It takes only moments for a person to vanish into the realm called ‘memory’ and the parting of Mr. Murali was exactly that disappearing act for thousands of his students across the globe….It was a loss of that familiarity..that little smile that inadvertently crosses you when you think of the teacher that was Mr. Murali…that hope that one day you would bump into him and greet him with his characteristic ‘namaskaram’! And that loss is difficult to come to terms with…
What started as a mere ‘getaway’ from the grueling Hindi lessons, our Malayalam lessons were much more than the ‘second language’ that Malayalam was meant to be… He brought that earthy flavor and raw humour into our Malayalam lessons…and before we realized it, he was the face of Malayalam to us, the beginning of our tryst with the mother tongue…. Without the trappings of any artificial histrionics and flamboyance, he charmed his students with the simplicity and humor that so became him. And even today, as I stumble and fumble at ‘difficult to chew’ Malayalam words, I imagine his little sarcastic and yet gentle rebuke somewhere flashing by…For the ‘Kerala away’ generation, he was truly our link with the language and a reason to be rooted to the language.
It’s an irony that language falls short of emotions as I pay tribute to a language teacher…. The loss is almost total but as a solace I guess he will remain in our hearts as the synonym of Malayalam ..pardon me “Paryayam” to be more linguistically correct!
