Chamunni Master
He was my 2nd standard class teacher. He comes from a peasant family. Actually he boosted my cultural activities. He made me secretary for children association and I remember a funny incident happened. There was a program scheduled every year as anniversary of School and I had to participate in one of the program as 2nd standard student. I have to sing a song with action. I practiced a lot and went to the stage. I was using microphone in front of me adjusted to my height and I started singing with action. Suddenly I saw people laughing and I was wondering with dilemma to continue or not. Somehow I managed the show and completed. Later I came to know the power failure happened during my program and microphone was not working and that was the reason for laughter.
Chamunni Master’s attire was khadi and the shirt and dhothi were washed with starch so they were like stick. He used to keep a hanky always folded around the collor in order to keep it away from sweat marks.
Chamunni Master used to enquire to my father whenever they met and his blessing was always there with me.
John Master
He was 3rd Standard class teacher. I remember the fragerance he carry with him always. It was from Ponds Talc Powder he uses and it stays there until evening. I don’t know whether he put it very frequently on his body or not. Also, he keeps a hanky always folded near the shirt. He wears always Polyester shirts. He taught me maths such a way that I got an inclination towards it which I am enjoying till now.
John Master came to our village from another district and settled thereafter getting the job as a teacher in our village. Later he had a tragedy in his life by loosing 4 year old girl. He built a water tank near his house to irrigate the garden. Poor mason did not do any calculation and built without much engineering calculation on thrust and pressure of the water in the tank. One day John master’s child was playing near the water tank and a motor connected to the well was pumping water to the water tank. All of a sudden, the water tank burst due to internal thrust and pressure and bricks and water came with sound and fell on the small baby. She died in the hospital.
Recently, when I went for vacation, I heard that John master died of cancer. May his soul rest in peace.
Kesavan Master
Kesavan Master was good friend of my father. He worked as English teacher in a nearby High School. He had got very good knowledge on all matters on the earth. You can describe him as a versatile personality.
He reads a lot and during his free time, he comes with a cow to graze at our paddy land. That was his main hobby. Also, while his cow grazes, he reads books. When my father visits our fields, he used to talk to Kesavan Master almost daily evenings. Kesavan master never married and always he was alone during his life journey.
During my 10th standard, Kesavan master came to our house two days before English examination and brought with him old question papers of exams. He helped me to answer each question by question and corrected then and there. It helped me a lot to score 81 out of 100 in English in SSLC (Secondary School Leaving Certificate) Examination.
I used to visit him every vacation while I was in abroad. Whatever I forget to buy, I never forget to buy a box of 7’O Clock shaving blade for him since he likes this blades always. Last year Kesavan master died of cancer since he was a smoker. May his soul rest in peace.
Sasidharan Master
He was my class teacher in 6th standard. He was also an enthusiastic teacher and voracious reader. I used to visit his house regularly. His house is completely filled with books. You can see books everywhere. He is the teacher who groomed my reading habits. He selected the books for me to read and enhance my tastes of reading. He was coordinator of School Library. I used to help him in the library to keep the books in rack according to category. It gave me privilege to take any number of books and any books of my choice. Every year we used to go for purchasing books from nearby town. I used to accompany him in order to select books of my taste. Also, he was the teacher who started Boys Scouts in our school.
I have to tell about his determination especially on his education. He had completed his plus two then teachers training while he joined our school for teaching 6th standard. Then he acquired degree while working then he finished MA in Malayalam and he obtained M.Phil in Malayalam. When he left our school, he joined Kothamangalam Government college as Lecturer in Malayalam. I admire the growth made in his career. He was never found sitting idle. During the evenings, he gathered paddy field workers and taught them Malayalam alphabets to make them how to read news paper. This was done without taking any penny from them or from government. Now after joining College, I did not hear much about him. I am still searching for him.
Khaja Nawas Master
He is denoted with heavy spectacle and he was our Malayalam Teacher for 10th standard. He was really gem of a person. He also, took me with him to arrange the books of Library since he was Library coordinator. These sort of works helped me a lot in selecting books for reading. I finished Hunchback of Nostredam, Les Miserable, (Victor Hugo) Mother (Gorky), Karamasov Brothers, Idiot (Dostovsky) during my high school days itself. I always recommend children to read such books to know the world.
Once while he was taking class, I came to know about the depth of his knowledge on our epics. He was teaching one chapter related to Mahabharatha stories. He asked a question to the class that Lord Krishna defeated Kaliya snake and Lord Krishna jumped into Kalindi river from a tree even though banks of kalindi was not having flora or fauna due to the poisonous venom of Kaliya snake. We could not answer back this question even though we know the story. He told the reason as while Amrita was taken from danavas by Mohini, it was sent to heaven by eagle (the vehicle of Vishnu), during its journey to heaven, eagle rested on the branch of this tree and that is the reason it did not die due to poisonous venom of Kaliya snake. It was astonishing for me know the new reason from a learned maestro.
I was very lucky to have him as a teacher in 10th standard as well as Lecturer in Malayalam in my degree days. He left our school and joined in
Above notes about my teachers are not including about all my teachers but a few only and I will try to find details about others when I could recollect incidents related to them.
