Reminiscences of a teacher

[Written on the eve of retirement from Union Christian College, Alwaye in 1997]

The span of twenty-nine years is a pretty long period in the life of an individual. Well, I have been teaching in Union Christian College for long twenty-nine years. When I look back, it appears incredible even to me, because it has never been my habit to stick on to one place or one thing for such a long time. Before joining the Union Christian College in 1969, in two years, I worked in three different colleges. During the seven years of my student days in college, I studied in five different colleges, two colleges in Kerala and three colleges in Uttar Pradesh. After graduating in Science, (in Physics and Mathematics), I did my masters in English literature. I was a student of law for sometime and completed the course of LLB, though I did not bother to pass the final examination. Thus there has never been any consistency in my life. I did not stick at anything; I lacked perseverance and stability.

A year after joining Union Christian college, when I was told that my service was terminated I was hopefully looking for the thrill of joining another institution. Then I was told that my service was being extended for one more year. Finally the college had to tolerate me for twenty-nine years. I found Union Christian College in the prime of my youthful manhood and I left the college on the verge of my old age.



The College where I spent nearly three decades of my fruitful life, started in 1921 as a private initiative by five individuals joined together to promote education and ecumenism, at a time when ecumenism was never talked about nor even thought of. Illustrious sons of India like Mahatma Gandhi, the Father of the Nation, Rabindranath Tagore, the Nobel Laureate, Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, The Former President of India and a renowned Philosopher, Mr. V.K. Krishna Menon, Former Defence Minister and form India's Roaming Ambassador have hallowed the campus of the college with their visits. It had on its staff at various times the great luminaries like Malcome Magridge, the former Editor of 'The Punch', Kuttippuzha Krishna Pillai, a veteran free thinker and writer and C.P. Mathew, one of its founders who later became a member of the Indian Parliament. Its alumni includes distinguished persons like Dr. P.C. Alexander, the former Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister of India, who later became the governor of two Indian States successively, C.M. Stephen, former Central Minister and P.K. Vasudevan Nair, former Chief Minister of Kerala State.

It is a renowned institution of unique feature.

On the eve of my retirement as the Professor and Head of the Post Graduate and Research Department of English, Union Christian College, on 31st March 1997, a few of my students came to my home. During the course of the conversation, one of them asked me, what the most memorable event of my thirty-one years of teaching career, was. The question made me probe into the past. I have very many satisfying experiences that anyone of this profession may have had. Some of my old students have reached high positions in life; some of them still retain their friendship with me; some of them acknowledge that they owe a lot to me; some of them convey their regards to me as a sign of their respect for me. These are indeed the common experience of any teacher in his career. But apart from the usual stuff, I have had some unique and unforgettable experiences.

Once I was at Ernakulam looking for an auto rickshaw to reach somewhere for a meeting. Then an auto rickshaw came and stopped by my side. The driver was more than usual courteous and respectful to me. I wondered what the reason was. I stared into his face. To my surprise I found that he was my student of the English postgraduate class of the College. He explained to me that during the evenings and nights he plied a hired auto rickshaw to earn a livelihood to support himself and his parents; he sleeps a while during the small hours of the morning before coming to the College to attend his classes. I was stunned at his perseverance and determination. Born posthumously into a lower middle class family, with no one around me for proper guidance and directions, I too had my struggles of life during my boyhood. But this boy’s perseverance was astonishing. I was reminded of William Wordsworth’s, Leach-gatherer. As in the case of William Wordsworth whose fears and anxieties were driven away by the decrepit man with a firm mind, in my case the thoughts of despondency are driven away by the face of the boy that looms in my mind as the symbol of perseverance and determination.

Soon after I took charge of the Head of the Department of English a colleague of mine brought to my notice the tragic plight of a student in the M.A. class who had lost both her parents. Living in a state of abject poverty with no one around to support, and with a younger sister to be looked after, the poor girl was on the verge of a breakdown. A meeting of the Department was convened and I was overwhelmed with joy to find all my colleagues in the Department coming forth contributing very liberally to a relief fund. Her classmates also contributed towards the fund. Some of my friends from the other Departments, with whom I shared the story, also came forward with helping hands. I approached the Toc H Public School Society, which also came forward to help. When I handed over a substantial sum of money into the hands of the girl, for her to build her hopes on, that was one of the memorable moments of my life.

If I am asked which was the most memorable day of my life that was the day when the slum dwellers of Alwaye could find a shelter for themselves. Mangalappuzha slum now exists only in the memory of the people of Alwaye. There were a hundred and five families living in very small thatched huts on a low-lying piece of land by the side of the National Highway. The huts were huddled together in the most horrifyingly unhygienic conditions. Most of the people there were physically handicapped and suffering from dreadful diseases, resorting to begging for their livelihood. The people of Alwaye called the slum, the beggars’ colony. There were nearly seven hundred people living there in one hundred and five huts. It was my active involvement in Non Formal Adult Education that brought me to that slum. As the Secretary of the Kerala Association for Non Formal Education and Development, I went there first to inaugurate an adult literacy centre there. The most terrible and pathetic conditions of the slum dwellers moved my heart. Good dwelling houses for these people became a dream of mine – a dream, which I feared, would never be realised.

Rev. Fr. Paul Karimathy initiated a project to build houses for these people. I had the privilege of associating myself with him very closely. First of all we had to find a suitable plot of land to rehabilitate the people. Through hard perseverance and exertion of great pressure, we could move the Government to allot a suitable plot of land to these people, at Chunangamvely. When the committee for rehabilitation met, someone humorously suggested that the earthwork (digging the hard ground for the houses), the most difficult part of this construction, might be left to me. She was trying to pull my leg knowing fully well that I would never be able to do the work. But I took up the matter seriously and suggested to the National Service Scheme Programme Officer of the College to conduct a work camp there for the earthwork. Prof. P.D. Johny, who was then the Senior NSS Programme Officer of the College, took it up as a challenge and held a camp there. Within ten days all the earthwork was completed. At the concluding session of the camp, I told my students involved in the work that they had done a noble task and in future wherever they would be, the blessings of the seven hundred people who would be shifted to that place, would always, like a line of light guard and guide them. Fr. Karimathy collected the money required for the construction of the houses. Still the completion of the project was an uphill task. There were militant political parties opposing the project for some flimsy reason or other. There were occasions when all the beneficiaries, seven hundred and odd people, turned against the benefactors, motivated by petty politicians with vested interests. The local political leaders feared that if these people were rehabilitated in better conditions of life at a distant place, the leaders would lose the mass support of these poor people of the slum who were their vote bank. It was a strenuous task to overcome all these difficulties. Finally when all the houses were completed, a date was fixed for the handing over of the keys. That was the day of great rejoicing – the day of the fulfillment of the greatest dream of my life. The gleam of joy in the eyes of the crowd of destitutes still looms in my mind. More colourful and splendid occasions there have been in my life, such as receiving P.N. Panikkar Foundation Award for Social Work, from Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer, the President of the Foundation, but a happier day, there has been none in my life.

When I was sharing my experience with the slum dwellers at an International Conference held at Nottingham University in U.K., I had a spellbound audience before me. When I finished my presentation there were many questions. Ms. Helen Hill, Victoria University of Technology, Australia, asked me a pertinent question, “How could the communists and the Catholic priests join hands to work for the success of the same project?” I answered that once the programme got momentum it became people’s programme, no one could stand against or away from that lest he would lose his acceptability. Ms. Claudia Harvey from Trinidad, who presided over the session, in her concluding remarks stated, “When Professor Joseph Passionately presented the experience, we could feel that he was seeing his slum dwellers right in front of his eyes”.

When I look back into the past, I have no regrets. As Robert Browning’s Andrea says, “I regret little, I would change still less”. I bowed out of the portals of Union Christian College with malice towards none and goodwill towards all, to continue teaching at several institutions that still seek my service.


"I am grown peaceful as old age to-night
I regret little, I would change still less
since there my past life lies, why alter it?"