THE STORY OF ULAHANNAN FROM A SMALL VILLAGE

THE STORY OF ULAHANNAN

FROM A  SMALL VILLAGE

( Case Study for use in Students’ Training )

Ulahannan was born in 1948, as the seventh child, in a  family of a farmer who owned about 30 acres of farm land. in a small village  in Kerala, This village was in a some what remote area not connected with buses to other places.. Two persons owned bullock carts, and the father of Ulahannan was one of them. A few people owned bicycles, but not any one in the family of Ulahannan.

Ulahannan’s father had  school education upto the 8^th class.Ulahannan’s mother had passed away when he was about one year old, and so he grew up without any memory of his mother. But when he was about 3 years of age, his father married again, bringing home a step mother for him, and his other siblings.

There were two principles of education that Ulahannan’s father laid before him to follow. First, he would tell  Ulahannan: “Why are going to the school? It is to study. So in the school,  the only thing you should    is to study, and not to play.” Second, he would again say: “  Why are you going to the school? It is for studying. So, you should study only in the school, and not at home.”. Every day, while out of the school, Ulahannan was expected to do all kinds of work at home, helping his father to run the farm, and he was almost forbidden from studying at home.

So Ulahannan did all his studies in the school, including completion of all assignments. He did his assignments during internals when the other students  did playing and merry making. At home, he did all kind of jobs, including looking after the cattle, mingling with the farm workers, and even joining them for work as he grew up. He enjoyed everything that he did, both at home and in the school. As he did his studies well, all his teachers loved him. He  used to score the highest marks in almost every subject of study, including extracurricular activities and win the first price for all study- related competitions, general knowledge, including essay writing, writing short stories, composing poetry,  competition  in akshara slokas, etc. While doing his high school studies, he even wrote and published an article in the Deepika, a well known news paper of the State, highlighting the developmental problems his village.

When, after the results for the SSLC examinations were announced, Ulahannan reportrd to his father that he has passed with a first class, his respose was” Is it such a great thing to get a first class after studying for eleven years in the school?” He was quite unhappy with that response.

The frustrated Ulahannan was more worried about his further studies, for which he knew his father would not send him. In fact his father had taken a vow, announced to everybody, that he would not send any of his children for any studies beyond the school. This vow he had taken in a special context, following a great frustration of his own. He had sent his eldest son to do higher studies of B.A. Honors, equivalent to the M. A. Degree in the St. Joseph’s College, in far away Thrissinappally, which was  the most prestigious college in South India at that time. And this son passed the final examination with a first class, in the year 1949. Then his father requested him to come home and get married so that there would be some at hone to look after his youngsters, especially since his mother had already passé away. But, not agreeing to the request made by his father, this son informed his father that he would not like to get married, because he was going to become a priest in the Jesuit Oganisation  of the Catholic Church, and  he in return suggested that his father could marry again. This infuriated his father,  and he attributed the arrogance and disobedience of his son to the higher education given ti him. It was in this context that he took a vow not to send more of his children for higher studies. Now Ulahannan was to face the consequence of such a vow taken by his father.

Now opportunities opened themselves before Ulahannan  through a vocation promoter from Tamilnadu, belonging to the Jesuit Order to which Ulahannan’s eldest brother too belonged, This vocation promoter  invited  Ulahannan to join his organization to work for its objectives, which were explained to him. These objectives  appealed to Ulahannan, and he decided to follow that path, and left home at the age of sixteen. Recognising the interest and potential of Ulahannan for perusing higher studies, this organisation  not only encouraged him, but also enabled him to pursue higher studies. During his P.G. studies, Ulahannan started receiving scholarships from the Government of India, through the Indian Councilo of Social Science Research,  given on the basis of academic merit alone, which enabled him in 1976  to obtain Ph.D. from the JNU,  the most prestigious University in India, and later M.B.A. from the very reputed Leeds University in U.K. As he was completing the Ph.D., the JNU itself, offered him the post of Assistant Professor, to teach the scholars doing M. Phil and Ph.D. Programmes there in the most new field of   Eco-friendly Management of Science and Technology.

When he was doing his M.A. studies, in the M.S. University of Baroda in 1972, Ulahannan could a win a national level award of Rs. 2000, winning a competition on the philosophy of Aurobindo, in which he defeated more than 250 persons most of them were teachers from  and Professors of Colleges and Universities, When Ulahannan won the First Prize, the second Prize was won by Dr. Ramnath Sharma, Professor and Head of the Department of Philosophy in the Meerut University ( who had by then produced 11 Ph.D.s in Philosophy under his guidance), and the Third Prize was won by  Dr. Banergee, Professor in the International Institute for Aurobindo Studies in Pondicherry. In the Prize awarding ceremony in Delhi, attended by a huge gathering of thousands of people,  Ulahannan was presented the cheque for Rs. 2000/- by Mr. A.B. Vajpai who later became the Prime Minister of India and this cheque was  signed by Mr. A.B. Vajpai himself, in hid capacity as the Cgairman of the Den Dayal  Research Institute that had conduted the competition. On this occasion the winners of the Second and Third Prizes as well as Dr. Subramaniam Swamy, Professor in the I.I.T. Delhi, and President of the Delhi University Teacher’s Union,  ( who was a former Professor of the Harvard University in USA, and  who later became Minister of the Central Government) offered Lecturer Post to Ulahannan in their respective Universities.

In 1975, when Ulahannan was a resource person  in the Indian Social Institute in New Delhi, an International Conference of University Adminsotration was held in New Delhi. One of the foreign participants in it was Dr. Tomas  Patric  Melady,  President

( Vice-Chancellor) of the  Bridge Port University in Connecticut, USA, He happened to visit the Indian Social Institute where he met Ulahannan during his interactions with  the executive members of that organization. Impressed by the credentials of Ulahannan, Dr. Thomas Melady ( who was later found to have been awarded Honorary Doctorates from 16 Universities in the world) invited Ulahannan to become a teacher in his University, but Ulahannan politely declined this offer for his own personal reasons. Later, when Ulahannan was doing his MBA studies in the Leeds University, he recived a letter from Dr. Thomas Melady, who was at that time, functioning as the Election Campaign Manager of  George Bush (Senior),  contesting for his second term as the President of the USA, and this letter, written on the letter head of Mr. George Bush, was signed by not only Dr. Tomas Melady, but also by his wife and daughter. With great happiness, Ulahannan showed this precious document to his classmates in the MBA programme, all of whom looked at this with amazement and disbelief!

In 1982, when Ulahannan was teaching the students of the M.P.A. Department in the South Gujarat University in Surat, thrlugh his own efforts, he got an opportunity to present a paper on a Behavioural Science topic in an International Conference in the University of Pensylvania in U.S.A.

As a professor in the Apex Training Institute in his own home State from 1982 to 2008, Ulahannan conducted training programmes and engaged training sessions for all categories of civil servants. The participants sometimes included also members of the I.A.S., I.P.S. and I.F.S., including, once a Chief Secretary of a North Indian State, and on another occasion, 12 D.G.P.s of various States in India, He also conducted more than 100 training programmes in and out of his State  for all categories of functionaries in the educational field, including teachers in schools, colleges and University departments, school Head Masters, Principals of Colleges, Heads of University departments, and Mangers  of Schools and Colleges. For several years he also provided consultancy services to the AIACHE, the apex organization of Institutes for Christian Higher Education, new Delhi. During these years, he used to conduct Leadership Training Programmes for the Principals, Heados Departments, and Teachers of the member colleges of the AIACHE, who later used to invite him to conduct such programmes for the teachers of their own colleges in places such a New Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad, Madura, Vijayawada, Shimla, Nagaland, etc.

Once Ulahannan had given a copy of his book on Management of Colleges to the  Education Minister of the State. On the next day, the minister called Ulahannan over the phone to express his grief that some one nhad stolen that book from his table in the office, and requested for another copy, promising to return it after reading. On another occasion, another Education Minister sent his car to fetch Ulahannan to his office for closed door discussions on policy decisions on education.  On a still different occasion, the State Commissioner and Principal Secretary for Higher Education  called Ulahannan to his office and requested him to propose improvements in the draft for a policy decision on performance appraisal of college and University teachers in the state. On a different occasion a Vice-chancellor of a major University in the state entruste4d to him the task of giving quality improvement training to all the  senior office staff of the university, numbering more than two hundred, as a consultancy assignment. Ulahannan was also appointed Dean of the Faculty of Management Studies in the University located in the Capital of the State.  Once an emissary and confidant of the Education Minister sought the Permission of Ulahannan to be appointed as the Registrar of a University or as a Special officer of a New  University that was being established in the state. He politely declined both of the offers.

In the area of research and publications, Ulahannan  made his mark through his more than 20 books and more than 200 articles. Some of his books are frequently used in the training programmes for civil servants in various Training Institutions in the Country.

In 2003, Ulahannan was authorized by the Government of Kerala to draft a Training Policy for the cicil servants of the State. The State Training Policy he drafted was approved by the Cabinet on December 31^st, 2003, and from 1-4-2004 this Policy is being implemented, covering all levels and categories of government servants in Kerala.

During the period between 1995 and 2011, Ulahannan received more than 20 communications form the British Biographic Institute, The American Biographic Institute, and The International Biographic Institute announcing his being selected for various awards for life time contributions in various areas of interest to humanity

QESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

1. Do you consider Ulahannan to be a case of success in life, and if so why?
2. What according to you helped Ulahannan to attain what he attained in his life?
3. Is there anything that MBA students can learn from the life-history of Ulahannan?
4. What are your observations on the motivation of Ulahannan in his career pursuits as well as in life management?
5. Does the story of Ulahannan convince you that through motivation and hard work, as well as a willingness to make use of available opportunities, any body can become a person of achievements and success in life?

(This case study has been prepared by Dr. John Pulparampil, (Dean, Academy for Management Studies, Puthuppady, Kothamangalam) following a request from Chev. Prof. Baby M. Varghese, Chairman of the Marian Academy for Management Studies., to be used as an instrument for motivating the students,)

Ulahannan = Dr. John Pulparampil