Jacob Mathews (1984)
It gives us at the editorial board great satisfaction to know that the initial two issues of Kattangal Chimes (KC) have resonated well with our fellow alums. Thank you to all who wrote in and to those who contributed. Please keep sending in your articles and comments as your participation and feedback are vital and will help to chart our path forward. We do realize that all of us live busy lives and the chores of the day can occupy a majority of our time. However, we hope that more of our alums across the continents will write in and join the conversation.
It is a matter of pride that so many of the RECC/NITC alums are having success in their careers and are at the same time being responsible human beings- caring for society at large. It dawns on each of us that there is a world outside of ourselves and our needs and wants, where we can each do our small part to contribute to make this world a better place and leave the future more welcoming to the generations to follow.
For those who have not yet taken the plunge, here is some encouragement. Find a need or a cause near you- somewhere where you can volunteer and devote your time and energy and resources. It could be serving the homeless, serving the poor and needy, serving at a nursing home or hospital, serving at a soup kitchen, serving at a local school or college, serving at a food pantry, serving at an old age home, and the list goes on. If you can set aside a few hours, at least one day in the week, for this activity, you would have contributed in a small way to make this world a better place. A line my mother used to tell me growing up was “It is better to give than to receive”.
An idea that did also come to me is that there may be fellow alums who have fallen on hard times. It would be great if we could identify those who need our help and work out a way to see how we as a community can help them. “Charity begins at home”.
Another pressing need is for us to be able to bring more fellow CREC/NITC alums into this on-line discussion. If folk could take upon themselves the responsibility to get in touch with at least 3 other alum and ask them to participate, that would be wonderful. The simplest way is to register on the NITCAA portal (worldnitcaa.com), as this magazine is personally e-mailed to all registered members. It is but natural that some of us (yours truly included) prefer to stay away from formal “Associations”. It is a perfectly understandable disposition. However, connecting with some folk from your old alma mater who live in your vicinity may help to foster new relationships which could be beneficial to them. I’ll leave it there and you, gentle reader, decide.
William Wordsworth in his poem “The Daffodils” writes, “for oft when on my couch I lie, in vacant or in pensive mood, they flash upon the inward eye, which is the bliss of solitude”. Lying on my couch, my mind drifts back to my school days at Calcutta Boys’ School. We were extremely fortunate to have as our Principal Mr. Clifford Hicks, who was a “giant of a man”- in many ways! One day in 1975, during Hindi class, I was hauled in front of him by our teacher, for wearing black socks with blue lines. The school uniform was a white shirt, a red tie, black pants, and black socks and shoes. When I briefly protested stating, “Sir, the socks are black, they do have a few blue lines”, he responded: “Mr. Mathews, if your father draws a salary of Rs 1000 and he is paid only Rs 999, he will ask his employer, what happened to the one rupee. When I say black socks, I mean black socks, no blue lines”! This taught a 15-year-old boy the attention needed to detail and has stood with me through the years! I am given to understand that Mr. Hicks sadly passed away in Bangalore in February, 1980. His kindness and generosity were exemplary. His life was a gift to us students who were fortunate to study under him and we are better human beings because of him. My salute, this issue of KC, is to all the School Principals like him, who left this world a better place, because of who they were, what they stood for, and how they behaved.