A BRIGHT STUDENT

Remembering a favourite student


One morning during my tenure as lecturer in the Madras Christian College, I saw in the newspaper that a first year student from MCC had won an essay contest conducted by The Hindu. I was not sure whether he was my student, since the classes were quite large those days and it was difficult to remember all the names.

A Shy Youngster


When I went to the first year combined class, where students from three different disciplines came together for English, I asked the class who K.Prakash was. Several fingers pointed at a tall youngster who stood up awkwardly with a shy smile. "Congratulations" I said and he mumbled his thanks.

After the class was over Prakash came to me and wanted to know whether I had read his essay. I had. Then he asked me how he could improve on it. "You have already won the prize" I said. "So why bother?" "I am not quite satisfied with it", he said. "Can I come to your flat and discuss it?" He came to my flat in St.Thomas's Hall and we talked about his essay and about literature in general. From then on Prakash was a regular visitor. I found that true to his name he was a bright student.

To Japan


He went to Japan sent by The Hindu. When he came back he held forth on his trip, and the splendours of Japan and the thrills of the sports meet he had gone to witness. Some of my friends also took a liking to Prakash. One of them was Ramasamy (Ramu), a photographer in the Indian Air Force, who had seen a lot of action in a couple of border wars. He always carried his camera with him and clicked several pictures of all of us. Prakash avidly listened to Ramu's account of his war experiences.

Prakash had lost his father at a very young age. And his mother brought him up with a single-minded vision of making him a successful and happy human being. She had a house in Kodambakkam, and Prakash commuted from there to the college in Tambaram . He persuaded his mother to get him a Jawa motorbike, which was all the rage at that time. He insisted on giving me a ride, and I held on for dear life as he plied his vehicle with youthful exuberance.

After I got married I moved out of the campus to a house in the city. Prakash visited me there too. Actually he was the one who organized the house-warming ceremony there. By then he was interested in films, and kept me talking about all that I knew as an ardent film fan. We saw `The Ipcress File', starring Michael Caine as Harry Palmer. Both of us liked the British actor who was always in a long overcoat in this series of films.

One rainy night Prakash appeared in a long raincoat, stood near my window, and said "Harry Palmer. Harry Palmer here", imitating Michael Caine. And then we went for a film in the rain.

To Edinburgh


Sometime later Prakash got a scholarship to study economics at Edinburgh. When he came back he was a changed person. He kept talking about Marxism, trying to convince me of its importance. He also told me that he was a party member now. I didn't much care for this new development, and I am afraid I told him so rather harshly. I felt that all his mother's dreams for his success might come to naught.

But he rose from the ranks and is now a big leader who hits the headlines almost every day. K.Prakash is now known as Prakash Karat.

Well, all's well that ends well.

J. VASANTHAN