A Memorial Tribute.

Dr. Babu Paul IAS ,celebrated writer and orator was an invitee in early 1990s for a function in Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology. He was the Transport secretary at that time. The function was for the distribution of awards to meritorious children of SCTIMST staff by SBF committee. As per the agenda, Sri. Neelalohithadasan Nadar, then minister for transport and the chief guest was to give out the gold medal to the highest scorer and Dr. Babu Paul, the transport secretary, to give out cash awards to twenty five high scorers. All the dignitaries except the minister were seated on the dias at 4.30 pm., the exact time to start the meeting.

The international auditorium was full of audience. There was an announcement that the minister was on the way to Trivandrum and would be reaching in few minutes. The organizers waited till 4.45 pm. Adherence to time is the tradition of SCTIMST. Therefore, our Director who was on the dias asked to start the meeting. Dr. Babu Paul was requested to give out the Gold Medal in place of the Minister. He agreed and came to to the speech stand. He started his felicitation. " I recall a story in this context. There was a poor graduate searching for a job. He came to a circus manager and requested a job there. The manager said that they had no vacancy for a graduate. But the graduate was adamant and begged for any job as he was in a very bad financial problem. Then the manager asked him whether he was willing to take the role of a chimpanzee in disguise. He said that he was ready for any job on the circus arena with remuneration. Thus he was disguised as chimpanzee and appeared on the dias, where he was shocked to see a live lion moving in front of him. He started shivering and was about to collapse. The lion walked towards him and his trembling increased more and more. The lion realised that he was afraid and so the lion said to him softly, " Don't worry, if you are BA , I am MA ". He was much relieved, knowing that they were sailing in the same boat.

Dr. Babu Paul said " I am now in the position of that graduate who was helpless to take any role . I am now taking the role of chimpanzee in the absence of the minister. " He gave out the Gold medal ,while the minister arrived. All stood up and greeted him, while he said, "Proceed , proceed ". Then the minister distributed the cash awards to twenty five students who scored high marks.

Dr. Babu Paul continued his speech. He said, " I was looking at the marks of the students and getting wonderstruck because all of them scored above 550 out of 600. I was the first rank holder in SSLC in 1956 scoring 485 out of 600. But now , you won't get admission for Pre degree with that mark in Mar Ivanios college. At first, I thought that these boys and girls are far more brilliant than me and my peers. But later I thought that this high scoring is partially due to the difference in evaluation system. Mostly the questions are objective. So there is limitation for reducing marks. " Sarcastically he said, " For example, If a question is asked, Who is the scientist discovered Theory of Gravitation? If a student writes, Sir Issac Neelalohithadasan Nadar, fifty percent marks should be given because half answer is correct." There was a blast of laughter by the minister. The whole audience were in thunderous laughter. His speech for 45 minutes, was impregnated with extempore humourous facts. My this experience is the tip of an iceberg of his inherent humour in his speech.

Dr. Babu Paul (1941- 2019) was an Indian civil servant , writer, orator, member of Indian Administrative service and member Ombudsman for local self government institutions of Kerala during 2000- 2001. He was the former finance secretary, Govt. Of Kerala. He retired in rank of Chief secretary and this legend bid farewell from us on 13th April 2019. His own brother is Sri. K . Roy Paul IAS who was the Chairman of Air India and retired as UPSC member.