From left to right: Vijaya Subramanian, Shanta Sundari Brahmam, Shanta Ramaswamy, Rajathi Sarat and Kamala Kasturi

It is a matter of immense pride to us octogenarians that our alma mater, Queen Mary’s College (QMC) is a centurion this year and that we are alive to be a part of the celebrations.

So what’s there to gloat over a college’s century? One that’s going to seed, that has unkempt grounds overgrown with weeds, dirty corridors and forlorn-looking buildings presenting a poor picture of itself.

But to the two of us, it once meant a window to the world, freedom from the four walls of home, if you remember the ethos of those times, 65 years ago. Our nation had first shaken itself free of British rule and talk of women’s emancipation was in the air.

Queen Mary’s College was born on July 14, 1914 (incidentally, Bastille Day, and the year of commencement of the Great War), thanks to the indefatigable attempts of Dorothy De la Hey, the founder and first Principal. It is India’s third oldest women’s college. The College fulfilled the need for higher education of the women of not only Madras Presidency, but many distinguished families from North India also sent their daughters to study at QMC. It was not only cosmopolitan, secular, but also elitist, perhaps, at the time, but the abiding memories of the College are the spirit of freedom we enjoyed and the profound sense of decency and discipline that was instilled in us.

What did you achieve with your degrees, people ask. They know not the virtue of doing nothing! Yet some of our contemporaries made more than a mark. Sharada Pai, based in New Delhi, is an educational consultant in Delhi Public School. Ananda Lakshmi and Kalyan Lakshmi, the duo of Vidya Mandir, and Meena Muthiah of Chettinad Vidyashram in Chennai. Dr. Matangi Ramakrishnan, the surgeon, was known then for her long black plait. P.S. Sakuntala Raman was selected to the IAS and rose to become the Additional Director General of Doordarshan. And Usha Nath started the Queen Marian Club in New Delhi, a club active for 50 years now.

People ask us about the facilities in the College in the 1940s and 50s. With the seashore just 500 metres away, there was no need for ceiling fans. Frankly, I don’t remember if we had any. There was just one toilet for the five to six hundred girls. Not much different from now! Taps without water was the norm even then. We shunned the toilet. Water for washing and drinking was from just one tap, with the girls jostling around to get it. There was no culture of everyone carrying a water bottle.

A lunch box was a common sight; it could not be avoided. But we did not carry too many books. Yes, looking back, how carefree student life was then, leisurely and weightless.

We were the first women in our families to get degrees, but more than that what we still cherish are the great friendships that last to this day. The two of us met on the first day in college and have been inseparable ever since. We caught up with Kamala Kasturi straight from the wedding hall with flowers in her hair and a shining mangal sutra. We became best friends from then and still are. We had great outings in her car for our harmless yet ‘daring’ pursuits like seeing a film occasionally or a visit to Jaffar’s for a Peach Melba or to Modern Café for masal dosai (then the equivalent of the present-day pizza).

Shanta Sundari, a dancer and the unchallenged beauty of QMC of our time, now lives in the U.S. but still keeps in touch with us. Rajathi (alias Rajalakshmi) Sarat completed our group, which was referred to by  many as the ‘Gang of Five’. Sarat, who penned a limerick in our praise, called us the five fingers of a hand. Rajathi’s passing away last year has left us four-fingered.

We had a mentor in our classmate A.V.Padma, seven years our senior in age, who joined QMC after marriage and motherhood. Nearing ninety now, she lives on the outskirts of Chennai, in the premises of a school named after her, in the land donated by her to the Punjabi Association to run an orphanage and school for the poor. Cookery queens may recall her as the translator of the highly popular Samaithuppar books into English as Cook and See!

Dr. Nallamuthu Ramamoorthy was our Principal, a stickler for discipline and decorum. After her there was Vijaya Koman, a graceful personality who left soon to make way for a Ms. Lakshmi.

As for the lecturers, we wonder whether there are such dedicated teachers nowadays to guide the students. Ahalya Bai, who taught Shakespeare, actually acted out the scenes. History lecturer Kalyani Kutti Amma in a traditional Malayalam mundu, Achayya looking elegant in a Coorgi saree, Krishna who insisted on the students reading aloud the English text in class, and Vinaya Bai (who had just one lung) are all etched in our memories. Ms. Thomas of the English Department looked so majestic that you avoided colliding with her. For Sanskrit students, it was the simple Devaki Menon who, blushing, skipped many pages of Kumara Sambhavam, making us curious as to the contents of those pages. However, students were assured that no questions would be asked in the exam from the skipped portions! Our Librarian (we forgot the name) never failed to amuse us, always dressed in Conjeevaram silks with zari borders, as if coming straight from a wedding! Dr. Irawathy (later Principal) of the Geography Department and Rajamani of the Tamil section had rooms which were next to our B.A. classrooms, giving us no chance for any sort of revelry – a silence zone.

In the first or second year of our Intermediate, a college carnival was proposed on the lines of the annual YMCA carnivals. Though initially she disliked the idea, Dr. Ramamoorthy later yielded to the pleas of students and staff alike to have some week-end fun. Memory being somewhat hazy about an event which took place six decades back, I only recollect the fete ending in chaos due to some mischief-mongers and boys from neighbouring colleges. Needless to say, the red-faced Principal cancelled the event and chastised everyone, forbidding us to talk or mention it ever, a vow kept until now!

A more recent incident that was the talk of the town was a spirited defence organised by the old students’ association to fend off the State Government’s efforts to take over QMC land for a new TN Secretariat. Later, dilapidated Capper House, where it all started, was replaced with a new building. But a pond that fronted the old building is no longer there, nor are the fish it hosted which kept a watchful eye on the girls!