Ormakal marayumo

Ormakal Marikkyumo……Olamgal Nilackyumoo……?

The old Kacheri Malika at Kacherikunnu greeted me in 1968 when I joined the pre-degree second group at Alwaye U. C. College. The leaves of the tall Mahogany trees were murmuring when they saw a country boy walking towards the Kacheri Malika without any Chappel and wearing a shirt and double mundu, which I just began wearing after passing my SSLC. I was born and brought up at Chittar, a food production hilly place about 30 km east of Pathanamthitta, where my Dad was a teacher at the Government High School. Since there were no other smart kids in my class at the school, in Chittar, fortunately I got the first class in my SSLC examination. Our head master at that time was one T. G. George, who is the brother in law of Prof. C. T. Benchamin. He used to stay at my paternal grandfather’s brother’s house and use to go to his house in Kozhencherry during the weekends while working as Head Master in our school in Chittar. He was the one, who suggested to my Dad to send me to UCC and thus I am here at Kacherikunnu, the first person from this area of Pathanamthitta District at UCC. I studied for pre-degree and degree at UCC and it spanned from 1968 – 1973. During the span of five years, all five hostels were part of my life in UCC beginning with Tagore, Holland, Mathew, Skinner and finally Chacko. By sixties we had bath rooms attached to the hostel building and toilets outside the building. We use to wash our clothes outside the hostel building using pipe water filled in plastic buckets and by beating the clothes on the slabs made of concrete and then use to hang the clothes on the ‘ayavally’ tied across one end on the ventilator of the window of the hostel building and the other end on the roof (kazhukol) of the toilet building. I still remember the smell of the white liquid with which the toilets are cleaned by a man on a regular basis. We use to go to Aluva puzha occasionally for having fun and swimming. I learned swimming while at UCC. We use to bet each other and then swim under the water through arches beneath the water of the huge pillars of the

Mangalapuzha Bridge. We use to climb on the top of the arches on the Mangalapuzha Bridge and then jump in to the river too, of which I cannot imagine now. We also use to swim across the puzha at the Chacko kadavu during swimming.

I remember the morning prayers at 5:45 AM in the hostel, the evening 7 PM roll call by Prof. T. B. Thomas in Tagore Hostel and the evening prayer. The Chapel service was fresh in my memory where I use to attend the Mar Thoma service. I got my first communion from Yuhanon Mar Thoma in 1968 while in UCC. I was at Prof. C. P. Mathew’s, Prof. C. T. Benchamin’s Bible Study group and occasionally attended Prof. T. B. Thomas’s, Dr. A. M. Chacko’s, Prof. Varghese Itty Avirah’s and Dr. V. K. Alexander’s too. But I liked Prof. C. T. Benchamin’s Bible classes the most. The Sunday evening English service was very beautiful especially most of the girls from the girl’s hostel will be there to attend. The hymns led by Prof. C. T. Benchamin and the sermons delivered by professors are all elegant and enriched with Biblical knowledge. I still remember Prof. C. T. Benchamin leading the songs at the beginning of the worship and for offertory during Mar Thoma service. The Chapel with its high roof is the true mark of UCC where it began its journey.

Our pre-degree class had 68 students and out of which only one did not have first class in SSLC, and he was a close relative of one of the founders and hence got admission. It appears that majority of the students were from English medium schools, and few of us were only from Malayalam medium schools. I could not understand a single world in English for at least three months. I still do not understand English even after living in United States for about 25 years. I use to tell others especially our kids that we were taught English by our Malayalam teachers back in our Schools. I visited Settlement to attend prayer meetings and to conduct Sunday school, served at the Rural Dispensary and visited Mangalapuzha Seminary, and the Pontifical Seminary, all of which helped to nurture my growth as an individual as who I am at present. I would have been different personality if I attended any other college.

I remember the death of Prof. C. P. Mathew while I was in Tagore Hostel. He was living just outside the Tagore gate at that time. The servant of Prof. C. P. Mathew came and told my friend, who was related to him that he passed away. We both rushed to his home and found him lying on the bed dead. We informed Prof. T. B. Thomas and Prof. C. T. Benchamin and it was a sad day to witness the passing of a legend that was behind the UCC. I salute Prof. K. C. Chacko, Prof. A. M. Varkey, Prof. V. M. Ittyerah, and Prof. C. P. Mathew, who took the challenge to start UCC at a time when all Christian denominations are fighting each other for their existence. They were reluctant to help these Madras Christian College students in their venture to begin a college in Kerala in the model of Madras Christian College. But they did it, and it stood the test of time and is celebrating its Navathy and within next ten years by 2021 its centenary also.

We had the first and second rank holders of SSLC in Tagore Hostel with us, Anatha Narayan and one Sarma. My friends were Mr. S. Ashok, Mr. K. A. Varghese, Mr. K. S. Mathew, Ms. Elizabeth Varghese, Ms. Susan Jacob, Ms. Annie Abraham, and Ms. Beena Thomas and we were all in B. Sc Botany class. I believe Varghese, Mathew and Beena joined us after completing pre-degree somewhere else. Ashok is no more with us and I came to know about his death only when we had our 1970-73 Botany batch reunion in December 2006 at UCC. He was an all-runner and was member of all teams including basket ball, volley ball, foot ball and hockey and got several medals in sports too. One of my close friends Mr. Philip C. Koshy is also no more. I met him after we left UCC, while we were living at Kattanam while my wife was working as a Tutor at the Nursing School and Philip Koshy worked there sometime as the Manager of the Mepallikutty Hospital. Dr. Susan George was the director of the hospital at that time and my wife was a pet of her since she was studying at the Nursing College in Trivandrum where Dr. Susan George was the Director.

While in the Tagore hostel, we never trespassed in to the property of Prof. T. B. Thomas, since we were first year in the college and first year in Tagore hotel, but while in Holland, we use to trespass in the property of Dr. O. M. Mathen for mangos, jack fruits. We repeated the same in the property of Dr. A. K. Baby and Dr. V. K. Alexander while in Skinner and Mathew. In Chacko hostel, since we do not have any hostel warden living near the hostel, we use to trespass in to the neighboring Seminary compound for mangos and jack fruits. Evenings were filled with fun because all the courts will be full with students both and boys and girls practicing different games. I use to play in the hockey team and also in the Volley Ball, but never scored any goal and kicked the ball to the other side of the net. I enjoyed being part of UCC team.

The Morning Prayer in the Chapel before the classes use to begin was a special for UCC. The VH, AB1 and AB2 where we use to have our combined classes for English and Hindi are still in my memory. We use to wake up the cows sleeping in the back of VH so that they may walk through the classes and the girls use to get frightened and while this is going on, we will skip out of the classes to the Crescent hotel outside for a tea or coffee. I never was a studious student while studying Physics, Chemistry, Botany, Zoology, Hindi and English, but spent the study holidays before the examination studying very hardly.

There was another hotel at the junction to Varapuzha where we use to go for tea and coffee and Masala Dosa. I remember walking to the Post Office down the road to receive the money orders sent from home since when the post man comes in the

Hostel with the money orders, normally we are in the classes. I remember the Dobby who uses to come to our hostels for collecting our clothes for washing.

Politics was part of our life in UCC and I was part of several strikes in UCC. I remember, when the Principal Prof. C. T. Benjamin was ‘gheraoed’ (being around a person without letting him go by a group of people) and he was forced to stay in the rain right outside his office, I was there to protect him along with few others including teachers. Even though my name was not written in golden letters in UCC, I have written my names on the kazhukol roof of all hostels I stayed with chalk and even some classrooms. Our final year class was near the Botany lab and we four boys and four girls (all hostlers) mentioned before use to walk all the time together through the campus of the college. When eight of us four boys and four girls walk always in the campus that caught the attention of everyone, but we were just friends, good friends. We enjoyed the trip to Ootty as part of our study tour for specimen collection and I still have the photos taken by my Agfa Click III black and white camera, which I bought from Baven’s Studio in Kottayam in 1968. College herbarium was our favorite place to hang out with friends.

Being hostlers, we pretended some head weight before the day scholars. But they enjoyed our hospitality and most of them use to visit us in our hostels. The girls always stay at the waiting shed near the office and will go to the class after the first bell. Abdu used to ring the bells all the time and use to bring important notices from College office and Principal’s office to be read in the classes. I remember the library and its calm and quite atmosphere. I wish I had used the library more than what I have used during my time over there. I still remember the store on the side of AB-1 which sells the books for students. I remember the watcher at the gate who silently witnessed all the strikes and fights that happened at the main gate. Mr. M. P. Oommen, college office, non-teaching staff members like Abdu, Makar, Mohammed, hostel boys Chandran etc. are all still in my memory. I still remember the faces of our hostel boys in Tagore and Holland and also the faces of those who served in the non vegetarian mess like Madhavan Nair, Raman Nair and Ammavan etc. There were three mess buildings one for Tagore, one for Holland and at the far end the vegetarian mess where our Anatharamans and Sharmas had delicious veggie food. We use to get ripe jack fruit from the jack fruit trees in the campus from the mess.

I enjoyed the food served through the mess run by the students. I still remember Madhavan Nair, our Mess manager and Ammavan our chief cook, who cooked the best food we had ever eaten in our life. We paid Rs. 65 per month for the food in the non vegetarian mess. I stayed with other students only in Tagore Hostel and in all other four hostels, I stayed in single room. Our prefects at Tagore were Prasad Punnoose, Babu Mathew, Abraham Tharian, and George John, and their faces are still in my memory. Ommenn Benjamin, son of Bishop T. B. Benjamin was my hostel mate in Tagore and Holland. Mr. K. Kunjikrishnan of Psychology Dept. also was my hostel mate in Skinner. Ms. Susan Benchamin and Mr. Thomas Benchamin both children of Prof. C. T. Benchamin were also studying at UCC while I was there. Prof. K. A. Mathew was a lecturer at that time in English Department. All of them are I. A. S officers at present. Mr. Hormis Tharakan and Ms. Usha Hormis, both children of Federal Bank General Manager Mr. Hormis, Mr. Jody Tharian, son of Municipal Chairman Alwaye were also there at UCC. Son of Mr. M.K. K. Nair of FACT and nephew of Panampally Govinda Menon also were my classmates for degree classes.

We enjoyed the annual social held by each hostel. It was an issue of prestige to be invited by girls for the East and West hostel social. We celebrated Christmas by making Christmas trees by cutting the branches of Choola trees in the compound and then decorating the same with color papers. We enjoyed the monthly feast in the mess and also enjoyed going to the Alwaye market with Madhavan Nair to check whether the prizes quoted by him are true or not. We use to go to cinema at the Theaters in Alwaye namely Pankajam and Zeenath. We were there for the grand opening of Shenoys and Little Shenoys in Ernakulam. I remember watching the great English movies God Father, The Graduate, The Exorcist, Patton, McKenna’s Gold and Sean Connery in James Bond movies at Shenoys. Mr. Michael Tharakan, Mr. Ravi Benjamin, Mr. Abdul Sathar, Mr. K. P. Dhanapalan were all studying during my time at UCC. I also got a chance to show my face in the movie ‘Raging’ filmed at UCC in which Sathar and Jayabharathi were in the leading roles. Sathar married Jayabharathi later. We went to Ernakulam for the first show on its release to see us on the big screen. We use to rent cycles and go for second show to Ernakulam since there are no bus services from Ernakulam to Alwaye after the second show. Before we left we put the pillows straight as if we are sleeping on the bed and covered it with bed sheets so that even if warden looks over the ventilation of the door he will think that we are sleeping. We use to make fun in the hostel by removing the bulb from the table lamp in other rooms and then put a Nai Paise and finally put the bulb back, the fuse will be gone and you can imagine the rest.

Prof. Govindan Kutty Menon, Prof. Thomas Philip (Physics), Prof. Joseph Philip (Chemistry), Prof. N. C. Chacko (Zoology), Dr. Joyce Mathew, Prof. C. M. Mathew, Dr. K. V. Paulose, Dr. K. K. Kuruvilla, Dr. Joy Kulavelil, Dr. G. V. Thampy, and Dr. O. M. Mathen (Botany), Prof. E. N. Nambiar, Prof. G. D. Gabriel (English), Dr. T. M. Mathew (History), Prof. C. G.

Varghese, Prof. Aleyamma Itty (PD), are still in memory.

I met few of them during our reunion in 2006 and also the present staff at the Botany Department. I feel very bad about the sorrowful state of UCC at present. If the founders were present now, they would have repented for founding UCC, like God repented for creating man. Rt. Rev. Dr. Zacharias Mar Theophilus Suffragan Metropolitan of the Mar Thoma Church studied at UCC for Botany. I use to mention to others that we both studied at UCC sitting at the same bench, but Thirumeni studied there before I was even born. Thirumeni once told me that he was the only boy in the Botany class and Thirumeni used to wait outside the class until the teacher comes and enter in to the class since all others are girls and Thirumeni was shy of girls. Chrysostom Valiya Metropolitan, Joseph Mar Thoma also studied at UCC and I am proud to be an old student of UCC where such eminent religious leaders studied. The beauty of the campus filled with Mahogany trees, hostel buildings, mess buildings, staff quarters, different courts including basket ball, volley ball, foot ball, hockey, cricket and graveled roads that run across the compound bounded by compound wall made of ‘vettukallu’ are all peculiar to the campus of UCC. The old buildings mixed now with the new buildings add beauty to the campus. It appears that the UCC lost its original richness of the presence of its students in the campus all the time. I still remember the small gates one at the entrance to Tagore hostel, one at the corner of the vegetarian mess, one at the east of Chacko hostel, one at the front of Skinner hostel and the small side gate at the entrance of the main gate. During our first year in Tagore hostel, the hostel boy use to lock the small gate, which is known as Tagore Gate in the night, but we use to climb over it in order to go the tea shops or to the cinema. I remember the standard cars black one owned by

Dr. V. K. Alexander and a blue and while one owned by Dr. A. K. Baby. Prof. C. T. Benjamin had an ambassador black car, which I believe the first one in campus. We use to visit Prof. C. T. Benjamin’s house and Dr. V. K. Alexander’s house and also Dr. A. K. Baby’s house as good boys. Dr. V. K. Alexander use to call us when we were staying in Skinner hostel to push his standard car, which has always starting trouble. It was fun to watch people bringing patients to Dr. V. K. Alexander’s house to get rid of the demons out of them. We use to hear the patients screaming and crying loudly from the house. Dr. V. K. Alexander was a small man with great thinking and intelligence. I often regretted in not taking Psychology instead of Botany for my degree course after I met Dr. V. K. Alexander.

It is sad to see that UCC has degraded to the standard of just one of the ordinary colleges in Kerala at present and not in the top anymore. I challenge the administrators, teaching and non teaching staff, and students to bring back UCC to its old glory and to continue in the footsteps of its founders. The hostels need to be restarted in full swing both for boys and girls with all facilities available in the past with modern amenities so that students may enjoy their life and study in UCC and reflect the old glory as envisioned by its founders. I wish and pray that UCC may regain its founder’s vision and mission and may become one of the leading institutions in India. I dedicate this memoir to my friends late Mr. S. Ashok, late Mr. Philip C. Koshy, and also to those thousands of unknown and unfamiliar old students and teaching and non teaching staff of UCC, who were not able to contribute to ‘Ormakootttu – Vignettes of UCC.’ Ormakal orikalum marikukayilla………. Olangal nilackayumilla…….

Ayiram pada swarangal kilungi………..Aluva puzha pinnayum ozhukee………..!

Editor’s Note: Lal Varghese, Esq., is from Chittar, in Pathanamthitta District and studied at U. C. College from 1968 – 1973 for Pre-Degree (Second Group and B. Sc (Botany) and stayed in all five hostels beginning from Tagore (1968-69), Holland (1969-70), Skinner (1970-71), Mathew (1971-72) and Chacko (1972-73). He is presently residing in Dallas for the past 25 years and is practicing as an Attorney for the past 35 years. He is practicing in Dallas for the past 21 years and mainly concentrated in U. S Immigration Laws. He is married with Kochmol, who is a B. S. N (Nursing) and is working as a Nurse Manager in Dallas. They have two sons Melvin, who is practicing as a Psychologist and married to Tina, who is working as an Attorney for Philadelphia City Government. Their younger son Kelvin is working as an Attorney in Dallas specializing in Intellectual Property Law. Lal Varghese, is the legal counsel for the Diocese of North America and Europe of the Mar Thoma Church for the past 18years and serves in the editorial board of ‘Mar Thoma Messenger’, the official publication of the Diocese. He is also serving in the editorial board of FOCUS online magazine www.issuu.com/diasporafocus, published by the Diaspora Focus, a group formed in the late nineties for the laity of the Mar Thoma Church living around the world. He can be reached at attylal@aol.com or at his phone number (972) 788-077 during M – F from 8:30 Am to 5:30 PM (CST). For more details about his firm please visit his web site at www.indiaimmigrationusa.com or www.facebook.com/usattorney.