My School: A Documentary

An awesome documentary on our school, Sainik School, Amaravathinagar. Always proud to be an Amaravian.

A Fortunate Student, I am !

I am very fortunate to have been in a boarding school for 8 long years with teachers who opened up our young minds, showing them the wonders of the intellect and the miracle of being able to think for ourselves. They exercised our mental muscles, stretching and strengthening, so that we can make challenging decisions, find our way in the world, and become independent. They were our parents, guide and friend with an overflowing heart. When I woke up, I realized that, it is Teacher’s Day in India and thought I should extend my gratitude.

Nirmala Sam Babu: My first teacher was Nirmala madam. It was when I joined a pre-school and I left the school after a year. The last time I met her, she told me I was her first student. She is a highly inspiring and a friendly person. Now that she runs her own school, St.Peters at Kodaikanal, one of the prestigious institutions in Kodaikanal.

Sheela Cherian – She is the first teacher anyone who joins Sainik School, Amaravathinagar would encounter. She taught table manners to all the students, on the day of induction. Things like, How to eat using a spoon and a fork… How to spread butter and jam with the knife… How to eat boiled egg… and most importantly, how to eat with our mouth closed. These lessons will stay with any of her students till the grave. Owing to her motherly attitude and love, she preferred to teach English to the sub-juniors classes. For certain, everyone in her class will develop an excellent hand-writing skills and the flow of language.

P.T.Cherian (PTC) - P.T. Cherian and Sheela Cherian are kind of made for each other couples. They joined the school when it was started in 1962 and after a few years, fell (rose) in love and got married. He taught Physics for the senior classes. Mostly, he treated everyone as adults and that earned him reverence amongst the students of all classes. Though he is no longer with us, the majestic way he carried himself as the longest served senior master, makes him an indisputable icon in hearts of the Amaravian family.

George Joseph (GJ) – He was heavily built, tall, high energetic and full of fun. When he used to teach Gulliver in Lilliput, we would be exactly like poor Lilliputians and he like the gigantic Gulliver. Be it prose or poem, he used to perform all sorts of animation to enact the scene and make it lively. It will be hilarious, when he enacts the baby in a poem like “Trot trot the baby goes; Trot trot to town….

Devanasamy (ADS) – The delight of watching The Story of India or History Channel or the pleasure of reading historical books, I owe to him. His many ways like pinching the arm in varied degrees of excruciating pain, would put any history lesson into the core of our heads. We have always admired the way he carried himself. The gleam of his shoes and belt, the whiteness of his shirts and the perfect folding of the pants are things I get reminded of when I wear a formal.

R Sreenivasan (RSV) – We can learn sophistication from RSV. He taught us geography and he was also my house master when I was a prefect. He left the school after he was appointed as the principal of Navodya Vidhyalaya

I.L.Fernandez (ILF) – A care-free and a simple person, who never carried the book to the class room. He taught us physics when we were in senior classes. Rarely writes on the board, but he will ensure that the lessons are written on our heads. Apart from Physics, we learnt mutual respect from ILF.

P.Chandran (PC) – A rare teacher and a genius who sometimes contemplates in his own world. If I were given a chance go back to the school, I love to sit in his class. He taught us Quantum Mechanics and always emphasized relating the theories to the real-world and the relative world. He is the first person who revealed the harmony of physics and meta-physics to us. Even today, when I am stuck grasping some complex relations, I think of him. He was my house master during the last 2 years of my school and made me the house captain too. In spite all the pranks I played and the difficult situations I created for him, he was very understanding and helpful.

A.Santiago Jayaraj Kumar (ASJK) – An idealistic, versatile and dynamic teacher. He taught us English. Though he treated all the students as equals, he always knew where and how to draw the thin line. I owe him, my voracious reading habits and my appetite for books. Be it poem or prose, the books never limited him from extending to the origional text and the contemporary writings too. For example, we had a lesson which was the condensed form of the book "To Sir, With Love" by E.R. Braithwaite. He used the origional book and also ensured that the school screened the 1967 classic "To Sir, With Love". On another occassion, there was a lesson called "The Man-eating Leopard of Rudraprayag" by Jim Corbett. Apart from teaching from the original book, he introduced Kenneth Anderson, who has written similar books. Had I not been in his class, the passion to read Saki, Ruskin Bond, James Herriot, Leo Lolstoy, Anton Chekov... and a numerous authors wouldn't have occured to me.

KR M Karuppaiah (KRMK) – He was my guardian angel :) He taught us Organic Chemistry. Though many guys scored well in the subject, for some reason, I could never understand it except for one formula C2H5OH.

V Govid Samy (VGS): A jovial and a carefree person, who always go by the books. He always bridges the student-teacher relationship to ensure comfort and was like a friend to us. He taught us Chemistry and was also our NCC master for the Naval Wing. I still remember my first day at the Naval Wing, when a guy banged his foot to make a halt while marching, he shouted “ Hey.. what happened and why are you getting tensed man? You will be standing on a ship and if you bang like this, the ship will sink”. He ordered that no one should behave over-smart and do fast actions during the drill. From that day, every drill will be fun-filled slow-motion gestures. He was also our ship modelling instructor.

King Kristo Kumar (KKK): A highly energetic and a loving person. He taught us Math with such an ease that, it would be like learning some poem.

D Mariarajan (DMR): A bold, rebellious and aggressive teacher. He was more than a friend to me. We had similar taste for songs and I got the habit of collecting sings from him. He taught us Math in junior classes.

S Saradhamani (SSM) - She was a very loving and a next generation teacher. She taught us english in junior classes and my passion for English as a language can be attributed to her. I still remember how we were almost in tears during her last class, when she left the school. To this day, I have not seen a hand-writing that is as beautiful as hers. It's perfect calligraphy. The 5 page autograph she wrote to me is a treasured possession. She is a singer too :)

M N Santhanakrishnan (MNSK): A perfectionist and the keeper of the morality. MNSK taught us Tamil and he had a peculiar way of blending humor and complex grammatical theories. Recently, he was awarded the best teacher award by the President of India.

V Charles (VC): An always smiling personality, who replaced CSG as the Biology Master when we were in 9th . Though I was not comfortable with biology as a subject, I loved attending his classes. It will be one class where we can sleep on the desk without being bothered or skip and go to the library without being questioned. We had enough freedom while he is in the class. We were supposed to do a project in 12th class and I planned to do “Fermentation of grapes by yeast”. When I told this with apprehension, he was genuinely happy for coming up with a novel idea. I was brewing black and white wines under the cot, one day he surprised me with the jamoon wine. He always taught us in our own way.

After the school, though life taught me all things, great and small, the lessons I learnt from these revered souls during the formative years laid the foundation for all that is good in me. All my good deeds I owe to them; all the short-comings are mine.

Happy Republic Day

Republic day and Independence are the two days that would curb us of our freedom and independence during our school days, at least from a month in advance, preparing and rehearsing for the parade. The resting afternoons were spent in the strenuous physical activity in the hot sun of Amaravathi, rehearsing the march, salutes, shouting commands, punishments, sometimes carrying a rifle over the head. The dreamy nights were spent in ironing the uniform, polishing and shinning the shoes, belt buckles, shoulder badges, beret emblem, so that the officer would be able see his face on our shoes or the metal badges ab buckles. All this was always accompanied with a joy of being able to play pranks at the officers who wouldn’t know Tamil, being part of a house and the house-spirit that made the cadets of each house excel to prove they are worth the Cock (a trophy).

All these, coupled by the pride of being an Amaravian and an Indian gives me a reason to cherish and celebrate this day, that too when a greatness like Abdul Kalam is the President. Happy Republic Day!

An Amaravian's South Pole Mission

Nothing makes me proud except for being an Amaravian! Not only me, but every Amaravian will agree to this statement and today we have another reason to be more proud of. Lt Commander KS Balaji - Sainik School Amaravathi Nagar 1989 batchSchool V Captain - Pallava House is the deputy leader of the INDIAN Navy's expedition to the South Pole. Here is the excerpts from his email to the Alumini Group Mail

Mail Starts .......

I am glad to say that I am the deputy leader of the INDIAN Navy's expedition to the South Pole. We are already set to Antarctica and presently we are at Santiago (Chile) undertaking all requisite formalities and approvals to enter the remote continent. Hand in hand, we are preparing hard on our fitness and acclimatising ourselves to face the challenges the weather and terrain are due to pose us.

I was also part of the Indian Navy Mountaineering Team that climbed Mt Everest from the dreaded North face in May 2004. After this stupendous success, we are now ready to take on another extreme challenge as the next major adventure sport activity - Ski traverse to the South Pole during Nov 06 - Jan 07(termed Mission Dakshin Dhruv 2006). It would indeed be a daunting expedition and may well achieve records heralding India ,the Indian Navy and Sainik School Amaravathi Nagar into the forefronts of the adventure world and personally, I will also end up reaching two poles of the three in the world (North Pole, South Pole and Mt Everest which is considered the Third Pole).

It is a landmark venture for the country, the Navy and our school. Representing a microcosm of India the expedition will carry the hopes and aspirations of our countrymen and reflect the qualities of team spiritand indomitable will that our fine Service embodies.This expedition would unfurl the flags of India, the Navy and our school at the final frontier of adventure activity that challenges the human spirit of courageand survival. We have launched a website http://www.nausenaadventu which has a fair amount of details and snaps of this venture which will be updated regularly even whilst onour expedition. Although no publicity campaign or media coverage have been provided for this expedition exposing the great feat attempted by the Naval stalwarts to the Indian as well as the world community, we have put up a post card page for your views and good wishes to boost the morale of these brave men and encourage them to achieve success intheir attempt.

It becomes our responsibility as proud citizens of India and Amaravians, to recognize such daring missions and project India favourably in the World of Sports and Adventure. Please pass on this messageacross the board and allow it to reach the masses -far, farther and beyond. I am sure you would be earnest to join hands and promote the mission throughall available means and make all Indians feel proud of this team. May I request you to kindly give your good wishes and blessings to the team on this mail id. Your goodwishes and message would mean a lot to the team!

...... Mail Ends

I take this opportunity to wish the team a great success in their mission and request the visitors to shower their wishes and blessings to the team. I am amazed about the tone of patriotism and sincerity in his mail - equally ashamed of being in an industry where people have forgotten the significance of August 15.

SSA - Official Website Launched

Finally, our school has launched its official website. This has relieved us of the pain of juggling through the various unofficial wesites hosted by the Amaravians. The website is really impressive with the raising curtain similar to the Avvai Auditorium curtain raising for the opening scene of the culturals. Though there are some obvious bugs, it's a decent beginning.

Here's the URL - http://www.sainikschoolamaravathinagar.edu.in/

Trip to Amaravathi

If it was not for Muruganand’s marriage, I wouldn’t have dreamt of this break. It was a long and a wonderful weekend that started after I switched off my cell phone when the train started rolling from Egmore at 10:00 PM on 27-May. After a brief discussion with Shakthi on the prospects of IT in Coimbatore, we fell asleep. The train took a longer route via Trichy ->Karur --> Erode -->Thirupur --> Coimbatore, 4 hours more than Nilgiris or Cheran Express and I preferred this, as it is way to be cut-off from the contacts for more time. I snatched the additional pillow from the lower berth and thanks to the passenger who didn’t turn-up and also to the TTR who couldn’t find a replacement till Thirupur, where we got down at 8:30 AM on 28-May. Sivaraj was there to receive us and we started to Udumalpet after a long argument with Kandan Karunai who wanted us to come to Pollachi and Karthi who insisted that we should come to Coimbatore. The priority is always Udumalpet because of its proximity to Amaravathi, were we spent all our formative years in a little-bit of education and a lot of pranks (Extra-Curricular and Co-Curricular Activities!).

By the time we reached Udumalpet, Kandan, Karthi and Maya arrived. We went to the Lion’s Club Marriage hall for lunch, and then met Muruganand of Tamilnadu, the groom and Roumya of Jarkhand, the bride. It is a Love & Arranged marriage and as per the stats, 80% of Amravians fall into this category because of varied reasons that I would post later. After lunch, we started to Amaravathi with the aroma of nostalgia over-powering our senses. Though all of us have lost interest in alcohol, we bought a couple of beers and whiskeys, sensing that there would be a need while sitting in the steps of the Canal or the Dam. The highlight of the journey was how Kandan narrated the way he promised his mom that he would become a pilot and would pick her-up from their house in Pollachi and drop her back after a round over Pollachi.

On reaching Amaravathi, RS, who was one of our English Teachers, stopped his bike after recognizing us while we were taking a snap of the board in front of the Academic Block.

Then, we went to the Obstacle Court and only Karthi was able to perform most of monkey plays, as he is still a monkey while most of us have turned into elephants.

As it is vacation period, most of the staff members were not there and the campus seemed deserted except for the painters, masons and carpenters who were busy with the maintenance activities that are usually done during the vacation period. The other important thing we noticed was that the name “Boy’s Mess” (as if there are girls in the campus) has been changed to “Sainik School, Cadet’s Mess” (as if, it exists outside the campus).

After seeing all the houses, we went to the canal that runs through the path lined with Eucalyptus trees on either sides, leading to Kallapuram, which used to be our running route for the morning PT. As sensed, we finished the beers and whiskey on the steps of the Canal while Karthi and Shakthi busied themselves in catching a lone fish.

The bottles got empty and it was the right time go to the Dam, so that we will be able enjoy its beauty in a state of ecstasy. As like other dams in Tamilnadu, Amaravathi Dam was constructed during Kamaraj’s reign and it stretches between the two hills that stand like the firm and heavy boobs of river Amaravathi. There is Crocodile form and the Indra Gandhi Wild Life Sanctuary spreads around this river.

We met PC, our physical chemistry teacher, who intentionally talked about the political scenario of Tamilnadu rather than the political scenario of the school in which we would be more interested.

The day ended with more Amravians, Beers and Whiskeys!

Mani C Markose

It was in my 9th class that I met Mani C Markose, a little 6th class guy who had the guts to walk in front of us when we were standing in the mess. I wouldn’t have cared if he had been from some other house. But his T-shirt revealed that he is from Bharathi House, for which I was the House Captain. I turned pale with anger and shame, when my batch mates stared at me. I didn’t react, as I didn’t want to make scene in the mess, where the whole school, including my seniors has gathered for the evening Roll Call, instead made quick plans to deal with the guy during the House Roll call, where I will have complete authority.

As usual, the house Roll Call started at 9:00 PM and when it was finished, I asked him to meet me in my room. The house master KRMK asked if there is a specific reason, and I told him that he deserves a punishment for his misbehavior in the mess. He asked me not to man-handle(beat) him, as it is becoming an issue during the Parent’s meet and I agreed.

I went to my room and washed and changed. There was a knock at the door, accompanied by a cry, “Please, may I come in man?.”

I said with a stern voice knowing that it would be culprit, “Come in.”

I was shooting many questions about his misconduct, about himself, about his family and he was answering everything with a pleasing smile. At the back of the mind, something kept saying that, this guy will be a friend for ever and somehow, I felt that he should be treated so, though it is not a custom for an Amravian to treat a junior as a friend. I order to keep a balance, I decided that he will be punished, but at the same time, he will remain a friend. I delegated a few duties as a form of punishment and he will perform them for me, so that he will be a friend.

You will bring tea for me in the mess
You will carry my books (envisioning to study a couple of text books in the room, which never materialized) from the school to house and back

The next day, my friends were proud of me, seeing the guy carrying my books and offering tea for me. This went on for 2 years and by then we were almost friends that, I visited his house and he visited mine. Finally, he ended up writing all my practical records, when I was in 12th class.

We were in constant touch even after I left the school, and after he left the school, though we were poles apart with respect to the career we have chosen.

It was a happy moment for me, when he visited our house yesterday and I was astonished by the kind of love and respect he had for me in the same way I have for him. Apart from the gifts for my son and a bottle of Smirnoff for me, he shared with me some beautiful snaps of Andaman, so that I will fulfill his long pending invitation. I don't think I will be able to make it before he is posted to the next station! OK, let me post some of those beautiful snaps...........

This is he!