Friday, June 24, 2005
Not again
Mrs. Rani Chandran, one of the best teachers I have known to have ever taught at PSBB, was killed in a tragic road accident last evening. The link is to the news article.
Two deaths in as many days has left me a little shaken.
Mrs. Chandran was singularly responsible for raising the standard of the English language drama at PSBB. I personally owe a lot to her.
Just a minute ago in the Drama department I am in now, I saw a poster announcing a Bristol Old Vic production of David Campton's Us and Them. I still remember running through the very same production with her many years ago. I will certainly miss her a lot; and so will a bunch of other PSBB bloggers, especially those of us who have worked with her on the English dramas.
Comments to Not again
sorry to hear this. please accept my sympathies on your loss.
posted by 
Prince Roy
Yesterday was a very sad day to you.
posted by Selvakumar
Anand, have blogrolled you.
posted by Krish
i cant even believe this tragedy has occurred - Mrs Chandran was especially close to me both before and after my tenure as Cultural Secretary of PSBB KK Nagar in 1994-95. She guided me to victory at the Talk your way to australia competition in 1993 and also to the finals of the Talk your way to london in 1994.
Yes Anand, she not only raised the standard, she set one. i think the first time any of us had heard proper unaccented Queen's english was from her.
i feel like i lost someone in my own family.
Arjun was another terrific guy, i used to meet him all the time at Mrs Chandran's house and i remember him being vivacious and lighthearted.
why does god take such people???
Gautam Balakrishnan
PSBB KKN 1995
gautam@optsoe.com
posted by 
I was a student of Mrs. Chandran in Sishya. She was an amazing woman and Arjun was such a fiesty happy child. How unfair....
posted by
Rani Chandran was a favourite, and I think, I was hers too. I remember Us and The, and our extended practice sessions, and the trip to KFI.
I remember all our school anniversaries.
Tragic
posted by Ravages/CC
Hello Anand,
----------
Here is a blog for Mrs. rani Chandran started by her son - http://rani-arjunchandran.blogspot.com/
--------
I have been trying to get in touch with you. There is something Vikram (vikramts@yahoo.com) and I (subashs@gmail.com)want to talk with you. Please respond.
Thanks,
Subash
P.S: I was your batch and Vikram was the SPL.
posted by Subash
Quite sad to hear about the demise of Mrs. Chandran. Dont think I was in any of her classes but certainly have interacted with her and U quite vividly recall her face actually.
PSBBian (1996).
posted by
Extremely sad to know about RC's demise. As said a loss of a true teacher.
Arun Varadarajan
PSBB KKN Batch of 1998 and your longtime classmate - from 6th Std ?
posted by Chennaizombie
sad to c u lose some1 u loved esp when she is one of those "good teachers community", something our society sadly lacks
posted by ioiio
very sad da. mrs. chandran changed my life inexorably. i will never forget chitty chitty bang bang, pirates of penzance, oliver twist etc. i had small parts in all of them...
Sudharshan
XII E2
posted by
Yes very sad indeed. She was more than a teacher to me. As Gautam rightly said, she set the standard. Our anniversary programs were totally revamped when she arrived. She added that touch of class.
I'll miss her.
Nikhil Jayakumar.
PSBB KKN
XII F2 (1997)
nikhil.jayakumar@gmail.com
posted by
Sorry about the loss.
From the comments left by other PSBB-ians, I could see how much she was/is loved & respected.
posted by Chakra
It is great to see so many of her students remembering her fondly. I'm back in touch with so many of you after 7 or 8 yrs now; regrettably in such circumstances.
posted by Anand
Anand, sorry about not reading the post prior to posting (was doing it at 3 am so hopefully you can excuse me). I visited the site created for them. I just cannot imagine someone coping with this multiple loss and yet making enough time and energy to create a blog so that others can know about someone they missed and offer their condolences. My heart goes out to the family at this irreplaceable loss and the fact that this was a personal loss to you too.
posted by Krish
Anand,
May be you might have got this mesage from Vikram. Considering the amount of traffic your blog gets, I thought it would be good to post it in your blog.
Subash
---------------
Ok people...
we need to get to work IMMEDIATELY here and I hope you
wont shirk!
I've spoken to Mrs.Hamsa and she is fully supportive
of our plans.She had some suggestions of her own as
well and I think we stand to benefit by incorporating
them.
1.We start a trust fund into which we can deposit our
contributions. As such, since we want to make sure
that contributions can be made and amounts be
withdrawn whenever needed, the trust will be
established with one of the major banks in
chennai-IOB/state bank etc. 2-3 people will be
designated to operate this account, but as such
anybody can make contributions independent of these
designated people. this will facilitate everybody to
donate whenever they can.
2.we are going to collect a good sum(whatever
possible) and use the interest accrued as the cash
prize awarded every year. therefore, i appeal to you
to contribute as much as you can....this year,as well
as every possible year. i'm sure all of us can afford
a minimum of $10(for people residing in the states).
3.mrs.hamsa will take charge of the trust when she
returns to india in Nov. we hope to have the trust
established by that time. this will ensure that the
regulated amount is withdrawn from the trust every
year at the required time.
4.SriSrividhya (12e2, '98 batch) will be our person in
charge in chennai(well,all of india!).please make sure
you direct your correspondence to her. her email
address is srivi_i@yahoo.com.
5.IMPORTANT:The Anniversary celebrations have been
fixed for july 25th this year. obviously we cannot
make a presentation THIS year. but we hope to make a
formal announcement of this award at the celebrations.
Again, srivi will be making this announcement at the
ceremony.
For this, we will be drafting a formal message that
goes out from the alumni community. We will specify
details of the award as well. Taking upon Rohit
Sankaran's suggestion, we will also use whatever money
we have collected before this date to make a cash
presentation to Mrs.YGP.This will be used to get some
good books and references to the English Language Lab
in the KKN school. This lab was Mrs.Chandran's
conception and it has now been renamed as the Rani
Chandran Language Lab.
WE NEED CONTRIBUTIONS TO START FLOWING IN FOR THIS
CASH AWARD PRESENTATION.
It would be good if we manage to collect atleast
2500-5000 rupees soon, so that Srivi can make this
presentation on July 25th(which is 17 days away).
I will inform you about details on how you can make
your donations for this.Please remember that we hope
you will contribute for the trust as well,when it is
operating.
6.Srivi is working on illustrating a memorial
scrapbook. PLEASE TRY TO GET YOUR LETTERS ACROSS TO
HER ASAP. WE NEED TO FINISH THIS PROJECT AT THE
EARLIEST.
If you wish to mail in the states, please refer to old
emails where I have supplied addresses for myself and
Priti. BUT WE CANNOT WAIT ANY LONGER. PLEASE SEND YOUR
LETTERS IMMEDIATELY.
7.Remember, pictures help a lot. So send us some
copies if you can arrange for that.
As always, help us in spreading the word!
Thanks
posted by
anand,
nope, i was not aware of any of this. i think i got the general picture from the previous comment. and it looks like this is a mailin list discussion. can u get me in?
im not in touch with vikram too. do let me know whats up.
posted by RamV
Hey.. my sympathies too. One of my classmates here at UNH also a former student at the school where Rani Chandran taught told me about the tragic incident... She was pretty upset about it and had good things to say for Mrs. Chandran.
posted by Leon
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