Easy Way Out

By Ananthasairam Rangarajan

Mantle falls on Ram Mohan to lead on his first day itself in RLIT. His predecessor Muthu creates problems to him. Ram faces the situation with diligence.

Can’t a Dalit love a girl of his choice in the state? He fights back in a hostile environment.

A hapless student teacher is hounded on many sides in the institute and outside. But she is steadfast in her resolve to become a teacher.

The author Ananthasairam Rangarajan, a Best Teacher awardee, tells about everything happening inside an institution, exposing the guile during admissions and examinations in this backdrop.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Notion Press
• Release date: Oct 31, 2013
• ISBN: 9789383416592

Book preview

coincidental.

1

It was the year 2000

There was commotion at the RLIT gate. Nearly a hundred onlookers were standing, and they posed problems to the policemen. The latter resisted everybody from entering the campus, and wielded their lathis to disperse them. There was a police car parked inside, under a peepal tree. On the compound wall, a big blue-coloured name board read: Regional Learning Institute for Teachers (RLIT), GR Patti. The student teachers were running here and there in their uniforms and one student said, ‘I almost saved our Ravi sir from being hacked, when I saw some hooligans running after with sickles to attack him.’

‘Was he hurt?’

‘Not much. Now he is in the hostel. A local doctor is treating him.’

‘Why was he targeted?’

‘I don’t know. Our Institute has become vulnerable.’ A student teacher sighed.

In the melee, at the outside gate was a man in his fifties, trying to enter the campus. He thought of reasons that would make the policeman allow him inside. He waded through the crowd and went close to the gate.

‘Sir, I am one of the members of the staff. Please allow me inside,’ he said.

The policeman saw him for a few seconds and opened the gate. The visitor, with a brisk walk, went to the Principal’s room. The police inspector was talking to the Principal. In a few minutes, he came out.

The visitor was hesitant and was standing before the Principal’s room with a buff envelope. In it was his transfer order. The principal was talking to someone.

Peon Bala, who was sitting on the stool outside, saw him anxiously and enquired.

‘I have come here to join this Institute.’

Bala stood up from his stool in reverence and craned his neck into the Principal’s room. Still the Principal was speaking with someone.

‘He is only chatting with his staff. You can straightaway go inside and meet him.’

Ram Mohan entered the room. The man who was talking to the Principal said, ‘Okay sir’ and left.

A dark complexioned man was sitting in the Principal’s chair. The plastic name board on the oval-shaped wooden table read: Muthu, Principal-in-charge. A pen stand with various coloured pens stood in one corner. The table was covered by a rectangular glass plate. Underneath was the class timetable in the middle. At the right hand corner, telephone numbers of the department higher-ups and other RLITs were neatly type written. A blue-coloured telephone rested on the left. Lord Balaji’s picture was on top of the glass plate. A government calendar was dancing on the wall in fan breeze. The wall clock showed 11:15.

‘Good morning, sir. I am Ram Mohan. I have come to join as a Senior Lecturer.’

‘Welcome, sir. Please take your seat.’

They shook their hands. Ram Mohan gave the brown envelope and settled in his seat.

Muthu speedily read through the order. ‘But sir, we haven’t received your transfer order copy yet,’ so saying, he pressed the buzzer and Bala came. ‘Ask Rani to come.’

The Principal’s Personal Assistant, Rani, came within two minutes. ‘This is Ram Mohan. He is going to join here as a Senior Lecturer. Prepare the joining report for him and bring it.’ Muthu turned to Ram and asked if he liked tea now. Ram nodded. Bala served tea from a flask.

‘You were serving as the Headmaster of a school. Why did you choose this RLIT?’ Muthu was surprised to see a headmaster seeking transfer voluntarily to RLIT. Normally headmasters felt transfer to RLIT was a punishment. Five years ago, Muthu came to GR Patti RLIT when his school got low percentage of passes in the plus two exams.

‘My wife is an asthma patient. Tirupattur was in the asthma belt. She had been suffering for long. My daughter got a posting in an MNC here in Chennai. She called my wife to be with her. I also applied for transfer and got it after seven months,’ Ram Mohan explained the compelling situation for his transfer.

‘Ram sir, are you senior to me? I joined service in 1973.’

‘I joined in 1970.’

Muthu raised his fists high up in the air with a smile on his face and said, ‘Thank God! I’m relieved. I’ll write to the Directorate about your seniority. When some officers are posted as principals, they thought transfer to RLIT was a punishment. One officer had to come from Coimbatore. Using his influence, he cancelled his transfer. Now the Director is mulling to promote senior lecturers as regular principals. So they stopped posting the officers. I have been running this institution for ten months. I have hernia problem. Now I can apply for leave and get operated. Since you are my senior, you can take over.’

‘Take over means?’

‘I want to relinquish the post,’ Muthu said seriously.

Ram Mohan said, ‘Sir, I am new to this Institute. I don’t know the ABCD of this institution and its procedures. I think it’ll take a week for me to settle.’

‘Don’t worry; you will pick up the nuances of the RLIT. I’ll make you the Head of pre-service department. With your experience as headmaster, you can manage well.’

He pressed the buzzer and the OA Bala came. ‘Tell Rani to come with RLIT guidelines book.’

Rani came in with the joining report and the guidelines book. Ram signed the papers.

‘Good afternoon sir,’ postman entered the room and handed over the posts. Ram’s transfer order was there. Another envelope had come from Madras High Court. Muthu showed that letter to Ram Mohan. It was a case filed by a girl regarding admission in the RLIT.

‘This case has been dragging for months. No solution yet,’ Muthu heaved a sigh. ‘I have to attend the court.’

‘Rani, Ram sir will be our pre-service head. Relieve Madhu from the post and ask him to handover the charges with immediate effect.’ He turned to Ram, ‘Sir, please read this guidelines book.’ Muthu gave the brown paper book. Ram came out with the book. The crowd had disappeared at the gate. Three policemen were still there sitting on plastic chairs.

GR Patti Regional Institute was a large a campus spread in ten acres. A big peepal tree stood in the centre. The administrative block was a two-storied building. In the down stairs were the principal’s room, office room and a general staff room. It was the year 2000, so a glass-separated room was earmarked for computers. A Xerox machine was also there. Only the office clerks used that room as no staff member was familiar with the computers. In the upstairs of the block were science labs. At the backside were the hostels for boys and girls and staff quarters. In between was a big playground.

Peon Bala led him to the pre-service room. There was a blackboard containing the details of the students with their communities. Ram Mohan introduced himself to the pre-service staff. Each faculty had separate tables and chairs, and lots of assignment notebooks were seen on them. Ram Mohan’s table was also covered by a glass plate. He settled in his seat and began to read the RLIT guidelines.

As a headmaster, he controlled 2000 students and 40 teachers in his school. Here as the HOD of pre-service, he had to oversee only 300 students and 9 lecturers.Meantime, Rani got his acceptance as HOD of pre-service. Lecturer Madhu was asked to handover charges with immediate effect. She also showed another circular signed by Muthu that he had applied for leave for six days and Ram Mohan had to act as principal on those days and attend the High Court in the Kalavathy case in his absence.

Now Ram felt it was not going to be as easy as he had thought. It seemed Muthu wanted to escape from the present ruckus.

‘When the Principal did not attend, other senior lecturers attended. Madhu accompanied the principal. He knows everything about the case,’ Rani said on seeing Ram’s hesitation.

Rani went away and Ram called Madhu. He came near him.

‘You are accompanying me to the court. Please tell me about the Kalavathy case in a nutshell.’

‘Sir, it is about pink colour application case.’

‘Quite interesting, what is a pink colour case?’

‘In our RLIT we have regular students, 50 in the first year and 50 in the second year, 25 boys and 25 girls in each year. A separate section for SCs is also there. But we treated them only as boys and girls. From this year, we are admitting private students. As many of them joined bogus institutions previously, they did not even get their diplomas. Their admissions were cancelled and were left in the lurch. But the present government offered them an olive branch saying they should again study for two years in a RLIT. They applied through pink coloured applications. They are studying here separately. They are also 50 in the first year. Most of them are married and having children too. In our case, Kalavathy submitted a wrong domicile certificate. So she was not selected. She filed a case in the High Court. We are representing the case. Ram sir, do you have a full-sleeved shirt?’ Madhu asked him as Ram was wearing a half-sleeved shirt.

‘No, I don’t.’

‘Please get one. Because when Muthu sir went to the court, the judge reprimanded him for wearing a half shirt,’ Madhu laughed.

‘Oh, this is news to me,’ Ram also laughed.

Rani brought the Kalavathy file and Ram Mohan delved deep into it for an hour. He thought she would win the