Dharmaraj - The Teacher who shaped me

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.