Service to Humankind



 DECEMBER 30, 2013 · 12:30 PM 

Service to humankind : N. Venkateswaran, 1900-1973

by Dr. V. Venkateswaran

My Father N Venkateswaran was a graduate of St Thomas’ College in Kerala, a Jesuit institution & it was not surprising that he found his niche as a teacher in another Jesuit institution, St Aloysius’ College in Galle, Ceylon. Pedagogy was his love and geography was his mistress. Though many a colleague tutored privately for money, he was very firm and stated time and again that he will not prostitute his profession. His values were all passed onto his children and they have done well, all of them Aloysians and students of Sacred Heart Convent.

His knowledge of geography was so good that he could describe any city or country as if he had just been there. Our home was like a tutorial school, the lounge filled with chairs, desks and a black board. On Sundays after Mass at the College Chapel, the seminarians from Kalegana seminary would descend on our house for tuition and help, which he actually looked forward to giving. Saturdays were special class days conducted by him for the HSC class. He accepted the honorary post of “management of benevolent fund for the staff”. Many a morning his breakfast was totally disrupted by the arrival of colleagues applying for loans which he had to sanction and once he sanctioned it The Rector never questioned it. The confidence expected of him was kept like the confidence of a confession.

When the government was trying to muzzle the schools by cutting the aid, my Father and a few like him sacrificed one quarter of their salaries to try to keep the school running. Later on after retirement he and a few others returned to work “gratis” to try and keep the school afloat. But when the aid was completely cut and the stranglehold was almost total, he threw in the towel both with sadness and disgust.

To his last day above his bed hung a framed “school staff” photograph.


Strangely Fr De Mattia and he were very close friends, with the same date of birth and passed away on the same day, as told to me by the one of his students. I was surprised when a detailed two column obituary about him was written up in the Daily News by one of his students, when he passed away. There were so many things about him that I had never known. Unfortunately that cutting has been lost.

There are many of his students scattered all over not only Ceylon but overseas. I was surprised when last month one of his students (K.H) from Melbourne called me up and on the same day another (B.W) from Colombo. For me it was a step back in time. He will live forever not only in the memories of his family but also in the memories of the extended family of students and colleagues.

****     *****


One response to “Service to humankind: Venkateswaran father & son”

 

1st Azhar Hameem (A. A. Hameem)

September 5, 2015 at 7:32 am

Mr Venkateswaran was my geography and commercial arithmetic teacher and was my class teacher for Form 2E. Our class never missed his Saraswathy Pooja event held every year at his home in Kaluwella junction where he displayed his collection of dolls. How we made fun of his English spoken with a Dravidian accent! I remember when I was in his geography class in HSC 1 and made an excursion to Colombo to visit the Meterological Dept.During lunch at a leading Saiva hotel there,he told us the manner of enjoying the several course meal describing each step. I remember his polio stricken son Mani and how we played the fool with him. Azhar Hameem.


 

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