96 History, M.G.S.Narayanan and Rest of India Immersion Programme

As  part of introducing the Ngee Ann  Ply students   to the history of India, we  had invited  the famous historian Sri.M.G.S.Narayanan to  take a class  for these  students.  In spite of his age and difficulties  in movement, he gladly accepted  the offer. As  he  came  to the  campus, I took him to the office  of the  Director and we went on chatting on various things. Incidentally, our discussion  reached the topic of discrimination based  on caste system in Kerala. Sri. M G S   is known to be a person who gives  some sensational statements  occasionally. While we were  chit-chatting  he was  talking about the ammaveedu in Thiruvananthapuram  where  the royalty  could enter any time  for  extra -marital bliss. Sometime  back, he  made a statement  that  something similar  existed  in Malabar also under the  rule of Samoothiris. His  statement  was  that there   were a few nayar families    kept exclusively for  the ‘fun’ of the  Samoothiri. This created a furore among the  nayars in Kozhikode and he was the target of attack  from them .  The went  on to say that he  made  such a statement because  he does  not belong to the nayar community. Jokingly, he added  that  even though he also belongs to an aristocratic nayar family, he did not try to refute  them . The critics  thought   that he is not a nayar as he did not have  tail like  Nair, Menon etc. fixed to his name  MGS Narayanan. Regarding  the communal harmony  prevalent in Kerala, he   said while excavating the  Kodungaloor area, he found a copper  plaque   with signatures of the local namboodiris, nayars, Christians and  local lords permitting the   building of the first mosque in Kodungalloor by Malik Deenar  who is known to have built the  first mosque in Kerala. He also  stated once that   Kappad  which is considered as the place  where  Vasco da Gama  set foot was  not the right place where he reached the shore. He said there is enough evidence to show that  as Samoothiri was away when Vaso da Gama came to the outer shore of Kozhikode and he was advised him to go to Koyilandi and take rest. After  Samoothiri’s return to the capital, he sent  guards to bring Vasco da Gama to  Kozhikode by land from Koyilandi.

Anyway, his  class  for the Singapore  students was very well liked by the students and they stated that it was really informative and interesting. His   eloquent way of exposing the  history of Kerala and India was  very well appreciated by the  boys and girls. Even though  a bit late, ,let me  place on record our special thanks to him for coming over and talking to them.

Latter part of  Discovering India 

As  part of the  discovering India  programme we  took the  boys and girls of Ngee Ann Poly to different parts of Kerala. We  gave them  a chance to see all the  different art forms  of India, particularly  those belonging to Kerala . We took them to Kannur  to see  Theyyam and  had a live performance of Kathakali in Kozhikode  as briefly mentioned earlier.  The  temple arts such as  Thayampaka, Kalamezhuthu pattu etc were introduced to them. A full day visit to Kalamandalam, Cheruthuruthy was  useful in learning about the  remarkable  university exclusively for fine arts.

Industries  starting from the local small-scale  industries run by  different self-help groups to major industries  in and around Kochi were covered.   The  activities  of Kudumbashree, the  self-help  empowerment  group of ladies in Kerala  was  presented to them. Officers from several rural banks like  Gramin Bank took classes  on micro-financing of small industries.

As students  of  ICT ,  they were eager  to visit  the two important  IT hubs in Kerala, the Info park in Kochi and Technopark in Thiruvananthapuram. This  helped them  in finding  out where  we stand in the Information Technology industry. Some  software  groups in Technopark was very happy to introduce them to what they were doing .

Holy   was   during the  time  they were  in the  campus and our students  allowed them to participate  in the  festival of colours  with  mostly  students  from  North  India and other states. The boys and girls had a wonderful time  pouring  colour  powders   on one  another and   it was  a joyous but peaceful celebration they enjoyed. The  story of holy as the  victory of good over evil was highlighted to them during the occasion. Also, they were  lucky to be here  during the Ragam festival   in N.I.T Calicut  in which  students  from large number  of colleges   participated presenting  their artistic talents. Several   artists  from different   parts of India  were being invited  to perform.  For three  days in a week end, they had an earful of music and eyeful  of dance, dramas and skits  presented  by different students  from  colleges  in the Southern part of India. Music programme  by the famous  playback singer Shankar  Mahadevan   was an added attraction.