1960 batch of B.Sc
(Hons) Mathematics of Annamalai University-An appeal for any information.
Sought by
P.R.Ramachander
Many
of my young friends may not about the Intermediaate course after
SSLC and the
post graduate Hons programme which
was existing about 60 years
back in South Indian Universities. During those times after
ten years study in Schools and completing SSLC or matriculation Examination , students desirous of higher studies joined Intermediate
, which was a two year course
.This was followed by
graduation of two years duration
or a three year post
graduate study called Hons. The advantage of Hons
course was you can save one
year of post graduate study
and the disadvantage was that once
you fail in the final
examination , you do not get any chance to re
appear in the exam but become an
ordinary intermediate . I studied INtemediate in 1955-57 in Kerala(last batch of intermediate of Madras
university) followed by B.Sc(hons)
in Mathematics between the years
1957-60 in Annamalai University (Again the last batch of Hons course of south Indian universities). We
were 13
students in the maths hons class, Our Professor and Head of
Department was one Dr.Ganapathi
iyer . All the 13 students were extremely studious and were
considered as Intelligent .
Yesterday I happened to browse through the My
autograph book signed by my friends
and teachers .My memory went back
to my dear classmates and friends.
Among the 13 students, there were three
lady students and ten male
students including me . I was
suffering by poverty induced inferiority complex and throughout the
three years never spoke a word with my
three lady classmates. Thogh the
other ten were my friends ,
three of them were close with
me . Though after 1960 when we completed
the study we went to different
directions, me and my closest friend
kept contact with each other till last year when he attained the feet
of God
last year . I am jotting the names of my classmates and What information I remember about them. They all must be in the late seventies. If any one of you know about
any of them, do inform me.
1.DR.D.Sundara Raman.
He was my
closest in the class. He was possibly much poorer than me. His
father Doraisamy Satrigal was a follower and assistant of Maha Periyavaa.When my friend showed flashes of
intelligence Maha Periyava himself
asked one of his followers in
Chidambaram to pay his fees and another
to provide bording and Lodging for him.
Ofcourse he insisted that my friend should maintain a tuft. After the
studies he worked for some time as lecturer
in the university itself , completed his Ph.D , became
a mathematical expert and served various universities and settled down in USA . Any one can read about him in his great
essay “I lived with God”- https://mahaperiyavaa.wordpress.com/2011/01/17/i-lived-with-god-absolutely-a-must-read/
and also homage to him after his death written by me http://rajathathablog.blogspot.in/2014/07/homage-to-my-friend-drdsundararaman.html
2.Smt R.Rugmani.
She was an
extraordinarily brilliant student and got first rank in our batch. I understand she belonged to Mannargudi in Tanjore district and was an Iyengar . After the course , she got
married and moved to Germany
.Afterwards I did not hear anything about her.
3.DR.A.R Padmanabhan
He was another
brilliant student in our class.After
working for a few years, he went
to Indian statistical Institute and completed his Ph.D there
and then he got a teaching job in
mOnasch university Australia .He settled down in Austraila. I did contact him about ten years back and I do not know his whereabouts now.
4.DR.P.Balakrishnan
We used to call
him “lead” because he was Pb .He
belonged to Sirkazhi , a temple town
near Chidambaram .All his life he was in the teaching section of Annamalai university . I did meet him some 20 years back, when I visited the University. At that time he said he had a daughter living in
Bangalore .
5.Sri Muthukumaraswamy
He was a simple individual who some how did not jel
with higher mathematics . Some how he
completed the course. Later I
heard that he became prosperous by running
a Tutorial coaching centre in Pondichery . I heard he became very rich and popular because of this.
6.Sri M.Thyagarajan
He belonged to
Nagapattinam town of Tamil Nadu. After few years I heard that he was working in LIC
in Tanjore. Some 6 years back my
friend Sundararaman told that he had
come to visit his daughter in USA. I
could not get his contact details from my friend.
7.Sri Chendur Pandian
Mr.Pandian was my
very close friend. Unlike me he was not an Hons student but a student studying
for M.A. (they joined in the second
year of the course) .He belonged to a
village called THalaivan Kottai in
Tirunelveli district.Among us 13
, he was the only married student.I
vaguely rember that his wife’s name was
Kottathai . Me , Pandianm and Sundara
Raman once went together once to
see Kumbhakonam and Tanjavur . He was an extremely simple and jovial person .
8.Sri.N.Sundara murthy
He belonged to
averi Patnam of Salem district and again
was a close friend of mine.He was a very
good chess player and had reached the
finals of tAmil Nadu chess tournament. He was not able to complete his M.A. and
after a long time I heard he was a school teacher in one of the schools of Salem district.
9.Smt Meenalkshi Veerappan
She was the
only student in our class who belonged
to the Nagarathar community and belonged
to a village called Natarajapuram. Later I understood that she was working as a professor in
Meenakshi college Madurai
and was married to some gentleman
who was registrar of Annamalai university.
10.Sister M.Scholastica,
She was an
extremely intelligent student. In the
90s I heard that sg he was a
principal of a ladies college in Nagar koil.
11. Sri Sundararajan
He belonged to
Chidambaram and was a day scholar and I did not hear about him after I left Chidambaram.
I had one more
class mate about whom I do not remember any thing.
All of them would be spending their evenings of life in
various corners of the world and unlike
me may not be net citizens .If
any of the readers are their children or
grand children do contact me as I am very much interested in knowing
about them, P.R.Ramachander
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