Those were the halcyon days of my life. My three-year stint at Prajyoti Niketan College made me a holistic person,” says Mollywood actor Lena, who is known for her distinctive characters in Ee Adutha Kalathu, Traffic, Gaddama, Randam Bhavam and Santham.
Lena had already completed four movies when she joined Prajyoti, Thrissur. That was in 1999. The actress, who wanted to concentrate on her film career approached Father Francis Kurissery, the then principal of the college and said she would have to stay away from college often for shootings. “His calm reply was, ‘you can take leave as long as you score good marks’. I found it reasonable and readily agreed,” recalls Lena. True to those words, Lena secured third rank in psychology from Calicut University, three years later.
Lena was a trained dancer but it was only during her Prajyoti days that her other talents were discovered. “We students practically lived in college during those years. We were involved in all activities. I was least interested in sports but surprisingly I became the judo and cycling champion of the university,” she says.
She still remembers the excitement she experienced during dance festivals. “In many fests, we represented our college in the cinematic and classical dance competitions and won prizes.” Her acting experience also gave her the pluck to play lead roles in dramas.
Lena’s main subject was psychology. She says, “The psychology department was a prestigious one in the university. The subject was new to me. We were taught in detail the various mental disabilites. We used to watch people closely and used to say, everyone except us are mad. But by the time we left college, we were so much into the subject that we used to feel we are the crazier ones.”
She fondly remembers her teachers — Varghese Paul, Monsy Edward, Sandhya, Dhanya and Shaijan — who were strict when it came to academic performance but were otherwise genial. “Our college is surrounded by lush green forest, which would perk up during the monsoons,” says Lena. “We had to trek for 10 minutes every day. It was hard initially, but became easy later.”
She narrates a hilarious experience she had in the college: “Father Kurissery once narrated a story about a person who by mistake said ‘Hearty welcome’ during a vote-of-thanks speech. It lodged in my mind and I made the same mistake during the Arts Festival. Everyone had a laugh.
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