THE MADURA COLLEGE MADURAI

 

THE MADURA COLLEGE, MADURAI

Why should I caption it thus, when the reader band is almost our colleagues?  It is just not for colleagues, as anyone else may visit the blog. Ironically, outside Madurai, if you spell the name of the college, be ready to face a number of doubts/ questions like Which college?, is it a government college or a private college? So, it is not American college and so on. Such has been the modesty of our institution that has served the society with distinction for over 130 years plus.

In plain terms, over the decades, the institution has not made any aggressive publicity of ‘claiming’  “the only one of its kind” label. “Only one of its kind”, can always be a safe assertion, since any institution has no replica elsewhere. So, the claim is simultaneously right and wrong. Gladly, The Madura College, has never been guilty of such false claims. In fact, even the finest qualities of the institution have been merely cherished as nostalgia by all beneficiaries without making a hue and cry of it. Now, it is important to substantiate as to what we reckon as ‘the finest qualities’. The college is run by a management; but is totally free from the nagging presence of the management breathing down the teachers’ neck to oversee the ‘activity’ of the persons. Even the clerical cadres enjoy respectable freedom.Honestly, everyone was treated for a gentleman and it meant our abiding by the expected reciprocity in our functioning.  Simultaneously it was a boon and a bane.

BOON and BANE

With none to oversee or reprimand, personnel had their free mode of functioning. Those, who never preferred to be questioned for any omission, stuck to the official plan of work and were the genuine models to emulate. They had only one agency to answer- viz – conscience. That none ever questions our work was interpreted to convenience, saying that “X” DOES NOT WORK, ‘Y’ GOES EARLY, ‘B’ COMES LATE, as instances to defend their own follies. Either category of personnel [work or shirk], was too well aware that, irrespective of work or shirk, wages were never altered, nor would there be reward or reprimand. Being committed when not scrutinized is a hall mark of decency and seldom does it care for ‘recognition’ of any kind. We need not dwell at length as to how a shirker of work would have felt within self, though managing overt postures. Certainly, pulling up someone for dereliction of duty would not be hard for an authority. Yet, they refrained from those embarrassments is a fine quality to take cognizance of. At the same time, with no scrutiny or reprimand a certain set of people went about their duty in all sincerity is a finer quality for everyone to emulate. That the institution provided for ‘personal choice’ of employees in work ethos, is a sign of grand maturity by the administration. Those who made a mark of brilliance in teaching used the freedom to hone their skills and turned ‘reputed’ in the bargain; the other segment earned nomenclature exclusive to selves. In no way one can suggest lack of opportunities to teach. This contention of mine is fortified with the facility of autonomy to the institution since 1978 –one of the early birds to the experimentation. Autonomy and PG programmes in departments threw open wider canvas to work on. It was always for the individual to scale up and achieve higher. Obtrusive controls would easily have pegged efforts to the essential minimum while curbing the efforts to go that extra mile. In posterity, freedom of the kind we all enjoyed at The Madura College reveals to have sharpened our faculty to be receptive and responsive. At this point, most of us would be unanimous to concur with the blessed advantage of God-sent team of like-minded tolerant teachers across subject territories. It really made our horizons liberally expand; we were quite ‘at home’ as academicians. 

Despite schedules of work, our friendship always cut across barriers of subjects, though there were some territories not frequented – largely because such entities were envisaged late in the history of the system. Also, in all traditional domains, from 1966 -73 or so, many youngsters were recruited. Major examples were English, Tamil, Physics, Chemistry and Botany. Commerce and Zoology almost had a full new team. Together, all these factors foisted a natural ambience for us to move more or less un-inhibited.

I had my share of luck in the departments of English and Zoology besides what I could get from Botany. It must be laid bare here that in all departments my friends included HODs and most other members in the hierarchy. Substantial interactions with Prof. K.R N, Prof. K.S and Prof. T. Sriganesan simply elevated my confidence for details, interpretation and communication. The benefits I managed from K V, KGS, NM, KRA, RKM and the INIMITABLE G. Gopalan are worth a special write-up. Also, our canteen [which has assumed a new avatar ’Cafeteria’], library, garden are places pregnant with nostalgia. Our activity for over 35 years involving varied interactions stays etched in memory. Items like the college office, board office, salary delay, condolence meetings, blood donation, Sankara Iyer hall, Rector’s day, the hostel- a cauldron of effervescent emotions-all can engage us for days.  May be our friends can add their observations.  Thank you       Prof. K. Raman  31-Jan 2022.