‘Mrs YGP was an embodiment of intellect, not commerce’

My first interaction with the legendary academician was during my NDTV years when we needed articulate school students for one of our programmes Youth Unplugged’. When many schools were apprehensive of allowing their students to air their views on contentious topics on national television, Mrs YGP instantaneously gave the nod. 

As it was a recorded show, some schools would try to play censor. Not PSBB. Not this legend. Her one liner to me: “I trust you and my students.”

The tag never mattered to her. After I left NDTV, my wife and I hit upon the idea of mentoring students in public speaking. Mrs YGP was among the first few school heads to welcome us with open arms. That was not all. 

When we offered the school a share in the proceeds, as the sessions were to be conducted on the campus, pat came the reply: “We don’t want anything. Subsidise the course and transfer the benefit to our students.” That spontaneous statement made me realise that in Mrs YGP’s lexicon, the all-round development of students trumped vitamin M.

At almost every convocation event to mark the culmination of our public speaking courses, she would be there to laud her students, ask us if we had screened Mark Antony’s oration and Martin Luther King Jr’s speeches and dwell on her own tryst with the microphone, often laced with sparkling wit and humour.

Her entry in a wheel chair would always elicit a thunderous applause from the audience, a reflection of the love and admiration she had earned. I had never seen such keen involvement by an octogenarian. It was more than evident that her will power always won over her frail health.

At one of my book launches, the image of Mrs YGP, who was on stage on a wheel chair, mustering all her strength to stand up when the cover was unveiled, almost moved me to tears.

The last time I met her was at the school’s diamond jubilee celebration last year. The warmth she exuded with the Chief Guest Nirmala Sitharaman, the then Union Defence Minister and present Finance Minister, drew loud cheers from the packed Kamaraj Hall.

An untimely bout of viral fever denied me a chance to catch up with this doyen of education this year. And that will be one of my big regrets. Interestingly, my kids who were assigned the task of watching the live streaming, found her presence on stage to be a highlight and an inspiration.

Just last week, one of her students Dr Mohan Rajan, eminent ophthalmologist, whom I had interviewed for a column, recalled with fondness and pride, Mrs YGP’s ‘Each One, Teach One’ scheme to benefit a neighbourhood corporation school when he was in Class 6. Clearly, she was way ahead of her times.

Recently, while presenting an award to Mrs YGP on International Elders Day, Vice President Venkiah Naidu asked her “How old are you?” She shot back: “I’m 92 years young.” Age did not wither her, nor did customs stale her infinite variety. I will miss you, Mrs YGP. I can hear you saying ‘Sukhi Bhava’ from heaven.

— The author is a lawyer, columnist, author and former resident editor  of NDTV 24x7