Nallur Krishnan Venkateswaran was born in 1891 in Nallur, a small village near Trichur. He was bright student and the community in which he lived recognised that there was potential in the young man. Their encouragement and support enabled Mr. Venkateswaran to obtain a B.A. degree and qualify as a teacher from what were then the most prestigious institutions in the South - St. Joseph's College, Trichy and Presidency College - Madras.
He entered the Travancore Education Service as an English teacher and worked in North Parur near Alwaye for ten years before he was transferred to Trivandrum. He stayed on in Trivandrum except for some brief stints in schools in places like Marthandam (now in Tamilnadu), Nedumangad and Kottarakara.
He had an unusually good run in his career. His talents as an interesting and innovative teacher led to his being promoted over the heads of many of his senior colleagues as headmaster - a position from which he held at the time of his retirement in the late forties.
Mr. Venkateswaran was rather radical and unorthodox in his teaching methods. He prepared well for his classes and brought novelty and excitement to the classroom through methodologies that encouraged self-learning firmly believing that "education was not filling a bucket but kindling a lamp."
He thought deeply on education and kept in touch with leading educationists of his time both in India and abroad. He attended the All India Education Conference in 1928 and delivered a very well received talk on "Child Nature and Education". He wrote widely on education and authored three books on the subject - 'The Dreams of Teacher', 'From a School Window' and this volume, simply titled, 'On Teaching.'
Mr. Venkateswaran's interests were wide and varied. He was a good tennis player, a fine journalist and photographer (he developed his own films) and was well recognised as a gifted writer. Three of his books were published by Oxford University Press. One of these, 'Tales Retold from Shakespeare', still earns royalties for his heirs from OUP's Indian and Overseas Units. Two other significant books of his were - 'Gautama the Buddha' and the 'Princess of Hastinapur' - the former meriting a name review in the Illustrated Weekly of India in the rate 1930's.
Mr. Venkateswaran kept himself engaged all his life. His house was frequented by artists, philosophers and writers from India and overseas. He even found the time to cover the visit of the Viceroy, Lord Irwin, to Travancore for some leading newspapers of his time. He was a regular contributor to the Times of India and also wrote for several other newspapers and journals. Mr. Venkateswaran passed away in 1949 shortly after his retirement. Catholic to the last.