Teacher by profession, artist by passion

Thiruvananthapuram, Dec 24 Fifty-six-year-old M.C. Vasisht would have retired just as a history professor had he not fed his creative passion of dishing out songs, articles, brochures and calendars on sporting events, a talent that shot him into prominence.

With the country all set to host the World Cup Hockey in Bhubaneswar next month, the professor has come out with a musical tribute to the heroes of 1975, the only time that India lifted the cup.

"Magic of Kulalumpur" has been tuned and sung by his former students, Suparna and Sai Giridhar.

"The song is a tribute to the World Cup winning Indian hockey team of 1975 and has brought out a calendar entitled "Heroes of 1975". I wish and want India to lift the cup this time," said the history professor who teaches at the prestigious Malabar Christian College, Kozhikode.

His previous creative works like his profession, have all become part of sporting history which includes a poem on football that was published in the December 2001 issue of FIFA Magazine.

Then in 2004, his song on Wimbledon is now preserved in the All England Lawn Tennis Museum in London and then came his song on Olympics that were broadcasted by China Radio International during the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

His "sporting" effort in the Malabar Christian College will continue to hog light even after his superannuation in March for being instrumental in setting up the country's first library of cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar titled "Sachin's Gallery". The library has a collection of 60 books on the legend published in twelve languages Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Oriya, Bengali, Assamese, Marathi, Gujarati, Punjabi, Hindi and English.

His immediate plan is to watch the World Cup hockey matches at Bhubaneswar. Post retirement, he will devote all his energy to pursue his passion.

"I have a few things in my mind and will work towards achieving those," said the history professor.