Me & MEA – a flashback

அகர முதல எழூத்தெல்லாம்
ஆதி பகவன் முதற்றே உலகு

More than half a century ago, this very day, on 16^th of July 1956, I had the honor of joining the MEA faculty at Lodhi Estate under the leadership of Principal, Shri K. Suryanarayanan. We both shared something in common – our love for teaching mathematics. Hailing from a remote village near Madurai, I had embarked on my ambition of serving our community with dedication and joy, working with the brightest minds coming from South Indian families in the capital, New Delhi. Having wanted to become a lecturer in a reputed college, this was a dream come true to be teaching senior classes X and XI in an English-medium higher secondary school run by a management comprising of top-ranking bureaucrats of the Government of India. It did not take me long to realize what a premier institution I had come to associate with. I selflessly served the MEA and DTEA my entire professional life for 36 years, very proud of all my students and the heights they have reached over the years. I look back today with a joy-filled heart for a life lived with purpose and pleasure.

My father retired in June 1956 and was counting on me to be the next breadwinner for a family of 12 members. Fresh from college, I was teaching in a Tamil-medium high school earning Rs. 89 a month when I ran into an advertisement in the Hindu newspaper for a teaching position in MEA School in the capital of India. I applied for the job without telling my father who I thought would be heart-broken to let me go. But when I got the interview letter, it could not be kept a secret anymore as the interview was in Madras and I had no money for the ticket. My father remained cold and said nothing. Borrowing money from a friend, I made it to Madras and realized I was interviewing with Shri. R. Venkataraman, M.P (who later became the President of India) at his Royapettah residence. The interview lasted 15-20 minutes after which he offered me the position on the spot. I was very excited. However, that excitement was not to last long! Shri. Venkataraman told me I’d be getting a salary lower than what had been advertised quoting some technical difficulty. I was disappointed and rejected the offer right there calling it unfair to have got me from 500 kms away. Obviously he had no idea of my hardship at home and what it had taken me to get to Madras. He noted his assessment of me as “A Bright Hand – may not take the offer” and concluded the meeting, while back home my father hoped I wouldn’t get the offer.

Subsequently the offer letter did come from Delhi with the lower quoted salary only. I was in a fix but then decided to take the opportunity. Amidst a tearful farewell and promising my father to support the family nevertheless, I boarded the train and left for Delhi once and for all. It was God’s will and I was on a sacred mission. On joining the institution, I got so involved, giving everything I had of myself, and it was only a matter of time when the Management revised my salary retrospectively! Since then there was nothing but mutual admiration and I continued to serve the children and the community.

As I began learning about the genesis of the MEA, it was only becoming more and more convincing of the solid grounds on which the school was established and the philosophy that guided it. The MEA Primary school was started in 1923, on Vijayadashmi day, in a small room in Shimla, by a visionary Shri. P. H. Sundaresa Iyer (known as PHS) with one student and one teacher. The country was under British rule and PHS fitted well into the times with his immaculate Western clothes and pure English accent. He was known for being punctual and sophisticated, with a charismatic personality, and who exhibited utmost dedication to the profession. All this helped him command respect from the elite South Indian community who were all serving the British, and PHS was held in high esteem by the enlightened community even though he himself was only a Matriculate (class X).

PHS then started a branch school at Reading Road (now called Mandir Marg) in New Delhi and he shuttled between Delhi & Shimla maintaining both the schools for nearly two decades. The South Indian officers working in the Central Government in the capital looked up to him for all the educational needs of their children. PHS came to be reckoned as a formidable force who was adored for his sense of devotion and leadership. I have to mention an important event where Mrs. Indira Gandhi was in our Lodi Estate School to inaugurate the Golden Jubilee Celebrations of the MEA. In the course of her address, she narrated how she too revered PHS as her teacher. It seems PHS was visiting Teen Murti House (Pandit Nehru’s official residence) to teach Tamil to Mrs. Gandhi. She was reminded of it on seeing PHS in the front row and she requested him to come on the stage and felicitated him profusely as a mark of respect to a great teacher!

As per the MEA constitution, no Tamil-speaking family would be denied admission for their children at any part of the year. Because Govt. officers were being transferred to Delhi any time during a year, this provision was indeed a great boon to every Tamilian family, a unique feature that no educational institution in the country has ever had, even today. English was the medium of instruction, but learning of Tamil was compulsory. Hindi was taught as a second language from class 2. There was a separate section for the Telugu-speaking children as a sizeable number of such children were also on rolls. Ours was the only South Indian school in the capital till the mid fifties. Added to that, our schools were coeducational and provided quality education almost free of cost. Besides, our culture, our language, discipline, and character were all preserved and nurtured by the MEA all through. Today it has grown into a mighty banyan tree with 7 senior secondary schools, 10,000 students on rolls and more than 500 staff members.

More on the MEA / DTEA story to follow…