Sir thomas harris biography of mahatma

Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects. Wikidata item. Member of the Parliament of England. Family [ edit ]. References [ edit ]. History of Parliament Online. Is Thomas your ancestor? Please don't go away! Login to collaborate or comment , or contact the profile manager, or ask our community of genealogists a question.

Sponsored Search by Ancestry. Search Records. Is Thomas your ancestor? Please don't go away! Login to collaborate or comment , or contact the profile manager, or ask our community of genealogists a question. Sponsored Search by Ancestry. Search Records. Paniker had returned from Indiana University, U. Harris had been well-versed in it from his Feroke College days, and intended to apply it in his thesis, but was shy to be upfront about it with Paniker Sir who was a very strict guide.

So, Harris went on submitting conventional progress reports on the chapters he was writing. The argument went on for more than an hour during the interview, with Harris Sir not capitulating, and URA selected him for his sticking to his point and to his conviction!

Sir thomas harris biography of mahatma

That was the time when our course took off in full swing, with Harris holding demonstrations in deconstruction using my original poems in English and his short stories in Malayalam. Later we would hold a narrated analysis of it all with Balettan P. Balachandran and our classmates, in the teashop opposite the campus. About this time I began to experience a protracted period of anxiety, owing possibly to my reversal of roles and because of the stress produced by sheer physical fatigue of travelling up and down kilometres from Thekkady to Kottayam and back to Thekkady four days later—two trips a week traversing ghat roads, climbing to metres braving the frequent change of weather, from rainy, to cold, misty and chilly, interspersed with hot, sunny and sultry days, for more than six months by then, and the sleep-deprived nights.

Prasad Sir jokingly said that it was the pain caused by my brain shedding its rusting, but on a more serious note, he the ever-caring mento, advised Anvar to keep an eye on me so that any worsening of my moods would not go unnoticed by him. But it was Harris Sir who dealt with my anxieties, like an expert counsellor, friend and brother.

About this time, a daughter was born to Prema and I, after a wait of five and a half years. The three of us would visit Harris over the next one and a half years, in his office or at his residence near the Collectorate whenever we visited Kottayam. When I visited him alone our evenings would end up with beer mugs in our hands. Though I was used to hard liquor for many years by then, Harris would only drink beer.

That was also the time when he was finalizing the manuscript of Sandal Trees and Other Stories , his translation of the selected Malayalam short stories of Madhavikkutty Kamala Das. It was the first practical experience for me in preparing a book of translated short stories, which stood me in good stead for my future projects. A decade later, he had gotten into the habit seriously as I learnt.

That was the beginning of a period that would fill all of us, his dearest students, friends and admirers, a nagging worry. After I came away to Delhi in , too, I continued my Ph. D under him and soon the time to submit the thesis arrived. I had been sending him chapters of my thesis. We needed to collate them and finalise the thesis and submit it with his signature before he left.

This would have been a one in a billion supervisor-scholar relationship, I am proud to say! Harris and Anila were our family friends, and when they came to Delhi, we met them. When we went to Kerala, we would visit them without fail. One occasion stands out in my memory. Earlier that day, Vinayachandran Sir had been given a farewell from the School following his superannuation.

W hat set Harris apart from the other teachers was his egalitarian vision. He practiced what he preached. He was never the central-authority-wielding pedagogue; he was always with the students, always available at their level. The concept of Decentering which he practiced consisted in not assigning a central meaning of importance or relevance to one particular text or person or institution.

One incident is still vivid in my memory. After our course was over in , Anvar, Harris and I got together many times. We had been talking about decentering and deconstruction; Anvar asserted that Ezhuttachan or Kunchan Nambiar were beyond analysis based on such western tools. Harris disagreed. Anvar strongly disagreed…the exchanges went on for hours, but finally we parted, sobered with the realisation that any overriding narrative was against the sense of justice towards other narratives which are less known, or popular…that every text had its place in the general scheme of things, and it was not necessary to espouse one single text for all eternity…their relevance as played out by the spatiotemporal demands, needs or necessities would determine their relevance…the forces of history as it rolled on….

Everything is far from being infallible: that was his credo. For him, everything was open to problematisation and scrutiny. He urged others not to have de facto heroes or idols…. Everyone has equal rights in a democracy. A s a teacher, he never assumed superiority over his students as I mentioned earlier—he opened out his affection to all…it was upto the students to accept it or not in the right spirit.

He would never relinquish his duties as a leader, inherent in his vocation of a teacher though….