During the summer holidays when
cousins get together in the grandparents' village house, cousins from the town, speak sky high of the
place they come unmindful of their aching country cousins. The way those
people glorified their adventures on the beach, made our
escapades in our village tank melt into thin air and the longing to be closer
to the beach multiplied .
After we settled down in life and
moved to the state capital city of Chennai, with the second longest beach
line in the world, it was taken for granted till the time someone came from the village
to arouse our interest in the beach again!!
The story I am going to tell you has
a lot of similarity to the above . One of my close friends living in America
for many years had the urge to visit his native land and wanted to reminisce
his childhood days at his school. When I read his blog about his elementary
school the desire within me was kindled
about my own school. Why haven't I ever
thought of my school? I have blogged about US, Italy and even Russia but how
can I ever forget my elementary school which presented me with delightful
carefree days!
These LKG and UKG factors were
unknown then and we children went
straight for first standard.
Being a school in a small town, the
villagers around brought their children to our school.
In those days a birth certificate or
an income certificate or a caste certificate for that matter was unheard
of and it was not even obligatory that
the parents should come for the admission. A
grandfather or a representative
of an illiterate family normally an educated friend would suffice for the occasion.
The conversation during admission
time would go in this fashion:
" Sir.. can you give me your
grandson's age please?"
The man already in awe of the school
ambience would scratch his head.
" Sir....... my son got married
when the great festival which happened in our place once in twelve years. And since there was no
issue after the first year of marriage we took both of them on a pilgrim to
various temples which proved to be a fruitless effort. Four years had passed
and one of relatives suggested that we go to Thirupathi, where the powerful God of seven hills resides. It
was indeed quite far off from our village. In spite of the distance, we
travelled for three days and offered a prayer to the Lord in His sanctum
sanctorum and requested him to give us a boon of a boy and as a return
offering we promised to come again with
the baby to shave our heads lock stock and barrel. The
Lord was kind enough to bless my son with this boy. So dear sir..... this
little one should be around five or
six."
A story worthy of publishing was
gifted to the teacher!
And the teacher metamorphosed into
an astrologer and fixed the birth date of the child and sometimes into a priest
too when the name sounded awkward and baptised them with new ones!!
After the summer holidays we
returned to school. Our first standard teacher was there to welcome us. Usually
there were no chairs or benches for our
class. As we were frolicking on the floor our teacher said
" Children can you sit properly
and cross your hands towards the legs?"
" Yes sir...."
" Good... good..... now can you
hold your toes with your hands.... You should hold it very tight"
Our teacher demonstrated the process
and we happily followed him.
Just then the second standard
teacher came into our class and both the teachers exchanged a sly smile!
"Now we are going to the second
standard." they announced in a chorus.
As we were wondering how on earth we
are going to the second standard in this posture the teachers came near Anand,
alphabetically the first person in the class and putting their hands around his
arm pit lifted him off to the next class.
Our promotion thus happened in this beautiful fashion of a human palanquin!!
We were in for a disappointment when
we anticipated a similar ride the next
year too. The teachers just asked us to run as a group to the next standard!
Third standard was an altogether a different
experience in that we got double promotion. Apart from the normal one from a
lower class to the upper one we moved to
a class with long cement benches around the room. Hey..... squatting on the floor had become a bygone
era!!
While we had a very pleasant
experience with the teachers so far the third standard teacher was another
kettle of fish!
His powerful cane did most of the
talking! There was a boy in our class called Victor, the mischievous of the
lot, a truant to the core. His day was not done if he had not tasted the sting
of the teacher’s cane. Atrocious punishments
were meted out to him like standing with one leg and holding the other
leg up with a hand . We girls made doubly sure that we were always in the good
books of this notorious man.
During the rainy season the school
ground would be filled with fragrant brown little flowers (Mahizhampoo in Tamil).
In spite of a good drenching my friend Saraswathi and I would pick up plenty of
those flowers and using a needle and
thread which I brought from home on the sly we made long strings by putting the
needle through the hole in the middle of the flower (Unlike flowers like
jasmine which could be tied with thread these flowers are so tiny that they go
by needle and thread only.) We enjoyed the fragrance which would last for three
days!
Little Flower elementary school was
a coeducation till the fifth standard after which I moved to St. Joseph's girls
school while the boys continued and move to high school. When I was studying
there I got a good news from my old school. The principal of the high school
once visited the elementary school it seemed
and entered third standard and
asked them questions in Maths and English and there was a boy who was
ready with an answer for all his queries. The man was so thrilled with his
intelligence that he took the boy to the high school and admitted him in first
form!! (now called sixth standard). I was very proud of the news since he was
my younger brother!!( That there was a problem regarding age as he reached SSLC
and sorting it out was another cup of tea!)
A historical event took place when I
was at school. On 26thof January 1950 our country became a republic and the
patriotic and cultured place of
Kumbakonam left no stone unturned to make it a grand occasion. From our
school we had prepared for two dances relating to the Indian republic. It was
to take place in the town hall. Our teacher Arokiasamy was the uncrowned leader
of music and dance around the place and in the evening after the school would
take us to his house which was nearby and his wife always welcomed us with
fried ground nuts and helped in perfecting our performance too!
On that day of celebration we walked with our teacher who first took us
to a hotel, indeed a revelation in a land
of 'JUST HOUSE FOOD AND NOTHING ELSE'! The snacks were so tasty that we
were imitating a cow chewing the cud !!
The patriotic fervour was running high in
those days and it was no surprise that after some months it was followed a singing competition on the songs of great
patriotic Tamil poet Bharathiar for the elementary school children of the
town. And of course our teacher was among the first few who consented to participate in the event.
Two students from each school could
participate in the competition And it was taking place in a school called
Saraswathi Patasala (patasala is
school).
On the day of the event our teacher
took me and another girl but the biggest disappoint was that there was no stoppage at the hotel and
it was straight to the venue.
The competition began in right earnest. As I
had already told you that the town of Kumbakonam was a highly cultured one and
the students who took part were adept at singing since most of them were
learning Carnatic music at home!! They sat down in the proper pose and keeping
the rhythmic beat with their right hand started singing!! Watching this new
phenomena both of us were awe struck,
shivering in our shoes!! My
friend was very definite that she would not participate and feigned giddiness
to convince the teacher!
I was cursing my teacher. When the
whole lot was singing to a system I would be just the one to do it differently.
I remembered the circus we used to attend in the grounds opposite to this
school where the trapeze artists
enthralled us with their skillful performance
and the clown came in between with his silly frolics! I imagined the
singers as those great artists and I as
the clowning brat!
Yes, my name was called. I climbed
the stage in a daze. Luckily no one was asking me if I was going to sit for the song. As the teacher had taught me I started my
song standing up and with great emotional zeal dancing like monkey!!
After the incredulous show I stuck
myself closest to the teacher. Holding his with my shivering hand I asked
"Shall we go home?"
"Let us wait for the
results" he said
His greediness was indeed sky high!
The announcement came at last
" Kamalini of Banadurai school
gets the first prize." Heavy claps filled the hall.
And then it was followed by second
and third prizes.
"And there is a candidate who sang and danced."
I was literally sinking unto the
earth.... What sort of rebuke was I
going to get amidst this large
crowd for defying the rules?
"If Bharathi the great poet is here today he
would have sung it like this little girl...... dancing and emoting and never
ever sitting down. The spirit of Bharathi was very well brought out by her. And
so the special prize from the judges goes to Margaret Rosario of Little Flower
school!
My teacher lifted me up to the stage
and for the second time I was into a daze 0n the stage!
