<B>?He did not limit himself to our intellectual knowledge?

?I am from this generation that began at Royal College Curepipe in 1961. Along with me, there were the likes of our prime minister Navin Ramgoolam, Amédée Darga, Ivan Collendavelloo, Sushil Kushiram and many others. As a matter of fact, I can presume that most of us are turning 60 this year just as I am and our prime minister himself. I must admit that, in those days, Royal College Curepipe was not only an academic institution but a school of life! What I still remember, despite the fact that I was quite undisciplined and not very serious when it came to work, is the quality of the teachers rather than the transmission of knowledge. Indeed, they taught us how to become men. There was a great human relationship amongst all of us. For example, I remember very well my French literature teacher, Daniel Koenig, who knew how to restore us to order. For instance, once I was coming down the stairs along with my class-mates and my shirt was completely unbuttoned. Daniel Koenig stopped everyone on the stairs and said very gently ?Labour, cachez ces seins que je ne saurais voir!? This was an extract from the play Tartuffe by Moliere.

Regarding the teachers, I must say that I consider my classmates and myself of having been very lucky to have had the teachers we had. For example there were Daniel Koenig whom I mentioned before, Georges Espitalier-Noël, Nuvin Akaloo who was a well-known speaker at the Mauritius Broadcasting Corporation, Noël Asarapen and Georges Lefébure who was also my English literature teacher. He was so good, especially as he knew his texts inside out. I would also like to quote two physical education teachers? names: Arthur Steele and Hawkins. They were two English fellows like two elastic balls, always dressed in white, according to the good British tradition. The last person I would like to quote is Mr. Bullen. He was our rector, and the last rector of the Royal College Curepipe not to be a Mauritian as far as I remember. He was a very strong unforgettable character.

Obviously, I had some teachers whom I did not appreciate in particular. As an example, paradoxically we had to do Latin when we were at the college. To be honest, I was very bad at it and I never really appreciated the teacher himself.

However, the teacher I would like to emphasize on is definitely Georges Espitalier-Noël. The first thing that struck me about this extraordinary person was the dynamism he showed in his literature classes. The first text I studied with him was ?The autobiography of a super tramp?. In America a tramp would even get caught by the police on purpose in order not to be in the cold during winter. Consequently, my classmates and I got the habit of comparing George Espitalier-Noël to that tramp because while explaining the text to us, he was imitating that tramp so well. He would also know how to control our emotions. Indeed, he would know how to make us laugh or even cry when needed. He did not limit himself to improve our intellectual knowledge but he would make us live the text as if we were part of the story.

If there is one thing for which George Espitalier-Noël has inspired me, it is public relations. In fact, my work today consists in dealing a lot with people, so in this regard, I must say that he has inspired me a lot. George Espitalier-Noël was someone who was very caring and very attentive to his students. I would not be mistaken if I was to say that ?he loved us and would treat us as someone of his age?. He never felt ashamed of telling us that there are things that he did not know himself. He never pretended to be the teacher who knew everything.?