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.
