Yesterday, I was the chief guest at the Spell O Philo-II contest organised by the St. Thomas School, Indirapuram, Ghaziabad. It was organised in memory of H.G. Job Mar Philoxenos, former Metropolitan of the Delhi Diocese of the Orthodox Church. Teams from 22 schools in the New Capital Territory took part in the second edition of the competition. There were three rounds to qualify and each round was a test of the contestants knowledge of not only spelling but also phonetics, etymology, logical thinking and worlds cultural trends. I was highly impressed by the performance of the students who could not afford to make a mistake as I made while addressing them. I wrongly attributed the character Mrs Malaprop and the word malapropism to George Bernard Shaw. Actually, the word is based on the same character in Richard Brinsley Sheridans comedy The Rivals, who habitually misused her words. Fortunately, there was no negative marking for the chief guest. I escaped unnoticed until one of the jury members gently reminded me of the mix-up. By then, all the contestants had left. So I could not make amends. At a time when Connaught Place is just CP and a taxi driver in Bangalore did not know Mahatma Gandhi Road but only M.G. Road, it was great that a school took the initiative of organising this inter-school competition. Philoxenos Thirumeni was a student of English literature and a stickler for the correct spelling. At my prompting, he wrote an article for the Indian Express, where I worked those days. When the remuneration reached him, he told me that it was the first time he received payment for his writing. The meeting began by offering floral tributes to the first Metropolitan of the Delhi Diocese, the late Paulos Mar Gregorios Thirumeni. I once heard his speech at Maakkankunnu in Pathanamthitta. At that time, he was just Fr Paul Varghese. When he became bishop and visited Bhopal, I interviewed him for The Hitavada. He was a great theologian and visionary. He had a knack for striking friendship with people from all faiths and walks of life. I hope other schools also organise similar competitions to make students aware of the need to use correct spellings. The school gifted me a memento and the book Makers of Modern Asia edited by Ramachandra Guha. Thank you, St. Thomas.
Posted on: Tue, 25 Nov 2014 03:23:52 +0000
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