Of teachers and languages

Sep 5. Teachers day. 

Was wondering about the teachers I had in school and college. The only 2 who I remember very vividly are the tamil miss from my secondary school and my tamil sir from college. Rest of them are all a blur and possibly because of my affinity towards the subjects they taught. There are few whom I remember for all the negative reasons, which I would avoid in this post. Coming back to the language teachers, the reason why I remember the secondary school miss being the innovative way in which she taught the language, grammar in her class. She would split the class into three groups, A, B and C. We were seated in 3 columns of desks and each column became a group. She would ask quiz kind of questions basis the lesson being taught that day or at times general questions too. I might not have understood the grammar very well but still remember the way she taught them and it has got ingrained on the conscious. Same goes for the way she taught poetry, where in she will make us put tunes to those poems, which are memorizers. Some of the tunes were so catchy that, the poems remained forever in mind like the never ending song playlists. 

Next up is my college tamil sir, who was so passionate about the language that, he would put his earnest and sincerest of efforts in bringing out the essence of those great literatures. In fact, the tamil sir will try to teach the language in English and English sir will use tamil to explain the subject. For each of them were of the opinion that the students preferred the other language for easy communication!! Tamil sir (Rajasekaran) used to explain the sense and scene behind those poems and for those who are fond of “Pattimandram” type speeches, his classes would be hot favorite. I still remember some of the examples and poems that he took in our class very vividly, the only reason being the way he explained the context. In “Manimegalai” an offshoot or sequel/prequel to “Silapathigaram”, one of the 5 major tamil “Kaapiyam”, there is a specific line which describes about life and death. It says, living and dying are akin to sleeping and waking up. If you don’t wake up you are dead, and if you do, you are not. As simple as that. It might sound very simplistic and trivial when I put it like that, but the way he explained the concept of life/death and how it was visualized by the author, the significance behind those lines and how deep the meaning it contained, were simply fantastic.     

My other favorite of his being “Silapathigaram”. There are 2 particular sections that I relished not just reading and memorizing but also the way he explained those situations. First being, Kannagi visiting the Pandiya mannan to claim her justice being held at the door by the gatekeeper. The stanza ends where she says “ inaiyari silambondru endhiya kaiyial kanavanai izhandhaal endru Arivippaaye..arivippaaye” meaning, “With an unmatchable rare silambu in her hand and having lost her husband, I am here seeking justice..inform the king” after telling about her purpose of visit. The very next stanza will begin with the gatekeeper praising the king, “vaazhi korkai vendhey vaazhi”. How sir will explain is that, terrified looking at Kannagi, the gatekeeper having been shell shocked rushes so fast to inform the king. Such was the speed with which the soldier rushed to the king, the poet has not even mentioned his trip from gate to the place where the king was residing. And the way Kannagi explains herself is possibly the biggest and most detailed intro a character can ever tell about itself. She in fact starts her intro by stating the famous “Thera manna” sequence which has been repeated in many movies and situations. Thera manna meaning clueless king. The one who didn’t investigate or analyze much before making a decision, which in this case had resulted in Kannagi loosing her husband. She goes on to explain about herself “ellaru sirappin imayavar viyappa pullaru punkann theerthon…” (it becomes a bit tedious beyond this to type in tanglish 😊but the gist of her intro being, she comes from the land ruled by generations of great kings like sibi chakravarthi who gave a pound of his flesh to save a pigeon and manu needhi chozhan who killed his own son to give justice to a cow. Having got married to the son of rich merchant Maasathuvaanigan in (Poom)Puhaar, she is from that place). Till the time I started typing this post, I wasn’t even aware that I can remember most of those sections by heart. The sole reason for having these lines imprinted on memory being the author for having churned out such classic lines and my tamil sir for ensuring the greatness behind such fantastic literature got conveyed to his students. For those students who crib about memorizing pages and pages of those classics only for gaining the ten easy marks during exams, I would only take a deep hard look at those who are teaching them. Luckily I got the best of the lot who enabled me to enjoy these classics in the way they are meant to be and I am forever grateful. 

It is an altogether different topic that he would’ve felt more happy had I been posting in tamil, at least for this topic 😊 Language alavuku patience mandaila erala. Still lazy about typing in tamil. May be some day will post fully in tamil about my favorite sections in Silapathigaram, as a praayachitham for butchering the content in this post.