Teachers Day Special Report: My sincere Teachers Day Wishes to all my great teachers in life. SCHOOL DAYS “Dressed in bright uniforms, shoes and tie, kids enter the school compound like sacrificed goats! Singing nursery rhymes, letters of the alphabets, days of the week, months of the year - they begin a colourful journey of school life. School is a place to enlarge one’s heart, mingling with other hearts and enjoying hearty laughs rather than agonies of assignment and exercise. There ought to be a teacher-pupil contact and not mere teacher-pupil contract” Primary School I began my primary school education in Rama Mohanapura Corporation Shishu Vihara, which falls in between Malleswaram Railway Station and Devaiah Park. My very first teacher was a lady called Sukanya. I studied LKG and UKG in Saraswathi Vidyaniketan in the vicinity of Maruthi Extension. My favorite nursery teacher was V Kathyayini. Kathyayini’s brother, V Chidambara Murthy,was the founder of Malleswaram Sharada Vidyaniketan. This is the same school where Master Manjunath of Malgudi Days fame studied. I studied LKG and UKG in the Kannada medium. I was sent to Modern English School in Maruthi Extension for my first Standard. Around that time, playing with my younger brother Mahesh,I had a fall from the staircase and broke my right hand. We had gone to attend a family wedding in Mysore when the accident took place. I recall how I clutched to the broken hand with my left hand, as if to prevent it from detachment! I was six-year-old was treated with Puttur kattu, the native cast, before being operated in the Victoria Hospital, Bangalore, the hospitalisation coinciding with that of my paternal grandmother to KC General Hospital, Malleswaram, for surgery. The accident costed me a full academic year. As much due to financial constraints as my father’s principled stand of not encouraging school donations, I was admitted to Saraswati Vidyanikethan again, where I studied up to the seventh standard with Kannada as medium of instruction. I am prompt in conveying my gratitude and regards to some of my primary school teachers - Venkatalakshmi, Akkayyamma, Lalithamma, Kathyayini, Rita Sundar, Nagarathna, Geetha, Sharada, Usha, Saroja, TM Nagaraj, M Gangappa and Sukanya. They all laid a strong foundation for my alluring prospects, I am convinced. My loyalty to their memories is for a life time. From the beginning, I stood one in top ten, at times breaking into the top five bracket. However, I consider myself to be an average student. Since childhood, apart from studies, I had developed and nurtured interests in cultural and social affairs. High School Prizes started chasing me in the primary school and continued to do so in my high school and later days. The very thought of receiving prizes from eminent personalities thrills me and fills me with pride. Raghavendra High School, Malleswaram, is a distinguished institution and I had an opportunity to study there. South Indian Film Actress Geetha too studied in the same institution several years back.The strong foundation that was laid during his primary school was reinforced by many of my high school teachers whom I can never forget. They were HK Rukkamma, B Aravind Mitra, S Somasundaram, HT Kashi Venkatachar, BN Shankar, Raghavendra Vasantha Jare, L Raghavendra Rao, CV Rangashetti, BK Janakamma, MR Hemalatha and AC Theodore. While I was in the ninth standard I had a wonderful opportunity to participate in various quiz programmes organised by Akashvani. I had for company a dear friend and classmate, Prashanth G Bagali, (who now has two Ph.Ds to his credit and holds the position of an Advisor in the Indian Embassy at Kauala Lumpur, Malaysia, in charge of Agriculture and Horticulture). Myself and Prashanth enthusiastically participated in many inter-high school competitions and won many prizes. I was never a bookworm. Even while I completed assignments on time, never did I attempt to study daily. I also cherish my memory of watching two movies during my SSLC Public Examination (one of them being Malaya Marutha). My craze for movies was to continue in my college life. I developed repulsion for my mathematics teacher in primary school not because the subject was difficult but she routinely handed out punishments to one and all, without discrimination. With a tinge of sadness I did not pick up the subject. The situation, of course, changed in high school where the teachers were different. My teachers sensed that I would have secured a top rank in SSLC examination. But, I didn’t think like them. Nor did I work towards it. However, I secured a decent first class, delighting my parents and uncles/aunts. My paternal grandfather used to show me the building housing the Karnataka Secondary Education Examination Board in Malleswaram whenever I accompanied him on a walk. I had an encouraging word or two that I must emerge from the SSLC examination in flying colours. My uncle CL Krishna fulfilled his promise of getting me a moped on getting a first class. I went to college on the two-wheeler before losing it after some time. COLLEGE DAYS “The arrival of teenage lands an individual into a new world that necessitates a good deal of adjustment, it also helps in developing intellectual skills and concepts necessary for civic competence. It is during this time Intelligence grows to the maximum limit as a result of wide reading and planning”. PUC When I was in a dilemma whether to opt for Commerce or Science, it was my uncle CL Krishna who guided me to take up the former. I got an admission to PUC at Seshadripuram College (I had plans to join MES College if I had chosen Science). I think that it was the right choice and does not have any regrets since I am doing reasonably well in the finance field. Throughout my studies, my father never influenced any authorities, even though he was in the Income Tax Department and had an opportunity to interact with many celebrities. He used to travel by the BTS (later BMTC) bus, while his friends and colleagues had bungalows and cars. He did not believe in giving donations to schools/colleges. Nor did he believe in getting his sons tuitions. I progressed academically as also in extra-curricular activities. I continued to have a windfall of prizes, particularly for essay,speeches,singing and elocution contests. I remember how friend Sanjay Shantharam of the Shabari Malai Swamy Ayyappa fame won prizes for his Bharatanatyam prowess. The lecturers at the pre-university who left a lasting impression on me were Prof. GS Venkataraju, Prof. B Shivaram, Udaya Chandra, Anantha Murthy, Chandrappa, Seetha Lakshmi. I cannot forget Kari Basavaiah, who was on the supporting staff, who excelled in theatre and acted in cinema. I got a first class in PUC as well. Graduation I recall my initial disappointment in academics in my first year B.Com Business Mathematics. One reason for my failure was that I had studied History at the PU level and as already told the foundation to my arithmetic was not up to the mark in the primary school. My failure in mathematics dejected me. Unfortunately, there were lots of problems connected with the examination system of Bangalore University. There were instances of bright students also failing in some subjects, thanks to the valuation vagaries. I took this up seriously and decided to go to the root of the problem. In his association with my good friends Amrutha R. Mehandale, MG Ravidarshan and Vrunda R Chandrika (daughter of media personality, Shesha Chandrika) and brought out an extremely useful handbook on the examination system of Bangalore University. We interviewed the vice chancellor of the university, besides the registrar of examinations, departmental heads and many academicians from various educational institutions for compiling the book. This was encouraged by the dedicated academician and then Principal of Seshadripuram College, Prof. KE Radhakrishna, and Dr Narahalli Balasubramanya, the literary critic. I want to remember some of the outstanding lecturers from my degree college who were instrumental in moulding my personality as a certified graduate. MA Narayana Swamy, Dr N Geethacharya, Prof. MV Satyanarayana, Dr CLN Prakash, Anuradha Rai, Geethakumari, M Prakash, Parameshwaraiah and KY Mohankumar. I offer special thanks and remembrance to HN Mahendraje Urs, Mathematics Lecturer (from the science stream), MN Chandrashekar, Sanskrit Lecturer and AC Thangamma (employee of Seshadripuram Educational Trust). I took up a few other assignments on the side of my academic and extra-curricular activities. I completed typing senior grades and shorthand inter grade toward the completion of my PUC and started my career as a typing instructor in the afternoons for Prasad Institute of Commerce, Malleswaram, and also taught job-oriented subjects like shorthand to MES college students. In the evenings, I also offered lectures in tutorials (Best Institute, Milk Corner, Sirur Park Road in Malleswaram) for SSLC, PUC and BCom students, while I myself was studying for graduation. I had an opportunity to teach MCom students also. I completed post-graduation in Commerce from Madurai Kamaraj University besides acquiring in first class a post-Graduate diploma in Marketing Management from MES College, Malleswaram. I went on to expand my knowledge by pursuing various management diplomas in Financial Management, Human Resource Development, Export Management, Internet and Networking Applications (from institutes like All India Council for Management Studies, Chennai; National Institute for Labour Education & Management, Chennai; SISI, Bangalore; etc. All this I pursued simultaneously with my first job. My sincere prayer are always in the order Mathru Devo Bhava, Pithru Devo Bhava & Acharya Devo Bhava. I am not what I am. But, what I am made and sculptures in my making are undoubtedly my GREAT TEACHERS. My sincere TEACHERS DAY WISHES TO ALL LIVING LEGEND TEACHERS AND FEW DEPARTED SOULS WHO ARE PERMANENTLY REGISTERED AT MY HEART. ---
Posted on: Thu, 04 Sep 2014 12:36:59 +0000
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