At Ms Devotta's funeral . . .

It was a funeral I chose to attend. After all, Ms Devotta was a senior teacher at our school and held in high esteem by the student community of the 60s and 70s.

Travelling from home in Adyar to Anna Nagar is to cross the city but made more difficult by the work on the new Metro Rail project which also covers Anna Nagar.
Our destination was St Luke's Church that serves this local Catholic community.

Holy Mass had begun at the altar, with four priests at the head. On the other side of the altar lay the coffin of Ms Devotta, surrounded by flower bouquets.

The church was fairly full for the 10 a.m Mass and my simple tribute here was in singing at the Mass. Nearer my God to Thee signalled the end of the Mass and the last journey of Ms Devotta. Family carried the coffin to the Vincent Parker hearse van - it would then head to the local cemetry.

We spotted the late teacher's son Ashok. I also met up with a former shipping engineer who was Ms Devotta's close relation - he told me that the Devotttas hailed from Tuticorin and were one of the earliest residents of Anna Nagar.

From the St Anthony's School community was another senior teacher Ms Kuruvilla who was of Ms Devotta's time; she now lives in Secretariat Colony, Kilpauk.Also Asha Marina and Jacklin, acive alumni assn. members and Charms Ashok. Besides a few from the 1969-'70 batch like Charles Nation.

There were smiles all around - indicative of the person who we had said goodbye too. Ms Devotta had done her job and signed off.

Remembering Ms. Devotta; a personal note

In school, some teachers make an impression on you.
Some trigger a new path in your life.
Some seem to live in your memories.

Ms Devotta who passed away on May 14 ( as reported by Asha Marina on our FB page) was a teacher at St Anthony's who had a place in my memory and will remain so till I reach the shore she has.

My earliest memory of Ms Devotta was of this very proper lady, always dressed in rich saris and speaking very proper English one would expect in a convent school in the Madras of the 1960s. She was a 'distant' teacher for us who were in Classes III and IV. Distant in the sense these teachers seemed senior and important and handled the higher classes we would soon graduate to.

Ms Devotta handled English. And for some reason this was a subject I liked. I guess the passion grew from my evenings spent reading a variety of English magazines at a club near home off Mount Road.
I wanted to write and Ms Devotta's classes had something for me.

Exams were times when I got to know the real Ms Devotta. The questions would challenge me and when the corrected answer sheets were out, enjoying the high marks and looking closely at mistakes made helped me understand how Ms Devotta assessed these papers.

I began to think that she sensed I enjoyed English, I and II and that she read closely some of the long texts I produced. And I earned some fantastic marks too.

My classmates saw value in my English essays and texts and often I would share with them my notes and then go on to produce texts that were reworded and restyled - it was a challenge I enjoyed most.

I still remember my first ever attempt at 'editing' - putting together the Class Magazine from hand written manuscripts with Ms Devotta's guidance. I guess it was produced for the displays at the annual Inspection of Schools.

Through college and my early years in journalism I hardly kept in contact with St Anthony's. Later though, when I resumed small contact in recent years Ms Devotta was happy to see me as a journalist-publisher. I still remember her acknowledgement at the Alumni Meet in 2012.

And now she is no more with us.

Perhaps, the Alumni Assn. could think of creating a Teachers' Roll in the office, detailing every teacher who has contributed to this school.