Comments on: Essays on Schooling

By: Karthik.C

Karthik.C — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 03:51:42 +0000

Hi Ashok,
I remember you writing about Streenath that being the editor of LENS was the proudest achievement of his career. ..Probably he also would have good memories of improving LENS during his days.

By: Ashok

Ashok — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 02:16:14 +0000

Suresh, thank you for the kind words and encouragement. Yes, I’ve been dying to hear from you to write about the history of LENS.

Naale nammal undoe karmam cheyyuvaan,
mattullor cheyyum karmangal nammude peril
as the great Mahakavi Ashok wrote just now.

By: Suresh R

Suresh R — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 18:46:33 +0000

Ashok,
Suresh Radhakrishnan from LA, CA. We met a few years ago at a school assembly. Truly enjoyed reading your blogs. Very professional, entertaining and nostalgia building. Please keep it up.
Eleven years ago today, I lost my brother Sateesh Radhakrishnan, in a plane crash. He was a loyal and proud son of Loyola and can’t help thinking how he would’ve jumped into all the LOBA activity. Nice that the flame is kept alive. BOSS is ever present, of course, thanks to people like Gheese and Somu.
I do remember your request to memorialise the creation of LENS. Promise to do that shortly. I live by the old addage, not from Loyola, obviously – “Never put off till tomorrow, anything that can be put off till day-after-tomorrow”!! Naale, naale….
Stay safe and healthy, Ashok…and keep on blogging on.
SR

By: Ashok

Ashok — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 01:44:05 +0000

Yes, Sreenath's piece was good. On Loyola, we see that kind of writing also in Mahadevan's piece on Fr Pulickal. The trained journalists stand apart. Incidentally, both Sreenath and Mahadevan wrote those articles for an e-newsletter run by my batch. They were very nice and quick in responding to my request. Orwell's piece reads more like a zeroed-in attack on the schoolmaster and his wife, than on the school. Orwell writes (with concealed pride?) about his own good performance. Writing at that age, he would've known that his achievements were possible because of teachers, classmates, and the school, and not just because of his own abilities.

By: Karthik.C

Karthik.C — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 04:32:59 +0000

Hi Ashok,
Friedman’s article i guess reminds me a bit about Sreenath Sreenivasan’s article on Father John Manipadam in which he tells that though he uses word processing softwares to edit his articles now, the old lessons of Fr. Manipadam still ring true in his year i.e. “Cross your T’s and dot your I’s”. Sreenath is the Professor of Journalism at University of Columbia and so i guess his article can be identified even more with that of Friedman’s. Even now i enjoy reading that article of Sreenath considering that it is very concise and is another excellent example of paying tribute to a teacher whom you respect.

Would George Orwell’s articles be result of some frustration in him? Wikipedia says that Orwell “Was shy and unattractive and in a school with students much richer than him” he felt like a gold fish in a tank of pikes. The article says that Orwell’s sufferings are exaggerated and his sufferings described in the book have gone overboard. It may be true that everyone will have a few bad memories also of school, but the question as in Orwell’s case is ” Are these the only memories”?