Monkeying

Do the trio walking (in the Taj complex) ring a bell? Remember the days we shared a campus with many of the kind?

Deep Freeze

It is only November and we are already in a deep freeze. Global warning must be happening people! We have had -34 weather including wind chill this whole week and it is going to last until Sunday. We are being told by weather guys that it will warm up to -9 on Monday. But who trusts them?!

What do you do when it is so miserably cold? Go to work, shop for groceries, go to school and live life as if nothing has changed. That is Canada. Nothing stops unless there is a complete white-out blizzard. And there isn't one yet. We layer clothing so we can keep warm or take some off if it gets too warm. Winter boots and woollen socks are a must too.

Life goes on.......

Just wanted to say hello to everyone :)

Hi Guys,

I haven't been blogging lately, been busy at work and then the wildfire and nowgetting back to normalcy has pretty much taken a toll on me. Have been sick for a while with cold and constant coughing due to dust allergy because of the bad air quality after the wild fire. Getting better slowly, but the cough still persists, It will take some time for that to clear up. But other than that things are fine in SD. I see a lot of activity going on in the blog and it is nice to read everybodies contribution. It is geeting pretty cold here and Thanks giving is behind us. Life is normal is SD but you can see the scars left by the fire around you. Thank you all for your support and prayers.

Gracias,

Sunita

Respected sirs, Cont..

PROF.P.S . DORAI (PSD)
As Rosh, said sir always had a cigarette in his hands.. he usually throws it as he enters the classroom.sir , either walks or on his cycle mostly.I think sir taught us American lit. I think many of us were scared of him/respected him.. always worried if he sees us around, he would ask us why we are out.
His Assignments/marking were also strict kind. don't think he ever gave marks above 68%.Sir was also in charge of the dept English lib.. most of us knew him better and grew less scared of him after that.later sir was head of the dept ..right-after we left?

PROF.V.RAJAGOPALAN(VR)
Sir, always had a smile and some comment for us.. he as Maha said was famous for confusing our years,names.. but somehow he also started calling me "sarah"..he would try to remember by keeping his hand on his fore head.. sir, had a scooter .. he had neck problems..I think he went on long vacation-either for higher studies or was it due to health problems..?
I think we had sir for 1 semester. I don't remember much of sir's marking style.. but i fared well enough in his papers.Isn't V.R sir the present HOD?

PROF .S.VICTOR FEDERICK(SVF)
Sir, was at one time warden of St.Thomas hall ..!We heard quite a bit from hall students about his strictness..? .Also we got the op to go visit their hall for hall day.!.Thanks to our wonderful classmates of that Hall.
Sir, some how i felt had favorite kids. He had a loud laugh..especially when he was walking with W.Chelliah Sir.Another prof we were careful of, don't know if sir will just reply to our wishes , joke with us, or ask us about why we were not in class.
Have had luck to hear sir's sermons in our chetput church.. quite a few times.Sir travelled from city by train If memory is right.
marking of sirs was also unpredictable.
Did someone tell me once Sir was HOD?

PROF.WILFRED CHELLIAH(WC)-
Sir , had a motorcycle, and always a big black bag with his music and other papers..We had sir also for just 1 semester. His french beard /tummy was something different from others.
marking for sir also i don't quite recollect anything.. fared OK in his class.
sir, was in our church- choir master for sometime.Sir's wife teaches in W.C.C where she took class for us.. she is a quite, soft, kind person .
Svf, wc, sirs u can see them coming from bank , canteen, going to classes together .Always smiling and talking to each other.

PROF.MANOHAR SAMUEL(MS)
sir, was strict person. once for some assignment the whole class got into trouble,a few of us went to him personally and asked for his apology.And we asked for date change or some such thing.
Had sir as my Guide.. He was worried i would not finish Thesis.. and I am still in Big trouble due to that..not just with sir, but hubby and family,others too..
Sir, taught us essays, didnt he? His marking was strict too. 50-68% right?
once i got a photo from a friend and i saw Prof Ms.. they had come to Us for a visit and had visited them. Same church members..they told us.
Sir, F.D,Sir, John were all same church members.
Heard From Murali- Sir, and his mum were now correcting papers together.
Sir's,wife is a Dr.His sermons also have heard at our church and in our college morning assembly.
Each of our profs had their on distinct personality.But towards the end of my studies there felt more at home with them all.Our respect for them will always stay. That's what teaching profession gives..Students love and respect!.
If Anyone of u have more to add pl. do. also any photos../?,The rest of our prof another time. God Bless.

Karthigai

It was an occasion for lighting lamps again. There is someting very
romantic yet divine about lamps lit in the night.
Our flat premises on Karthigaideepam(is that what the festival is called?)

Inflation In Dubai

Inflation is hitting sky high in Dubai with rentals and essentials going up by every day. Soms sample costs are given below.

Carrot 1 Kg DHS5(USD1.37)
Beans 1 KG DHS6.50 (USD1.77)
Onions 1 KG DHS4.50(USD1.22)
Cauliflower 1 KG DHS6.50 (USD1.77)
Rental (1BHK) DHS60000.00 (USD16400) per annum(Approx)

The increase in costs has made it difficult to live and work in Dubai as the salaries do not go up equally to compensate the rise in costs. Recently the Govt has advised a 70% hike in salaries for Govt employees. We just hope that the Private sector will follow suit......AM

Thanksgiving in the US

Thanksgiving is a big event in the US. There are sales early morning after Thanksgiving which means traffic jams. A lot of rush at stores where people wait for the stores to open.

On thursday, everyone enjoys turkey. We were invited by a family from our church although it was their family gathering. They said they adopted us. There was turkey, potatoes, sweet potatoes, cranberry, corn, gravy, stuffing, small buns (rolls), jello, ice cream punch, fruit tray, veg tray, chicken wings, chips, murrukku, cakes, rice , fish curry, buttermilk, pachadi and many snack items - a big spread.

The younger two kids being sick were both on my lap. So was feeling worn out; one threw up. I just ate some rice; at least my hubby could enjoy the dinner.

When we came out to go home, we found it had snowed and the ice was on our car windshields.. Had to scrape those off and wait a few minutes for it to defrost with engine on! Winter is in full swing here.

With thanks and blessings for all our families and friends. God bless.

OM CREAM

Om shanti Om is the latest churn from the Bollywood factory, and I got to see it - not in theatre but on DVD (no, not a pirated copy, but a copy meant for the US audience, the DVD librarian in my area assured me).

So after dinner, I settled down to watch it. Mind you, I havent seen a full-length Hindi movie after DDLJ - and that was over 12 years back. I just dont have the patience to watch crap even if it is dear old Shahrukh Khan. I almost went for Chak de with Jaynti but she got to watch a pirated print on DVD before that. (Well, I need to watch that next at home - I am sure it will have a lil more stuff in it).

Well, the movie struck me as two-dimensional with no depth in characters or the story. Cameos by half the Bollywood family as a token of gratitude to choreographer and director Farah Khan. As for producer-actor Shahrukh his face cannot hide his age and the movie doesnt bring out his best inspite of all the hype surrounding it. The movie struck as a hastily cobbled one on the theme of reincarnation, an old theme in Bollywood. It is silly, unrealistic and not well conceived but I am sure the seasoned Hindi movie buff will lap it up.

Deepika Padukone (former badminton champion Prakash Padukone's daughter) has given a satisfactory performance as the heroine. She particularly excels in her role as Shantipriya, a 1970s superstar (is one allowed to call actresses superstars or is it a male prerogative?) and her period attire and hairdo are excellent - save for the very deep necklines. The incurable Puritan that I am, I was shocked by the amount of skin exposed - it rivals Hollywood heroines and cleavages. Maybe I am out of touch with Hindi films, but I must say I was shocked - is that the norm now?

Tailpiece: I just didnt have the patience to go through the entire length of the movie and stopped at where the reincarnated Shahrukh, a superstar's superstar son, plots revenge for two deaths that happened 30 years ago. The reincarnation bit reminded me a bit of that Tagore short story - about a servant Ram Saran who lost the master's kid in the waters and the kid being born as the servant's own child a year later... but without the finesse of the Tagore plot.

Respected Sirs.

Prof.HFS- being our Principal was a very busy person. He was also a Rev.He was there for early morning Assembly(service).Wc -would be there sometimes to play. But Prof Manthramurthy's son David used to play the music. Quite a few of our Dept staff would be there.If i managed to arrive early would attend the service.. as walking to Seliayur hall and waiting for classes was not a great thing.Hostel kids will still be walking around half awake!Glaring at the rest of us who come on time!
HFS also during his time had strikes to deal with. You could see(AUT?) in front of the gate .. (sitting/Standing)..walking around at times with sticks..Police men around.. those were my memories..If My memory is right HFS also did church service,at college chapel .Sirs, classes were good. As Rosh said he told us stuff we never thought of like The Tier/tyre example..
His answer papers were read by him.. He underlined and gave his comments if good or not right.. And only in his paper I felt i got the correct marks.. rest of them ,one feels may be you had to be in the good books also and not just study.
I Think he even did extra class ,as he would hardly make it .. sometimes he would come late...someone had to remind him..so everyone would wait for few Min's then do their disappearing acts..so his class would have just 5-10 of us.
I think rarely he would have had 20 kids in the class.. wonder if he ever got whole class .
Prof.HFS called me"Sarah "..later when i got to help out in Admissions office got to meet him in His office/home.. There always seem to be lots of them waiting to meet him.. at both places..
Prof VSV. I think was one of the striking staff... He was also a Busy person.His class was fun.. he cracked Jokes .. he would close his eyes, write on the blackboard, walk around and teach. Sirs, Papers were handed over to John.. who got to enter marks and hand it over to us..I have seen Sir correcting papers..he seems to read here there.. flips through so fast and then marks them.. Amazed me How they do that. since we went often to the dept entrance we got the opportunity to see all profs at work.His classes were mostly First ..or morning ones.. most of them would be around.
Prof VSV also called me "sarah" then all profs seem to call me by the same name.I suppose having 2 usha's around it was easier.
Prof Jayaraman-He could not see , sir had walking difficulty..came on rickshaw..3 Cheers to him for achieving all that and to manage college co eds.. #taught us Marlowe or King Edward.. Play! Sir, had great Listening Power.. yes, i also found it hard when they sent rockets/read novels/trying to sneak in/out of class when he was taking class..
Sir knew our voices.. he knew our names by heart would ask for each of us my name..to read/answer his questions.
When we wished him around Campus he knew our voices.I can remember him as cheerful Prof.
Prof PR, Rajani sir, had long beard,hair, he did a lot of Xeroxing, for dept.. got books for lib use doing that.. so we had copies to borrow and read. He also made sure all of us had copy of the poetry he taught.. He also had Asthma.. still was always active had nick names for us. Murali was his favorite .. He stayed in St. Thomas hall.His Interest in Dramas had him working with everyone to do a college play.He conducted poetry reading .. where he had me also up reading poetry in front of others!He was always looking for new talents to cast them in his plays.Auditions were after college hrs. practices go into nights.. is what i have heard.
I think Shanker Balan, Ghosh,Vinodini all took part in Plays Directed by sir. Liked his class too.He had us sell tickets for play.Buy some ourselves and Attend them also!Sir was strict in his corrections.Only towards the end I realised if we asked him for notes he would give us..He liked having Tea in our entrance shop.. Think he has had all of us once at least to keep him company.Used to be scared of him later felt at home.Saw him working in Alumni office last time
Murali, Rosh, Annie ..we met him together .
Prof AVB. prof always smiled us when he saw us around the dept.. he was always willing to give us his notes..always seemed to be having his betel leaves..sir was a Well read person also knew Sanskrit.He invited us to his house.. don't think anyone who was his student who has not visited his home.His family was also very welcoming. Sorry to hear about his sad demise. Ma'am was also a Eng Prof.. but in a Ladies college.
Sir's corrections- have had him read out our answers when at his home .. he too seemed to read here there.. he never seemed to fail anyone.!all of us would be 60 range ..!
Sir's class was sometimes too high for me.. and his class was usually after noon so attendance used to be around 50% rarely more.
These are some of my good memories of these profs. Will write about the rest of them another day.

Junior director

Remember our junior in MCC? One Kamakshi Priya. She seems to be making it big in the film world. Is the director of the new Tamil blockbuster "Kannamoochu Ennaada", which stars Radhika, Sathyaraj and budding Malayali superstar Prithviraj.

It was only when she was being interviewed on one of the channels, that I realised it's her.

She was one of those who used to be in the poetry reading and drama sessions at Anderson Hall, alongwith classmate Rajni.

Murali

p.s. Thank you Murali for this very interesting info. I vaguely remember her. And Prithviraj has already budded in Malayalam, but he is prolly still budding in Tamil. :)

The English Faculty then

Thanking our Profs...

Principal Rev. Dr. H. Francis Sounderraj (HFS) - I think he taught us Phonetics/linguistics in the first year (I still remember him saying that tier is pronounced like tear and not tyre, and that tyre is something that runs on the road as opposed to the train's tier and railway tracks). In the 2nd year, he taught us TS Elliot's Murder in the Cathedral though because of the problems in college he couldnt complete it and some other prof took over those classes. I absolutely loved his classes. (That's him at a convocation ceremony.)

Head of the Dept Prof. V.S. Venkataraman(VSV) - He taught us Chaucer's Canterbury Tales in the 2nd year. I always looked forward to his classes as he was very humorous.Prof. Jayaraman (He retired in '92.) - he taught us Shakespeare's some play. His was the first class I attended at MCC. Sad to say, people would fly paper rockets, read novels, sleep etc. while he taught - since he was blind.
Prof. Dr. P. Rajani (PR) - he taught us poetry including metaphysical poetry. The bachelor Sindhi prof with his flowing beard organised plays.
Prof. P.S. Dorai (PSD) - I cant remember what he taught but it was always tough to cross the 60% mark in the papers he evaluated. I got it only once, and I thought that was the greatest achievement in my 2 years there. Vinodini was his favorite student scoring 60 or a lil more. His smoking was legendary, and he would ride around the campus in a bicycle.
Prof. Dr. A. Vishnu Bhatt (AVB) - he taught us Indian literature and also some other boring topics. He took his doctorate later.
Prof. V. Rajagopalan(VR) - he always had a smile for all of us.
Prof . S. Victor Fredrick (SVF) - he taught us Shakespeare and called me Roshini. Some fared badly in his papers depending on how their relations with him were. Being an autonomous college, the internal assessments could be biased .
Prof. Wilfred Chelliah (WC) - he was better known as a man of music (at his church I think)
Prof. Manohar Samuel (MS) - he was very strict and send back students who came late to class saying that they were too early for the next class!
Prof. Dr. Stephen Jebanesan (SJ) - he had a cultivated foreign accent having done some courses in the UK/US on scholarships. His polka-dotted shirts were famous. He taught us linguistics in the first year.
Prof. Nirmal Selvamoney (NS) - getting marks in his papers were believed to be tough, and he taught us in the 2nd yr. A stickler for the purity of the Tamil language, he had changed his name - but VSV once observed that he should have called himself Nirmal Duddumuthu since Selvamoney wasnt pure Tamil! :)
Prof. Cherian Kurien (CK) - he taught us Shaw's Arms and the Man, and would sign with his fingers over his head whereever something he was referring to was in inverted comas.
Prof. Felix Moses (FM) - apparently he gve negative marks in BA, but in our MA class he was giving most of us marks in the 80-95% range. Prof. K.Ganesh (KG's nick name was "kind gentleman", says Maha!) - his classes were very good and he had a loud booming voice that made not listening not easy at all.
Prof. Franklin (FD) - he was a very friendly prof but did not take classes for us, only supervised as we took our exams.
Prof. Arul Kumaran (YAK) - he did not take classes for us either.

Our dept help was one John, a smiling kind person who went to the AG's church. He helped in xeroxing and marks entering, and we did some dept assistance for him as part of our non-academic requirements.

The name list have been compiled by Usha and the details & observations by Rosh.

Attendance register

1. S. Amos Miller
2. Annie Mary Sam
3. Bharathi
4. Gladson JAC
5. Grace Stanley
6. Indraneel Ghosh
7. Kavitha Israel
8. Murali Krishnaswamy
9. S. Mahalakshmi
10. Prem Sahayadhas
11. Persis Yenubari?
12. Princy T.
13. Pichandi
14. Rajeevnath R.
15. Roshin Mary George
16. M. Saleem
17. Shanker Balan
18. Shoba Sarah Paul
19. Sunita Gopalakrishnan
20. Thimmarayan
21. Usha Nair
22. Usha Sarah Thomas
23. Venkatesan V.
24. Vinodini Charles
(This was our MA class in 1991-93. Usha Nair, Usha T, Sunita, Annie and Roshin were considered the Malloo clique of the MA class. Shoba, though a Malayali, always kept company for Vinodini, since both stayed in the Women's Hall and had been together at WCC too. Princy, Persis, Grace and Kavita formed another gang in class - which later had two male patrons Glady and Ghosh. Maha kept Bharati company. Murali was seen with Rajeev (and sometimes Miller?), and also recieved an occasional bear pat from his old Lawrence pal Shanker. Thimmarayan had his own circle of friends outside class. Pichandi was the paavam one. Prem from Thomas Hall and Venky from Selaiyur were inseparable, except when they went to their rooms I think.... by Rosh)
***
Amos Miller
Annie Mary Sam
Ajie George
Dora Kesari
K. Jayanthi
Murali K
Mahalakshmi S.
Princy T
Rajeevnath R.
Reeba John
Roshin Mary George
Usha Thomas
Vinodini Charles
... and this was our MPhil batch of 93-94.

Aji from JNU Delhi, Dora from Nagercoil and Reeba from American Unvty of Madurai were the newcomers. Dora was my roommate at the Pallavaram hostel while Reeba shifted to the college hostel once she got admission there. She was a highly emotional person I think... RMG

Diwali in Canada

Updates

Sometime back, Murali had sent this update on Kavita, which I forgot to add to the database.

"Kavita Israel and her husband were in the UK a few years ago to study somthing in religion. K is back in Chennai and very active in the field of religion. But she is known as Anita or Dorothy in church circles!!! K now lives in the Kilpauk area."

Talking of Kavita, I am reminded of Glady. One of my indelible MCC memories is of them sitting in the gutters stringing a guitar. (That's them in front of Selaiyur Hall, with Princy and Persis) Two days back, I had the good luck to chat with the "jac of all trades" Mr. Gladson (no offence meant!).

He told me that "the priority right now and by that I mean the next 20 days is to find a house or a place to shift all the belongings coz we need to get out of the one we aer in right now. and then my mom keeping very indifferent health. we feel tightly squeezed from all corners..." Which means he has no time to blog a post.

Usha says she is about to catch a cold. Her son has not been too well either. We have also been just recovering from a viral fever, that is synonymous with weather change in Chennai.

I spoke to Prem today and we discussed our careers. With the change of govt in TN, he now practises as a defence lawyer - after years as a prosecution lawyer.

The other day, I got a brief SMS from Venky when I wished him happy Diwali. "Fine, thank you," he said. If I get to hear any more about anyone else I will keep you informed.

The Trip

Seeing so much being said about the trip prompted me to write a blog on the Trip.
It was the year 1992 and we were in the second year of our Masters. For those who have spent the undergraduate years in the college the word trip would have given a vague remembrance as the last time they had gone for a trip was in 1988, the year we had joined the college and it was supposed to be a department trip which I had missed.
Over a period of time the College was going through an invisible change in the outlook and behavior due to the various factors like the change of administrative powers, the infusion of a new breed of students who seem to have fun as their priority than academics. Adding to the woe was the misbehavior of outside college students in Deep Woods show (that's a picture Glady shot during Deepwoods). All these factors sort of diminished the prospect of outings and trips.
It was in my second year of Masters that I was offered the post of class representative although I never understood the responsibilities of one. And it was during a casual discussion while sitting in a near empty class next to the department that the idea was born to plan an outing.
Being the class rep I approached VSV, the then Department Head and with lot of apprehension requested him to authorize one. I was surprised that he immediately approved and asked me to take either Prof. Arul or Prof. Franklin with us.
With that approval I thought that everything was done but I never knew that it was only the beginning. Believe me If I had put in the same efforts during my M.Phil I would have completed the thesis. I had to literally ask every member whether they would like to come for the trip and the responses made me just go mad, there was no consent from everyone uniformly. It was like what are the dates? Oh I may have something coming up around that time etc etc. With great difficulty the numbers slowly started to build up and now it was the time to collect the money. I never knew then that there were professional money collectors which banks use to collect their debts. Again another ordeal… Oh I forgot to bring money, don’t worry tomorrow I will definitely bring etc etc.
Finally the money was collected and it was time to book the train tickets and by then Grace had gracefully agreed to get accommodation in a villa through the Church which was a welcome relief for me. Until then Venky and Prem had not given their names and we were counting numbers without them. It was a long wait for the tickets in Egmore and the computerized ticketing was not all that computerized to book tickets from anywhere or I knew of any agent who can book the tickets over a telephone call. Finally the arrangements were all made and we were at the station. Then came the surprise Venky and Prem too were there. I thought maybe they came to bid us good bye. But they came with their luggage and until today I don’t know how they managed to book tickets in the same train and compartment for them.
The journey was uneventful and we were woken up early morning at Kodai Road station and we had to rush to get out of the train as the train would stop only for five minutes. Then we took the three hour bus ride to the Kodai hill top and this was eventful for many as the twists and hairpin bents in the road made them throw up.
Finally we reached the top and climate was freezing and I realized that it was not a good idea to come to Kodai in December and we split into 2 groups and rushed to the nearest restaurant to find some warmth and have breakfast. Then we hired some taxis to go to the Villa which was on the other side of the lake.
Only at the villa we realized that Venky and Prem are missing and we don’t know how they got separated while we had breakfast. And it just happened that they never knew where we are going to stay as I never told them since they were not coming for the trip. So I took the thoni (a small round shaped boat) to go to the other side and started looking for them at the taxi stand. I had to ask the taxi drivers”did you see a fat person and a lean person” Someone did remember and said that they have taken a taxi. I was greatly relieved. What had happened was that Venky and Prem did not have the address and they had to call Chennai at Grace’s residence to their dismay and ask for the location. That is how they managed to find the place and land at the villa.
I took the thoni back and it started raining heavily, having struck in the thoni I completely got drenched and came back to villa shivering. By then the fire place was up and it was a welcome break. The four days went in a jiffy and I am sure everyone had a good time and I am happy that it was a turning point for some in life.
The members were, Annie, Usha Sarah, Grace, Kavitha, Princy, Shoba, Maha, Gladson, Persis, Ghosh, Venky, Prem, Roshin, Pichandi, Amos, who else?

My diwali

Celebrations in Chennai...

We went to a friend's place in the evening and burst crackers till late in the night.

Obit Ms. Chelliah

"Just to tell you that Ms. Chelliah, the warden of Martin Hall, passed away a few days ago. Seems to have had a long innings at Sarah Tucker, Lady Doak, WCC, MCC. Notice came in The Hindu and was issued by a nephew, Joshua Chelliah.
Guess she was there when Shobha Paul was in Martin."
Murali

p.s. I dont think any of you will know her (save for Sunita) though I had the fortune to interact with her when I resided in MH for a couple of days. She had been extremely kind to me and had tried to dissuade me from leaving the hostel on account of ragging - ragging of a IInd PG student by other IInd PG students just because she was a novice at the hostel. I was told by a fellow first yr victim (the famous nightingale of the college Sindhu John) that my departure helped the cure the menace of ragging in MH to a considerable extent since it came to the Princi's attention.

Sindhu John, our junior, right now lives in Chennai with her handsome hubby Paul, who runs an NGO,and 2 daughters. She had married soon after her postgraduation and has quite big kids. She attends the church I used to attend for a while but I havent seen her in the past 2 years or more.

Girl with 8 limbs faces surgery

http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/11/06/india.girl.ap/index.html

I am watching this story. After hearing the ridiculousness of how people are building temples for her and offering money to buy her for circus, I am concerned. I hope this girl triumphs over this huge surgery and has a good life.

If any of you out there hear anything about her, keep us posted too.

Happy Diwali

Here is wishing all my friends and their families a very happy and prosperous Diwali with loads of fun, sweets and goodies.And a wonderful year ahead with excellent health.
It will be good if each one of you would find the time to write a few lines as comments or post a blog.
Maha could think about blogging about her plans for this year's diwali - are you cooking with friends or partying?
We are waiting for Miller's big blog. Rajeev could write about what you guys did for Diwali - all the partying and special cooking! Gladi could please write about his busy days. I am sure Murali can also find sometime to write..!
Did Venki manage to go to his home town? And what is Suni & co. all doing now? I wonder if Usha nair even checks.
Where are the rest?

Signing off in the hope that all of you and your families are doing great.