My beloved teachers - Part - II

The next set of teachers includes our Zoology teacher in Intermediate Mrs. Seshamma. Mrs. Seshamma taught us the finer elements of understanding the animals and for an animal lover like me they were valuable lessons. She taught us how to dissert the nervous ring in the earthworm. She was a great teacher.

But one of my friend’s actions stumped her. He started sporting a pink rash on his face and he finally went to a dermatologist who blamed it on our poor zoology teacher. Not exactly the zoology teacher but the animals taught by her. Let me present the mystery of the pink rash in the same way as it unfolded. Dermatologist “My friend this very peculiar, this type of rash in only found in lizards and specifically in frogs and toads. How is that you have this rash?” My friend promptly feigned any knowledge about the pink occurrence. We learned later that my friend wanted to sport a manly look. He wanted to shave off his stubble. Not daring to ask his father this YOUNG MAN used his dissection blade (the blade with which he disserted the frog) to shave. That is how he got his pink rash. Talk about the travails of young boys who want to quickly grow up to be MEN!

The next set of teachers who were a great influence were my teachers at Nizam college, Hyderabad. Nizam is a prestigious college that boasts of illustrious alumni including Rakesh Sharma the first Indian in space, Mohd Azharuddin, Bala Krishna the telugu actor among others. The teachers who I remember very fondly are Prof Ramaiah my botany HOD, Prof Shahbaz Khan my Zoology HOD and Prof Afzal who taught me organic chemistry. Nizam College and its teachers left a indelible impression on me.

After Graduation I had to decide whether to do M.B.A or M.Sc in Anthropology. The choice was not really in my hand. My rank was not good enough to get me a seat either in the first list or the second list in M.B.A. Disheartened I was preparing to go to Tirupati to do M.Sc Anthropology at Sri Venkateshwara University. The time was around 3 in the afternoon. I am preparing to go to the railway station when a employee of Osmania University walks in. He informs me that the auction seats ( any vacant seats are filled in with any eligible candidate present with rank cards and certificates) were filled up on that day and that I could get a seat. The problem was I was not present in the university.

This anomaly was noticed by a senior professor Prof C. Madhusudan Reddy who did not want a deserving candidate lose out the seat. He found out my address from the application and sent that employee all the way to my house. And my house was 15 kilometers away! I along with my brother-in-law rushed to Osmania University and paid the fees and took that last seat just before the scheduled closing time of 0500 p.m. This was solely possible because of the quick thinking of Prof C. Madhusudan Reddy. Thank you CMR sir, it is only because of you that I could join Osmania University and get my Masters in Business Administration.