement and slavery are inseparable. In India, our slavery system is caste-based.

Dr.Rajeevnath Ramnath delivering the lecture on Applied Linguistics

Guest Lecture - Invite

Dear Students of I MA/II MA English Literature,

You are invited for a lecture by Dr.Rajeevnath Ramnath, Associate Professor of English, Assumption University, Thailand, on the topic, "Why not an "app" for Applied Linguistics?", on Monday, 22 July 2013 between 9.30 and 11.30 am in the M.Phil Classroom.

Inauguration of the English Literary Forum

The English Literary Forum was inaugurated by Dr.V.Rajagopalan, former Head, Dept of English, MCC, to a packed Anderson Hall which listened with rapt attention to his spellbinding lecture on 'Appreciating Literature.' 

Good literature, according to him, should deal with the tension between good and evil. Knowledge has to be demystified and subjects defamilarised, he said, and added that the burden of his address was to validate the classics. 

Global Reunion 2013

Join us at MCC for the Gala Global Alumni Reunion 2013 on 27, 28 July 2013. 
You can register online by clicking on this link HERE.
Email: mccglobalalumnireunion2013@gmail.com
Mobile: +918056195510

Postponed by a Day:

The MA English Lit entrance test scheduled for 21 June 2013 has been postponed by a day. It will now be held on Saturday, 22 June 2013, at Selaiyur Hall Indoor Theatre, due to unavailability of the Exams Office on that day.

Kindly look up the Dept Notice Board for the shortlisted candidates.
for The Head

Are You Under their Influence?

Each one of us would have had to put up with at least a dozen negative people who hover around us all along in our lives. 

Negative people, by the way, are the ones, who drain out the energy in us (call them “energy vampires” if you want), and send in a negative energy through their continuous rantings and ravings about all the unpleasant, difficult, unfair people and things that happened in their lives. 

These people not only carry toxicity on their hips, and gossip on their laps wherever they go, but also have the knacky tact (or call it their potential or their USP) of draining a person of one’s energy, even on a minute's shorty talky with them, like in a one-to-one aka tete a tete too.

These 'energy vampires' are capable of producing the boundless negative energy in a jiffy the moment you start conversing with them. 

They always tend to see the darker side, the half empty glass and worry more about the future than live the present. They are people who can never have a good word even for the likes of Mother Teresa or Swami Vivekananda. 

Hence, negative people sometimes have the ability to give you negative energy which can lead you to even depression at times.

The only way in which these people feel powerful is by hurting others in every little way possible, to the extent that they have no idea how negative they have become in life, until they are pulled out of their complacency by some good Samaritan.

Well, you can easily spot them from off a distance! 

Firstly, you can never see a smile on their faces. If at all they smile, it would be a triumphant glee at having succeeded in their gossipy gyrations on a pavapetta, unsuspecting friend.

Secondly, they will never have a good word for even a single human soul on this lovely planet earth! Not even on the flora and the fauna!

When they open their mouths, venom and negative words, spew out with an effortless spontaneity, more powerfully than from off a volcano's!

Thirdly, they are better off at always being critical of others, that they cease being humane!

Fourthly, they would have contributed nothing from off their words, their deeds or from off their wallets to making this world a better place for even one single person on this six billion plus planet! 
Finally, nothing on this planet makes them happy, as much as gossips and venomous words do!

Thoughts for a new academic year...

[click on pic, to enlarge]

Entrance Exam - MA English: Reg

All candidates who have applied for MA English Literature are required to sit the entrance test to be held on Friday, 21 June 2013 at the Examinations Hall. The test will comprise an essay question [25 marks], and  25 objective type questions [25 marks]. All questions will be based on the BA English Literature syllabus.

For more details, you are requested to follow the 'announcements' put up periodically on the Department Notice Board or, contact the Head, Department of English.

With all best wishes, 

for The Head

Gone are the days when one had to hop from one leading library to another looking for that one book that has been eluding you all along. And, if the OPAC gives the word ‘OUT’ against your favourite book, you are bound to go wild with disappointment, more so, if you’re a passionate bibliophile!

Today, thanks to the burgeoning online portals that specialise in renting textbooks, you may heave a great sigh of relief.

"Experiential Learning has become the Buzzword"

‘Reinventing’ the Higher Education System

MCC Amongst India’s Best Colleges| ‘The Week’ Report

[9th June 2013 Issue] 

“The Indian Higher Education System is Reinventing Itself to cater to the increasing demands of the economy, with new courses, new formats, new ideas…”

This is the byline to the Cover Story in The Week’s Survey of the Best Colleges in India, 2013.

In fact, it’s a matter of pride that MCC finds a place among the TOP FIVE and the TOP TEN in most of the key categories.

The COVER STORY that follows, in the same Edition [9th June 2013] of ‘The Week’ has a lot of vibrant thoughts for those of us faculty members and decision makers in the field of higher education.

Hence me thought of giving us all, a few salient extracts from this very insightful article, culled out from THE WEEK, 09th June 2013.

So here we go -

I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand. – Confucius

The pearl of wisdom from the Chinese philosopher seems to be dawning on college education in 21st-century India.

You Branch Out & Explore!

Welcome to a system, where you do not just learn; you practise. Where you do not just listen; you absorb. Where you are not rooted in a classroom; you branch out and explore.

Well, it might sound Utopian, but Indian colleges are, indeed, following the concept of "learning by doing".

Institution - public and private - are realising that a formularised approach will not click anymore.

Experiential learning has become the buzzword

Earlier, practicals were restricted to the domains of applied sciences and management, but now subjects such as English and social sciences also are being given the experiential treatment.

Take, for example, Delhi University's Kamala Nehru College for women. It organises tours to historical sites and museums for students of history to understand and appreciate the bygone eras.

"The students perform skits and dramas on historical tales," says Dr Minoti Chatterjee, principal of the college.

"All of us have read about the Indus Valley civilisation, but our students learn about it by visiting the actual site. Similarly, for psychology students, there is internship with Vimhans [Vidyasagar Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences]."

It is No More Just Classroom Teaching

Sriparna Chakraborty, who recently graduated in English from Amity University, Noida, is all praise for the changing ways of education.

"It is no more just classroom teaching," she says.

"There are seminars, where eminent people from the literary world talk about their experiences. Also, if we are studying drama and there is a complex scene, it is enacted. We learn a lot by doing, so presentations and research works are given to improve our speaking and writing skills."

Application-based learning is Rapidly Picking Up

Application-based learning, too, is rapidly picking up, thanks to industry collaborations. Today, most top colleges have active involvement with the industry for catering to the changing needs of society.

According to a study by the Gurgaon-based employability solutions company Aspiring Minds, only 17 per cent of the five lakh engineers who annually gradu-ate from India are fit for the IT services sector.

Making Students Industry-Ready

Human Resources Development Minister M.M. Pallam Raju, too, pointed out the issue at a recent conference -  

"We are seeing that the students who are coming out [of universities and colleges] are not necessarily industry-ready, and the industry is spending a lot of resources in re-training them...."

Academia-Industry Interface

However, colleges and the industry are now joining forces. For instance, students at Delhi University's Shahid Sukhdev College of Business Studies are required to do live projects with companies. At Patiala-based Thapar University, students take up contract research on agro-biotechnology.

The university has worked on improving the quality of potato tubers for PepsiCo and Mc Cain Foods, and on eucalyptus clones for writing and printing paper company Ballarpur Industries.

Vocational Courses: Corporates in Board of Studies

Colleges are looking at courses from a vocational angle, too. And the corporate sector's advice is sought for curriculum design and updating. Manipal University, for instance, invites corporates to its board of studies. Amity University involves the industry right from the shortlisting of applicants.

"There is a great deal of value addition that we get through corporate tie-ups," says Dr G.K. Prabhu, registrar, Manipal University.

"What we teach should be relevant to the industry, and that is why we take their help in designing our courses. Infosys, for instance, has a programme called Campus Connect, wherein they train our faculty. We, in turn, do research projects for them. It is a symbiosis."

Furthermore, internships with the industry - limited to technical and management streams earlier - is now common under subjects such as public policy, international affairs, development studies and foreign languages courtesy NGOs, think-tanks and media houses.

The Surge in Research: A Welcome Trend

Another welcome trend is the surge in research. For one, the IITs, which have been criticised for excessive focus on undergraduate education, have ramped up research work.

Currently, IITs take in about 3,000 Ph.D students annually, against 1,000 five years ago.

"There is a lot of exciting work in the areas of nano electronics and smart grid technology," says Gautam Barua, director, IIT Guwahati.

"To give a push to research, IITs have discussed with the government about allowing meritorious B.Tech students to start research in their third year. We will start it from 2014."

Some IITs have set up special centres for large-scale projects. IIT Delhi, for instance, has a centre for bio-medical engineering and low-cost design innovation. IIT Madras and Bombay have set up centres for combustion and photovoltaic researches, respectively.

All IITs should have Research parks and Innovation Centres

"The Kakodar Committee had recommended that all IITs should have research parks and innovation centres," says Prof. Bhaskar Ramamurthi director, IIT Madras.

"Most of the IITS have done that. About 33 per cent of our students are research scholars, and we are planning to encourage undergraduate pass-outs to take up research."

Private institutes are not falling behind, either. Thapar University has received government grants worth 76 crore for research projects, mainly in biotechnology and agricultural sciences.

Manipal Institute of Technology is working on emerging areas such as nanotechnology, ad hoc wireless networks, nuclear engineering and pattern-recognition.

Research & Innovation

Says Amity University vice-chancellor Dr Atul Chauhan –

"Research is an important part of all our programmes. Without research and innovation, it would be impossible to find solutions for our country's problems."

Prof. P. Ray, dean (academics), XLRI, Jamshedpur, terms research "our life blood".

His students have been coming up with solutions for actual problems of corporates and the government, he says.

A major shot in the arm for college education in India is the National Knowledge Network - a Central initiative to provide ultra-high-bandwidth broadband network to interconnect leading science and technology institutions.

The NKN could be an effective tool for seamless exchange of ideas and sharing of lectures, databases and virtual libraries between campuses. Also, it would be a platform for real-time distance education.

The NKN, which has already connected 1,001 institutions, aims to add another 500 in the coming months.

The rejig in the education system is not limited to highbrow spheres. Soft-skills training, for instance, is an area that is being given a thrust these days. Some institutes like Manipal have made it a compulsory subject, while

others offer it at the end of the course. "Soft skills have become vital today because one has to become a team leader; one has to carry people along," says Ray.

Thrust for Multidisciplinary or Liberal Education

With considerable change in the learning environment, a great deal of reinvention is on. The Indian system seems to be going the American way - multidisciplinary or liberal education.

Basically, it is about taking up several subjects at the undergraduate level, instead of specialising in just one. So a student can study a host of subjects and, eventually, pursue a specialisation.

Delhi University's new four-year undergraduate programme, in effect, is a shift towards the multidisciplinary system. But even as the move has created a furore among students and teachers, experts say DU has actually arrived a bit late.

Colleges such as O.P. Jindal Global University and Foundation for Liberal and Management Education (FLAME, Pune) already have a clutch of multidisciplinary courses in liberal arts.

So one can study history, enjoying fine arts and music at tandem. The system is apt for students who want to explore before choosing a career path.

Meanwhile, some colleges are experimenting with the interdisciplinary system - one subject as major and an interest area as minor. Shiv Nadar University and a couple of IITs have this system in place.

"Studying several subjects together is fun and helpful," says Ganesh Gupta, a second year student at Shiv Nadar.

"When I took B.Sc with mathematics as major and economics minor, I understood the application of maths in data analysis and statistics. In terms of career, too, I have an additional option of economics."

Multidisciplinary: The Way Forward

Experts believe that multidisciplinary is the way forward.

"For a society to develop in a holistic manner, we need people who can think in a broad and multidisciplinary way, says Dr.C. Raj Kumar, vice-chancellor, O.P.Jindal Global University. "In a diverse society like India, first and foremost one needs the skills to navigate through the complexities...'

Career potential for every course is strong in a developing economy.

And courses are springing up by the day. Experts say that students should neither shy away from offbeat courses, nor get distracted by pop-ups.

"Look at what your interests are; ask questions like how and where would you want to see yourself five years down the line,"

says Shalini Manchanda, director at Career Track, a career counselling firm.

"If these checks and balances are in place, you will not regret your decision."

Oh what needless pain we bear..!

A psychologist walked around a room while teaching stress management to an audience. As he raised a glass of water, everyone expected they’d be asked the “half empty or half full” question. Instead, with a smile on his face, he inquired: “How heavy is this glass of water?”

Answers called out ranged from 8 oz. to 20 oz.

He replied, “The absolute weight does not matter. It depends on how long I hold it. If I hold it for a minute, it’s not a problem. If I hold it for an hour, I’ll have an ache in my arm.  If I hold it for a day, my arm will feel numb and paralysed. In each case, the weight of the glass doesn’t change, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes.”

How to Pursue a Medical Administrative Position [Guest Post Exclusive]

If you are looking for a career change and are interested in medicine then a career in medical administration may be what you are looking for. The first thing you need to do is understand what medical administration entails. Medical or healthcare administration is a specific field which involves the maintenance of relationship within a medical environment such as clinics, hospitals and health centers. As with anyone who works in a hospital or medical center, such individuals are considered to be health care professionals. Medical administration encompasses a wide range of different tasks. These include the management of different departments to ensure a smooth-running establishment, the analysis of different hospital policies, taking care of finances and dealing with accounting. There are also some medical management professionals who are going to specialize in specific areas of the industry.

Certification

In order to be qualified for medical administration it is pertinent to get a bachelor's degree within the field. While it is possible to be certified with such a degree, this is not always going to be enough. Many people consider the standard credential to be a Master's degree. As a result, it is

Back in the Reckoning and how!

It’s official now. English Literature has rightfully regained her regal ranking as the royal choice for applicants to the arts and the humanities courses. For the first time in many years, MCC witnessed an epoch-making event when, the admissions office, ‘admitted’ that, this year, application sales for BA English Literature far exceeded the demand that usually lays in store for the BCom Course. Once regarded as the hot pick among Chennaiites, the coveted BCom course in MCC had for long held monopoly as far as demand was concerned. Indeed, applications this year showed a remarkable trend. There were as many as 35 students who had scored above 1110/1200 and were all eyes on taking up English Literature.

One of the most established and widely recognised courses in the realm of academics, the English Literature course per se has evolved a lot over the decades, and today, it holds a preeminent position among the arts and humanities. There are quite a few interesting reasons as to why English Literature is and has always been a great course for study.

First of all, the efficiency of the course lies in its elasticity. I wish I don’t sound out of place when I pull off T.S.Eliot’s term ‘compatability’ to come to my rescue here, in order to augment my point better. Dictionaries the world over have a more or less similar definition for the word ‘compatible’, meaning, the capability to exist or perform in harmonious, agreeable, congenial combination, with efficient integration. Indeed, English Literature has the capacity to absorb the various literary schools and philosophical movements into its rich repertoire and thereby engage the students with a wide variety of texts (both literary and non-literary), in a lively and supportive learning environment.

One more year..!

snippets from our little garden...

When we moved into our new house, the first things that met my eyes were the trees and plants around our house that were in a ‘withered, withering, about to wither’ condition. The coconut trees were almost dying as they were not properly cared for. In short, the whole garden was  kinda chaotic.

So, with the help of two good gardeners, we had the coconut trees pruned, and had the flower-bearing ones cut to size. The crotons, the lily plants and the rose plants were given a ‘facelift’ and then, with a long garden hose to assist us, we began the regular routine of watering them. Soon, the plants began responding with gusto to the water-treatment. Moreover, watering the plants had by now become a profoundly therapeutic exercise, and the results were there for us to see.

Adieu! Adieu!

Dear II MAs and III BAs!

You were a great and awesome class. Some of you were here with us, in the Department of English for five long years, while some of you joined us two years ago, and some others joined us three years ago, and yet, you made your stay in MCC impactful and memorable.

For the past one week, the department was witness to scores of grateful students coming in, and bidding adieu to each and every staff member. We are so proud of you guys.

We, the faculty wish you the best in all your endeavours, and remember, the Department of English is always open to you, as you are a part of the grand old English department family, and we all join in wishing you all a very Bright and Prosperous Future filled with Happiness, Peace and Joy.

As a proud and cheerful student of MCC, go out into the world, and make a mark for yourselves in whatever you do! Dare to be different! Make a mark! And… always stand up for what is right.

Unexpected behaviour:

A boy was born to a couple after eleven years of marriage. They were a loving couple and the boy was the apple of their eyes.

One morning, when the boy was around two years old, the husband saw a medicine bottle open. He was late for work so he asked his wife to cap the bottle and put it in the cupboard. The mother, preoccupied in the kitchen, totally forgot the matter. The boy saw the bottle and playfully went to it and, fascinated with its colour, drank it all. It happened to be a poisonous medicine meant for adults in small dosages.

When the child collapsed, the mother hurried him to the hospital, where he died. The mother was stunned; she was terrified. How would she face her husband?

When the distraught father came to the hospital and saw the dead child, he looked at his wife and uttered just four words.

“I Love You Darling”.

The husband’s totally unexpected reaction is proactive behaviour. The child is dead. He can never be brought back to life. There is no point in finding fault with the mother.

Gemini Ganesan and his College Days

[Excerpts from THE MCC Magazine]

By Ms. Narayani Ganesh

The Madras Christian College used to be located at Parry’s Corner, close to where the High Court stands today. First established in 1837 by British missionaries as a school, the institution was upgraded to a college in 1865, and renamed ‘Madras Christian College’. A hundred years later, the College acquired four hundred acres of what was known as the Selaiyur forest estate in Tambaram. The institution shifted here in 1937, in a move that is still referred to as the ‘great migration’. Here, Appa studied Chemistry and after graduation, worked as a lecturer-demonstrator for some time before changing tracks.

Other reputed colleges in Madras then were Presidency College, Loyola College and Pachaiyappa’s College, all exclusively for boys. M.C.C was co-educational. Appa was a good student and sportsman and enjoyed the good things of life. The diary he maintained in 1942 has a few gems that reveal the kind of life he led as a college student. M.C.C encouraged extracurricular

Poverty, Evil and Crime - Amartya Sen - Critical Summary

Introduction:

Amartya Sen, who is fondly known as the Mother Teresa of Indian Economics, was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1998, for his contributions to welfare economics and interest in the problems of the poorest people in society. This speech titled, “Poverty, Evil and Crime” was delivered to the United Nations Programme for Development, New York, on October 5, 2007.

According the George Bernard Shaw, “the greatest of evils and the worst of crimes is poverty”. Based on this premise, Amartya Sen divides his speech into two parts.  The first part of his speech deals with the relationship between poverty and evil, and the second part deals with the relationship between poverty and crime.

Relationship between Poverty and Evil:

Sen argues that poverty is the cause of all social evils. The world today is filled with millions of people who are unable to afford even the barest minimum necessities of life. It is this poverty that leads people to indulge in criminal activities like robbery, looting, arson, etc.

If poverty is an evil, then there must be some wickedness behind poverty that allows such wrong-doings to occur. This raises the immediate question: Who are the wrong-doers? But, identifying the wrong-doers is not our task. Our focus has to be on removing wrong-doing rather than going on the wild-goose chase of catching the wrong-doer.

Assignments - Reg

Dear Students,

For all of you who have your assignments with me, kindly send me an e-copy of your abstracts/assignments. I shall get back to you shortly. Some of you have sent me your assignments  and am yet to reply you, as i am out of station. Shall get back to you all shortly. 

And, for those of you who are yet to submit your abstracts, you are expected to work on your full-length paper only after your abstracts are approved by your course teacher (SR).  

Postmodern Articulations:

The Two-day National Conference on “Post-modernism and Progressive India: Literary Articulations and Non-Literary Interventions” organised by Garden City College, Bangalore saw a host of luminaries inspire the myriad-minded scholars of all hues and shades drawn from 78 cities from across the country.

One of the salient features of the Conference was the excellent hospitality provided by the host institution which remains and will remain etched in our hearts in a long long time to come. Be it the hospitable volunteers at the reception desk, or the affable and affectionate staff members at the conference venue, or the catering students at the food department, or the gala entertainment provided by GCE students on both days of the Conference - it was ‘relishing’ all the way!

The first day saw a varied intellectual treat by scholars drawn from diverse fields. Dr.Poile Sengupta, one of the topmost promising English playwrights in India, spoke on women in theatre, from a linear, chronological point of view, tracing it down from the time of the Natya Shastra’s treatise on theatre way back in the 3^rd century BC. Although theatre has a solid 68% of women in the audience, when it comes to representation, it is a minimal 2:1 ratio, she opined.

The nature of women was 'stereotypically' classified into three types viz:

1)      Uttama (superior woman, calm, bears no malice, most excellent)

2)      Madhyama (jealous of her rivals, gets angry easily, intermediate)

3)      Adhama (inferior type of woman, harsh, angry for no reason, bears grudges always, evil, indifferent, neutral)

Celebrating Tribal Literatures across the World

The National Conference on “Tribal Literature: Across Continents and Cultures” organised by TJELLS and V.O.C College, Tuticorin, on 7 & 8 March 2013, was a pioneering attempt to study and to showcase the life and culture of the indigenous peoples around the world. Dr. Eric Miller from the World Story Telling Institute, in an interactive talk with the audience (along with Mr. Murugan Kani a tribal representative), kept the audience spell-bound by his depiction of tribal life and culture in Tamil Nadu.

Eric Miller’s talk was titled “Tribal Peoples as leaders of Society in a Future in which Fossil Fuels might be Scarce, with Special Reference to the Kani Tribal People of South India”.

Key Ideas from his talk:

The world's supply of 'Fossil Fuels' (oil, gas, coal etc) is depleting. It seems production of these resources in usable form has passed its peak, and these resources may become increasingly scarce and expensive in the coming years. The 'Hydrocarbon Age' began in the mid-1800s, with the coming of the wide-spread use of electricity and the "Industrial Revolution". It reached a peak around the year 2000, and we may now be on a downward slope. One estimate is that 30 years from now, we will have approximately half of the current supply-flow, and less and less after that. The term, "Peak Oil" refers to this idea. It seems the heart of the "Hydrocarbon Age" might be 1900-2100. In the coming time of possible "Energy Scarcity", Mainstream society and culture might do well to learn from Tribal society and culture regarding methods of recycling and salvaging resources, and living sustainably with nature. Tribal people tend to be expert in these areas. 

Biological, Linguistic and Cultural Diversity are valuable, and support each other.

Tribal methods of conserving and nurturing nature, living sustainably with nature, and recycling and salvaging materials, include

For residential huts, and also for huts for watchmen in fields of kilangu and other crops – strips of plants, bark and vines can be used to lash poles and beams together.

Areca-nut tree leaves, Bamboo leaves, Plantain leaves – can be used as toys (as a car that is pulled); for beating rice; and for thatch (tutti), woven for baskets, walls, roofs, doors, mats,

Honouring Distinguished Alumni @ MCC

Distinguished Alumni Series | First Edition

A Report

The first edition of the Distinguished Alumni series got off to a grand start at the Anderson Hall to a bright-eyed audience, bubbling at the brim, breaching barricades to see their best and brightest alumni being honoured by their alma mater!

Two illustrious alumni of our college were honoured on the occasion – Mr. T. N. Seshan IAS, and Ms. Chandrika Tandon.

Others present included Dr. Besant C. Raj, Ms. Savithri Devanesan, Dr. Francis Sounderraj, Mr. K. Mammen and other well-wishers of the College.

The Principal Dr. Alexander Jesudasan, welcomed the gathering and said that MCC has the oldest alumni association in the India. He praised the Alumni Association of MCC, which was 'founded in 1891 by Rev. Dr. William Miller and has seen some of its greatest luminaries including the President of India and the Chief Election Commissioner in its Hall of Fame.

Lauding the achievements of our alumni, he said - 

“Prestige and esteem come to people who are in good positions, but our alumni have given prestige and esteem to the positions that they have occupied”.

Dr. Besant C. Raj commended Ms. Chandrika Tandon for donating a whopping $ 100,000 to her alma mater MCC, and also had a word of praise for Mr. T. N. Seshan.

A college which had a mere 15 women in its rolls in its founding days, now has women students outnumbering their men counterparts in all disciplines, which is a meteoric rise, and well-deserved,

he added.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Mammen said –

It was Dr. Chandran Devanesan who inaugurated a separate office (APRO) devoted to the alumni in the mid 60s.

The dynamic growth of MCC is its 1) inherent strength to connect. 2) its achievements and 3).

Its resilience to face the challenges of the future.

Welcoming Ms. Chandrika who was his contemporary who was always seen with a guitar singing ‘Dum Maro Dum’. “Her secular work and her social responsibility has found echo in her soulful music,”

he signed off.

Mr. Davidar IAS, introduced Mr. Seshan. Eulogising him as the Father of Electoral Reforms in India, he said -

Mr. Seshan graduated in BSc Physics in 1952.

He was a resident of Selaiyur Hall, and then became a demonstrator of Physics in MCC for three years, when he was a resident staff in Heber Hall for one year and in St. Thomas’s for two years, and later joined the IAS in 1955.

After assuming a lot of important portfolios, he went on to become Cabinet Secretary which is the senior most position in Indian Civil Service hierarchy.

He received 40,000 + false election returns and disqualified more than 14,000 potential candidates.

From 1990 to 1996, he brought about a wide range of changes especially in Voter Awareness Campaigns.

For the first time ever, he appointed Expenditure Observers, who probed the expenses of candidates in elections.

He also took initiatives to ban graffiti. Moreover, under Shri T. N. Seshan there was, for the first time, a phased conduct of elections in India. He was also responsible for Shri Rajiv Gandhi’s visit to MCC in its 150th year,

he added.

Speaking on the momentous occasion, Mr. Seshan fondly remembered the events leading up to his admission in MCC. His speech was laced with his inimitable eloquence, charm and sense of humour. He said - 

Joining MCC was quite accidental. In fact, I made the mistake of scoring 150/150 in maths, physics and chemistry, and with such good marks, I thought I would get a seat in engineering, effortlessly.

You see, the gentleman who interviewed me for the engineering seat asked in Tamil,

‘Do you know Sivaji Ganesan.’

I answered, ‘Yes’. But unfortunately, in the very next question, he failed me.

Well, he had asked me, “How many movies did Sivaji star in?”

To this question I flunked.

Not having got an engineering seat, I rushed back to MCC. Back then, you could get your Master’s Degree for just Rs.30,

said Mr. Seshan.

Ms. Chandrika Tandon, recollected the adventurous ways in which she gained admission in MCC.

She said –

Well, I had to go on a kinda ‘hunger strike’ to get into Madras Christian College. Well, that’s because my mother had other plans for me. She wanted me to join Stella Maris College, which was quite close to my house, and she didn’t want me to go to MCC because, it was considered a boys’ college.

Since I was the first daughter of the house, and also since I had to take a long train journey to reach MCC, my mother was against my wishes. But again, I wanted to pursue my BCom in MCC, because, my father and my grandfather studied in MCC.

That’s how I was released into the wild of Madras Christian College.

But most of the credits I owe to my grandfather, as he was quite instrumental in getting me into college. My sister Indra Nooyi, who is also an alumnus of the college, and I would sit on a little brown stool and listen to him read original plays and poems,”

she said.

Picture Courtesy: Mr. Srinath, The Hindu