Who Am I - I

Many issues such as 'Ten Years After the Currency Crisis', 'Chinese Yuan's continuing filtration with a variant of fixed exchange rate' cry for attention. But for now I would like to take a digression towards some autobiographical components. In less than a week, I would be completing 37 years of teaching Economics in the Union territory of Puducherry (formerly known as Pondicherry).

"Blessed is he who has found his work/let him ask no other happiness", a poet wrote once. I have been blessed and previliged enough to have been associated with Economics for a long period, in the capacity of a student and a teacher for more than four decades.

Born in a village to hard working parents 17 years after their marriage, I had enjoyed all the warmth and affection of the family. Primary and Secondary education at the government school in my village under the able guidance of one head master by name Venkata Subramaniam cemented my foundation, though the medium of instruction was Tamil, my mother tongue. Thanks to the head master teaching English in English, transition to college education in English medium did not pose any problem. But my problem areas were mathematics and science. Somehow by divine grace I could scrap through those difficult terrains and I feverishly embraced Economics at an undergraduate level. Those were the days when Mathematics component in Economics was minimal in this part of the region. Among the teachers who taught us in Tagore Arts College I must single out Prof. V Sasankan and Prof Palani G Periaswamy (who later went to University of Pittsburg for his PhD and even later became a CEO of Dharni Sugar and Cement companies in India), for exerting a beneficial influence in shaping my foundation in Economics.

State first and rank in Tagore Arts College was a god sent opportunity to get a berth in Presidency college, Madras. The competion among the students was keener. As compared to the best and the brightest from each district of Tamilnadu, who got addmission in my class I was an ordinary student straight from the village environment, struggling to negotiate the nuances of essentially an urban life. Nevertheless, god has kept me in a good stead and virtually placed me in the company of few of my professors who anchored my studies, thus assisting my evolution as a person. Professors S P Viswanathan, S P Palanisamy, Dr Kulandai and Dr Panneerselvam ought to be singled out for their contribution towards my academic enrichment.

There was a pleasant accident in the form of one of my student collegues getting married and becoming pregnant in the final year on the eve of examination; that proved to be a turning point in my life. Can you guess? A girl who was my immediate competitor in the class could not write examination and the fortune favoured me with a gold medal and first class in the Presidency college (1970). Besides delving deep into the issues of Economics I would be writing such autobiographical sketches now and then.