Six decades after they left school in Gudivada, a few students met up with their respected teacher

On Teachers’ Day nothing can be more heart-warming than this news about four 76-year-old ‘students’ who tracked down their 96-year-old teacher and felicitated him.

Apparao, Purnachandra Rao, Pattabhi Rama, Mohd Ahmed, Venkat Ram and Bose were students at Gudivada Municipal High School in Gudivada, Krishna district between 1953 and 1956 when Harinarayana was their class teacher and taught them English for VIII, IX and X standards.

Now retired from various professions, these ‘boys’ moved away from Gudivada and settled in different cities including Hyderabad. However, they would frequent Gudivada for an occasional get-together. During one such meet they discovered that their favourite teacher now lives in Hyderabad. When they paid him a visit at his home in Manikonda, what followed was an emotional and exciting reunion. Recalling the experience, Purnachandra Rao says, “He’s (Harinarayana) slightly hard on hearing now but that did not stop him from recalling and talking about good old days. He was happy seeing us.” Owing his career after his B.Tech to his teacher, Purnachandra Rao says, “Most of us became engineers because of him, he was so good in teaching mathematics that we became interested in the subject. When it came to English grammar, there was no one better than him. He knew Wren & Martin thoroughly and would recommend it to us.” Harinarayana had done his Masters in Political Science from Benaras Hindu University and was the only one to pass out in first division, but his knowledge went much more beyond his degrees, recalls Purnachandra Rao fondly.