MEMOIRS OF MY COLLEGE
BY
S. MAHESHKUMAR
BY
S. MAHESHKUMAR
I was a Student of C. Kandaswamy Naidu College for Men, Anna Nagar (East), Chennai–600102, during 1986-1989 Session of B. Sc., Mathematics. Mr. K. Babu, Head of the Department (H.O.D), Mr. K. Prakasam, Mrs. C. Manonmani, Mr. P. Gajivaradhan and Mr. M. Perumal taught us in the Maths Subjects, Mr. S. Ramalingam, Mrs. Ponnammal and Nandhini Madam taught Chemistry, Mrs. Chella Rajendran and Mr. P. Gnanasekaran taught Physics, Prof. S. Duraivelu (H.O.D), Mr. N. P. Ravi Kumar, Mr. C. Thirugnanam, Mr. R. Thiruvalluvan and Mr. G. Minmanirajan taught English, Dr. D. Gnanasundaram (H.O.D), Dr. R. Gurunathan, Dr. K. Narasimhan and Mr. R. Venugopal taught Tamil. Our Principals were Dr. M. Muthuraman followed by Dr. R. S. Raghavan.
More than a couple of decades ago, when I joined in the C. K. N. College, Anna Nagar was more peaceful than it is now. The College had a quadrangle which housed the Principal Room, Library, the respective Departments of Mathematics, Physics along with its Lab, English, Tamil, few class rooms, etc. With the two constructions dedicated to Chemistry Lab and its Department respectively near the College Entrance which was situated then at the right as against the present left with the Arch now, there were thatched roof huts at the backyard of the quadrangle used as classrooms. We had one such hut called “Valluvar Kudil” as our I year classroom and for the II and III years, our classrooms were situated inside the quadrangle at its front entrance and near the back entrance respectively.
Everyday when I attended college, I used to have lunch at the erstwhile Hotels opposite our college, viz., Suprabath or Meera. During the three years that I spent at the college, I did not think of climbing the Anna Nagar Tower and in the concluding months of the III year, I resolved to go there with some of my friends and watched the panorama of the city from top of the Tower. We had once went for boating on the pond in the vicinity of the Anna Nagar Tower in our I year. The quadrangle in our college was built for the purpose of the 1968 World Exhibition and was used as a registration cum liaison office. The erstwhile Grand Theatre was the inevitable asylum of the students of our college.
Those were the good old days when we spent our time at C. K. N. College, dreaming of our future careers. We really enjoyed our English classes taken by our revered Duraivelu Sir. “My lord, the Baby” by Ravindranath Tagore, in the II year prose book, “A Garland of Prose” among others such as George Eliot’s “Silas Marner” which Duraivelu Sir had taught is still vivid in my memory. Ravikumar Sir taught “The Merchant of Venice” in the II year and we too enjoyed his relaxed elaborations.
Dr. Narasimhan (or Dr. A for short between us) was in his own way amorous in teaching Tamil. Dr. Gnanasundaram always taught Tamil lessons with a mixture of self-praising about his greatness, his association with noted Tamil Scholars, such as Kee. Vaa. Jagannadhan, et al., his visit to Sri Lanka for the Tamil Conference, etc. He used to jocularly remark quite often in his classes that people who attended his orations praise him admiringly as against his wife who kept on warning him to stop the boring at least in their house! Dr. Gurunathan was specific in his instructions and once in my way back home after college, he travelled with me till Pachaiyappa’s College where he had an errand to take care of; we then chatted about literature and I asked him what was his estimation of the Tamil mystery writer Thamizhvaanan and his famous Shankarlal Detective Series. He advised me to read its original version in the Sherlock Holmes Series by Arthur Connon Doyle and thus influenced me to give preference to the primary works instead of succumbing to plagiarisms and adaptations. Mr. Venugopal was casual in his expositions and we fondly call him among ourselves as “Agathiyar” due to his striking resemblance with the ancient Tamil dwarf Poet!
Prakasam Sir’s classes were methodical as against Manonmani Madam’s that she used to teach mostly by sitting and reciting from her notes! Gajivaradhan Sir used to jot down his notes on the board and try to explain whereas Perumal Sir used to recite his material, sometimes along with the board and sometimes without. Babu Sir’s scribblings on the board were always difficult to decipher but anyhow some of us managed to get through the exams with lot of self study!
One interesting event happened in the III year concerning myself and Gajivaradhan Sir. He taught Real Analysis in the III year. In the II year I scored centum in his subject, “Vector Analysis” among few others. I also scored centum in Linear Programming in the final year taught by Perumal Sir along with some others. After Gaji Sir had completed the first chapter in Tom M. Apostol’s ‘Mathematical Analysis’, he announced his wish to conduct tests on Mondays in the first period whenever needed. It was in the last week of August 1988. I happened to visit my native place, Srikalahasti, the previous Friday and stayed there the week-end. I woke up early to get the first bus in the Monday morning and returned home around 9 am. Hurriedly I placed my travel bag at home, picked my college bag and rushed towards the Bus Stop. Waited till 10.30 am for buses but could not find any and returned home tiredly due to the 4 hours travel. When I went to college the other day, Krishnan and Dhanapal who were present for the test the day before, reported to me about Gajivaradhan Sir’s curse on me: After noticing my place empty, he lamented by saying, “When I conduct test now, he did not turn up; may he be wasted!” Later in life, I was the first to address him with the Dr. Prefix when I greeted him and shook hands as soon as he descended from the podium after clearing the Viva Voce held at our Ramanujan Institute in December 2006, “Congratulations, Dr. Gajivaradhan Sir!” and he said, “Thank you, Mahesh!” I took his curse which was an involuntary ejaculation as a blessing in disguise!
As I had my own Mathematical, Philosophical, Musical and Poetical yearnings, I used to study a lot apart from class portions. Also I never used to memorise unless I grasped the crux of a problem. I was most of the time under the influence of inspiration about the concepts, physical and metaphysical, of the great men who contributed to the upliftment of the Arts and Sciences! It made me to cast aside Physics and Chemistry lessons which demanded more out of me apart from those taught in brief at the college. It was the chief reason that delayed me to complete my UG belatedly!
My desk mates were Krishnan and Dhanapal for all the three years. Other classmates were Anandan, Andrews, Balaji, Banu Prasad, Dilip Kumar, Haridoss, Jagadheesan, Mohan Durai, Murali, Panchatcharam, Prabakaran, Ram Babu, Shankar, Shanmugam, Srinivasa Prasad, Thirunavukkarasu and Zacharia Ravikumar.
B. R. Banu Prasad had scored cent percent in all the Maths papers for all the 3 years. A senior student, K. Sugumaran (III Year B. Sc. Maths), who could not get through his I year Maths paper made arrangements to sit next to Banu Prasad in our I year Examination; to the amazement of his friends, he was also surprised that he had scored 100 marks!
Our friend V. Dilip Kumar had been fortunate enough to become friends with a young Maths lecturer who resided in the neighbourhood of Dilip’s apartment. With his ability for memorising, Dilip utilised that opportunity to the maximum and scored good marks next to Banu Prasad. Dilip used to practise by way of writing impositions in the note books and loose sheets of his classmates the things that he had learned from his lecturer friend surreptitiously! He invited those who were interested to his house and mimic his lecturer friend’s teachings!
About my friends, Krishnan was the only notable friend with whom I enjoyed a carrying friendship till 2003. It was when he started accusing my aims and efforts that made me silent with him. Dhanapal, the first son of Mr. Babu, our revered H.O.D., who used to visit me with Krishnan and I too reciprocated him with the same. He once came to my house months after he had joined M.Sc., (1990-91) in Pachaiyappa’s College which he discontinued later, we talked for some time and at the end I presented him with “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (ELBS Edition)”—a second hand book that I had bought by fasting for my personal study during my college days! I used to call him as “Dhaganabagal!” which he could not resist and try to re-phrase my name accordingly but without the expected laughing element in it! We two made a fun when our Chemistry lecturer explained about “Piperidine” [A strongly basic, colourless liquid, C5H10NH, used in the manufacture of rubber and as a curing agent in epoxy resins.] in the I year Allied Class just because of its curious pronunciation that erupted us to burst into murmurs of laughter!!
About Mohan Durai, he was one of the 6 or 7 successful students who had passed their B. Sc. Degree Examinations in the first session. He is of a kind who intrudes in your way once in two or three years only to know about your present status quo and vanish! One thing that I don’t forget about him was that he sponsored me, Krishnan and Anandhan to witness in the afternoon of a day in the first week of December 1986, (i.e. on 5th December 1986, a Friday, I succeed recollecting it!), a recording session for the Tamil Movie “Mandhirappunnagai” by Sri Illaiyaraja and his crew at the Prasad Studios. Anandhan was Mohan’s best friend. I used to meet him at his work place which was in a lane behind the erstwhile Alankar Theatre where he worked as a Computer Operator during 1991 / 92. Later when I went there for him, the firm’s owner reported me that Anandhan did not turn up for a long time. After that, he visited me to hand-over Mohan’s wedding invitation on 1st March 1994.
I saw Murali once passing in the street as I was about to get into my house in 1997; I took him inside my place and we chatted for a while. He was doing some odd jobs and he narrated the fatal story of Prabakaran who had succumbed to Jaundice months ago! Prabakaran overworked with a money earning game, that of joining more and more people in a scheme geometrically that was supposed to credit the members with subsequent money gains! Panchatcharam was Prabakaran’s one good friend but Panchatcharam could not prevent him from his ruining ways! Prabakaran’s catchphrase had been the Tamil word, “Goramai.” In any conversation, he would utter the word several times! He got his liver misoperated at Apollo Hospitals, Chennai and died on the operation table; the Apollo demanded fees for their mistake but some people arranged to hand over the mortal remains to his family without paying any!
Andrews and I often talked about English Movies. Thirunavukkarasu quite often briefed me about his violinist father who used to accompany as violinist in the programmes of the danseuse Alarmelvalli. He had once commented to me about the open drainage at our college entrance and I could not comprehend what he had been saying for a while until I corrected him just because he pronounced the word “drainage” as “drugsage!” Thirunavukkarasu had passed his B. Sc., in the I batch. Ram Babu daily attended College from Sullurpet by train. In one of the English Exams, Shankar had handed over to the supervisor a 40 plus pages bulk of answer sheets and when we asked him why, he replied, if he would be given at least one mark per page, he would certainly get through the paper! Shankar got through all the papers in the end to add his name in the I list of successful students. I had been jovially addressing him as “Bunkcher!” by making some changes in his name and Shankar contemplated over it in the beginning and later took it as my friendly gesture!
Balaji passed typing & stenography and was selected to serve in the Human Resource Department, New Delhi, at the end of his college days and he was in the first list of successful students to clear B. Sc., in April 1989. Srinivasa Prasad was a nice guy. Shanmugam had the same name and initial of my father and once I had remarked him about it and to my surprise, the expansion of his initials also matched same to that of my paternal grandfather’s name Sri Ezhumalai. He was also a good classmate as Jagadheesan.
Haridoss lived in his own world, dressing differently, sometimes growing more hairs, unshaved, enjoying fully his days at the college. I used to call him as “Agabarigabas!” and he admired my calling him like that. Zacharia Ravikumar sometimes travelled with me on my return from college and he was genial.
Except Dilip Kumar and Banu Prasad, all the classmates had mutually exchanged their autographs and addresses at the end of the III year. Dilip and Banu had just written theirs in our notebooks and showed no interest in getting our details. Dilip had done his M. Sc., (1989-91) and M. Phill., (1991-93) at Loyola College and was a Gold Medallist for his performance in the exams. He had an accident around 1996 and was hospitalised for some time. After recuperation, he learned IBM Mainframe and the Y2K Problem and served for Satyam Computer Services Ltd., followed by Sony Company in Japan for a couple of years. Currently he is with the Sony Company in one of its branches in the US. Banu Prasad joined in the Engineering Discipline at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, after passing his B. Sc., with highest marks. I used to explain him about the Liar Paradox and share many other things from my personal studies and researches. Banu and I did not have the opportunity to contact each other after we had left C. K. N. College. I have been visiting Dilip and his parents now and then. Banu and Dilip had successful academic stories and I cherish them as my good friends.
Apart from my classmates, I had few friends from other classes such as Jayaprakash (one year my senior in the B. Sc. Maths), Kannan and Rangamani (one year senior to me in the B. Sc. Physics). We had combined classes for Allied Chemistry in our I year along with the students of II year B. Sc. Physics. Kannan had relatives in Tiruvannamalai and he guided me earlier as to where to get down from the bus in Tiruvannamalai so that I could reach Sri Ramanasramam quickly when I visited the Abode of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi for the first time on 5th & 6th December 1987.
After completing B. Sc., I had joined for my M. Sc., in The Ramanujan Institute for Advanced Study in Mathematics, University of Madras, Chennai–600005. As my researches are based on Mathematical Philosophy, I have been currently equipping myself with the German Language to be able to study the German works of Leibniz, Riemann, Gödel, Wittgenstein, et al in addition to the English works of Whitehead, Russell, Hardy, Ramanujan, et al. I believe in my endeavour of successfully evolving A New Theory of Zero which I have christened as “ZEROICS” and steadfastly pursuing my researches by following the famous French writer Alexandre Dumas’ maxim to humanity for sure success, in the conclusion of his magnum opus, “The Count of Monte Cristo”, that “the greatest wisdom of humanity is contained in the two words, ‘Wait and Hope!’”
All your friends may come and go but your College houses your memories along with that of your friends, teachers, events of the time, etc., and whenever you happened to pass by it or think of it, those memories will always jolt you with the Nostalgia, Cheerfulness, Recollections and Reflections of the times!
—S. Maheshkumar.
{Final Draft Composed on 3-10-2007 at 3.02 PM with subsequent revisions made on 5th & 8th October 2007 at 12. 07 PM &10.33 AM, respectively, Indian Standard Time.}
More than a couple of decades ago, when I joined in the C. K. N. College, Anna Nagar was more peaceful than it is now. The College had a quadrangle which housed the Principal Room, Library, the respective Departments of Mathematics, Physics along with its Lab, English, Tamil, few class rooms, etc. With the two constructions dedicated to Chemistry Lab and its Department respectively near the College Entrance which was situated then at the right as against the present left with the Arch now, there were thatched roof huts at the backyard of the quadrangle used as classrooms. We had one such hut called “Valluvar Kudil” as our I year classroom and for the II and III years, our classrooms were situated inside the quadrangle at its front entrance and near the back entrance respectively.
Everyday when I attended college, I used to have lunch at the erstwhile Hotels opposite our college, viz., Suprabath or Meera. During the three years that I spent at the college, I did not think of climbing the Anna Nagar Tower and in the concluding months of the III year, I resolved to go there with some of my friends and watched the panorama of the city from top of the Tower. We had once went for boating on the pond in the vicinity of the Anna Nagar Tower in our I year. The quadrangle in our college was built for the purpose of the 1968 World Exhibition and was used as a registration cum liaison office. The erstwhile Grand Theatre was the inevitable asylum of the students of our college.
Those were the good old days when we spent our time at C. K. N. College, dreaming of our future careers. We really enjoyed our English classes taken by our revered Duraivelu Sir. “My lord, the Baby” by Ravindranath Tagore, in the II year prose book, “A Garland of Prose” among others such as George Eliot’s “Silas Marner” which Duraivelu Sir had taught is still vivid in my memory. Ravikumar Sir taught “The Merchant of Venice” in the II year and we too enjoyed his relaxed elaborations.
Dr. Narasimhan (or Dr. A for short between us) was in his own way amorous in teaching Tamil. Dr. Gnanasundaram always taught Tamil lessons with a mixture of self-praising about his greatness, his association with noted Tamil Scholars, such as Kee. Vaa. Jagannadhan, et al., his visit to Sri Lanka for the Tamil Conference, etc. He used to jocularly remark quite often in his classes that people who attended his orations praise him admiringly as against his wife who kept on warning him to stop the boring at least in their house! Dr. Gurunathan was specific in his instructions and once in my way back home after college, he travelled with me till Pachaiyappa’s College where he had an errand to take care of; we then chatted about literature and I asked him what was his estimation of the Tamil mystery writer Thamizhvaanan and his famous Shankarlal Detective Series. He advised me to read its original version in the Sherlock Holmes Series by Arthur Connon Doyle and thus influenced me to give preference to the primary works instead of succumbing to plagiarisms and adaptations. Mr. Venugopal was casual in his expositions and we fondly call him among ourselves as “Agathiyar” due to his striking resemblance with the ancient Tamil dwarf Poet!
Prakasam Sir’s classes were methodical as against Manonmani Madam’s that she used to teach mostly by sitting and reciting from her notes! Gajivaradhan Sir used to jot down his notes on the board and try to explain whereas Perumal Sir used to recite his material, sometimes along with the board and sometimes without. Babu Sir’s scribblings on the board were always difficult to decipher but anyhow some of us managed to get through the exams with lot of self study!
One interesting event happened in the III year concerning myself and Gajivaradhan Sir. He taught Real Analysis in the III year. In the II year I scored centum in his subject, “Vector Analysis” among few others. I also scored centum in Linear Programming in the final year taught by Perumal Sir along with some others. After Gaji Sir had completed the first chapter in Tom M. Apostol’s ‘Mathematical Analysis’, he announced his wish to conduct tests on Mondays in the first period whenever needed. It was in the last week of August 1988. I happened to visit my native place, Srikalahasti, the previous Friday and stayed there the week-end. I woke up early to get the first bus in the Monday morning and returned home around 9 am. Hurriedly I placed my travel bag at home, picked my college bag and rushed towards the Bus Stop. Waited till 10.30 am for buses but could not find any and returned home tiredly due to the 4 hours travel. When I went to college the other day, Krishnan and Dhanapal who were present for the test the day before, reported to me about Gajivaradhan Sir’s curse on me: After noticing my place empty, he lamented by saying, “When I conduct test now, he did not turn up; may he be wasted!” Later in life, I was the first to address him with the Dr. Prefix when I greeted him and shook hands as soon as he descended from the podium after clearing the Viva Voce held at our Ramanujan Institute in December 2006, “Congratulations, Dr. Gajivaradhan Sir!” and he said, “Thank you, Mahesh!” I took his curse which was an involuntary ejaculation as a blessing in disguise!
As I had my own Mathematical, Philosophical, Musical and Poetical yearnings, I used to study a lot apart from class portions. Also I never used to memorise unless I grasped the crux of a problem. I was most of the time under the influence of inspiration about the concepts, physical and metaphysical, of the great men who contributed to the upliftment of the Arts and Sciences! It made me to cast aside Physics and Chemistry lessons which demanded more out of me apart from those taught in brief at the college. It was the chief reason that delayed me to complete my UG belatedly!
My desk mates were Krishnan and Dhanapal for all the three years. Other classmates were Anandan, Andrews, Balaji, Banu Prasad, Dilip Kumar, Haridoss, Jagadheesan, Mohan Durai, Murali, Panchatcharam, Prabakaran, Ram Babu, Shankar, Shanmugam, Srinivasa Prasad, Thirunavukkarasu and Zacharia Ravikumar.
B. R. Banu Prasad had scored cent percent in all the Maths papers for all the 3 years. A senior student, K. Sugumaran (III Year B. Sc. Maths), who could not get through his I year Maths paper made arrangements to sit next to Banu Prasad in our I year Examination; to the amazement of his friends, he was also surprised that he had scored 100 marks!
Our friend V. Dilip Kumar had been fortunate enough to become friends with a young Maths lecturer who resided in the neighbourhood of Dilip’s apartment. With his ability for memorising, Dilip utilised that opportunity to the maximum and scored good marks next to Banu Prasad. Dilip used to practise by way of writing impositions in the note books and loose sheets of his classmates the things that he had learned from his lecturer friend surreptitiously! He invited those who were interested to his house and mimic his lecturer friend’s teachings!
About my friends, Krishnan was the only notable friend with whom I enjoyed a carrying friendship till 2003. It was when he started accusing my aims and efforts that made me silent with him. Dhanapal, the first son of Mr. Babu, our revered H.O.D., who used to visit me with Krishnan and I too reciprocated him with the same. He once came to my house months after he had joined M.Sc., (1990-91) in Pachaiyappa’s College which he discontinued later, we talked for some time and at the end I presented him with “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (ELBS Edition)”—a second hand book that I had bought by fasting for my personal study during my college days! I used to call him as “Dhaganabagal!” which he could not resist and try to re-phrase my name accordingly but without the expected laughing element in it! We two made a fun when our Chemistry lecturer explained about “Piperidine” [A strongly basic, colourless liquid, C5H10NH, used in the manufacture of rubber and as a curing agent in epoxy resins.] in the I year Allied Class just because of its curious pronunciation that erupted us to burst into murmurs of laughter!!
About Mohan Durai, he was one of the 6 or 7 successful students who had passed their B. Sc. Degree Examinations in the first session. He is of a kind who intrudes in your way once in two or three years only to know about your present status quo and vanish! One thing that I don’t forget about him was that he sponsored me, Krishnan and Anandhan to witness in the afternoon of a day in the first week of December 1986, (i.e. on 5th December 1986, a Friday, I succeed recollecting it!), a recording session for the Tamil Movie “Mandhirappunnagai” by Sri Illaiyaraja and his crew at the Prasad Studios. Anandhan was Mohan’s best friend. I used to meet him at his work place which was in a lane behind the erstwhile Alankar Theatre where he worked as a Computer Operator during 1991 / 92. Later when I went there for him, the firm’s owner reported me that Anandhan did not turn up for a long time. After that, he visited me to hand-over Mohan’s wedding invitation on 1st March 1994.
I saw Murali once passing in the street as I was about to get into my house in 1997; I took him inside my place and we chatted for a while. He was doing some odd jobs and he narrated the fatal story of Prabakaran who had succumbed to Jaundice months ago! Prabakaran overworked with a money earning game, that of joining more and more people in a scheme geometrically that was supposed to credit the members with subsequent money gains! Panchatcharam was Prabakaran’s one good friend but Panchatcharam could not prevent him from his ruining ways! Prabakaran’s catchphrase had been the Tamil word, “Goramai.” In any conversation, he would utter the word several times! He got his liver misoperated at Apollo Hospitals, Chennai and died on the operation table; the Apollo demanded fees for their mistake but some people arranged to hand over the mortal remains to his family without paying any!
Andrews and I often talked about English Movies. Thirunavukkarasu quite often briefed me about his violinist father who used to accompany as violinist in the programmes of the danseuse Alarmelvalli. He had once commented to me about the open drainage at our college entrance and I could not comprehend what he had been saying for a while until I corrected him just because he pronounced the word “drainage” as “drugsage!” Thirunavukkarasu had passed his B. Sc., in the I batch. Ram Babu daily attended College from Sullurpet by train. In one of the English Exams, Shankar had handed over to the supervisor a 40 plus pages bulk of answer sheets and when we asked him why, he replied, if he would be given at least one mark per page, he would certainly get through the paper! Shankar got through all the papers in the end to add his name in the I list of successful students. I had been jovially addressing him as “Bunkcher!” by making some changes in his name and Shankar contemplated over it in the beginning and later took it as my friendly gesture!
Balaji passed typing & stenography and was selected to serve in the Human Resource Department, New Delhi, at the end of his college days and he was in the first list of successful students to clear B. Sc., in April 1989. Srinivasa Prasad was a nice guy. Shanmugam had the same name and initial of my father and once I had remarked him about it and to my surprise, the expansion of his initials also matched same to that of my paternal grandfather’s name Sri Ezhumalai. He was also a good classmate as Jagadheesan.
Haridoss lived in his own world, dressing differently, sometimes growing more hairs, unshaved, enjoying fully his days at the college. I used to call him as “Agabarigabas!” and he admired my calling him like that. Zacharia Ravikumar sometimes travelled with me on my return from college and he was genial.
Except Dilip Kumar and Banu Prasad, all the classmates had mutually exchanged their autographs and addresses at the end of the III year. Dilip and Banu had just written theirs in our notebooks and showed no interest in getting our details. Dilip had done his M. Sc., (1989-91) and M. Phill., (1991-93) at Loyola College and was a Gold Medallist for his performance in the exams. He had an accident around 1996 and was hospitalised for some time. After recuperation, he learned IBM Mainframe and the Y2K Problem and served for Satyam Computer Services Ltd., followed by Sony Company in Japan for a couple of years. Currently he is with the Sony Company in one of its branches in the US. Banu Prasad joined in the Engineering Discipline at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, after passing his B. Sc., with highest marks. I used to explain him about the Liar Paradox and share many other things from my personal studies and researches. Banu and I did not have the opportunity to contact each other after we had left C. K. N. College. I have been visiting Dilip and his parents now and then. Banu and Dilip had successful academic stories and I cherish them as my good friends.
Apart from my classmates, I had few friends from other classes such as Jayaprakash (one year my senior in the B. Sc. Maths), Kannan and Rangamani (one year senior to me in the B. Sc. Physics). We had combined classes for Allied Chemistry in our I year along with the students of II year B. Sc. Physics. Kannan had relatives in Tiruvannamalai and he guided me earlier as to where to get down from the bus in Tiruvannamalai so that I could reach Sri Ramanasramam quickly when I visited the Abode of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi for the first time on 5th & 6th December 1987.
After completing B. Sc., I had joined for my M. Sc., in The Ramanujan Institute for Advanced Study in Mathematics, University of Madras, Chennai–600005. As my researches are based on Mathematical Philosophy, I have been currently equipping myself with the German Language to be able to study the German works of Leibniz, Riemann, Gödel, Wittgenstein, et al in addition to the English works of Whitehead, Russell, Hardy, Ramanujan, et al. I believe in my endeavour of successfully evolving A New Theory of Zero which I have christened as “ZEROICS” and steadfastly pursuing my researches by following the famous French writer Alexandre Dumas’ maxim to humanity for sure success, in the conclusion of his magnum opus, “The Count of Monte Cristo”, that “the greatest wisdom of humanity is contained in the two words, ‘Wait and Hope!’”
All your friends may come and go but your College houses your memories along with that of your friends, teachers, events of the time, etc., and whenever you happened to pass by it or think of it, those memories will always jolt you with the Nostalgia, Cheerfulness, Recollections and Reflections of the times!
—S. Maheshkumar.
{Final Draft Composed on 3-10-2007 at 3.02 PM with subsequent revisions made on 5th & 8th October 2007 at 12. 07 PM &10.33 AM, respectively, Indian Standard Time.}
