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Muttucumaran

KINGPIN OF SCOUTING

Sithamparanatha Chettiar Muttucumaran, the fourth grandchild of the memorable
figure Pasupathi Chettiar whose inspiration and perspiration together with that of
Advocate Nagalingam resulted in the establishment of the prestigious seat of learning
and Hindu culture, the Jaffna Hindu College the other four being the now departed
Pasupathy Chettiar ( Registrar ), Sivakamasundary ( wife of the late V. S. Nadarajah,
Proctor ), Sivagurunathan ( Principal ) and Somasundaram ( Teacher - JHC ) spent
almost all his educational career at Jaffna Hindu, first as a student and later continued
as a teacher.

Due to his intimacy and love for his Alma Mater he was benevolent enough to donate
his entire first two month’s salary as a teacher to buy books for the school library.
Scouter
Muttucumaran
He never confined himself to classroom teaching alone but spread his wings to cover ( 1928 - 1996 )
religious activities, staging dramas and most importantly scouting that was his live
wire. He himself was an active scout when scouting was revived after the war and was JHC Old Boys NSW
an understudy to Scouter Jeyaveerasingam in the fifties.

“ SCM or MUTTAR “ as he was fondly called by his friends was the master mind
behind the successful staging of the popular scout drama “ IDEALIST “ in 1950. It
was a big draw and helped to swell scout funds.
He himself was an active
scout when scouting
I could vividly recall two popular scout characters of the drama Naguleswaran was revived after
the war and was an
( Professor S.Naguleswaran, now in New Zealand ) and the late V. E. Pakkianathan understudy to Scouter
( Librarian ) Jeyaveerasingam in the
fifties.

After another period of lull , scouting got activated in 1959 after which it reached
greater heights at JHC and continues to be so even now. It was during this period
that I got introduced to scouting by our veteran teacher KVM and had the privilege
of enjoying scouting with the guidance of the “ kingpin of scouting “ Muttucumaran.
Kingpin because of his innovative ideas and on the spot decisions that helped scouting
to flourish at Jaffna Hindu and in Jaffna as a whole. by
V. Sivasupramaniam

His imaginations on gadgets and campfire items were given practical shape by our Teacher
young and daring scouts which helped us to win not only the Rotary shield in JHC 1953 - 1972

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