In memoriam - Subash (M.S. Subash Chandra)

On February 1, 2020, Subash (M.S. Subash Chandra) passed away in the Mahalakshmi Home. He had just become 74 and had been battling Parkinson’s disease since several years.

Born in Madurai, and wishing to practice the integral yoga of Sri Aurobindo and Mother, Subash joined Auroville in 1994 after obtaining a B.E. (Electrical) at Madras University. The year before that he had been conducting a 4-months experiment with 12 kindergarten children of New Creation Bilingual School, using the Glenn Doman Word Flash Cards method in order to verify the authenticity and usefulness of the system. This was one of the first such efforts in Auroville. It proved successful and from there he became a much appreciated teacher at the School’s primary level, teaching math, social science, languages and story-telling for two years. There he came to know of many joyous and student-friendly educational approaches and used them for the students with impressive psychological and academic learning outcomes. At the same time he wrote a number of papers on these various systems, bringing them to the attention of many schools in Tamil Nadu. He also conducted ‘Consecration’ and other workshops, introducing young Aurovilians and residents in the bioregion to the teachings of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother.

In 1996 he became the coordinator of Isai Ambalam School, which became the love of his life. He continued studying and applying more alternative educational approaches, and trained the teachers to use them. Among them were the Glenn Doman Word Flash Cards Approach to impart reading skills to preschoolers, Primary Level Activity-Based Learning Cards Approach, Bilingual Audio with Language Games Approach for learning English, Education By Design Problem-Solving Approach, Thematic Projects Interdisciplinary Approach, Phonics Approach for Learning to Read English, and Basic Sentence Structure Approach using Regis’ English Sentence-Writing Formula. Also, the Thalir Thiran Thittam of the Aparajitha Foundation of Madurai was added, a system for imparting values-based psychological life-skills to the students. When, several years ago, the STEM Land Project (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) started in the school, its educational direction somewhat changed, while still endeavouring to integrate the use of all these effective innovative approaches for maximizing the learning of the students.

Subash was determined in getting education to whomever needed it. He started out in a small house in New Creation, from where he moved to Isaiambalam, then Creativity, and recently moved to the Mahalakshmi Home. Many of his students, whose minds he has opened, will dearly miss him.

Subash’s remains were buried on Sunday 2 February, at the Adventure cremation and burial grounds.