MADURAI: The chimes of wedding bells, the yackety-yak of people, and the vedic hymns have all converged and are echoing on the walls of the auditorium. The auspicious moment has come, and all eyes are fixed on C Ramachandran who is about to tie the nuptial knot. To the surprise of the scores of friends and relatives gathered, a man in his 40s walks to the stage and hands over the ‘sacred thali’ to the bridegroom, a custom considered as a privilege exclusively for the groom’s sister.
Such is the love and affection the alumni and students of Government Boys Higher Secondary School in Alanganallur have for Dr T Godwin Vedanayagam Rajkumar (48), their physical education teacher (PET), who has helped mould many a life. In the last two decades, many of those students have emerged victorious in various sports competitions, scripting Guinness, Asian and National records. That’s not all. Many more have joined the armed forces and police department, all thanks to the training imparted by the Madurai native.
One among the first batch of students trained by Godwin, M Paranthaman, now a constable attached to Madurai city police, is all praise for his ‘master’. “In many schools, the teachers would just take classes and leave. Godwin sir used to come even on Saturdays and Sundays to train us,” he says. Godwin wanted all his students to make it big in life.
“When a student stopped coming to school, as his father wanted him to help him in running his tea stall, sir convinced the man and brought the boy back to the school. And, that ‘boy’ is now working as a constable,” Paranthaman adds.
The PET of the school for the last 23 years, Godwin has his father, DRD Thomas, an ex-army man to thank for, as he got the job under the ex-servicemen quota. “Not long after I joined there, I felt that I was not worthy for the post as I got the job only because of my father. That’s when I decided to start a mission to mould good sportspersons so that my posting could be justified. And that mission is still on,” he says with a smile, adding he got full support from his father, mother NC Elizabeth, and wife P Rachel Lily Anbammal, in his endeavour.
To keep his students motivated, Godwin takes them in flight once in a year to encourage them by spending from his own pocket. “The students from rural areas are financially poor, they don’t get enough opportunities. It’s the duty of the teacher to help them come up in life,” Godwin, who has bagged many awards including Dr Radhakrishnan Award instituted by the State government, Best PET award and the district’s Best Social Worker award, says.
For many of his students, Godwin is godsend. Tears of joy were rolling down the cheeks of C Ramachandran, PET of a private school and one of the former students of Godwin, when he said how the ‘master’ helped mould his career. “After seeing him, my ambition was to become a PET and here I am,” he says proudly.Cut to a naming ceremony. Ramachandran, who received the ‘thali’ from Godwin, is sitting on the floor, cross-legged, with a baby boy on his lap. He slowly bends forward, takes the baby in his hand and whispers in his ears the name — Godwin.