I first came across
the name, Priya Hosali, while I was at the British Council library in Chennai.
I saw a book that she co-authored with three other people, “Indian and British
English”. The name stuck in my mind, and I also made a note of the fact that
she was a professor at the Central Institute Of English And Foreign Languages
(CIEFL), Hyderabad, India. Later, when I decided to pursue a PhD in English, I
spoke to my M.Phil. Supervisor, Professor V. Saraswathi about Priya Hosali. We
both decided that Professor Hosali should be the one to supervise my doctoral
research. Professor Saraswathi gave me a letter of introduction to Professor
Hosali, which I took with me to Hyderabad, when I went for a contact programme
for the Postgraduate Certificate In The Teaching Of English (PGCTE) at CIEFL.
When I stood outside
the office of Priya Hosali in the Distance Education Department at CIEFL, I did
not expect to see a middle-aged woman with streaming hair. When she turned to
me, she gave me a very sweet smile, which completely reassured me. When I heard
her speak so gently and kindly, I was convinced that she was the right person
to guide me. She had Western manners despite her Indian name and identity. That
appealed to me, for I myself was quite Western in behaviour and speech, despite
my Indian identity. Later, while I was staying at the guest house at CIEFL,
Professor Priya Hosali surprised me by visiting me in the evening. When I
opened the door, I found her quite drenched in the rain, which was falling
steadily. She gave me a book, which she wanted me to have before I returned to
Chennai, my native town. I was very moved by her considerateness and I decided
then and there that she would be my PhD supervisor.
When I returned to
Hyderabad a few months later for my PhD interview, I was warned that it would
not be easy for a non-CIEFL person to enter into the PhD programme directly.
But I was confident of my chances. I already had an M.Phil. from the University
Of Madras, under the supervision of the great Professor V. Saraswathi, and I
had first-class graduate and postgraduate degrees. I believed that I was a
pretty good speaker of English and that I would be able to impress those who
would interview me. Little did I know that Priya Hosali would be one of those
people on the panel of interviewers. Professor Hosali behaved very
professionally at the interview, though I knew her pretty well already. She and
the other panellists questioned me about the subject of my PhD research. The
interview was not very smooth, for the questions were difficult, and my
research proposal was not very sensible. However, Priya Hosali spoke for me
after the interview and urged the other panellists to consider me. So, I was
eventually accepted into the programme. Professor Hosali was even then more
than a supervisor. She reserved a room for me at the Guest House and took me
out with her to the Secunderabad Club, for a memorable evening when we dined
together and took photographs at the magnificent club, built by the British
when they were ruling India.
When I think of Priya
Hosali today, I remember the times when I would go with her to the Secunderabad
Club. We used to spend our time there talking about our lives and discussing
world affairs, while consuming delicious food. We also discussed my research,
which was an enquiry into the intelligibility of the standard American English
accent in India. This was not something that I wanted to do originally, but
Professor Hosali and I thought that this would be a worthwhile area of
research, given that American English was becoming increasingly popular in
India. To carry out the investigation into the intelligibility of General
American (GA) in India, I composed a speech that ran into seven sentences. I
requested a speaker of GA to record the speech, which I played back to several
Indian respondents, varying in age and educational qualification and hailing
from several linguistic backgrounds. I analysed their responses and made a list
of findings, which helped me evaluate the degree to which standard American
English was intelligible to Indians. As I did this, I passed my Pre-PhD
comprehensive examination and I even started to write the main chapter of my
doctoral dissertation. But as I completed that vital chapter, my father died
and it was a shock that I could not easily recover from.
It was not just my
father’s death that affected my PhD research. It was also my growing
frustration with the modus operandi that I employed. However, Professor Hosali,
and my M.Phil. supervisor Dr. V. Saraswathi thought highly of my work. I was
also much distracted by my interest in the Bible and a spiritual awakening took
place, which totally sidelined my doctoral research. In short, I was not able
to complete my doctoral programme. The end of my PhD was confirmed when I fell
out with my supervisor, Priya Hosali, one evening in 2007 after we returned
from the Secunderabad Club. We spoke bitter words and I put an end to my
doctoral programme that very day. As soon as I reached home, Professor Hosali
called me and apologized for what she had said earlier that evening. But I was
determined to put an end to our relationship as teacher and student. However, I
was open to being her friend from then on. Despite her attempt to patch things
over with me, I did not speak to her for the next three years.
It was in 2010, when
my mother was hospitalised in a serious condition that I spoke to Priya
Hosali. This was three years after the acrimonious evening which put an end to
our teacher-student relationship. I apologized to her for not being in touch
and also for my behaviour that evening three years ago. She responded kindly
and comforted me in my time of suffering. After my mother recovered, I met
Priya more than once at the club. Our last meeting at the Secunderabad Club did
not take place as it ought to have. I was not allowed to dine there for I was
dressed inappropriately ( I was wearing a pair of track pants). So, Priya and I
went out to another place to dine. There she thanked me for the video tribute I
had made for her mother, who had recently passed away. She gave me a small gift
as a token of her appreciation. When we left each other that day, we promised
to meet again at the club. This was in 2014. But we never met each other again,
though we spoke on the phone a few times since then.
This year, I had the
idea of calling Priya Hosali with the intent of meeting her at the club, but it
never materialised. Even last month I felt an urgent need to speak to her, but
I didn’t call her. Earlier this month, my mother was looking at the obituary
column in the local newspaper and discovered that Priya Hosali had passed away.
When she told me about this, I was saddened and felt guilty for not having
spoken to her in the last few years. I knew that I had missed an opportunity to
speak to her at a time when she might have needed my spiritual advice. Priya
Hosali was not a Christian. She knew that I was a Christ worker, actively
involved in speaking a message of love to the world. She believed in the Hindu
concept of reincarnation. I don’t know where Priya Hosali is right now. So, I
pray for her, and ask God to have mercy on her.
Priya Hosali was my
teacher and friend and we had many good conversations together. I admired her
style of speech and writing. I also admired her manners and her appearance. I
joked quite a lot with her and she was a good sport even when I made fun of
her. She was a great friend to dogs. She had her own dog. She loved animals
very much. She wrote a beautiful book about dogs and gave me a signed copy of
it. She wrote books about English and taught many years at the CIEFL. After
retirement she worked as a guest lecturer at the University Of Hyderabad, and
was a language consultant at Deloitte, Hyderabad. Above all, she was a woman
who loved the good life. She enjoyed eating and watching movies. She liked to
speak about her workers who helped her at home. She spoke mildly in a measured
way. I liked her very much.
Priya Hosali once
described me as her most brilliant student. Before I abandoned my PhD research,
she joked about me with a bank official: “Sam is brilliant, so he will not
complete his PhD.” On another occasion she observed that I was a brilliant
writer. Her final compliment to me came during our last meeting. On that
occasion, I was telling her about how people responded warmly to my work on the
social media. She said that she was not surprised by that. “Whatever you do ,
you do it well” she said to me. She was not always pleased with me. Our egos
clashed sometimes. She had this impression that I was arrogant and rude and did
not respect her age. But I tried my best to apologize when I crossed a line
with her. I hope she forgave me. She said that she did, Once when I apologized
to her, she said, “Sam, you are a sincere person.” That I hope sums me up.
Samuel Godfrey George
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