Kalam heads for date with his teacher, teaching

A room behind an old chapel on the premises of the 164-year-old St Joseph8217;s College, Tiruchy, holds a piece of history.

A room behind an old chapel on the premises of the 164-year-old St Joseph8217;s College, Tiruchy, holds a piece of history. Clearly visible in the sunlight streaming through the stained glass of high windows is a framed picture showing a beaming A P J Abdul Kalam, just elected India8217;s 11th President, posing with his teacher Fr Ladislaus Chinnadurai along with others.

Kalam, who is scheduled to arrive in Chennai on Wednesday night, will keep a date again with his teacher on July 27. Even during his hectic presidential days, he made it a point to call on Fr Chinnadurai, enquire after his health and chat with him for a few moments. Among the first engagements that Kalam is expected to keep after relinquishing his presidential office is to meet his ageing teacher again and take his blessings before taking up teaching responsibilities at Anna University, where his living quarters has been readied.

But Fr Chinnadurai, who zealously guards his privacy, has no clue that his student will be making a surprise visit. He lives in Beschie Illam House, a sprawling Jesuit Novitiate House at the edge of Dinidigul town, built with rough-hewn stone bricks, about 450 km from Chennai. The Novitiate is now home to 89-year-old Fr Chinnadurai, a Brahmin hailing from Tiruchy, who converted to Christianity and taught Kalam Physics and Thermodynamics for three years at the reputed St Joseph8217;s College.

Fr Chinnadurai once confided to a priest at the St Joseph8217;s College that he hated the security hype and paraphernalia that accompanied his student Kalam whenever he called on him8212;once last year and once in 2003 at the St Joseph8217;s College soon after being sworn in as the President when he posed for the group picture with him and other staff of the college and which now hangs in the anteroom in the Chapel. On that occasion, Kalam had insisted on being photographed, with his teacher and himself occupying prime place.

This year too, Kalam plans to call on his teacher and is likely to be accompanied by a posse of his security personnel. But apparently neither Brother Savarimuthu, the Jesuit House Minister, nor Fr Chinnadurai is aware about the VVIP guest who would come knocking on Beschie8217;s doors on July 27.

Meanwhile, Fr Chinnadurai stubbornly refuses to entertain the media, declaring he has nothing to say.

8220;We were told that Kalam is keen on visiting his old teacher, leading a retired life in Dindigul before participating in an interactive session with our students,8221; N Narayanasamy, secretary of the Gandhigram University Trust, Dindigul, told The Indian Express. 8220;We have now received confirmation from his secretary that Kalam will come to our university at 4 p.m. after calling on his teacher.8221;

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Last year, during a three-day tour in Tamil Nadu, Kalam made an unscheduled stopover in Dindigul to meet his teacher. He had remarked then that 8220;an individual8217;s success depended on teachers who loved teaching and who became role models8221;.