Dharmaraj - A
school teacher in a sleepy village called "Nerkuppai" in Sivagangai
District of Tamilnadu. True to his name he was a "Vallal".
In 1967, I
studied VI Standard at Sathappa Government High School at this village.
Mr.Dharmaraj was my class teacher. Always on a Pure glittering White and
White Khadi attire. The white dress really brought a Charisma and personality
to him for this otherwise a Dark Complexioned person. He used to
be very perfect and strict in all his acts, & thoughts.
He lived a
very simple, bachelors life. To my knowledge he didn't got married even after I
left the school. He had his ailing mother, somewhere near Tiruppur. We do not
know whether he visited his mother regularly. He used to send a Money order
every month that we know. But, we never had a chance to say, Dharmaraj
Sir is absent or on leave even for a single day.
He used to
have 14 sets of Dress. 7 sets for one week and another 7 sets for the next
week. Every Sunday he will wash the clothes by himself and put Starch (Kanji)
and then press it by an Indigenous Iron Box. i.e: A Brass Sombu (Pot) with
boiling water is his Iron Box. Each set of dress is coded with the first
letter of the day in Tamil. i.e: Thingal - Thi, Sevvay - Se like this. He will
wear the dress according to this code. We used to sit in the front row and he
had a habit of teaching in the class be standing near the front desk. We used
to lift his shirt corner and check the codes. We never had an opportunity to
see a different code on a different day.
Even though,
the School started at 9.00 a.m he will ask his students to come at 8.00 a.m. or
8.30 a.m. This time is utilised for creating a Garden in front of the Class
Room. A beautiful garden was maintained by us and we won the appreciation,
award etc. when the C.E.O visited our school. He will divide the students into
a few groups and each group will be made responsible for one activity
such as cleaning the class room, Providing drinking water, maintaining
the garden, promoting culture and conducting programmes and academic
activities.
He is a very
good play writer and I have acted on 3 Plays written by him. He is true
follower of Mahatma Gandhi. He will insist for Uniformity in everything. Not
only in our dress, but even on the note books and the Covers. During that
period putting a colored pictorial label on the Note books was a crazy one.
Once my brother sent me two dozens of labels with beautiful pictures. I
affixed the same on my Exercise note book and submitted. He called me and asked
me to remove it and follow the general practice of putting a Square white paper
as a label. When I hesitated to do that, he explained an event that happened in
Mahatma's life. When a small girl asked Bapuji, Will you wear a Shirt if I
offer it to you, Gandhi replied enthusiastically, that if you can offer 30
Crores Shirts, i.e: to the entire population of the then India, he is willing
to wear it. Likewise, if you can give this colored label to all the 32 students
in the class, then he is acceptable for the colour label, otherwise, I have to
follow the general rule.
He wrote, few
plays on "Tiruppur Kumaran", "Samrat Ashoka" and
"Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru". I acted on lead roles in all the three
plays. My friend M.Nachiappan who is a leading Surgeon today has acted as
Tiruppur Kumaran. He gave us confidence to face the audience, he taught us the
oratorical skills.
He is very
kind natured but at the same time very strict disciplinarian. At that time the
School Special Fees will be around Rs.12/- or so. I do not remember exactly. At
least half a dozen students in my class were very poor and invariably they will
not pay the fees in time. So, a circular will be issued by the office and it
will be brought to the Class room by a Peon - Chinnaiah. If the circular comes
during the class hour of Dharmaraj Sir, he will not read out the names.
Instead, he will take out a paper and note down the names. The next day
the circular will not have the names of these students. He will pay the money
for those students.
He used to
have food only at the "Udupi - Krishna Iyer Hotel" the only hotel at
the Village. Whenever, my mother goes out station for a marriage or for some
functions, I used to go to that hotel for taking Lunch. Since, the lunch time
in the School is the same for us, we will be having lunch at the same time. In
all these occassions, Dharmaraj Sir never allowed me to pay my bill. Even
before his telling the server, the server himself will refuse to collect the
money. This continued even after I passed out of his class.
I still feel
that many of my skills, habits and qualities are formed with his
influence. I owe a lot to him. I am proud of recalling the fond memories of
Dharmaraj sir on the occasion of Teacher's day. I have no contacts with him now
and I do not know about his whereabouts. If any one has got any information
about him, please pass it on to me.
KR.GNANASAMBANDAN.
