Only Education uplifts ! - remembering all my teachers !

In one of my visits to a claim site – on a railway crossing near Nellore Railway, saw this board -  Sarvepalli with pincode – 524003 – the name does invoke great memories !!

Guru Vandana means “Reverence for the Teacher” – it is the thanksgiving from a student to a teacher, expressing his or her gratitude.    In every Society, Teachers are to be respected most.  In our culture, they are reverred highly.  This beautiful Saraswathi is at Samarao School where I studied in early 1970s.

சுமார் 50 அல்லது 60  ஆண்டுகளுக்கு முன் – பள்ளிகளில் ஆங்கிலபிரிவில் படித்தவர் குறைவு.   முந்தையகாலங்களில் 'ஆசிரியர் - மாணவர்'  உறவு அன்பான பந்தமாக இருந்தது. 

Aristotle  was a Greek philosopher during the Classical period in Ancient Greece, the founder of the Lyceum and the Peripatetic school of philosophy and Aristotelian tradition. Along with his teacher Plato, he has been called the "Father of Western Philosophy". His writings cover many subjects – including physics, biology, zoology, metaphysics, logic, ethics, aesthetics, poetry, theatre, music, rhetoric, psychology, linguistics, economics, politics and government.  

Education is the most important thing in life – it will give Worldly pleasures  and give pleasure to the world too; it will not diminish by giving; it will spread the fame of those possessing it; cannot be destroyed… there is no better medicine  than Education that can cure all ills.   Things were far different when we joined, studied and left … not these long queues, ordeal of admission, it was mostly of simple application filling and getting in – but when a seat is gotten with great difficulty, how many parents would visit the school, know the teacher of their son/daughter, ever interact with them. ….  Those days, the teacher was a learned, highly respected man – commanding wishes when he (or she) walked on the roads – and do you remember your favourite teacher ??    

5th Sept is a special day - …and those in Chennai – know well this road connecting Beach Road [Kamarajar Salai] from Gandhi statue to Gemini flyover [Anna Membalam] …… is Dr. Radhakrishnan Salai, earlier known as Cathedral Road.   In India, today  5th Sept, is Teachers Day… in many countries, it is a special day appreciating the role of Teacher… but the World Teachers’ Day is distinctly different, for it is on Oct 5th. 

Do you remember the Names and can you recollect the faces of your teachers at your Elementary school and in Secondary school .... have you ever met any of them after coming out of school.  Can you recognise them and would you stop, spend time to pay reverence, if you are to have a chance meeting with them ? 

Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (5 September 1888 – 17 April 1975) was a  philosopher and statesman who served as the second President of India from 1962 to 1967. He previously served as the first vice president of India from 1952 to 1962. He was the second ambassador of India to the Soviet Union from 1949 to 1952. He was also the fourth vice-chancellor of Banaras Hindu University from 1939 to 1948 and the second vice-chancellor of Andhra University from 1931 to 1936. Radhakrishnan is considered one of the most influential and distinguished 20th century scholars of comparative religion and philosophy. He held the King George V Chair of Mental and Moral Science at the University of Calcutta from 1921 to 1932 and Spalding Chair of Eastern Religion and Ethics at University of Oxford from 1936 to 1952.

Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan was born in a Telugu Brahmin family in a village near Thiruttani India, in the erstwhile Madras Presidency near the border of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu states. His father's name was Sarvepalli Veeraswami (most likely indicating lineage to the village near Nellore) and his mother's was Sitamma. His early years were spent in Thiruttani and Tirupati.

His philosophy was grounded in Advaita Vedanta, reinterpreting this tradition for a contemporary understanding. Radhakrishnan wrote his thesis for the M.A. degree on "The Ethics of the Vedanta and its Metaphysical Presuppositions". It was intended to be a reply to the charge that the Vedanta system had no room for ethics." Radhakrishnan was awarded several high awards during his life, including a knighthood in 1931, the Bharat Ratna, the highest civilian award in India, in 1954, and honorary membership of the British Royal Order of Merit in 1963. Radhakrishnan believed that "teachers should be the best minds in the country". Since 1962, his birthday is celebrated in India as Teacher's Day on 5 September.

Radhakrishnan started his political career "rather late in life", after his successful academic career. In 1931 he was nominated to the League of Nations Committee for International Cooperation, where after "in Western eyes he was the recognized Hindu authority on Indian ideas and a persuasive interpreter of the role of Eastern institutions in contemporary society." When India became independent in 1947, Radhakrishnan represented India at UNESCO (1946–52) and was later Ambassador of India to the Soviet Union, from 1949 to 1952. He was also elected to the Constituent Assembly of India.

While other Gulf Arabs prefer to get on a camel and go west into the Arab desert, Omanis prefer to be on a boat and drift towards India,” Oman’s deceased Sultan Qaboos bin Said had once observed. Sultan  Qaboos as a student, was taught by Shankar Dayal Sharma, who went on to become the President of India. Sultan Qaboos’s father, an alumnus of Ajmer’s Mayo College, sent his son to study in Pune, where he was former President Shankar Dayal Sharma’s student.   When PM Shri Narendra Modi visited Muscat in 2018, Sultan Qaboos  sent breakfast for the visiting leader at the hotel prepared at the Palace. Earlier when Shankar Dayal Sharma visited Muscat in 1994, Sultan drove to the airport, personally received him and took him in his car to the palace.    

Of the four mada veethis of Thiruvallikkeni, the farthest is Singarachari Street – one could not miss this old building opp. to Punjab National Bank ~ a school, “ Samarao School” ~ an elementary school in existence for perhaps 100 years or so!  - I remember my 5th standard teacher Mrs Bhagawathi and others.  I also recall all my Masters at Hindu High School and at DG Vaishnav College … .. and those teachers of SYMA Growth, with whom we are associated for more than a decade now.  On this day I pay obeisance to all those who taught me right from my parents, my divyaprabantham master Dr. U.Ve.  MA Venkatakrishnan, school teachers, lecturers at College and those who taught me Insurance and  life too !! 

The plaque at the famous Red building of The Hindu High School  reads – opened on 12.3.1898 – by Sir Arthur Elibank Havelock, GCSI, GCMG, GCIE –the then Governor of Madras whose career also extended to   Sierra Leone,  Natal,  Ceylon and  Tasmania.  The board at  famous Red Building at 149 Big Street, Triplicane, Chennai 600 005,  read : “Be Proud of Your School – Let your School be proud of you (by your deeds)”

Today, 5th Sept, should rekindle the memories of another great patriot who underwent untold sufferings at the hands of British…  - Vandanam Olaganathan Chidambaram Pillai ~ more famous as VOC or Kappolottiya thamizhan,  was born on 5th  Sept 1872. 

SYMA has an unsaturated desire for serving the Society. SYMA [Srinivas Youngmen’s Association]  has been in the field of Social service since 1977.  At SYMA, we realize that  Education can refine a person and ensure one’s success in life.   We at SYMA, feel strongly the primary responsibility  of improving the Society and helping the underprivileged providing quality educational support through SYMA Growth and here is a pic with Growth teachers taken last year.  

 

With regards – S. Sampathkumar
5^th Sept. 2024