On the 77th Independence Day of the country, Kerala’s Kottayam witnessed the happy reunion of a teacher and student. The student was none other than the District Collector V Vigneshwari herself, and the teacher Christinal Shanthi Theodore Luther, the former’s history teacher at the SBOA Matriculation Higher Secondary School, Madurai, Tamil Nadu. The teacher travelled overnight from Madurai to Kottayam to see her student hoist the tricolour, inspect the guard of honour presented by the police, and take the salute from the podium.
Christinal, who retired as a history teacher from SBOA School hit the road along with two of her former colleagues Siraj, then a lab assistant, and school bus conductor Shanmuga Nathan, to see V Vigneshwari, who serves as the Collector of Kottayam district, in action.
Currently, the principal of Queen Mira International School, Madurai, Christinal had wanted to meet her student Vigneshwari ever since she heard the news that the latter had taken charge as the Collector. With Independence Day coming, she wished to see her student hoisting the National Flag and hence planned to drive to the venue from Madurai. Executing the plan, the teacher threw a surprise to the Kottayam Collector and her family members.
Christinal and her ex-colleagues travelled overnight and went straight to Parade Grounds in Kottayam, which was all set for the flag hoisting ceremony and Independence Day celebrations. They managed to get a seat in the official gallery. As they were waiting for the flag hoisting, Collector Vigneshwari went down from the dais to take her father to the VIP gallery.
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“It was then I saw Christinal miss and was pleasantly surprised. I am seeing her almost after two decades. Though I had lost touch with her after I finished school, she was kind enough to travel overnight from Madurai to Kottayam only to see her student doing the honours. I am moved by her gesture and have no words. I am privileged to meet her and other staff after so long. It was nice of the bus conductor, who used to take me to school on the bus since I was a kid, to come over,” Kottayam Collector and District Magistrate Vigneshwari told TNM.
After the flag hoisting ceremony, the trio had breakfast with the Collector, Kerala State Minister for Water Resources Roshy Augustine, the Kottayam district Superintendent of Police, and other officials at the Police Club in the Parade Grounds, where Vigneshwari introduced her teacher to all of them.
Overflowing with pride, an emotionally charged Christinal said, “After participating in the midnight Independence Day celebrations at Queen Mira International School where I work as Principal, I left for Kottayam by road. We went to the venue without sharing any information about our visit with my student. On seeing us, Vigneshwari unhesitantly took us to the VIP gallery along with her dad and seated us on stage. There cannot be a prouder moment for a teacher than watching her student hoist the tricolour and demonstrating her commitment to serving the people of the country.”
A 2015 Kerala cadre IAS officer and a native of Madurai, Vigneshwari took over as the Collector of Kottayam district in June this year. She did her schooling in SBOA and graduated in civil engineering from Thiagarajar College of Engineering, Madurai. Before this, she was the Managing Director of Kerala Tourism Development Corporation. Her husband NSK Umesh, who too hails from Madurai, serves as the Collector of the neighbouring Ernakulam district.