വീണ കമ്പികൾ മീട്ടുകയല്ലോ നവതാരുണ്യം നിൻ തിരുവുടലിൽ
Sacred Heart's with almost 75 years of history continues to be young and vibrant, while her children are getting old, and are retiring. I hope the alma mater would thus remain ever young and vibrant, as something 'built to last'!
A quartet of immensely rich knowledge resource - I would hesitate to use the term resource, rather it is PRESENCE - presences rich with years of 'teaching' experience, knowing very well what they handle and having the confidence to deal with the subjects with ease and authority.
A quartet, each of which having more than a quarter century of experience - an accumulated knowledge resource of about a century is slipping away from the fold of Sacred Heart's.
What is common in them:
A committment to the call of teaching - they are all considered excellent teachers
A committment to the institution
A readiness to comply with the instructions from authorities - all said and done, finally they belong to the school of 'theirs is not ask the reason why; but theirs is to do or die'. They might ask reason, but in the end, they execute.
Dedication to entrusted tasks - Special Tasks : admissions (Cyriac Antony), exam & student welfare (WT Paul), SHARE research (MS Francis), holistic education (RK Varghese)
All of them have served more than 25 years
All of them have been elected to represent staff as staff secretary or staff rep.
All of them are HoDs, though operationally Dr. Cyriac Antony was part of the composite department of Mathematics, he was the HoD of Statistics as a discipline.
Distinctive Features
RK Varghese - the vigorous and outspoken, with the spark of a social activist, with the experience of students' union activities behind him, a CMI product from Mannanam. He has also been president of the state wide organisation of Sociologists. I recall with gratitude his cooperation when a PG programme in Sociology in the self-financing stream was begun. The management had initiated that specifically to give thrust to social science education amidst the clamour for programmes that were more in demand. The typical 'aided staff' mentality of resisting any move to have self-financing programmes was not shown by him, and he tried to build it up.
A quartet, each of which having more than a quarter century of experience - an accumulated knowledge resource of about a century is slipping away from the fold of Sacred Heart's.
What is common in them:
A committment to the call of teaching - they are all considered excellent teachers
A committment to the institution
A readiness to comply with the instructions from authorities - all said and done, finally they belong to the school of 'theirs is not ask the reason why; but theirs is to do or die'. They might ask reason, but in the end, they execute.
Dedication to entrusted tasks - Special Tasks : admissions (Cyriac Antony), exam & student welfare (WT Paul), SHARE research (MS Francis), holistic education (RK Varghese)
All of them have served more than 25 years
All of them have been elected to represent staff as staff secretary or staff rep.
All of them are HoDs, though operationally Dr. Cyriac Antony was part of the composite department of Mathematics, he was the HoD of Statistics as a discipline.
Distinctive Features
RK Varghese - the vigorous and outspoken, with the spark of a social activist, with the experience of students' union activities behind him, a CMI product from Mannanam. He has also been president of the state wide organisation of Sociologists. I recall with gratitude his cooperation when a PG programme in Sociology in the self-financing stream was begun. The management had initiated that specifically to give thrust to social science education amidst the clamour for programmes that were more in demand. The typical 'aided staff' mentality of resisting any move to have self-financing programmes was not shown by him, and he tried to build it up.
WT Paul - An NCC cadet and a born athlete, he showed the sportsman spirit all through. Was active as a vibrant presence in the field of outreach and sports.
Very prompt and very straight, he meant what he said, and stood by that.
Comfortable with bicycle, he still managed to commute with a motorbike, and managed to be in communication and be mobile without having had a mobile phone all these years.
MS Francis - committed to higher learning - research was his passion. It was his initiative that gave the proposed platform of research SHARE - SH Advanced Research Endeavours - its name, and till his retirement, he had been its captain. It gradually expanded to include celebrating the nobel winning contributions, honouring in-house research, organising research meets on a regular basis, and further expanding to include a provision for research endeavours at schools and UG level. It is he who has been the winner of the first patent at SH.
Alongside, the research and teaching endeavours, he had an uncanny sense of rhyme and poem. He has spoken about the realities around him in a very creative manner.
Pro-active Cyriac
Dr. Cyriac Antony is the reflection of systematic planning, foreseeing details and readiness to go beyond the ordinary. He had great eagerness to lead the composite department, and I am sure, had he been given a chance, he would have made the otherwise dull Mathematics department, much more pro-active. However, having a full-fledged Mathematics PG programme, the management thought it not a healthy practice to have a statistician head the department, while there were other eligible Mathematics teachers. But in the matter of making the autonomous status functional, he played a key role - initially, as the Dean of Science faculty, and later, as the Special Officer for Autonomy. His contributions with statistics club also is worth mentioning, giving students a taste of psephology during the students' union election times.
I would say, 'The eyes that have seen them are fortunate, the ears that have heard them are fortunate...' And I happen to one among them - though not in their lecture sessions, but in working together with them.
Very prompt and very straight, he meant what he said, and stood by that.
Comfortable with bicycle, he still managed to commute with a motorbike, and managed to be in communication and be mobile without having had a mobile phone all these years.
MS Francis - committed to higher learning - research was his passion. It was his initiative that gave the proposed platform of research SHARE - SH Advanced Research Endeavours - its name, and till his retirement, he had been its captain. It gradually expanded to include celebrating the nobel winning contributions, honouring in-house research, organising research meets on a regular basis, and further expanding to include a provision for research endeavours at schools and UG level. It is he who has been the winner of the first patent at SH.
Alongside, the research and teaching endeavours, he had an uncanny sense of rhyme and poem. He has spoken about the realities around him in a very creative manner.
Pro-active Cyriac
Dr. Cyriac Antony is the reflection of systematic planning, foreseeing details and readiness to go beyond the ordinary. He had great eagerness to lead the composite department, and I am sure, had he been given a chance, he would have made the otherwise dull Mathematics department, much more pro-active. However, having a full-fledged Mathematics PG programme, the management thought it not a healthy practice to have a statistician head the department, while there were other eligible Mathematics teachers. But in the matter of making the autonomous status functional, he played a key role - initially, as the Dean of Science faculty, and later, as the Special Officer for Autonomy. His contributions with statistics club also is worth mentioning, giving students a taste of psephology during the students' union election times.
I would say, 'The eyes that have seen them are fortunate, the ears that have heard them are fortunate...' And I happen to one among them - though not in their lecture sessions, but in working together with them.
May the Sacred Heart keep them sacred and strong!!
Thank you father. May God bless you with good health and happiness.
ReplyDelete