I came to St Peter’s from Pampakuda Government Upper Primary School for further studies due to family reasons. I belong to Ooramana village hardly 5 km away from the school. The transformation from one village to another village school was quite an uneventful shift, save the number of better mix of fellow pupils. We celebrated the formation of the Kerala State while at Pampakuda.Kolenchery was more of eventful days on account of the VimojanaSamaram ( Kerala Liberation Struggle). I was stupidly drawn into the students agitation and took part in many a naughty strikelike picketing the KSRTC buses on account of the misguided leadership of the local politicians to suit their narrow pollical ends. I hang my head in shame when I recall that kind of stupidities. It was during our time we set up a unit of the KSU—Kerala Students Union—in the school. It was yet another act of foolishness where I wasted much of the time running after politically motivated sordid vested people who wanted to make use of our youth energy. I was a school fee paying pupil though my parents annual income was very meagre from the seasonal agricultural crops. Hence I did not get any fees exemptions. I used to walk all the way from rural Ooramana to Kolenchery every day to attend the classes along with many other students and it was very enjoyable walk at times stoning to fell raw mangoes form the trees and even plucking cashew nut fruits etc. During the rainy season ,it was a risky game to cross the furious Muvattupuzha River from Ooramana side to Kadamattom on a country canoe and to balance it without getting sunk.
When I lookback nowmy time was more of sports, games and less of a hardworking and studious student, though I passed out the SSLC exam in the first attempt . It was onlyduring the college days and the university days, I realized my real calling in life to make a difference in life by making use of education as an instrumentof empowerment .Peer pressure was too much in the school days to be lead astray for uncalled for activities like campus politics.
Some of the teachers during our times like the Head Master late NV Paulosesir senior teachers like TE Paulose sir Rev NI Paulose, Pandit Shankara Pillai sir ,Saramma teacher, Murimattathil Chinamma teacher, TP Mathew sir Thottappally, Pathrose sir Povelil ,etc were a band of real taskmasters and motivators. Shankara Pillai sir had baptized us in Gandhian way of life .Our school manager was late CU Varkey .We used to see him visiting the school once in a blue moon with hardly any interactions with the students or teachers.We littlerealized the role and importance of the school manager.We were told that the most illustrious champion of educational empowerment in the school was its then head master Rev Fr Gheevarghese Kallungal of Kolenchery Parish Church.
Though the school was owned by the local Church, its vicars or any such functionaries were not seen around those days, as we see its over interference and indulgence in the recent times. I was surprised to see some priestseven without basic college education who belonging to the Kolenchery Parish recently contesting parish elections to become the school manger without thematic perception or exposure of the job role. It is seen at best as the biggest joke of empowerment. It is somethinglike what Jesus had mentioned in the Bible – the blind leading the blind. The most benevolent and dynamicschool manager was the late charismatic PM Paliy Pillai who really made it known aschool of excellence all over Kerala along with his team of teachers. He himself was a one-time teacher and had the knack to do things differently and successfully. It was during his time we set up the alumni association by the name ASSAPS. Dr. PPN Namboothiri was elected as the president and Dr. KM George as Secretary. As luck would have it, ASSAPS is almost in its ventilator these days! Even the school management was very unkind, not to invite or inform people like me of such historical meetings of the centenary celebrations. Let me quote Shakespeare, it is the most unkindest cut of all. After all charity begins at home! I wonder if I am a victim of the Church politics–Orthodox Vs Jacobite vis a vis the former school manager! Despite being humiliated and slighted, by the previous management under one father CM Kuriakose, when I was forced by my class fellow Prof Dr. MP Mathai, I have consented to write this reminiscence.
It can be safely assumed that some 10,000 students were empowered by the St Peters over a period of 100 years. Most of its products were teachers and very many were working as doctors, engineers, entrepreneurs, business men and women as well as ministerial staff in various offices in India an abroad. It has produced many top civil servants and a few international practitioners of reputation.
When I look back, at this centenary year ,surely I owe a debt of gratitude to this temple of learning for shaping my career and my subsequent professional launch into wider horizons to visit 10,000 villages and to interact with 100,000 poor the world over. This reminiscence must logically end , with my pranam to my alma mater—St. Peter’s High School.
Dr. K M George, formerly a UNDP & ADB Consultant & FAO Team Leader on development projects, is currently President, Sustainable Development Forum ; melmana@gmail.com; www.drkmgeorge.com)