Victor the angel

When Victor visited us in Delhi

Victor and I were undergraduate classmates at St Albert’s College, Kochi. I was a student for priesthood then and Victor was just another of the many ordinary lay students. We were majoring in mathematics with physics and statistics as our optionals. Today Victor is a theologian with a doctorate in biblical studies and is a member of the Pontifical Biblical Commission in the Vatican. And I have given up religion for all practical purposes. Victor and I travelled in opposing directions after our graduation. But we have remained friends notwithstanding our religious differences.

Victor had very friendly relationships with some of the teachers in college and it became very helpful for me towards the end of my three-year study there when I had quit the pursuit of priesthood. The final exams approached and I needed a convenient accommodation near college. An inexpensive and quiet place was what I wanted during the period of the university exams.

“What about the college hostel?” Victor asked me.

The hostel was closed for undergrads long ago because of incessant disturbances and occasional bouts of violence. Only postgraduate students were given rooms in the hostel.

“We can request SS Sir,” Victor suggested. He had a good relationship with SS who was one of our math teachers. SS was the hostel warden too at that time. I was hopeful of getting a positive response from SS because the teacher had a soft corner for me. I was one of the serious and most regular students of the batch. Victor and I met SS in his room in the hostel.

It didn’t take much time for SS to take a decision on the matter. He permitted me to stay in one of the rooms as his guest. That was the only option available to him.

The exam lasted for about a month. I stayed in the hostel all through that period as the guest of a lecturer. Nobody bothered. Victor had told me that the lecturers had to pay Rs 10 per day [not a small amount in those days] as room rent for their guests. When the exams were all over, I visited SS to thank him for his magnanimity. He merely asked a few questions about my future plans and expected me to leave. I offered him Rs300. “Why this?” he asked. “I know that you have to pay my rent,” I said. “You stayed as my guest. It’s my duty to pay the rent.” SS refused to accept the sum. Victor wasn’t surprised when I mentioned this to him.

The collected works of Maxim Gorky that stood prominently in about ten volumes on SS’ bookshelf have lingered in my memory all these years along with my ineffaceable gratitude. Had it not been for Victor, I would be staying in one of the dingy and noisy lodges of the city and my performance in the exams would have been below par. Life isn’t always hostile to us. People like Victor and SS are like the stars that shine in the eternal darkness of the infinite spaces.

Another such star at St Albert’s was PP. [Both PP and SS are the real initials of the lecturers though the repetitiveness of the letters may suggest otherwise.] PP was a lecturer in Malayalam which was my optional language for the course. He was a very gentle and warm-hearted person. A very exceptional man among the characteristically indifferent lecturers who seldom cared about what their students did.

Victor and I had cordial relationships with PP too. PP somehow discovered that I could write relatively well. “Why don’t you participate in this essay competition?” He asked me one day showing a pamphlet about a competition being organised by the Corporation of Cochin for college students. “My Malayalam is not as good as my English,” I confessed. “I’ll help you. You write a rough draft and bring it to me,” PP said.

Eventually I won the first prize not only in that competition but also in a few others, all because of PP’s guidance and support. One teacher can make an enormous difference in the life of a student.

One friend can too. Victor was one such friend. When the B.Sc. exam was over and I needed a financial support for moving forward, Victor was prompt to help. “Are you ready to take tuitions in maths for high school students?” Victor asked. I grabbed the offer and that was the first job I ever did for a monthly remuneration in my life. I was able to meet most of my expenditure with what the tuition centre paid though the payment came long after each month was over.

Then one day Victor told me that he had decided to join the Society of Jesus to become a Jesuit priest. I wished him all the best. I moved to Lonavala in order to complete the Hotel management course that I was doing in Kochi supported by the income from the tuitions. But the Fariyas International Hotel in Lonavala (Maharashtra) came as a big disillusionment and I quit the hotel industry once and for all. That’s how I stepped into the profession of fulltime teaching in Shillong.

Victor and I met again a couple of times years later. By then, he was already a scholar in biblical theology and a teacher of the subject too. When he came as a visiting lecturer in Delhi, he visited Maggie and me. During the course of the conversation, he offered to connect me to SS and PP by phone.

“No,” I said, “they won’t remember me.”

“Are you sure? Just try it.” The phone was already ringing.

I talked with both PP and SS and they not only remembered me but were exceptionally cordial too. Victor smiled at me when the conversations were over. Later Maggie said, “His smile is like an angel’s.” My response was that religion can make angels too out of believers. 

At Sameeksha in Kalady where I met Victor after many years

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