Mahe college Alumni Meet of the first batch 70-72:Part 2

Fresh from Madras  Presidency college (June1970) I joined the Mahatma Gandhi Government Pre-Degree college at Mahe on 6^th August 1970There were as many as more than 30 candidates appeared for one Assistant Prof Post.First rank/First class  in the college and the gold medal combined with my Professor’s presence at the interview board and more importantly the honest Education Secretary Mr Saminathan enabled me to come out of the ordeal.The divine grace operated through them and my hard working parents’ genes bristling with professional ethics played no less an important role in my selection.

  I was just 20 plus at that time although my certificate age  which was on the higher side would say and suggest falsely that I was22 plus. I distinctly remember the journey from Salem by Mangalore mail and on the way i was just mesmerised by the breathtaking beauty of Kerala soil and of course the people. When the train stopped at Mahe station it was raining heavily and one friendly soul helped lift the green suitcase on his head and guided me. From there it was just 1 km plus  to the rest house near the roaring Arabian Sea mingling with Mahe river in the east.

It was a pleasant shock to know that the college was housed in one high school building just on the edge of the river. The Ambassador taxi was virtually wading through the flood of water before it halted before the guest house where I met my senior colleagues Professors H N Elangovan of Zoology and R Viswanathan of botany senior people who had earlier worked at Anna Arts college Karaikal.

 I saw water everywhere and the nature was in full fury and bounty. After taking shower in chill cold water I joined them for lunch .The taste of hot rice and fish curry prepared by Satthu  still lingers in my taste .It was not the memory of  just food alone and all the pleasantest  feelings enveloped me when i made this third trip to see my old set of students who were teenagers then ,and 60 plus adult now. It was really an occasion to savour and remember and I can only record a fraction of what I felt and experienced.