A Teacher to Remember

I read Babu Sir’s blog, ABC is No More, on his drawing cum grammar teacher, who sowed the seeds of English in him. By going through the write-up, about the Drawing teacher, who was very much passionate about English later in drawing and classical dance, I was also reminded of one of my grammar teachers, Fr. Jose Mathew Parayil, the first Principal of St. Mary’s Arts and Science College, Puthanangadi.

As I could not cope with the bothersome trigonometric, electrostatic and thermodynamic lessons in plus-two, it was difficult for me to find a Govt. or aided college for my Under Graduation. Someone in my locale told my father about St. Mary’s College, Puthanangadi and BA English Language and Literature. The obedient daughter agreed without much thought. Till then, as a Science student, for me, English was only a language paper, grammar portions are there, but easy to get through by writing down the summaries of chapters... I least cared about English at my plus-two, as I wanted to mug up all those science papers instead. At the time of the English examinations, without much preparation, I just remembered the stories and wrote them down in my own language, without caring about grammar and the other aspects of language. Usually the English teachers conveniently skipped the grammar portions in the textbook and translated the stories and poems. Both the students and teachers hated grammar.

 I had to pursue my studies as an English Literature student at St. Mary’s College, Puthanangadi, which was very famous for its discipline during the period. Fr. Jose Mathew Parayil was then the principal. I joined the First BA English Literature Class as the 69^th student. I was the last one who took admission. Fr. Jose Parayil was our principal and class teacher at the same time. Noone would be courageous enough to make any sound while he was taking classes. The whole class experienced the meaning of pin drop silence. He taught grammar as part of the common course, Novel and Grammar. As it is a common English class, around 100 students were there. While he is explaining the rules and regulations of a particular grammatical item, the class is supposed to listen carefully and then asked us to write down the thing which we have understood in the notebook, in our own language. At first it was really a herculean task for me.

But with the arrival of a new faculty in the English department, he exchanged his portions to him.  We all breathed out with relief… the new faculty, taught us some vague concepts of Reported speech, Voice, Prepositions, comprehension, etc. During the Second Year, we had to study a Core paper, Grammar and Phonetics. Once again, Fr. Jose Parayil took up the challenge of teaching English Grammar to our batch. As it is a core course, he gave an extra amount of stress on the paper. He used to explain the rules and regulations of a particular grammatical item, we are supposed to listen carefully and then asked us to write down the thing which we had understood in the notebook, in our own language. At first it was really a herculean task for me.  Later I managed to write the notes as my own… Slowly…Then I started writing sentences as my own… I had been practicing to grasp the intricacies of grammar then….

Simultaneously, He had another hobby. He used to roam about the lobbies of the college… At this time, the students are supposed to keep silence, even though it is a free period. If we made any sound, without much hesitation, he gave us impositions.  The punishment was nothing but writing down the portions covered for ten times. Grammatical rules were also compulsory for those days as they might have been asked for the paragraph and essay question purposes. The result of the punishment was we were able to understand the rules and regulations of the grammatical items.

I don’t know whether it felt useful for other students. But as far as I was concerned, it turned down all my concepts of grammar. By understanding the grammatical rules and regulations with abundant number of examples, Grammar did not last as a hard nut to crack. When the University results came, I was the topper in that paper. That gave me much confidence and I renewed myself as a serious English student.

Apart from this, Fr. Jose always wanted to develop our reading habit too. As part of introducing us to the library, in the first year itself, he gave us an assignment on fifty authors. We were supposed to write down the biographies and important works of those authors and submit it at the time of readmission. It was also a custom which practiced there… though it sounds strange for a private institution. Every year the students need to take readmission. A list of eligible students were published at the beginning of each academic year and only the listed students were supposed to appear for the readmission purpose. So, most of the students concentrated in their studies.

I am not sure, whether all students accepted and agreed with these disciplines. Anyway, I can say that Fr. Jose Parayil was really a pathfinder in my academic arena. Even though I am not at all perfect in the case of English language, almost all my habits and abilities in this realm were being funded by this man, Rev. Fr. Jose Parayil.

 

Radhika A, Assistant Professor of English, Al Shifa College of Arts and Science, Keezhattur.