PERSPECTIVES FROM DIFFERENT FATHERS

DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES FROM TWO JESUIT FATHERS ...

AND SUPPORT FROM MY OWN FATHER:

Loyola, Madras,1964.

There was a Jesuit father by name George Thottangal who taught us English, common to all majors (Physics, Chemistry, Maths, Biology etc.) and the class was full with over 80 students in a large classroom of several rows of seats.

He was teaching us Shakespeare’s “As You Like it­” and it was interesting. Mr. Thottangal had a powerful voice and perfect articulation. He could keep reeling off to our amazement with no full stop in sight. In one of those moments I said “God bless him” to Ramki who was sitting next to me and for added impact I traced a cross across my shoulders, forehead and chest. George Thottangal noticed it from such a distance (I was sitting in the 12^th row!) stopped in the middle of his sentence, pointed a finger at me and asked me to please stand up. I stood up, unaware of how he will proceed next and getting prepared for the worst. He knew I was not a Christian. I always had a small spot of Vibhuthi (sacred ash) on my forehead - and I felt that my gesture could have offended him. He just said with a smile “Please see me at the end of the class”­ waved me to sit down and effortlessly continued from where he left off in “As You Like it”­.

In a few minutes the class was over. I waited for all students to clear off and slowly walked towards Father Thottangal mentally rehearsing what I would say to him if he asked for an explanation. It was always better to tell the truth and so I thought I would tell him about my request to God, to bless him for his amazing flow of language.

Father Thottangal just said hello and smiled at me saying that I could drop in at his residence in the campus at the end of the day and chat with him if I liked. He didn’t seem angry at all. He also mentioned that he would give me a ticket to a play which was to be staged that weekend in the Museum Theatre.

Later I visited him at his residence. He gave me tea and biscuits and asked me about my interests. When I mentioned that my hobby was painting he asked me whether I could do perspective drawing. At that time I didn’t even know what perspective drawing was and I told him so, adding that I painted flowers, butterflies etc. and I had not seriously attempted portraits or caricature. He spent the next 30 minutes showing me some perspectives of trees and buildings and how the lines appeared to meet at a point far away, although they were supposed to be parallel to each other, in reality.

He pointed towards the door to his room and asked me to look at the top and bottom edges of the door. I said they were parallel. He told me to watch them and slowly opened the door about half way. I could now see that the top and bottom edges were no more parallel to each other but appeared to converge to a distant point.

It was so simple when he explained it and I wondered why I didn’t think about this earlier.

I had done machine drawing and geometrical drawing at school and we always drew isometric views with parallel lines. We were not taught architectural drawing and so it had never occurred to me that things could be different when viewed from a larger theme.

Before I left Father Thottangal, I inherited a deep desire to learn perspective and use it in my paintings. I also had a ticket in my hand for the weekend play.

What I could not forget about the whole thing was his kindness and magnanimity in not mentioning even a single word about what I did in his class that day. He could have easily interpreted it as a distraction or disturbance, putting me in the defensive but he didn’t. It was indeed very rare to come across such a gentle person of high intrinsic worth. My regard and esteem for Fr. George Thottangal remained very high through out my years at Loyola.

As a counter point to this I must mention another incident with another member of the Jesuit Fatherhood during the final year of my study, which resulted in my suspension from the college just a few months before the university examinations. And it was on such a trivial matter that anybody would laugh now, on hearing about it, although it wasn’t so funny to me at that time.

It was in connection with an English composition. Every week we had an afternoon devoted to English composition which was done in the Bertram Hall which had the capacity to house hundreds of students. Each week we had to write an essay or composition on a topic specified to us in the hall. We were allowed the use of a dictionary. It was in fact compulsory to have a dictionary at hand.

The compositions were done in a note book and handed in at the end of the session to the tutor who would correct the same and give a mark for each essay. We were required to carry out any instruction written at the end by the tutor for the last essay before proceeding to write the essay for that day.

In my earlier essay I had made a spelling mistake in the use of the word “acquaintance”­. I had written it as “aquaintance”­. Our tutor had circled it and I found an instruction at the end of the essay to write it with correct spelling 10 times. He did not give me any mark for the essay.

I was infuriated, particularly because I was expecting a very high mark for what I considered to be one of my best essays.

I wrote a note below his note- “You can not take away the entire mark just for one spelling mistake­” and then proceeded with my correction and the next essay.

2 days later I got a note from the Principal Rev. Fr. T. N. Sequeira that I was not to attend any more classes for that day and was suspended from the college. No reasons were given.

I went to see the Principal. He made me wait until the end of the day in the outer office. When he saw me he said I was suspended for misconduct and he had nothing to discuss with me. He asked me to inform my father to meet him the next morning. I told him that it was unfair to make such a ruling without even giving me an opportunity to present my side of the case. I said I believed that the ‘Society of Jesus’ which ran that college was a fair institution which stood for correct principles. What had been done to me was unfair considering that I had always been a good student with a clean track record.

The only response from the Principal was “I have nothing to discuss with you. I can discuss your case only with your father. You may go”.

I had no other alternative than to go home. I didn’t know how I could make my father meet my Principal. I was not sure how my father would react. I waited until after dinner so that he would be less angry with me. Then I told him the whole story and indicated that the Principal was unwilling to discuss it with me. To my surprise and utter relief my father was full of laughter and said that the Principal should have praised me for my courage in pointing out the unfair treatment instead of awarding a suspension. He was having some urgent business the next morning so he asked my elder brother to go with me and sort it out with the Principal.

The next morning my brother was luckily free and he took me in his Enfield Bullet motorbike for a ride to my college. I usually pedalled the 3 km on my bicycle but this day I was spared the same.

We reached the Principal’s office well before commencement of classes. Mr. Sequeira seemed to be in a good mood. When I entered with my brother he asked us to sit down. Then he suddenly remembered that he had asked me to bring my father and the person accompanying me didn’t look like my father. To be sure he asked him “Are you his father?”­ My brother said “No sir, I am his brother. Our father couldn’t make it due to urgent business and he had asked me to resolve the matter with you on his behalf”.

The Principal was very rude. He said he didn’t have anything to discuss with my brother . If my father was too busy it was unfortunate and nothing could be done until he found time to meet him.

We didn’t expect such a rude reaction from a member of the Society of Jesus (He always signed with the letters S.J. after his name). So we went back. I had another day of uncertainty. I couldn’t even concentrate on my preparation for the university exams due next month.

My mother sensed that I was worried and she told me that it was a small thing which will be resolved and not to brood over it.  She said if I believed I didn’t do anything wrong, there was nothing to worry about.

Later that evening my father was more encouraging to me when he heard of the Principal’s refusal to meet any one else. He told me not to worry and he would sort it out with the Principal next day.

He said the worst that could happen was that I might be required to apologize to the Principal, in case he continued to be hostile. He had no right to send me out of the college for such a trivial matter which couldn’t even qualify to be classified as a misconduct.

I felt much better. How nice it is to have sympathy and reassurance from one’s own parent at a time of need!

Next morning my father came to meet the Principal. He was in full white as usual and so was the Principal in his frock. He entered the Principal’s office after a knock on the door. I followed him in. My father said hello to the Principal, shook hands with him, asked him how his health was, said that he admitted me to Loyola mainly because he believed that it was an institution with a good name and excellent staff. He was surprised that such a trivial matter should warrant a suspension. While he agreed that discipline was very important, in this particular instance he didn’t see any indiscipline. In any case the matter could have been resolved after calling the student and the tutor together to prevent a misunderstanding from being blown out of proportion. He thanked the Principal for giving him a chance to meet him and discuss about the issue and said that he didn’t expect any such incidents in future…..all in one go!

Rev. Fr. Sequeira was spell bound . He didn’t probably expect this. He was used to parents agreeing with him and profoundly apologizing, without contesting the stand taken by the college and usually accepting that their children could be at fault. He said that in view of my father’s request he would pardon me this time if I bought him a note from the tutor that he excused me. My father thanked him for his kindness, directed me to go to the tutor and obtain a note.

We came out of the Principal’s office and I thanked my father when he got into his car. Just then I saw the tutor proceeding towards the main gate of the college in his bike, apparently going out of the campus. With a quick sprint I caught hold of him and took him to my father for an introduction. He was apologetic for what happened and said that he didn’t have anything against me. His only concern was that discipline must be maintained and he readily gave me a note of excuse for the so called misconduct, allowing me to proceed to my class.

When I looked back about the whole episode I couldn’t help wondering why God created such diametrically opposite personalities. Here was Fr. George Thottangal who didn’t say a word about what he saw me doing in his class but instead made me feel a kinship with him by sharing with me his appreciation of ‘perspective’. In the case of the Tutor his petty mind overpowered him into taking offence at being questioned by a student. Only the tutor could write a note on the notebook to instruct the student. It was inappropriate for a student to write a note to the tutor. In the name of discipline these so called educators remained dictators, so narrow minded and arrogantly insensitive to the feelings of the students. If the objective of education was to kill freedom of expression, this tutor and this Principal deserved awards for their dedication to this objective.

But thankfully there were also some ‘Thottangal’s at hand, who made college days a likable experience as a whole.