Helping a deserving student, Bangalore, India

With the student pursuing his medicine in the UK over Christmas lunch in my sons home So here was I sitting in a grand cubicle as Assistant Editor of the Deccan Herald. Very few women make the grade and I was honoured with the position by the owners of the DH, after I completed my second Masters in Europe. The prestigious Erasmus Masters in Journalism which hardly any journalists across the world, win a full scholarship of 42,000 Euros! Yes, the mind boggles at the figure and the experience was life changing for me. I was catapulted into a different league and my thinking was changed forever, in the sublime atmosphere of European academic Universities. But soon I tired of being cooped up in a cubicle, albeit a fancy one, to sit and edit and over see the prestigious heart of the newspaper -- the Editorial and Opposite Editorial pages. I sat day after day editing terrible copy, written by people who really could not write and then give it to my juniors who made the page. Nothing challenging for my mind which had come back refreshed and renewed in Europe.

With one of the PG classes! So, I quit when I was offered to help start the Journalism and Communication department in St. Joseph’s College, Bangalore, by the then Principal Fr. Ambrose Pinto. Fr Ambrose used to send me analytical articles to publish in the DH and that’s where he felt my skills would be put to better use, with imparting what I learned in Europe, with our Indian media students. I never looked back. But I also never took a full time job after that one experience. Adjunct Professor was fine. And so my years at St. Joseph’s rolled along with my coming into contact with all types of students. Students who came from rich families, driven to college in fancy chauffeur driven cars, middle class kids who were there not out of interest but because their parents insisted. Non resident kids in the hostel and PG accommodation, who would sleep through class and were obviously into substance abuse. I reported them. But the last kind were the students who wanted to study and improve their lot and had no money to pay their fees. Those students shook me out of my comfortable existence. I had never faced what they had to in their young lives. So I decided I had to do something for them and looked carefully out at the 100 odd faces, I saw every single day.

Film making class In my second year there was a boy who would always help me set up the computer for my PPT’s with which I taught the class. Chetan ( name changed) never failed me and was always there with a laptop and he set it up and had it up and running as I walked in. One day I casually asked him about himself and was shocked to hear that his mother was a single home maker, bringing up two boys alone, after their father passed on. The father’s family agreed to pay for their food and lodging, but beyond that they had to fend for themselves. She was not educated and so could not get a job. He had to pay his final years fees in three days and was at his wits end as he had exhausted all avenues.

With the animation class. I immediately contacted the college Old Boy network and in an hour they gathered funds and agreed to pay his fee. I asked the college for a discount on a poor student and they generously agreed. But there was one particular rule I wanted enforced -- he repays once he is on his feet in installments. Chetan is doing well, has plans to leave for New Zealand to study further. He supports his mother and brother who are more stable now and it’s a good life for them at last. Another student seemed too academically bright to be in an animation or film making class. I called him up one day and he said he had got a seat in a medical college, but his parents were too old and too poor to pay the fees. Social media came to my aid and I asked for help for him. There were many takers and so I told him to get back and get himself a medical seat again. This time he got a seat in the UK, in Sheffield no less! But the takers said to my great shock, they would pay for medical studies in India not abroad.

The excitement of being in a selfie! I could not fail him, not after he had studied and got the second seat. So I went to a doctor friend in the UK, Trevor Viegas who already had his two daughters doing medicine. Generously, he did not refuse and said the boy needed help. A seat in Sheffield was an honour and he was willing to pay for his food and lodging. Then Anand’s whole village came out to pay for his air ticket to the UK. Anand ( name changed) waited at tables and did other menial jobs to support himself once he was in the UK. Then when I visited my son over Christmas, he spent a huge sum of money, ( 20 Pounds which was huge for him) to come and see me and touch my feet as he said. He told me how he had gone home and certified himself as a Yoga instructor and was running classes after college, charging 8 pounds an hour to support himself completely. He had also moved from Sheffield to Manchester, as the University was better there. He was right, as my older son was out of Manchester where he had done his MBA. It is ranked as the sixth top university in the UK. Then, Anand spent Christmas with us and it made me so proud and happy, to spend a few hours with him, chatting and eating a meal together.

Students never forget a teacher and get invited to all their weddings! But not all stories have happy endings. One student always missed class and looked sleepy and ill when he was in class. Both his parents were doctors in the Middle East and there was nothing they would deny their only child. But all was not right, the boy was into substance abuse and try as I might to send him to be dried out and cleaned up, he slipped and slipped again, till the college had to ask him to leave. I felt rotten that I was unable to help the boy, to help himself. Life as a professor has been enjoyable. Much more than if I was still with the newspaper. I don’t get paid as much obviously,but I do not have to stress about earning a livelihood, thanks to my parents largesse. So, as long as I can, I will keep helping students who need the help. And all of you reading this I advise you to do the same, as there is nothing more fulfilling than helping a child achieve his life’s ambitions.