11 of our NCC cadets have received the Sahara Scholarships of Rs.30,000/ each. Isn't that wonderful. I believe that they stand first in the country in this achievement. The scholarship was awarded on the basis of their B grade certificate, their scholastic performance and parental income.
I was very happy that these crew cut boys slaving it out in the hot sun during their parade classes have been recognised on their own merit. Congratulations, boys.

First year students had a 'Guidance and Counselling'Session on ' Challenges as First Years' and how to meet them. We realise that first year students have a lot of problems in this transition period and the problems are not the same for all.

There are problems with attitudes, emotions, studies, behaviour etc. Children are afraid to accept the resonsibilities that come with being away from home. They miss home and the safe and comfortable environment they are used to. They have undergone some traumatic experiences in the past and carry it with them here. They have unlimited freedom and do not know how to use it. They want good friends but do not know how to accept the faults in others and still be good friends. They want to do well, but find that there is no organised approach to studies...there is no spoonfeeding, they are expected to learn a lot on their own. They realise that they do not have enough general awareness, so are afraid to talk. The Tamil medium students find technical terms in English a problem. All that they had learnt in Tamil is now used only in English. (As for the English classes, I find that they are all ready to talk, given a little push and a little encouragement. The first thing they do is...de ennada sollranga... and then, they are forced by me to come up and tell me, in English, what they want or what I want as answers or informatiion from them. I bet, they think I am a big time bully).

So, we invited Arthi Rajaratnam, a clinical psychologist to offer them sessions. They went in batches of two sections each. She is a well known psychologist in Salem, young and passionate about her calling. She travels widely and the list of those to whom she has given counselling include the young, the old, cricketers, dancers, tsunami survivors, school children, children with special needs ( autism especially), teachers etc. She has this extraordinary healing touch and she is able to connect with anybody who is need of some help. She has recounted stories (she is incidentally my student from Cluny where I had taught and we both share incredible laughter moments...in fact, I would say that she is one person who has me laughing my head off over silly things and she has me in splits with her conversations peppered with humour ) of how she has assisted remote tsunami affected coastal villages where help was a little late in coming and how she has literally lifted rotting bodies into mass graves, talked to survivors and helped them come to terms with such a massive tragedy that has traumatised them. She has been in SriLanka volunteering work with war hit people. She was selected as Youth Ambassador by Rotaract Club to go on an exchange program to the USA. She has been to Spain on a spiritual journey. She is such an evolved being that I was glad that she was there to be with our first years'.

Students listened in rapt attention, guffawed, retorted repartees with her, learnt some valuable lessons on how thoughts affect our actions with visible demonstrations, how relationships are to be accepted in new environments, how we can challenge ourselves, how negative vibrations can be sensed, how to accept responsibilities etc. After the sessions, she also offered individual counselling to many students. I had goosebumps when I heard some of the problems they face...we all think young people have no worries, that they are out only for fun...oh no, they are a pretty much stressed out lot with so many things affecting their lives.

After listening to them, Arthi promised to visit the institution regularly and offer counselling free of charge to our students, because she realises that those who need help may not always be ready to go out and ask for counselling, much less be able to spend some money on it. The Principal, at whose initiative, we organised this immediately considered it and suggested once a month Saturday visits.

It was a well spent two days for me, especially because the stressful weeks I have had with five to six hours of teaching everyday had made me forget to laugh and be myself.

Friday, spent running from one class to another for five hours, brought a pleasant surprise. Chidambaram Raja, a Sundaram Clayton employee and a former student of GCE (1996-2001) came around to the department to thank the faculty to express his gratitude. He presented a small packet of candies and a very beautiful 'Thank you' card. I wasn't even his teacher, I only joined in 2001. I know his gesture was not only for teachers who actually taught him, but it also went beyond and was a gesture to thank the institution for what it had given him.

I thought it was a sweet thing to do, especially in a government institution, where one cannot develop a sense of identity or belongingness, because everything changes all the time. That is one of the saddest things of being a part of a government institution, but Chidambaram Raja showed me that it need not always be so.

The first year students, by the way, are a very lively and informed lot. They ask a lot of questions, seek inofrmation and seem determined to make a success of themselves.

The first year students met the faculty in the auditorium at a gathering that is organised every year after the first year admissions and just before the commencement of classes. Heads of Departments of Maths (Dr. Kalyanasundaram), English (Dr.G.Anbalagan), Chemistry and Physics (Dr. Srinivasan), EEE ( Prof. Lakshmana Perumal), ECE (Dr.Chandrasekaran), CSE( Ms. Kalpana), Mechanical (Prof. Jeyadev), Metallurgy (Prof. Venkatakrishnan) and Civil (Dr. Perumal) addressed the new batch and assured them of all facilities needed.

Students were encouraged to pursue a different line of approach to their studies , different from their cover-to-cover rote learning of texts as in the twelfth standard, since that approach does not help in professional studies. They were informed about the anti-ragging measures adopted and assured them that their academic stay would be tension free and ragging free. After the talks, students were introduced to their chief faculty advisors and taken on a tour of the campus.

A couple of students from DAV came up to the Department of English to enquire about ELA. A welcome enthusiasm, indeed. The Department of English is keeping its fingers crossed to get two ad hoc teachers as there are now classes for 8 sections of first years ( 2 Civil, 2 Mechanical and 1 each of the other departments) together with the three third year classes on Communication Skills. The Language Resource Centre is a very busy place now, with one batch after another .

Permission for two ad-hoc lecturers has been given, but they are rather hard to find at Salem. It looks like every M.A. graduate has been absorbed either by Arts and Science Colleges or Government and Private schools and the innumerable small companies established in Salem in the past five years.

Well, I always believe that every new day brings new hopes and new opportunities.

9th Sunday saw a lot of alumni get together for Alaigal '09, the annual alumni meet. Prof.PGV organised the meet and I believe there were hundreds of students of different batches who attended the meet.

Pleading guilty to not attending the meet, I can only repeat what I heard people say...'Appadiyow... we have students in almost all companies and organisations and in top positions at that!!!"