Guts and Gutters: A Story of Madras Christian College

There are two kinds of people who enter the 179 years old Madras Christian College (MCC). They are those with guts before entry and those who gather guts during their stay at the 365 acres of beautiful campus. Naturally, the second category is in a majority. Guts to call spade a spade, guts to think on their own, guts to act on their own, guts to face any situation, guts to face the crowd and guts to speak out their minds are the enviable qualities in every student of MCC. In the last two centuries, MCC has richly impacted the national and global development through its students.

Independent India’s first three finance ministers graduated from MCC. Shanmugham Chettiar, John Mathai and T.T.Krishnamachari are those three legendary finance ministers of India whom the MCC gifted to the nation. India’s first vice-president and second president Dr.S.Radhakrishnan is another illustrious alumnus of MCC. Former Army General.Sunderji is another big gift from MCC. In the present times, Indra Nooyi, CEO of PEPISCO, Vijaya Kumar IPS, the supercop who gunned down forest brigand Veerappan, the election commissioner who made India to feel the power of election commission, T.N.Seshan are some of the many superstar alumni of MCC.

Civil Service Officers, public figures, philosophers, political leaders, military personnel, scholars, sports personalities, film personalities, social workers, business magnets, industrial tycoons, intellectuals and the list of star alumnus of MCC is very lengthy. There is no field in India and most parts of the Asia is without the eminent contribution of MCC students.

Wherever the alumni of MCC are, they have never ending nostalgic feelings about their alma mater. One of my friend's spouse is always complaining about his non-step nostalgia kindling at her home. She said “This man is 24x7 obsessed about his college. He eats MCC feelings, he sleep MCC feelings, and he walks MCC feelings”. This may sound exaggerated but it is true. This gets more when two MCCians meet. They always talk about their hall life, guts, gutters, lake, sports field, tennis matches, boxing ring, Anderson hall, Miller’s statue, Johney’s lemon soda, Udupi Idlli, masala dosai, cafeteria’s fried rice, chilly beef outside Selaiyur gate, smoking, drinking, hall days, initiation of junior pissakattans, ragging, roll calls, scaling Martian Hall walls during the Heber ride, drumstick sambar with fried chicken for Thursday lunch etc.

Everything is special in MCC. From the campus to the class teachings, from the hall life to hope gathered during studies, from music to masala dosai, from food to fun had during the campus stay, from dressing sense to devotion to life, from spirituality to science, from tradition to technology, from pork fry to painful sides of life, from beef curry to brilliant ideas, from music to manic, from smoking to success in life, from drinking to dogmatic ideas, from philosophical thoughts to paradoxes in the modern world, a MCCian can be exposed to everything during the stay in campus.

Gutters are the real breeding space for brilliant ideas and creativity. Some of them may bunk classes and spend the whole day in gutters. Some other MCCians go to classes regularly and spend their leisure hours in the gutters. In both ways, gutters were an influential area in the minds of MCCians. There are divisions in the gutter gang too. Those convent educated English communicators are called Peters and those Tamil medium educated are referred as “Munis”. But slowly there is an absorption of Munis into Peter gangs. This is evident from the breaking away of differentiation during the convocation ceremonies and alumni get together.

There are thousands of good issues which can be talked about MCC. But I am going to share with you only very few issues which touched my heart to the core. They are student union elections, preservation of flora and fauna, campus life, faculty co-operation and the serendipity of campus.

MCC student union elections are unique in the world. There is a smooth passage of the whole process. From the call for nomination, filing of nomination papers, campaigning to debates to election to victory marches to functioning, MCC exhibits a rare uniqueness. As I topped in all subjects and had the urge to uplift the illustrious college, I was motivated to contest for the post of Student Chairman in 1995. After winning the election of representative of department of philosophy, my route for the chairman’s election was crystal clear. 

There was a huge support for me and victory was all clear. Shockingly the day before the elections, my worthy opponents spread worthless rumours about me. That ranged from “If he wins, he will introduce uniform for the college students, he will close the canteen for 20 hours a day, he will build swimming pool in the college campus, he will ban smoking and drinking inside the campus, he is the cousin of  Co-ordinator of Anti-Ragging Committee & Security officer etc. These overnight rumours might have paralysed somebody. Luckily, I was cool, calm and composed at this shocking juncture. Gathering coolness, I replied to those who asked me about these points raised by my opponent, "come to the Anderson for the debate". To the hall packed audience, I gave reply point by point to those rumours. 

My voters realized all those were mere rumours and stamped their support in the ballot papers in my favour. In the end, I won with the historical margin. These might be occurring in umpteen number of institutions across the world. But the difference is, my opponent joined hands with me in the constructive activities of the college union soon after the election result. He was my staunch supporter till the end. MCC is one of the rarest of rare institutions to give the student leader equal status with the head of the institution. MCC student chairman is the member of all powerful bodies including the senate.   

Preservation of 365 acres of scrub forest is another core area of the MCC. Tabubea Rosea which is commonly called as Pink Trumpet is a native of South America. This beautiful tree is gigantic in size. It drops beautiful pink and golden colour flowers. The entire principal’s avenue looks like gold carpeted area. Unfortunately during the 1995 cyclone these gigantic beautiful trees were uprooted. Many MCCians shed blood tears on the day. It was horrific to watch those scenes. 

As the secretary of Scrub Society, along with the student volunteers I went place to place in search of these Tabubea Rosea saplings. After a very long hunt we located it in Rishi Valley (Andhra Pradesh). When we got those saplings and planted it in the place where those majestic trees were standing, our hearts were full. Glad that those trees have grown big and pleasing the eyes of all now.

Food served in the MCC halls are the one of the best. I realized this through many MCC alumni statements and my own experiences. When Rev.Canoon.Ivor.Smith the first Asian Chaplin of Queen Elizabeth visited MCC, Principal arranged a sumptuous banquet in honour of the Chaplin who was also a student of MCC ages back. After seeing the banquet dinner, the chaplin said, “I don’t want all these. I want my Heber food. Can I go back to my hall and have my favourite food?”.

The faculty members were highly co-operative and supportive. I must admit that the support from everyone made my cabinet to earn the glorious title “Best Student’s Union”. Shedding all the protocols, senior most faculty members and officers helped us in delivering the best to the college. We used to organize three programmes a day despite the tight academic schedule. Blood donation camps, music concerts, inter-college events, dance programmes, conferences, food festivals, interaction with diplomats etc. All these were possible because of the full support of the faculty members, non-teaching staff, students, and alumni.

The deers jumping casually, lake, farm, and all the greenery surrounding the scrub forest are truly pleasing scenes for every eye. All these were possible due to the sacrifices of thousands of people in the last 178 years. No wonder MCCians are so obsessed with their alma mater wherever they are in the world and whatever high position they scale in their lives.