All I can remember
of my first day in college is that it was a fine morning that Niaz and I walked
in through the second gate of our College. Those days Nair’s famous tea shop,
and the Rasi Medicals run by Mr.Ramani, which dispensed scheduled drugs and over the counter medications
in a same manner were near the second gate, while opposite the third was the
way to our famous Cholan Theatre where we enjoyed the Tamil cinemas, seated
like royalty on benches for the princely sum of around two or three rupees.
Beside the Medical shop was a cycle repair shop called Thamarai Cycle Mart. All of us had cycles then. These two shops were sandwiched in between Manickam Chettiar’s Tea stall and Nayar's mess. There was also Nilagirivattam branch of the Indian Overseas Bank close to our middle gate.
Near the first gate was the lodge where Berylson, and Augustus stayed with Alagappan, and our senior Dennis the drummer for whom once the whole college went on a strike in a procession up to the Collector’s office a few kilometres away from the college near Railady. Others who stayed in the outer were Abhiram, Jayraj Harrison, Suresh Paul, and TP Ravi. So, were Swaminathan, Vaidyanathan, Thomas, Vasudevan, and Thilaganathan who stayed in the nearby houses close to the first and second gates.
The main signature building and our
much beloved portico thankfully still remains unchanged to this day. The day’s
scholar room used to be right above the portico, and our Dean PGS, KG
Srithar, the two Rajendrans, Hemachandrika,
Vasanthi, Banumathi, Thangam, and Bhavani, were some of the day
scholars that I remember.
The library and the basket ball
ground brings to mind their most ardent user maybe for all-time, namely
Neelakandan. Others keen to be in the Library were Srinivasan the gold
medallist, and other regulars like Parmananthan, Regunanthan, Boominathan,
Jambunathan, Dhanavel, Chitra, Jaykumar Mohan, John Kennedy, both
Paneerselvams, the two Narayanans, Muthiah, Nachiammai, Manimegalai, Ramesh, R.
Ravi, Suresh Paul, Tamilchelvan, and the duo of Varuna and Rajakumari, like a
similar pair of Premjothy and Malathy.
Nearby was the
office for paying our semester fees, which we thought could be better spent! Biochemistry
department on the ground floor was the southernmost one and brings to mind our
adventurous volunteering as guinea pigs for the experiment to determine
nicotine levels in our blood after we smoked dozens of free cigarettes.
Then came the
roundanna where still lingers the spirits of Karthi, Rajkumar, Subini, Murali,
and me, who formed the fun-lovers gang, and where we used to hang out under and
on the ‘bijil’ tree.
On the northern
side of the college portico was the famous skull painted portals of the Anatomy
Department. Here, entrenched in the bedrock of our memory is the fun we had at
the tables where the K’s comprising of the three Knagarajs, Kandasamy,
Kannammai, Kannan, Karthi, Kathiresan, Keerthivasan, and finally Krishnakumar
to whom some of the M’s like Murali, Mathi, Manohar, Muthukumar and me would
migrate from the adjoining table so that we could join the song sessions played
on make do drums of scapulae and drum sticks of ulnar bones. Neither can
one forget how we jumped out of the Physiology Lecture Hall after giving our
attendance only to be spotted by the Professor who could see us from his room
in the opposite wing housing the Physiology lab.
First year memories
mean also recollections from the Statistics and English classes. Attendance at
the former was more to see the outcome of a prankster who had kept some cotton
in the fan cup, so that when our Teacher switched on the fan, the cotton wisps
would come floating down, while everyone exclaimed, “Panju, Panju” a
short version of the Teacher’s name, much to his annoyance. Of the very little
English classes conducted, I do not remember attending a single one!
Manohar and
Mehalai my partners can never forget the Vice-Prinicipal’s room where they
announced publicly their intention to be partners in life. Consequently, the
support from the good old Professor helped M&M to pass undetected the
searching eyes of the would-be-bride’s parents, to escape from the college to
solemnize their wedding.
The Auditorium is still steeped with
our ‘Orientation Day’ or ‘Fresher’s Day’ reminiscences. Both the tunes and the
lyrics of the Songs we sang like ‘adho andha paravai pola vaazha vendum’,
‘Beautiful Sunday’, or ‘Hotel California’, still linger in the farthest
recesses of our minds, only to burst into full melody whenever and wherever
this batch meets! Then all of us in unison babble the memorized words as the good
old images of Murali, Augustus, Sita Priya, Deepa Devi, Gigi, belting out these
pure melodies bring the joy of the young college days brimming back to our
minds! In addition, images of Karthi thumping the drums and of Ravindranath
playing the lead guitar with Dennis orchestrating the whole team can never be
erased!
Similarly the
Pavilion and the sports ground whispers the names of Ramu, Patricia, Augustus,
Mathialagan, Neelakandan, Muniappan and me, and all of us have made our name in
the Intermedicals.
Lest the reader jump to conclusion
that the 1977 batch was just another happy-go-lucky batch who loved their fun,
they must consider that Neelakandan, Sunder Raj, Parmananthan, and Suresh J
Paul, were some of those who earned Gold Medals.
Finally, PGS who
all his life worked for TMC, ended a historic career as its Dean! While Ashok
Kumar and Kanagaraj P, are also Deans though not in TMC.
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