MRJ - LOSS OF A FRIEND

YEARS are slipping off under our feet. We are aging. We keep losing  friends one after another. Some of such moments pain us so much. One is the recent demise of Prof.Dr. M.R. James, known to all of us as MRJ, the ever smiling and smooth youthful man.

MRJ started his carrier as head of Botany department in our college. I have seen most of the heads of departments, when elevated as head, adorn themselves with a glittering crown over their heads, sit in a  high-backed chair and invariably put a fence around them. All  the philosophy of “all are equal” would be simply thrown off into dust. They usually take a new “avatar”. But this gentle man was entirely a different kind. Headship never made him big or different. Never he showed any ‘big bossism’! I very strongly feel he should be considered as a great ‘model professor’. Not only colleagues, his students too can feel the closeness with him. His lab assistants will vouch for his care and concern. It is very tough to be a good person for all around but MRJ proved it so easily and casually.

A trimmed beard, white shirt and black pants, and always a burning cigarette were his trade marks. Wonder whether he became a non-smoker lately! He never showed any barriers. Always cool and friendly. But when needed he would become serious too, since he is a man of convictions.

Personally, I am a gifted guy. He was always close to me. Our common interest in photography made us share a close relationship. Though there was a dark room in my department, he very happily shared the dark room of his department.  For long, the key of that room was with me. His association helped me develop some talent in macrophotography. His department purchased a costly microscope with attachments for macrophotography. I was freely allowed to use that. During that time many research scholars came to him for taking macrophotographs. He sent them to me and many a time he would give his room keys – the symbol of authority for many HODs – even for overnight use which I would never imagine from any other HODs I have known all through. He was special to me.

Sad we could not maintain our relationship after he moved to Coimbatore.  He was busy there being the secretary or something in his apartment and told me that he was very much involved in  the activities of the  association. This reminded me that decades earlier, nearly fifty years back, his living area in Madurai had the ground water polluted by a nearby soft drink company. He almost did an one-man-fight and took it to the level of collector. He successfully won his fight. A relentless fighter.

My very sincere condolences to his family.