SIVA GANGA

 SIVA GANGA

Why the place is named so is not known to me. In its geographical territory such a name is somewhat     unusual. There seems to be some spiritual drive behind the name. Though a small town, it enjoys a place of pride in the area and has had some intellectual contribution along history. I did have a brief stint of two year stay as a student in high school stage then. Memory stays fresh in me as to comfortably recall all important events in my days there.

One of the important locales of the town was ‘the double street’.  Probably, it meant a reference to two wings of a long stretch where one was proximal to the Siva temple on the east and the other to the Vaishnavite temple on the west. Respectively the two were Sivan koil street and the Perumal koil street. There were a number of other streets criss-crossing the town. There was movie hall on the main or arterial road through the town named ‘Gandhi road’ and east periphery of the town was Rajah’s high school, later upgraded to Rajah’s higher secondary school. Even in those days [1956-57] the town had an Arts college dedicated to the memory of

Rajah Duraisingam and was RDM College for short.

This town had some prestigious places like the Gokale hall housing a library and reading room, besides some lower level courts for settling disputes. Obviously, a chunk of the population was lawyers and had a rich tradition of fielding some legal experts in the town. Another ‘not easy to explain’ feature of the place has been its academic radiance then. Yes, I mean it. With certainty, I can emphasize that the then school had a band of excellent teachers with total dedication, imparting quality instructions  to students. I remember most of them for their firm adherence to ceaseless effort in laying the right foundation for learning languages and other subjects.

I can ill afford to forget the services of Mr. KV Krishna Iyer, Mr. R.P Aseervaadham –both teachers of English. Of them Mr. RPA was more accommodative tolerating the inadequacies in learners. Mr. KV K would teach English grammar for all its intricacies and nuances; but, could not tolerate wrong replies to questions on grammar. He had the knack of infusing grammar into our heads by sheer terror of his physique with a rich tummy like a rice bag. Any wrong answer would invite a tight twitch on the cheeks and if need be a couple of slaps. Yet, his training in English grammar keeps me going till date with comfort and ease of formulating statements. What little I know of using English, I owe it to Mr.K.V K ; all further stages of my education were spent on building  my vocabulary and in collegiate study I learned the idea / the need for critical analysis[from Prof. M.Gopalakrishna Adiga , Mysore]; such teachers are literally unknown now-a-days.    

Despite its ‘not-so-prominent’ status in the geopolitical arena, Sivaganga has several cryptic forces offering educative thought and behaviour. There has always been a lingering spirit in this place leaning towards intellectual pursuit. I am not too sure if I am fully right or wrong; it is my honest perception about Sivaganga –as I recall from my memory store.       

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