Our teachers' nicknames

Our high school teachers were referred by their name initials.   Their initials were marked in our time table against which subject they took. The 1970-73 batch was lucky in the sense that the old timers were still around and started retiring. I was in 'C' Section.

As in most schools and colleges, students are renown to expand the initials of teachers to make funny nicknames. In our school too, there were some funny nicknames. They were not to disrespect them but purely meant for fun. Some teachers also seemed to know of their nicknames.  Some nicknames both silly and intelligent, were coined many batches back and passed on to the next batch and the next and so on.

I try to list out some I remember.  A few are not necessarily on initials. Many are not alive now, except probably 3-4, NSS, KRK, PV and CVR.  I have met the first three in recent years.

AVR - Ardha Vaday Ranganna - His real name was A.V.Ranganna.  English teacher, short man, chain smoker who had 'smoker's cough' and never seemed to know Kannada.
ASL - Lal Bahadur Shastri - because he had a resembled our Prime Minister in the 1960s. No initial expansion.  His name was A.S.Lakshminarayana. He was poverty-striken after he retired and used to walk the streets selling incense sticks to earn a living.  It was such a sorry state to see of a teacher. He took Civics and Geography.
MNL - none as far as I know. He was the Head Master when I joined 8th and retired at the end of the term. His name was MN Lakshminarasimhaiah. English teacher. No known nickname for him.
BN - Beedhi Naayi [Street dog]. He was B.Narasinga Rao. He took Chemistry.  His son was in our class, B.N.Ramesh.  There were six Ramesh-s in our class!!
MKG - Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. He was M.K.Gopala Iyengar.  I think he took Science or English occasionally.
NSS - NoNa Saayso Shoora.  N.S.Seetharam. Took over from MNL as Head Master in 1971. Algebra teacher, renown for his neat writing on the board.
NSV - NoNa Saayso Veera.  NoNa is fly.  His name was N.S. Venkata.. something [not sure]. Physics teacher.
MRK - Madhya Raatri KaLLa [mid night thief] - M.R.Krishnamurthy. He took Physics.
KRK - Krishnamurthypuram RoTTi KaLLa.  K.R.Krishnamurthy [RoTTi is flat bread, KaLLa is thief]. The strictest Maths teacher.
SNC - GodhamoTTay.  His name was S.N.Chakravarthy. Biology and Chemistry [?].
SK - Cannot remember if there was any for him. He came for Biology.
VK - Vodakal KunDi.  Cracked buttock!  V.Krishnaiah [our PE teacher].
NL - Naayi Laddhi.  Dog Shit.  N,Lakshminarasimhaiah [he was my father's classmate in school, 1930s].  Geography teacher.
CVR - none for him I think. English teacher.
PV - cannot recall any name for him. History, Civics and English [non-detail]
MSK - Chinnada GaNi. [Gold mining].  Mohammad S..... Khan.  He used to dig his nostrils and keep them clean just like one cleans the barrels of a gun!  He was made to fill the 'Work Experience" slot where he made us do nothing. Sometimes MKG filled this slot and taught us sewing.  MSK was our school's only Urdu teacher and so he only had one class per day and students were few too.  Since nothing was done, the boys did all sort of nuisance in this time.
Ganapathi Bhat - He was renown for his below the belt jokes and was often referred to as 'poly bhatta'. Our school's only Hindi teacher.
Anantha Somayaji - no nicknames.  Our school's only Sanskrit teacher.
VSS - Cannot recall his name - Srinivasa Murthy may be. He was our school's only Kannada teacher.
MCC - He was a poetand taught Science and English.  No nickname as far as I know. He was M.C.Chokkanna who always sported the caste mark - a vertical red line on his forehead.  MKG also sported that red line once in a while.
DVN - Donku VeeNay Naarada.  This is the funniest of them all. Naarada in mythology having a crooked VeeNay [a string instrument]. I think he was D.V.Narasimhamurthy. English and Science.
SR - Name not familiar to me.  Due to his short stature, he was nicknamed "SR -KuLLa". He joined as a fresher to teach Kannada when we were in 10th and much later became HM.

There was very old and wrinkle-faced attendant of the school. Jogaiah - everyone called him Jogi.  He was the one who rung the beautiful hand bell and too attendance registers back to the HM from all classes at the stipulated time.  Just remembering him here.

Have I missed out any?

Comments are awaited.. with more memories!!

Our MKG at Sarada Vilas High School

He had the same initials as Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, MKG!  M. K. Gopala Iyengar. He had a Gandhian discipline, was slim, fair and soft-spoken.  This teacher used to occupy one of the slots usually in the after-lunch sessions about twice a week.  MKG was always clad in a spic and span white kurta and pyjama, neatly pressed.  He came on his shining clean bicycle that had a nice cane basket hung to the handlebar. 

The filled the "Work Experience" class which we used to like. I remember that MKG's hobby was tailoring and sewing.  He had made us to learn simple sewing techniques and he used to tell that they are very useful skills that can be handy all our lives. He had made us to buy a thimble, a needle, white thread, some buttons and some white cotton cloth.  I have not forgotten the hand sewing skills he taught - hemming, buttoning, making the buttonhole and using the thimble on the middle finger-tip for protection and as a tool to push the needle while hand-sewing. And the thimble I bought in 1972 is still with me, though the finger has overgrown. Here it is: 

We used to like his session better than the one occupied by another Urdu language teacher [MSK]. MSK would just sit and doze on his chair. When he was awake, he would make use of this time by cleaning his nostrils using his left hand fingers and making a tiny dry-mucous ball and......?  This was the noisiest 40 minuets besides the Sanskrit class which Somayaji was handling.  MSK could ever control the boys who went on murmuring and chatting but his shouts only dissolved in the noise.  He too did not bother much and just spent time till the bell. This was one leisure period that all of us enjoyed in that way.  Some of them used the time to finish their homework to save time for play at home!