Sir,
Apropos the letter Tribute to my Teacher Prof. S. Dandapani by Dr.N.N. Prahallada, former Associate Professor in Education, RIE (SOM dated Apr. 22), I too would like to share my association with Prof. Dandapani.
When I was appointed as Principal of Navodaya Vidyalaya, Shivaragudda, Mandya, in 1986, I was asked to go to New Delhi for a six-day training. As per instructions, I went to NCERT guest house. The receptionist gave me a room and told me that there was already one person in the room and I was the second person.
I went into the room and the person they told me was not there. The room attendant told me he had gone out for a walk. As I was tired of the journey, I thought of taking a nice hot bath and went to the bath room. I finished my bath and dressed up and was waiting for the person.
He arrived. A tall personality. Smiling face. I stood up and introduced myself. He told me that he was Pof.S. Dandapani of RIE, Mysore. I was very happy to get his company but at the same time I was a bit afraid of talking to him as he was an elderly person with more experience. He spoke humorously and we usually spoke about English literature.
In the early morning amidst the falling mist in February, we used to go out for a walk, and at a distance there was a chaiwala who used to give us good tea. Generally we spoke about R.K. Narayan’s books and exchanged jokes in it. Thus I spent six days with him fruitfully.
Every morning going for a walk and talking about literature, education issues and so on. I learnt a lot in his company. Even after returning from Delhi I used to go to RIE to meet him.
Even after my retirement (he was also retired by then) we used to meet in Ramakrishna Institute of Moral and Spiritual Education (RIMSE) where I was given teaching assignment in B.Ed. section and he to deliver moral and spiritual lectures.
A well read person and more than that a great humanitarian, we have lost a treasure of knowledge with his demise.
– Dr. H.S. Raghavendra Rao, J.P. Nagar, 23.4.2017
Sir Dr. S Dandapani was a great teacher, inspiring mentor and a rolemodel for a whole generation of top teachers produced by RCE Mysore. As a young man in late sixties he used to be the first man in the morning to arrive at RCE on a Java motorcycle(250 cc). As a classroom teacher of Educational psychology he revealed not only his erudition but also his sensitizing, understanding of young students.
He became a household name among readers of SOM, The Hindu and Bhavan’s journal. His letters where examples of brevity, wit, scholarship peppered by his wisdom. As a professor he has left for posterity a definitive book on Educational psychology. Many of us knew his astonishing inwardness into Carnatic music. He never left the smallest opportunity to inspire his students to pursue higher studies and research. We in the English department recall his episodic narratives that punctuated his lectures in Psychology that reminded us of the wry comic genius of Mysore’s own R K Narayan. To conclude I take I must say that in his own life he exemplified what he preached as a guru- a teacher must intensely cultivate an unquenchable yearning for learning. The last three words are an extract from a title of one of his articles in the Education colum of The Hindu. Mysore is now poorer with the loss of another Mahamopadhyaya.