Friday, May 13, 2022

A Teacher Who Changed My Life

 

A Teacher Who Changed My Life

Dr Sudhir Kumar

 

Christian Medical College Vellore has played a vital role in changing the course and purpose of my life. Several teachers have taken great personal efforts and have gone out of their way to mold me into a person in right direction and with a meaningful purpose in life. Today I would like to remember one such angel- Prof Mary Jacob, who taught Anatomy to several batches of students.

I joined CMC Vellore in 1989 after having done my schooling from Kendriya Vidyalaya, Bokaro Steel City, which was a part of Bihar then. I faced several challenges after joining. The first and foremost was the language barrier. It was a Herculean effort to converse in English. Writing answers to “essay and short note” questions in English was worse. In MaJa’s (this is how students used to affectionately address Dr Mary Jacob) own words- “Your answers have the required information, however, due to multiple grammatical errors, we cannot make out what you are trying to convey.”

It was the first time I was away from home. Tamil was a new language as was the South Indian food. I was home sick too. Another major problem I faced was- lack of discipline with regards to studies. After having been under the watchful eyes of parents at home until age 17, this sudden freedom felt liberating. It was easy to while away precious time with a few like-minded hostel mates. Playing carroms past midnight (until 2-3 AM) became my favourite pastime. Another newly found “passion” was going for midnight strolls on Arni Road along with a few of my friends. Month-after-month passed and before I could realize, the first semester university examinations for Anatomy, Physiology and Biochemistry were on our heads. During the first year, marks of our initial internal examinations had been sent to parents by post. As expected, I had performed very poorly. When my parents enquired about my abysmal performance, I just lied to them stating that other students too had scored very low marks and it is not as easy to score in MBBS as it is to score in 10th or 12th board examinations. University examinations were another cup of cake though. Failing university examination meant getting demoted to the B batch and risking losing 6 months. This had never happened in my life. I was mortified by this thought, which was a distinct possibility at that stage. What else can one expect from a student, who hardly ever opened any of the textbooks for an entire year? With no alternative options in sight, I studied 72 hours non-stop, and managed to somehow pass the examinations (attending classes on a regular basis had also helped, as some information from the class-room lectures had passively diffused in to my brain). I had scored exactly 45/90 (the minimum required to pass) in Anatomy theory paper (which meant that I was “pulled up” after awarding a few grace marks). There was an essay question on urogenital diaphragm (which I had not heard until then) and instead I wrote about pelvic diaphragm!

After the results came out, a few of us were called for personal interaction with Maja. I was also part of this “select few”. My hands were shaking with fear before I entered her office. However, she had a smile on her face when she asked me to sit opposite her. She made me comfortable asking about my home, family, and other general stuff. Then she remarked about my poor command over English. She suggested me to start with reading English newspapers (that were pasted just outside Men’s Hostel mess) in entirety (from the first to the last line). She also invited me to come to her home to collect a few English novels, which I could read later, so that my command over English language improved. She asked me about the books I had read for learning Anatomy, to which I answered “Chaurasia”. She was terribly disappointed and suggested to me that I switch to reading books authored/edited by “R J Last, Grant and Gray”. I was patiently listening to the valuable suggestions a professor was offering to a student who had almost failed in the just concluded examinations. The tone and content of the interaction suggested that the teacher too had failed (along with the student). She seemed more eager and more concerned that I do better in future. She had no anger and did not utter a single derogatory word against me. She did not scold me either. She had a genuine concern to help her student, in addition to having a motherly love. Those 30 minutes of interaction with MaJa were life changing. I had never heard of or seen a teacher who tried to reform students in such a positive manner.

When I came out of her office, there was a new resolve within me. I felt I had let down an angel like MaJa and needed to work harder to erase these memories. Her positive and encouraging words had energized me. My new version was totally opposite. No late night carroms in lower common room and midnight strolls on Arni Road became a thing of past. I became a regular (from an occasional visitor earlier) to Gault library in our second semester (Anatomy II and Physiology II). The study bug hit me so badly that I tried hard to get the library timings extended from the usual 11 PM to until 12 midnight. A few of us held several meetings with the then Principal (Dr Booshanam Moses) and he put a condition that there should be at least 10 students in the library at 11:45 PM when he would come for inspection. I still remember convincing a few “fixed couples” to come and just sit in the library for a few minutes when the principal would come for inspection.

Things were going well for a few months when a tragedy stuck. I was admitted to CMC hospital with a painful and disabling medical condition. Thankfully, it was promptly diagnosed and appropriately treated. I am thankful to Prof M S Sheshadri and rest of Medicine Unit 2 team for this. However, I still missed attending classes for more than a month. This resulted in me lagging my classmates. After recovery when I joined classes, I was again called by MaJa. She reassured me and appointed one of the Anatomy tutors to take personal classes for me (for the portions that I had missed in class). This was another gesture that I can never forget. She was much more than a teacher, she was like a mother, a true angel. Her house was always open for me and I could walk into her home any time for any help or just for her words of encouragement. Her constant encouragement bore fruit and I scored 78/90 in Anatomy II semester examinations. She had again called a few of us for personal interactions (this time I was in the group that scored well). She was extremely pleased with my performance; it seemed she had also done well (and not only me) in the examinations. Just before leaving, she asked me the same question- “which books did you read this time?” I answered- ma’am I did read Last, Grant and Gray for the sake of gaining knowledge but I still read Chaurasia for scoring marks. I can’t forget the exasperated look on MaJa’s face after listening to my answer, but the emotion quickly turned into one of satisfaction that her guidance and motivation has changed the path and direction of her student’s life.

I continued to follow the path shown by the legendary teacher throughout my MBBS and then also for my post-graduation studies (MD Medicine and DM Neurology) at CMC Vellore. I had a pleasure of treating her for an illness related to my specialty, while I was working as a faculty there. The contentment and satisfaction on her face was my “Guru-dakshina” (paying back to the teacher) to her. Blessed are the several batches of students who have been taught by Prof Mary Jacob. I sincerely hope that the batches that missed interacting with her during Anatomy days can get a glimpse of her personality through this brief write-up and feel inspired.