An inspiring teacher and a great humanist
Photo: S. Thanthoni
In memoriam: Father Lawrence Sundaram Auditorium at Loyola College, Chennai.
The queue was winding and long, reminiscent of the scene from Tom Brown’s School Days, where old students and friends of Dr. Thomas Arnold converged to attend his funeral Rugby, England. This queue, however, was at Loyola College, Madras, on September 30,1998. Top police officers, newspaper editors, IAS officials, professors and old students from several parts of the country had come to pay their homage to ‘Father’, as they called Fr. Lawrence Sundaram.
Fr. Lawrence had influenced several generations of students. Many had learnt their English by imitating him.
Born on August 12, 1912 in Tiruchi, he grew into a deeply knowledgeable spiritual authority and an excellent inspiring teacher of English Literature and a writer of biographies. He joined Loyola after passing his M.A. in 1932.
After being ordained at Enghein, Belgium, in 1952, he became Fr. Lawrence Sundaram and taught at various Jesuit institutions such as Loyola College in Chennai, St. Joseph’s College in Tiruchirapalli, St.Xavier’s in Palayamkottai or at Beschi College,Dindugal. After his brief stint as principal, Loyola college, Madras, for about two years, he headed the English department at St. Joseph’s. Among his students was A.X. Alexander, who later retired as Director General of Police of Tamil Nadu. In my own case, all my cricketing ambitions were stopped, but my career was saved, with just four words. “Either cricket or M.A.”
M.N. Sundararaman, his colleague, in a centenary volume, terms Professor Sundaram’s headship of the Department as its golden era. His students considered him a great specialist in Chaucer, Eliot and Hopkins. He made a deep impression on his students by his reading of the text and explication that carried a deep scholarship.
He practised before he preached. In a broadcast on All India Radio in 1963 titled ‘Spoken Word’, he said: “Attention to clear articulation, deliberate delivery, an unhurrried pace, pauses at the right moments, proper breathing and cultivation of clear full-throated voice — these are for us in India of more importance than perfection in the placing of accents, the correct sounding of vowels and consonants.”
His was a many-sided personality. Warm and affectionate, friend, philosopher and guide to hundreds, he was a sought after spiritual authority in giving retreats and spiritual exercises for Jesuits and lay Catholics. That he had a gift for words, a keen insight into society around him and a natural felicity for smooth expression has been amply brought out in his books, Anjali — Essays in homage, The Great Indian Jesuits and Blame it on God, if Brahmins became Christians.
The secret of his success was his total faith in the prayer attributed to St. Ignatius. For generations of students, he was a rare light that showed the path to knowledge.
S. PUSHPAVANAM
Former head of the Department of English, National College,
Tiruchirappalli.
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