Miss Rohini Teacher
The Municipal Girl's School, as it was known in the 1940s, is situated between Chirakkara and Thiruvangad. It provided excellent education to girls from Grade 1 through 8. It allowed few boys to attend the school through 5th Grade and I was lucky enough to attend this great school.
Ms Rohini was an extraordinarily gifted Head Teacher in that school. She was gentle, yet firm. She was primarily responsible for setting high academic standards in that school. I still recall (after 54 years) the inspiring short speech she gave on the Independence Day on 15 Aug 1947 when I was in the 3rd Grade. Having spent close to 40 years in many academic institutions in the United States, I can say that Ms Rohini's teaching and administrative techniques are not much different from those employed here. She was a visionary, far ahead of her time.
At a time when very few girls had opportunity to get an education, Ms Rohini provided the best education to all the girls in Tellicherry irrespective of their wealth or standing in the society. We had Muslim girls, we had girls from very poor families and we had girls from rich families too. The school environment was most conducive to produce a secular, integrated society. I believe I had gotten the best education in the five years at that school - I went on to college, spent few years at the Indian Atomic Energy Commission, came to this country for higher education, got a Ph.D. degree and worked many years studying the first lunar samples returned from the Apollo Mission - Ms Rohini accomplished in a very short time the dreams of Mohandas Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, namely, to offer the best school education to our young female population. In this, she is truly a Pioneer and therefore a "Prominent Thalasserian".
RGanapathy
07/11/2001
Ramachandran Ganapathy - Attended the Municipality School for Girls from 1944 to 1949, then studied at the Govt Brennen High School and Govt Brennen College. After graduating from Govt Arts College in Madras, attended the Training School in Trombay conducted by the Atomic Energy Commission. After working four years at Trombay, went to the USA to do post graduate studies and got Ph.D in 1967. Spent the next 9 years at the University of Chicago's Enrico Fermi Institute studying samples from the Moon and Meteorites as a Senior Research Associate. Later joined the Research Division of JTBaker Chemical Company. Currently, lives in Pennsylvania.