Tribute to PT Master Panneerselvam

He went the way he wanted.
Dressed in his trademark T-shirt and spotless white trousers, sports shoes and cap; even the small locks of hair dropping down on his neck.

Former P T Master Panneerselvam passed away on June 18, felled by yet another heart attack.

The next day, we like many others made our way to his home in Thiru Vi Ka Nagar, beyond Perambur and Peravallur to pay our respects and say a prayer. And we felt good - for his family had respected his wish - 'dress me up in my favorite when I make my last journey.

The funeral service was held at a CSI church in Perambur and he was interred at the Kilpauk cemetery.

"Dad used to tell me - when I die dress me in my favourite clothes...", Panneerselvam's son Sam Aton told me outside the drawing room where people streamed him to see the body, join in the prayers and console his wife.

In many ways he was a colourful character who left a mark on many, many students at St. Anthony's. And for the boys and girls who loved sport, he was indeed a mentor with a signature style of work.

We were in Std.VI when Panneerselvan joined school after graduating from the YMCA College. His nativeness was all over him ( he hailed from the Tirunelveli area). But he spoke the English he knew and did not shy even when many of us tittered at his accent.

"Take-a-book and read man!"
"Lizsen to the music!"

Some of his colorful orders we would hear at Assembly, prayer, sport or on the campus. Panneerselvam was was the kind of guru who wanted to be involved everywhere.
But sports was his passion and his vocation and for the small community of sportsmen and women carefully nurtured by Miss Neaves, that icon of school sports in our city, he was a mentor.

St Anthony's did have impressive sporting talent. In athletics, volleyball, cricket, throw ball. And Pannerselvam helped to mould, train and lead our athletes.

Looking back, we can only smile at the condition - one PT master handling over 100 athletes, an annual Sports Day and class after class of PT sessions.

And we now know that he worked real hard for a not-too-handsome pay packet.

It was that drive that drove him to work at the Brittos Academy in the south suburbs. He used to drive across the city and back for this and it certainly took a toll. His son told us that he has suffered two attacks and yet he strained himself.

"I have been reborn," he told a bunch of us when he was in our midst in January this year at the Alumni Meet at school. ( the photo featured here was taken then). He looked trim, chirpy and was in his trademark attire.

That was the man.

( Contact Sam Anton - Panneerselvam's son - 98841 61105.

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.

Alumni Meet ; Jan 6, 2013

January 6 has come to be the Alumni Meet of the alumni of the school.
It is called Alufest, a name some of us are not comfortable with!

With a more committed team led by Asha Marina co ordinating the alumni acts, this year's meet was simple and straight.

It was good to see over 300 guests at the school campus, though most belonged to more recent school leaving batches, which makes it a tad difficult to bridge the folks from the 70s and 80s with the new century alumni!

Teachers who had taught in the 70s and 80s were honoured. A surprise was Ms Lakshmi who used to teach Hindi to students of the 60s and 70s. Ms Nazreen were also spotted.

There were a string of dances and Tamil pop hits to enthuse the audience while a snacks tent served a limited variety.

But it was a time to catch up with old classmates. And most of them adjourned to the main block side of the school to converse.

A snappy alumni meet it was.

- PHOTO CAPTIONS. Top to bottom - Asha Marin addresses the audience; a view of the campus from the science lab side with the big tree still surviving in that corner; a section of the retired teachers ; view of campus with the tall main block in the background ; ex-Sports Master Paneerselvam (?) chats with the 70s batch alumni ; Headmistress Sr. Jeyarani clicking away happily. . .

Mangalorean teachers . . .

Two Mangaloreans dotted the landscape of our school in the 60s and 70s.

One was Ms Theodore.

The other was Ms Thyreum.

The first was surely came from a very British background. The second carried her West Coast roots to this city.

Ms Theodore taught Std.IV and was in that chair for ages, if memory serves me well.

The Brit accent and poise may not have endeared all of us to her. Short, plump and properly attired, she had her very own home in an independent block on the eastern side of the campus ( I guess the other nook was occupied by Ms. Leela?).

A spinster as many teachers were at one time Ms Theodore was a professional, the sought kids like us may not have understood.

I saw many of her kind in some circles back in Mangalore when we used to go 'home' for our annual holds. 

It was her prim and proper style that moulded us when it came to English and manners.

Ms Thyreum came to St Anthony's much later and was also a feature at Std.III on the first floor of the south block on campus. Quiet, low profile and very Indian, she too had a long innings at the school.

When her kids, Peter, Michael and Nirmala joined her, the Thyreums, along with Mr Thyreum really made a family with character and colour.

I did not follow Ms Theodore after we passed out of school. She led her life on her terms and passed away.

But the contact with Ms Thyreum has continued because Peter was our classmate. She now lives her evening years in Mangalore, with Nimmi her daughter who teaches at St. Aloysious College.

Mangaloreans that we were, these two were my mom's early friends on campus.

The 50s and 60s must have also been years when a sprinkling of Mangaloreans studied at St. Anthony's. By then this community had moved from San Thome to Kilpauk.

Recalling Miss Neaves

If there is one image that stays with me related to Miss Neaves, perhaps one of the great teachers at St. Anthony's, it was her handwriting.
It was classic and vintage.
And it was part of her - and not limited to writing the names of athletes in their certificates.

Miss Neaves came into our orbit only when we must have passed into Std.VII. Her classroom was in the classic block on the north end of our campus, on the ground floor. And everybody who studied her knew her of her.

Tough, proper, classic, Anglo Indian, disciplined, sports loving, quiet humour.
And she carried the image of a teacher of the 60s generation.

Neaves not only piloted sports at school but was a huge figure in the city athletics scene. You got a sense of her role and her importance at inter-school meets.

I think she also handled Moral Class / Catechism. She directed a Jesus play in which Beverly, a relative played Jesus!

But I had to interact with her more closely as School Head Boy. It was a careful interaction. And when we did a naughty act on a sports file, I got into trouble with her. I think those were times when teens simply didnt like authority.

Few students can forget the memory, the role of Miss Neaves. All of us who had to do with sports, still spoke of her. though we lost track of her after we passed out of school.

Now comes a time when we begin to value the work of people like Miss Neaves.
As we plan a project that recalls her, you can share your own anecdotes of Miss Neaves. Post pictures too please.

I will need to dig out my Shot Put cert carrying her handwriting, scan it and post it here soon!

Recalling Sports Days . . .

Apologies.
I had set aside this blog for ages for no reason at all.
Or was it because the Alumni had not warmed up.
It now has and Asha from San Thome keeps feeding me all the news that the alumni and the School generate.

The Sports Day was held on campus in August ( Apologies again for posting late).
Asha and her team joined the nuns and the management and teachers to lend a hand.

That our Sports Day has had to be reduced to an event to the small ground inside the school says a lt about the decline of sports in all our schools and at St Anthony's.

In the 70s and 80s, the school had its own sports heroes - in athletics, volleyball, TT and cricket. And almost all senior students were aware of these sportspeople.

One person who made Sport the domain of St Anthonys was Miss Neaves - admin, coach and judge, Neaves set the tone and ensured our school was up there even if we lost out to the Big Daddies like St Bedes and St Marys and Don Bosco.

I used to have the shot put and discus simply because of my weight and not because I was a great athlete. I loved TT. But our team mates like C K Murali and Seftin Bernard and John and the like worked and acted like sportspeople. Khaja and the rest led the cricket brigade.

So when some of us heard about the campus-run Sports Day we were sad.

The march past, the drill and the games held this year were neat and nice. But there is now a need to develop sport here and promote some games seriously.

Alumni C K Valson now a international athletics official who was at London for the Olympics had promised help and guidance - we must take it forward. Perhaps build a small TT and badminton team which can play the city tourneys? A small athletics team that can shine in meets?

Meanwhile, Rajaratinam Stadium, managed by City Police in Egmore where we had all our meets, has been reduced to a Police Office and Quarters space. A sore sight for sports alumni like us!

Perhaps it is also time to institute a trophy in memory of Miss Neaves. Anybody has ideas to share? Any leads on Miss Neaves' family in Chennai?