Belated birthday wish to Abraham Verghese & tributes to my Indian high school teachers

This blog entry was supposed to be posted last week on May 30th, the day the only Ethiopian author whose books made it to New York Times Best Sellers list was born. I am speaking of none other than Abraham Verghese who was born on May 30, 1955 in Ethiopia. His Indian parents from Kerala came to Ethiopia as high school teachers. From the three books he had written, I have read his last one Cutting for Stone. Actually I started by reading but finished it by listening to the audio book driving to and from work. I enjoyed it immensely. The only misgiving I have, as I said in the past is that, I wish the publishing company found Ethiopian like Lulseged Kumsa to narrate in the audiobook than an Indian narrator. I believe the Indian born narrator did good job but when it comes to Ethiopian names of individuals & places, an Ethiopian would have been better fit.
I admit, I can't get enough of the discussions about this book or about this author. Unfortunately, I was not able to attend in person his book event at Politics & Prose in Washington, D.C.. But I followed his interview on Diane Rehm show around same time when he was in DC area. I think it was one of the best interviews Diane Rehm did on her show. Lots of people called in. Perhaps that was the reason her producers rebroadcast it from time to time. I have shared the link to that particular show to many friends and I recommend all to listen to his other interviews or discussion of his books as well as read his articles or reviews to his writings from his official website. His upbringing in Ethiopia and the circumstances he left Ethiopia is well described in this article.

BTW, Abraham Verghese interviewed Meles Zenawi, the current autocratic leader of Ethiopia which he knew as a student in medical school some twenty something years ago and the interview was published in mid or late 90s either in New Yorker or Harper Magazine. I do not know why that article is not listed in the official website. The story goes like this. Abraham went to General Wingate School and HSU Medical College around same time with Meles. Legesse as he was known then was one year junior to Abraham. Couple of years after the 1974 Ethiopian revolution, Abraham left Ethiopia to pursue medical studies in his ancestral land India, while Legesse abandoned his medical studies earlier and joined an ethnic secessionist rebel force in his native province Tigray.
Fast forward some twenty something years, Abraham became resident of U.S. and accomplished writer to magazines while practicing medicine and Legesse Zenawi became head of state in Ethiopia with new nom-de-gurre Meles after the rebel group he led (Tigray People Liberation Front) entered Addis Ababa the capital city of Ethiopia alongside other rebel forces.

Having said the above about the accomplished author, let me take this opportunity to pay tributes to my Indian high school teachers who were mostly from also state of Kerala  like Abraham's parents.
There was the slim, good looking Ms. Kurian who used to teach Physics while her husband taught Chemistry. We used to be awed with her good looks. She reminded us the Indian film stars we saw in Indian movies. She was also good teacher. Her husband was respected "guru" when it comes to Chemistry especially among those students who were good in Science. I was not. There were other married couples from Kerala such as the Cherians who had been teaching at the school for long time & the Matthews who joined lately. Mrs. Matthews taught biology to our class. I remember when she drew perfectly a flower plant & its reproductive system on the blackboard using different color chalks to show parts such as ovary, receptacle, pollen, petal & stigma. She ask us to draw same on our notebook and study it. Another time she drew a frog with its anatomical parts and asked the class to do same in our notebook. Making rounds to inspect what we drew, she came to my desk and commented: "You are small and your frog is small. I hardly see the parts there." I tried to explain with broken English (YETEWELAGEDE INGLIZGNA) the line I drew first went out of proportion and that I was trying to make sure it fits in my notebook.
I still remember those words ringing in my ears. Yes! I was the smallest & youngest in the class. For those who did not know me, I was often mistaken for a kid who may have crossed the fence from the neighboring middle school. (How I managed to skip grades and ended up in high school &college well in advance of my age counterparts is a story for another time.)
 Another thing I remember about my teachers Mr. & Mrs. Mathews is how Mr. Mathew got his literal & cultural shock when he got this sudden & noisy slap on his round(GUNCHAM) face from a student who came to school drunk itching for a fight. The student was among the popular ones who also happened to play for some futbol club in the area. This was a time students often striked and closed the school for various reasons some of them frivolous & ridiculous in hindsight. There was a time we closed the school demanding to take regional languages such as OROMIGNA, TIGRIGNA, WOLAYTIGNA instead of French "Imperialist language" in the parlance of the time.
Well, this was the time also where gangs formed around neighborhoods (some of them were notorious in their ferocity) staged fights from time to time outside the compounds of schools after classes are over. The incident I mentioned above happened before start of the 2nd shift, while 1st shift students were coming out. I am not sure how much this popular futbol player was involved with the gangs but on that day he came to school drunk and he was creating melee around him running from one side of the street to another. YAZUGN LIQEQUGN type. It was at this moment that Mr.& Mrs. Matthews got off from Bus or Taxi (I am not sure) and started to walk toward the small road to the gates of the school. All of a sudden, the drunk student run into them and grabbed Mr. Matthews with one hand and gave a Whooosh Slap! on his round face and ran away. I don't remember whether the poor short Mr. Matthews fell to the ground or not. What I remember was the "Red" shocked face on both husband & wife and the empathy I felt for them when I saw Mr. Matthews & his relatively bigger wife bewildered not knowing even how to react. Amazingly, almost 2 decades later I saw & recognized that student in an Evangelical Church in Washington DC area. It seems he had become a PENTE (follower of the Pentecostal churches). What would be more amazing to me perhaps to others who knew him from our young years is the fact that he had Muslim name. I believe he came from Muslim family. What a-turn-a-round.  I have not had a chance to talk with him the day I saw him. But, I am pleased to see that he had changed from violent & rowdy young man to a peaceful & religious person in regardless of the faith he chose to follow.  

There were also teachers who came as singles to teach in Ethiopia from India & other countries. The ones I remember are Munir whom we had as Physics teacher in later years. He was young Kashmiri (I believe) with fit body structure and cold/unfriendly attitude. It seemed he knew the subject but was not good communicator especially compared to Ms. Kurian whom he had as Physics teacher earlier. He was the only Indian teacher though who can not be physically intimidated or do not shy from physical confrontation as he was physically fit and with attitude. Before Mrs. Matthews we had Fernando from Ceylon who taught us biology. There were Phillipinos Mr. Cruz & another guy whose name I forgot who taught either English or Mathematics. I am sure there were others as well who escaped my memory at the moment.
As to classmates, the children of Mr. Eswaran, the Indian born journalist working for Ethiopian Herald were taking class with us and I believe most of them were born in Ethiopia like Abraham Verghese. I remember one of Mr. Eswaran's son got scholarship to Cuba with my childhood friend and became successful in U.S.A. after earning his engineering degree in Cuba. Mr. Eswaran and other Indian born lecturers & professors also taught me after I joined Addis Ababa University. When I left Ethiopia for good in late Eighties, it was to study in India and there I had fond memory of classmates & professors. There would be time, I will write about them in the future but for this moment I wanted to express gratitude to my Indian high school teachers and cherish good memories of the time I spent as their lucky student to them. A belated birthday wish also to my idol writer Abraham Verghese.
ps. Some may wonder why I say nothing about my Ethiopian teachers. I want to assure my readers that I feel immense gratitude to my Ethiopian elementary, middle & high school teachers. There were lots of them: Principal Sisay, Endale my Social Studies teacher & others from FELEGE YORDANOS as well as Tselote, Selamawit & others from high school.  Many such as Ato Sisay, Tselote & Selamawit have died some in tragic ways. It saddened me even to think about it. I believe others may have died as well. May their blessed soul rest in peace. I am reminded almost everyday that I owe it to all my teachers living & dead for successful outcome I have become. I have become educator in formal & informal environment because I was inspired & impacted by them in a good way.